That which is wrong with our field

Most people that go through these certifications are not qualified to build any network.... at least, from the people that I've dealt with in the past.

CCDA I take it?

Must be the result of sound technical writing. Comforting to know a CCDA would be able to tell me the difference.

I often find myself questioning myself if I am one of thse novice engineers that deserves a reprimand. I guess its probably good to be critical of yourself? Dont look at my network, its not ready yet. =)

Cisco reminded me of any organized religion. You don't have to know or do things the "right" way, just the Cisco way, and you will be rewarded, eventually.

I subscribe to Tony's comment. Too often I see CCNPs after 1 year or less of experience. I don't argue with the fact that some of them were self-learning and then experience is not relevant but is most of the cases is different...

The "only" problem of the utterly stupid certification questions like the one you've included is that they are not written by people who understand what they're talking about but by "knowledge management experts" that think they can fish the questions out of the raw course material regardless of whether it covers growing oranges, catching snails, driving space shuttles or building networks. Long live the certification experts!

I gave up on certs years ago and have never looked back. In my opinion they only prove that you are another brainwashed Cisco clone seeking a shortcut to success. Sorry if that offends anyone. One of my CCNP exams presented a question that was ambiguously worded and had no correct answer.

@ Al : I have used the comments box once or twice to point this out in cert exams. Perhaps Cisco use these as a flag to catch out the braindumpers?

The important thing to know is that engineers are not respected, even the money is in sales. He who can use the most buzwords to impress a client and make the sale is rewarded. That is why i have seen a good number of engineers get their CISSP or QSA certification and go into sales an audits. Lots of $$$$ for little real work or productivity and way better hours.

i have passed a lot of certification exams, and i completely agree with @Disgusted - exam questions seem to be written by incompetent people. questions are borrowed from study guides, questions are ambigous, questions are not related to technical knowledge, and so on. but still, certification is very important - for cisco partners, for hr crowd, for better salary, etc.

I agree with invalid and maybe not s much disgusted, obviously I wouldnt hire someone who is just a cert, but isnt there something to be said for the guys that are both experience and cert? I guess what I am trying to say is that I dont see certs as being entirely useless.

I was excited to take the CCDA, as I had just finished off the worst certification exam I had ever taken (ITIL v3 Foundations). The ITIL was dry, useless, and filled with nothing but buzzwords that did nothing to further my knowledge of anything other how to pay EXIN 160 dollars. Imagine my surprise when I started studying for my CCDA and found it to be the same stuff. An entire exam of full of Cult of cisco BS. Supposedly the CCDP is when you get into the meat of the design side, but Im not holding my breath...

I am a certified pro certification network admin. The main reason people come up with the "certs are no good" argument is that they cannot achieve a cert themselves. Sure they can show you a neat trick every now and then, that would be great if this was "stupid router tricks" on David Letterman. Having said that, I might have answered the question incorrectly myself. That said, it is a fundamental thing to know what in the heck you are trying to do in the network world so the question is very relevant. Now I would agree that the ITIL is useless, mainly because it is for unskilled managers who usually only manage to much things up.

The purpose of test taking is whether or not you have the intelligence to pass the test. And to pass a test you must realize the difference between a test and reality, humans make tests, equipment breaks down where humans least expect it. Consider the damage Pres. Bush has done to the educational system by turning the simulated reality of the school room into a simple dumb test. Kids don't enjoy school, it's become just another stupid test you can take and get out of school early, without learning any skills.

I don't see any of these comments that seem to address the core issue here. MARKETING. Cisco is trying to MARKET their solution hence they want anyone sporting their certification letters to be a cheap way to MARKET technologies they are trying to push. It's less about 'knowledge experts' fishing and more about a targeted less than subtle approach to advertising their wares.

In the old days, certifications used to be worth something because an individual would have a means of demonstrating a level of proficiency in the field of networking within the specific technologies one was dealing with. I've obtained CNA, CNE, CCNA, CCNP, CISSP...blah, blah, blah. Now all I see is money making operations with folks getting these certs with little to no experience or skills at all. I think I'll just leave my title as is...Senior R&D Engineer...and call it a day.....

I would have to agree with DEDAN. Certification is by no means the end all measure of knowledge. I personally have chosen them as a base measure of learning stuff that I would otherwise not get any exposure to at all. Certification is not all bad. Is it the stick that we should be measured by not in necessarily. I have people working with me that have been working on the same network and in the field twice as long as I have and yet I could run rings around them. The point I am trying to make is that it all comes down to the individual. I have my CCNA and working on CCNP. It is way to learn and get experience that you may just not get otherwise. The key difference is that I am using as a learning tool and not just a way to add letters to my name.

That is exactly what I was trying to say though my grammer and mispellings show I was doing it on my phone. For some, I'd say more than not, it's about learning something not titles. The point is being diverged from though. Just as Timothy said, it's marketing. We all can see that. I'd be concerned if I worked with someone who DIDN'T see that.