Dude, GTFO.



Well it's nothing much, but they ask you all this tiny tiny details on how to edit the OSPF Costs to a certain Cost, Characteristics from IGRP that everyone always forgets etc. The problem with the exam is they suddenly throw you off guard by taking a different approach to their exams then you are used to.

Hehe, yeah. Some of those tiny details can be very annoying. I have never really taken an official certification. I studied for many of them and put them in my resume as they are buzzwords that many people look for on the job search sites. I specify that I know what is in that particular certification but I just didn't take the exam. If they want to go deeper as to why that is the case then I let them know that I am "Conscientiously Uncertified" because I am someone who doesn't hide behind a piece of paper. James Bach says it best in his blog

He speaks specifically for software testing but I believe the same logic is applicable everywhere in IT.

Does that work? Don't take this the wrong way, but if you put down that you had a certification didn't, I'd call you a liar and kick you out of my office.

By the way, I do agree that a stupid piece of paper saying you are 'certified' is useless. Apparently there are MCSE 'camps' that you can go to that train you to take the MCSE exams in only a couple weeks. There is no way someone who walks out of that camp can do as good of a job as someone who has 8 years of direct experience, but no official certification.

I have also studied for a few MCSE/Cisco exams. Then I realized that I have a damn good job that I am never going to leave. I can do almost anything I need to. And the things that I can't do can easily be learned by doing the right searches in Google.

It works because there are bots searching for buzzwords. Those buzzwords puts me on top of the list. You couldn't call me a liar with validity because I didn't lie. In my resume, where I put education, organizations and other related information, I also put the date I completed it to the right. For instance, I finished my AS degree in Sept 07. I'm currently taking the BS so to the right I put "(In Process)". To the right of the certifications, I put "(Studied)". You should realize that the requirements are usually <certification> or a similar amount of experience for most positions. Usually, I get emails with the job description and requirements. If they specifically say that a certification is REQUIRED then I let them know up front stressing that I only studied for that certification, even though that person should have actually read it as opposed to relying on a bot to avoid issues like that. I see nothing wrong doing that. I think it's genius actually. You get the benefit of the buzzword, get passed stupid HR, and not have to pay a lot of money and deal with the hassle of actually taking the exam. I can handle intense tech interviews and such and most people that do the actual hiring are not just HR but tech managers and agree that pieces of paper are only that.

I must have misinterpreted your original post. I thought you put that you had certain certifications on your resume.

I do put certifications such as CCNA, CISSP, Network+, A+ ect. I just make sure to put "studied" after.

Psychiatry and am currently going for a PhD.

I'm certainly not one of these people, since I wasn't here in May, but I'll respond anyway I was really hoping more people had responded.

I'm a student right now. I started university just to get a piece of paper to make it easier to get my foot in the door of the freelance writing venues. As such, I never cared why my degree wound up being in and have just sort of meandered through classes until finding things that "fit" for various reasons. I'm now running out of federal financial aid, so I'm slated to graduate next spring with a philosophy degree with a pre-law emphasis and a political science minor. Quite accidentally, I might add. I just happened to follow a particular phil professor through the classes he taught, and they happened to all be required for either the ethics or pre-law emphases, and then I just happened take a lot of Constitutional Law courses and a periodic other poli sci course until I discovered before this semester that I had just happened to take all but one of the courses required for a poli sci minor.

I sure did get lucky in my meanderings...

Anyway, I at this time have no plans to put any of this to logical use (which is rather ironic, all things considered). I currently do quality assurance work for a couple of substance abuse rehab facilities, and I manage a coffeehouse (we roast our own coffee...let me know if you'd like to buy some Sorry. Shameless plug. We may not manage to stay in business and we've just begun, so I'm a little desperate). Soooo...I plan to write and keep plugging away at whatever odd-ended jobs come up.

I have 98 whole degrees, which means that as long as I am alive I am fit to judge; and other than that I am uneducated, and I expect uneducable. I am also a retarded Ironworker; and the complexity of that on average was One Bolt Per Hole. Or as old Freddie used to say: A size 15 neck and a size three hat. Still I did it, and I have all my fingers and toes, so I can count to twenty with my boots off, as some Joes cannot. So if you are all back and no brains consider that you have at least one friend here. Fido