Re: becoming a Sun Certified Java Programmer?

My take on certifications... do them because they're 1) fun, 2)  
educational, and lastly and much less importantly because it is a line  
item on your resume.

I did the MCSD and SCJP certifications and a boatload of Brainbench  
tests just because I learned a lot by doing them.  I never would make  
a big deal about it for a job interview.  A company I worked for  
several years ago go proactive and "agile", and we started having  
brown bag lunches to work through the SCJP study book, and we always  
learned something about Java that we didn't know before.  And we  
started doing Brainbench tests as sort of an internal challenge - we  
had a printout on the wall of the highest scores in the state and the  
world for various tests and highlighted all our coworkers on there.

So by all means I encourage folks to aim for certification exams.   
It's the work you do leading up to the exam, not the certificate, that  
has real lasting value.

	Erik

On Mar 12, 2009, at 9:11 PM, Grant Ingersoll wrote:

> In the end, I guess I would ask myself how much time and money it's  
> going to take and what the opportunity cost of that is in comparison  
> to other ways you might strengthen yourself.   For instance, suppose  
> it takes you 6 months to study for it (I don't know, I haven't taken  
> it).  In that time, you could join an open source project you like  
> and start making significant contributions that show you know how to  
> code/communicate in real life.  If you pick a good project and prove  
> yourself, in all likelihood, people will start asking you to work  
> for them, instead of you asking them if they have work.
>
> I personally would rather see a candidate with a solid track record  
> of contributions to an open source project that is used in  
> production by a decent number of people, but that may be beside the  
> point.  Why?  This allows me to quickly establish:
> 1. How well they communicate
> 2. They can work distributed/independently, but still interact with  
> others
> 3.  If they are self starters
> 4. If they really know how to code or just live off of their co- 
> workers
>
> I think the other factor for certification is how much work  
> experience you have and how up to speed you are on a good breadth/ 
> depth of technologies.  If you are relatively inexperienced, the  
> cert. probably can't hurt and might give you a little extra edge.   
> If you've been around the block and have proven yourself in the  
> past, it probably won't matter as much.
>
> Just my two cents,
> Grant
>
> On Mar 12, 2009, at 5:53 PM, Wayne Unruh wrote:
>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I am thinking about investing some time and money into becoming a  
>> Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) and I have some questions.
>>
>> Has anybody in the group taken the SCJP exam?
>> If you have one of Sun Certification's, did it add value to your  
>> resume and salary?
>>
>> Can anybody recommend any good study guides for the SCJP exam?   
>> People online seem to recommend "SCJP Sun Certified Programmer for  
>> Java 6 Study Guide (Exam 310-065)"
>> by Katherine Sierra and Bert Bates.
>>
>> Thanks in advance for your input.
>>
>>
>> Wayne Unruh
>>
>> (919) 802-1244
>> [email protected]
>>
>>
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