Re: PostgreSQL Certified Engineer program ...

Am 17.04.2012 19:02, schrieb Josh Berkus:
> I don't think this is a reasonable stance to take in the absence of any
> community-approved certification. Certifications are a genuine need,
> and if the community isn't going to fullfill them, we should at lease
> encourage vendors to do so.
>
> Maybe this is a business opportunity for 2Q, eh?
>

We discussed certification topic already more often inner the community
within the last decade. Honestly I am already tired to discuss it.

The result always was that making trainings and certifications is an
area with
which contributors can make money. Something with which they are able to
finance their hobby. Hobby named PostgreSQL contribution.

So yes - everybody - every company - is allowed to create their own
certifications.
Doesn't matter if EDB, 2ndQ, PgX or whoever else.

During my time at Sun we also worked on topic creating Sun PostgreSQL certs.
A Sun certification on topic PostgreSQL. Speaking in trees the root was
Sun certs.
The idea was that you could make different Sun certs e.g. for Solaris,
Java, PostgreSQL
and JavaDB.

My opinion is - when you have a certification program in your product
range then it should
not just be named "PostgreSQL Certification".

It should be clear given in the title that it isn't a community
certification. It should be
clear that it is one of the certifications of your company certification
program.

You should point out your company name in the title.
E.g. "2ndQuadrant Certification - PostgreSQL 9.1 Development" or
"EnterpriseDB PostgreSQL Certification"

It should be clear pointed out that it is a company certification on
topic xyz. That the
root is company-name certs.

Taking sales / marketing viewpoint:
Creating certification is a huge effort. It cost immense time and it is
really expensive.

Education is a local topic. Every country - every region has a different
way to educate
their kids. The way you learned to learn as kid is with which you feel
familiar when you
learn stuff as adult.

When you look into certs from big global companies - they are usually
based on US education.
Creating certs seems to be so expensive that not even these big
companies create
country / language based certifications. Usually the certs not even are
translated so that
foreigners not only have to deal with the technical stuff they also have
to deal with English.

What I could figure out in 2008 / 2009 (I am not sure if it is still up
to date):
Some companies even forbid that foreigners are allowed to use a
dictionary - because the
cert companies want extra money when you allow using a dictionary.

When you find a bug in your certs then the cert companies wants to get
extra money for the
update and so on.

Anyway - the costs to create and publish certs are enormous.
When you spend so much money and time into certs then you just want that
your company
name is on top in big letters. That your company will earn the honour.
I think this is something on which you don't want to share the honour
with the community.

When you created great certs then you want that the users say EDB or
2ndQ or whoever else
made great certs and you don't want that they just say Postgresql made
great certs.

Best Regards,

Susanne

--
Dipl. Inf. Susanne Ebrecht - 2ndQuadrant
PostgreSQL Development, 24x7 Support, Training and Services
www.2ndQuadrant.com