Asterisk Certification Importance
Many people ask me: “Is Asterisk certification really important? does it actually mean anything? isn’t the knowledge of Asterisk in itself enough for customers and employers?” – to sum it up in one word: NO !
My initial Linux days started back in 1996, when certification was mainly reserved from companies like Cisco, Microsoft and Oracle. I remember my first certification course, I got sent to a Microsoft Windows NT 3.51 certification course (fully paid by the Israeli army) – that was around 1995. I remember coming into the class room for almost 2 weeks, studying every day from 8am till around 6pm, at the end of the course to take a test – which I at first deemed as completely redundant. However, as the course progressed, I was amazed at how little did I really know. Sure, I knew quite a lot about how to manage and build a server from scratch, but I had no in-depth knowledge of how the Operating System is structured, nor the various constraints that Windows NT 3.51 had at the time. In other words, where I deemed the entire thing as redundant and at most boring, I ended up learning things that I didn’t even realize I needed to know.
Coming the year 2000, Linux certification became more and more common. I can still remember the Linux certification wars: RHCE vs. LPI vs. SAIR vs. GNU vs. all the other world. There was no authoritative answer to the million dollar question: “What is the best certification for Linux?” – however, the world realized that certification for Linux is a must. Why was it a must? simple – it was a differentiating factor for employers and HR agents. Employers and HR agents have no idea if the person sitting across the table is knowledgeable, experienced or at worst – has a slight clue about the job at hand. The certification is their easiest, most measurable tool to evaluate their candidate. Sure, when someone has 10 years of experience, you can take all the certs and simply put these in the trash bin, actually, if a candidate has too many certifications it means one thing – the guy knows nothing and only knows how to study for tests. With a lack of a better measure for competence, a certification is the most common tool to use.
Asterisk certification, the Digium Certified Asterisk Professional (dCAP) certification is a proof that you are knowledgable with Asterisk, you have a valid clue of what you are doing and you were able to pass a practical exam. You may argue that Asterisk certification is very new and holding a cert for Asterisk may prove to be futile, however, I don’t believe so. I started working with Asterisk in 2002, showing it to various people in Israel and around the world. Back then, people regarded me as a crazy man, trying to promote a product that would surely disappear from the market in less than 2 years. It’s 2009 now, 7 years later, Asterisk is stronger than ever and only growing stronger. At this time, getting yourself certified for Asterisk is best course of action you can take. You’re probably saying to yourself: “of course he’s saying that, he’s a training partner and he wants people to pay him money to take the test!” – well, you are partially correct – I do want you to take the cert, but not because you’ll need to pay $300, simply because the more certified engineers out there, the job of installing Asterisk in tier-1 and enterprise scenarios becomes easier.
