No Panacea

As software and IT specialists take on more certifications, prospective employees must ask themselves the following question. Are the resources spent in (time exam preparation, training materials, exam fees, upkeep fees) worth the benefits (in increased prospects and compensation). Part of this can be answered through analyzing the demand side of economics (are employers looking for these certifications?). Are the certifications listed in job descriptions? One interesting place to do some quick empirical research is Indeed.

Below is a graph that compares that absolute demand of certifications in the marketplace (e.g., in how many job descriptions did the term MCSE appear over a time span of 3 years). This is a rough gauge of now many companies are seeking those particular skills. We can see in the absolute scale that demand for MCSE’s have diminished and there is a slight uptick for more professionals holding the CCNA and CISSP credential.

The graph below is slightly more interesting, as it compares the relative demand for particular jobs (or more accurately search terms appearing in job descriptions). In the above graph we saw in absolute terms, demand for CISMs was relatively flat, but relative to other positions, there are more posting.

As more information becomes available, employees should start to take advantage of these online research avenues. If you haven’t already look into glassdoor. This site provides salary information based on a particular company (powerful information for negotiations).

More resources: Certifications talk from 2007

I’m impressed how easy Wordpress has made it to upgrade versions of their blogging software. I was using version 2.1 previously and just updated to 2.5.1 (which has a much cleaner UI and more AJAX functionality). The upgrade took less than 5 minutes including downloading the new files and uploading them to my hosting provider.

The upgrade instructions included four simple steps noted below:

1. Delete your old WP files, saving ones you’ve modified.
2. Upload the new files.
3. Point your browser to /wp-admin/upgrade.php.
4. You wanted more, perhaps? That’s it!

I did have to copy over the wp-config.php (which includes the DB configuration information), but that was relatively painless.

Kudos to Wordpress on their new update.

I’m starting this post with several links of technical videos, podcasts, and books that can be viewed for free online. I hope to expand this list as I pick up more resources on the way.

Internet Protocols and Communication Networks (Windows Media - audio and video, some for download other streaming)
Topics covered: Networking concepts, Routing Protocols (RIP, EIGRP, OSPF, EGP, BGP), Transport Protocols (TCP, UDP), Network Protocol (IPv4, IPv6), Wireless Broadband, etc.

Google Video Lectures (Google Video)
Topics: AJAX, Distributed Systems, Web Security, C++, Java, Python

Security
Handbook of Applied Cryptography (Entire book in PDF)

Google I/O Sessions and Videos
Topics: Web Applications APIs, Mashups, AJAX, Google Gears, Authentication to Google Services

Security Engineering (by Ross Anderson) (Entire book in PDF, audio chapters)