Certifications - Are they still valuable?

Posted February 17, 2005 at 10:10 PM | Tagged as: Computing, Work | Comments Off

Today I received marking materials on the IEEE’s Certified Software Development Professional Program. Unlike the various certifications I pursued fresh out of college, this one requires applicants to have 9,000 hours of experience and a bachelor’s degree (in addition to passing an exam).

As I was sitting here thinking about whether or not I should pursue something like this, seeing as how I’m soon to be back in the job market, I wondered what value there is in pursuing certifications any more. I would hope that my years of experience and continuous self-development would prove that I am better prepared for a job than what some piece of paper says. At the same time, I’m coming from a primarily design-oriented web development job and looking for a more technically-oriented job. That certification could give prospective employers a boost of confidence… then again, if I can’t engender that confidence myself, do I really want to work for such a company?

Ultimately, I think that I just enjoy the pain and suffering that goes along with studying for and taking exams that prove I know something. After all, none of my previous certifications had any application to my jobs, nor did they get me any more money when I was job hunting!

So… should I take the test or not?

Where Are All the Women?

Posted February 16, 2005 at 3:58 PM | Tagged as: Women!, Work | Comments Off

Carly’s departure from HP has really stirred up a hornet’s nest of discussion about women in computing. Now Wired News is picking up the thread, which is good. But is anybody listening?

Seeing as how I’m a female senior manager leaving a tech company, I really wonder about this. I don’t have any job offers yet (no cracks about my resume not being up on this site yet, please), and my current employer has made no effort to keep me around. So I have to wonder if the news about women in top management is really getting through to top management.

Auctioning Off the Origins of Cyberspace

Posted February 15, 2005 at 10:08 AM | Tagged as: Computing, Women! | Comments Off

Christie’s auction house is conducting a sale of The Origins of Cyberspace: A Library on the History of Computing, Networking & Telecommunications. Among the items up for bids is a paper on programming by Grace Hopper. How much for a corner of a page? ;-)

Geek Chic for V-Day

Posted February 10, 2005 at 2:19 PM | Tagged as: Funnies | Just 1 Comment

Maybe someone I know will get me this Geek Love Poem T-shirt for Valentine’s Day.

It Eats the Page!

Posted February 8, 2005 at 3:01 PM | Tagged as: Funnies, Work | Comments Off

Kate brought this to my attention, and I haven’t been able to stop laughing (or shaking my head) since.

A coworker — a content programmer in the online media industry! — used the phrase “it eats the page” to refer to a hyperlink that, when clicked, opened the URI within the same browser window. In other words, the link didn’t spawn a new window. In other words, it followed the default behavior of the web. Duh! And this person was alarmed that said hyperlink was broken. (!!!)

Sigh…