I once was in a class sitting beside a CCIE that asked me what the command
syntax was. I have no faith in the certified.
Nothing like throwing the baby out with the bath water...
One bad apple spoils the bunch..
I could go on...
As someone who once had a CCIE (5465), and who has encountered many
certified individuals from various certifying organizations, in my
experience, certification proves that the person has the certificate
and little else. It does not prove they are incompetent. It certainly
does not prove they are competent. I will say I have encountered more
MCSEs that were incompetent than almost any other certification. I will
also say that I have yet to meet an MCSE+I that knows anything about
networking (unless I met the person and didn't know they were an MCSE+I).
Owen
I agree that the CCIE is no panacea, but of the few dozen I've met there
were only two I wouldn't trust with an enable password.
Vendor certs will always be of limited value as most aim at the needs
of enterprises rather than service providers, and even the couple that don't
have an understandably unhealthy vendor centric view. What value they do
have,
IMHO is that they can show the effort the person is prepared to make to
learn new
things, particularly is their cert wasn't employer sponsored.
Nothing beats personal recommendation, even if it's from my friends brothers
acquaintance - just weeding out the nutjobs and BS artists leaves a pretty
small pool.
Simon