‘Acquire a certification in technology X‘ | ‘Earn a Domain Y certification‘

Do one of those statements list in your yearly goals ? It is almost certainly a bad idea. Let me explain why. I knew a company that required its employees to be acquire at least one certification on a technology per year. Its employees would work hard throughout the year and during appraisal time it is not uncommon to hear this converation

Foo:  ‘Dude did you take that certification you were supposed to ?’
Bar:  ‘Rats ! I didnt realize it was a part of our goals’
Foo:  ‘hmm… what do we do ? John has already passed it and that puts him ahead of us’

Foo and Bar will probably end up reading real exam questions (also referred to as brain dumps) and passing the exam with only a day’s worth of preparation. That another way of saying ‘They cheated’.  This hurts everyone.

• It hurts John.

He worked hard to pass this exam. The inclusion of Foo and Bar into the ‘pass pool’ dilutes his achievement.

• It hurts your employer.

The company probably reimbursed the certification and wasted its financial resources.

• It hurts the community.

When interviewers come across scores of folks that are certified for technology X, but their skills do not match what they were certified for, it reduces the value of that certification

Foo and Bar also do not realize how foolish they are going to look in their next job interview. If you are an employer, please consider removing this as a valid goal. If you are an employee who is stuck with this goal, do yourself a favor and either acquire the certification by working hard for it or default.

PS: I am not suggesting that all employees take the easy way out. I am merely pointing out a general observation that trends in our industry.

Oracle has decided to re-brand Sun certification under its own brand name. First the sun website redirected to Oracle.com, then the javadoc links began to look more different than ever before. Now the red tinge we are all becoming familiar with has found its way into the certification domain.

So what does it mean for those that are already certified ? The gist of the changes which are effective from Sep 1 2010 are summarized below

• The change is only to the title of the certification and not its contents / syllabus.
• Old Sun exam numbers are now mapped to new ones.
• Anyone taking say a java programmer certification after Sep 1 will earn the title ‘Oracle Certified Professional, Java SE 6 Programmer’ instead of ‘Sun Certified Java Programmer (SCJP) SE 6′.
• You cannot request a certificate re-branded under Oracle if you already own a Sun certificate. You need to take the exam again or upgrade.
• Previous vouchers that were purchased from Sun still remain valid.

If you would like more details check out the page from the Oracle website that details how Sun certification is now fully integrated with Oracle. There is also a PDF reference document if you are interested in taking a quick glance.

Once again Sun has managed to miss the dead line for the SCJP Pus Beta certification. Last year Sun made an attempt to launch SCJP Plus but decided to delay it until JDK7 was launched. The SCJP plus BETA page has hence been changed to reflect the new BETA dates.

The new certification was supposed to change the way candidates took the exam by allowing them to code their way into earning their certificate. No more would the exam be served as one that has 100% multiple choice questions. Had the launch been a success candidates would have been confronted with coding problems, drag and drop questions and a reduced number of multiple choice questions.

The dead line to pick the candidates was February the 15th. That has been missed since none of the candidates were sent an email telling them about the status of their BETA exam. The exam was supposed to be launched by March 1st. This date has also been missed.

The BETA page was updated since last year to include more details. The BETA exam contains 9 coding problems and several drag and drop questions sprinkled with some multiple choice questions. The time allocated to finish the entire thing is 6 hours Of course the real exam would not have 9 problems and allocate each candidate 6 hours. BETA exams try to drill candidates and then decide how easy / tough the exam is based on how much everyone scores. The pass % is also decided based on the BETA test.

Given that BETA exams are underway for some Oracle certifications it is unclear why Sun is lagging behind. Previous BETAs held by Sun have not dragged on for this long and the dates were always honored.

Whatever the reasons for the delay, I hope Sun / Oracle manage to launch the updated training / certification agenda successfully next time.

Oracle is now slowly beginning to re-brand Sun certifications. The certification hierarchy for EE 6 now aligns more with Oracle’s vision of certifications by introducing sub categories and clubbed certification packages ( you become a master when you complete all the certifications in a package ).

A detailed FAQ is now available on the Oracle blog about what changes are taking place and why. The things to look out for are

• Sun’s retake promotions

• The Sun brand of certification

• Procedure to buy exam vouchers

• Changes to certification objectives

• Changes to the procedure used to certify

• Contacts

The FAQ covers some of the points mentioned above. If you are preparing for an existing certification, there is no point waiting for changes. Like the fate of all Sun related projects, certifications will also evolve and time will tell what it looks like a few months from now.

Sun has a wide range of certifications to offer. Ever since java EE6 was released, changes have been made to the certification hierarchy and content to reflect the new specifications. Sun is also offering a discount of 10% to those that register for training / certification updates by Jan 31st 2010. Here is a comparison of the certification hierarchies

Old hierarchy:

New hierarchy:

The new hierarchy provides paths that are more specialized than the ones before. For example you can be a JSF expert. Web service + security is another specialization. Combining these certifications together can also earn you the title of a “Master“.

Apart from these changes, the core java certification – SCJP – is supposed to undergo an overhaul after the release of JDK7. Candidates are expected to code their way into passing an exam instead of selecting multiple choice questions. The exam is supposed to be renamed as SCJP plus. It was delayed after an earlier attempt to launch it was unsuccessful due to the JDK7 project taking higher priority. Whether we will see “plus” versions of developing web pages / invoking web services etc etc is yet to be seen.

Sun is about to provide an update to all its existing certifications. If you are interested in registering for training/notifications, you can do so here. At the time of this writing, there are 3 days left to register / get notifications.