The Certification Guarantee

Do you guarantee that we pass the certification exam? Is there a guarantee that I pass the exam?

Be honest, have those words ever left your mouth when questioning a training center or training company about a certification class you were interested in? That's OK, we probably all have asked that at one point or another. So let's break the wonderful "Test Pass Guarantee" down a little bit. Scapple ready?

On the surface this is a great thing to hear if you are shopping for an IT certification class. All I need to do is show up and this company guarantees that I pass the test. So stinking awesome. This training center has just done a great job appealing or appeasing a psycological doubt that many reasonable shoppers carry; the doubt that what they are close to purchasing isn't worth what they are going to pay. It's a natural thought and a "guarantee" all but silences that worry.

So, naturally because they have stated right there on their website this beautiful guarantee, this training company does such a better job than any other company. They can guarantee that ANY student passes the certification exam. For example, you take the CCNA class, which is one of the tougher certs on it's networking level, and you are guaranteed to pass the exam at the end of the class. Get real, do you know how many people fail the CCNA exam repeatedly?? A lot, its tough as heck! So this amazing firggin company can guarantee that Bobo the Clown could pass the test.

That's garbage and as a card carrying, certified IT Professional who had to work their tail off to get to where I am, I'm pissed off when I see this.

An exam pass guarantee is one of two things:

1) It's often a sales ploy built on an empty promise. They show a line stating that they guarantee you pass the test but offer no actual policy to protect those words. You go to ask about it after you fail your exam from a class featuring no hands-on, a lot of lecture, based on handouts printed directly from TestKing.com, taught by an instructor who has been a master of the english language for all of maybe one month, and they tell you that you can retake the class again for free (although I see nothing wrong with offering a free retake, lets try to be forthright about what we mean by pass guarantee). However, the next class at the location you want won't be until September 2029, but fortunately for everyone the next closest location is Anchorage, Alaska and the account rep assures you that the flight from Washington Dulles to Anchorage is "breathtaking". Thanks for that.

2) The company tells you that they guarantee you pass the test or you can take it as many times as you would like until you pass and they will pay for it. But if you do fail, you must follow their "proven success program" aka you are required to study a list of test answers from a braindump site until you pass their practice test software and then they let you take the exam again. Unethical and a detriment to the IT industry. Your a cheater and your lack of skills will show up one day and bite you, hopefully anyways.

For anyone that has taken a hands-on training class and studied the courseware and used an ethical practice test product to pass the certification exam (good old fashion technique of earning something on your own) you should be disgusted with any place that offers the test pass guarantee. Since certification within the IT industry is not regulated by a more powerful commission (like The Bar Exams for Attorneys, The CPA Exam for Accountants, etc.) the industry is abused by the lazy and worthless. Most of the time, the people that study the hardest and continue to work hard for more certifications and more IT skills rise to the top, but generally the cheaters do get in at the bottom levels and sometimes rise a little. Often though, the true colors shine through.

Pay no mind to the test pass guarantee and find a training center that actually offers a good, well rounded, well instructed, hands-on training class. Outside of that, learn on your own because you will go farther in the industry if you do.

Cisco - A Job Well Done with the CCNA!!

I thought I would bring to light something that has been in the back of my mind for quite some time, but never really to the end of my tongue. That, the fact that Cisco does and awesome job with their certifications, but my main focus here with this is the CCNA.

Cisco is a terrific company no doubt. They pioneered networking's landscape and still set the precedent for much hardware that transports our info and protects our data. Who would have thought that their excellence would also be displayed in the certification that is seen as the basic need for a network technician?? It's certain that not every certification vendor has taken the same pride in their certifications...

Cisco has made the CCNA something very well respected for a long time now. The CCNA has not been devalued by an over-population of achievers, it hasn't fallen to a level of unimportance and it hasn't become obsolete. Even as Cisco faces greater competition on selling networking hardware, their certification is still the one to have if you work in networking.

I've identified four main reasons why/how I believe Cisco has done a great job in keeping the value of the CCNA certification:

1) The Difficulty of the Test

The CCNA exam is tough by all standards. I've seen hot shot IT guy (or gal) time after time fail the CCNA exam and be shocked at it's difficulty. I see more IT hot shots fail the CCNA exam more times than most any other exam, in fact, I cannot name any other exam that accumulates more casualties, both first timers and repeat casualties. I have seen long time networking people come in and get pounded by the CCNA's difficulty. People fail all exams, but the CCNA takes them down more consistently and with greater force. Plus, people know about this and the reputation is out there.


2) Beat the Braindumps

So how do you make a test that beats the braindumps and trumps the cheater who buys the test answers on the Internet and studies them? You make it the test more application based. With the new 640-802 Cisco has done just that. The questions are much more geared toward application and the test even now includes actual simulator questions. The simulator questions are substantial and what more, if you don't really know your stuff and move through the simulator questions quickly, you will fail the exam by running out of time - it happens all the time. So, for the CCNA nowadays, you need to know your routers.


3) The Addition of a Lower Level Certification

This was definitely the right move. So many people were looking to add Cisco certification to their resume. It is something that's basically essential for someone looking to get into networking. Plus, many sys admins wanted the knowledge base that came along with entry level Cisco. The problem was starting to creep up that you had too many people trying for the CCNA when they had no prior networking experience. Now you don't need to have routing and switching experience to do well on the CCNA, but you definitely need to have a handle on things like sub netting, tcp/ip and other things that are basic to networking. So for those that wanted the basics of networking as it applies to Cisco, they created the CCENT. Now the CCNA is no longer the lowest level Cisco cert, as it shouldn't be. The CCENT is the option for people who don't quite have what they need for CCNA. This is entirely appropriate given the demand.


4) You Must Re-Certify

This basically speaks for itself. To stay current Cisco demands that you re-up your certification every three years. The technology changes, so that's a way to keep you on your toes with that, but it also keeps the stagnant tech from devaluing the certification.

Some may argue that this makes the CCNA less attractive to the cert-seeker, having to re-up is costly and annoying. However, those people are kept quite by the supply and demand strength of the CCNA certification.

Overall, the CCNA is a winner of a certification and I congratulate Cisco for making all the right moves here.