IT careers

IT job strategies: Vendor vs. generic certifications

IT pros are divided on the value of brand-name certifications. On the one hand, vendor-neutral certifications seem a better fit today’s world of commoditized products. Then again, a Red Hat certification certainly appeals to the majority of Linux-friendly employers.

Last week I chatted with Linux Professional Institute (LPI) president and CEO Jim Lacey about the merits of vendor-neutral certification. In November, LPI joined forces with several organizations, including Hewlett-Packard, IBM, Microsoft, Novell and Sun, to revitalize the certification market by forming the Information Technology Certification Council (ITCC). Responding to the Lacey interview, users generally agreed that specialization is useful and can win jobs; but today’s IT environments require IT pros who can think outside just one vendor’s box.

Jesse Becker, a member of the DC Linux User Group (DCLUG), values peers who can apply their specific knowledge to a larger scope of products and technologies. “A good generalist can probably do whatever is needed, even if they may take slightly longer than someone focused on a specific product or system,” Becker said. “Knowing how IP, disk partitions or file systems all work is much more useful than just knowing how to run tools or knowing the magic options to ifconfig, or fdisk or fsck.”

Most Microsoft pros are not good generalists, and most Linux pros are, says Ed Kohlwey, technology director of The ASCII Group of Bethesda, Maryland. Largely, Linux pros have had to be able to work in heterogeneous data centers. Microsoft pros have not, but that’s changing.

Linux administrator Ed Sawicki of Lake Oswego, Ore. thinks vendor-neutral certs encourage innovation and could help break up IT vendor monopolies. “Corporations tend to solve problems in ways that maximize their profits. I don’t believe this changes just because the vendor is selling open source software like Linux. Vendor-specific certifications encourage people to build social capital in specific brands, thus encouraging the formation of a monopoly. We’re all better off if certifications are neutral.”

Vendor-neutral certifications are most useful with commoditized, broadly available and rapidly changing technologies, according to Forrester Research analyst Jeffrey Hammond. They also help IT pros deal with issues independent or orthogonal to specific technologies like programming languages and database products.

On the flip side, Kohlwey told me, vendor-neutral certs may lack clout with employers, who don’t know what those certs mean. It’s easy to recognize the value of a certification from a big vendor, such as Novell, Red Hat, Microsoft or Sun. So, employers most often judge the merits of an IT professional based on their own experience with and current usage of a certain product.

Vendor certs are effective marketing tools for IT professionals, says DCLUG’s Becker. He thinks that’s unfortunate. He’d rather work with or hire an IT pro “with no certifications and a firm understanding of the tasks at hand,” instead of someone who has many brand-name certifications and can’t think outside the box.

If you want to sound off, leave a comment below. Thanks to the DC Linux User Group for sharing their thoughts on the subject.

Vendor-neutral Linux certs becoming popular

Linux Professional Institute President and CEO Jim Lacey told SearchEnterpriseLinux.com that he believes vendor-neutral Linux certifications are becoming more popular and signal a larger trend within IT of area specialization versus proficiency with a single product. Lacey also tells us where he thinks Linux managers face challenges in the enterprise.

SearchEnterpriseLinux.com: Recently, HP announced that it would require LPI certification as a prerequisite for its HP Certified Professional Program. What are the trends in Linux certification? Which certification sets have fared well in the Linux marketplace?

Jim Lacey: Linux and open source are becoming more entrenched in larger organizations, and the consistent growth of the LPI organization over the past eight quarters is evidence of that. One of the reasons we are seeing growth is because we aren’t allied with a certain product. Our programs are vendor independent.

Vendor-neutral certification is becoming more important. As things become more ubiquitous, it’s becoming more difficult to standardize on any one product or platform; people are becoming more IT focused in different areas rather than skilled with specific products. Whether you started out on Unix or Windows, you really need a wide variety of skills. Obviously, professionals working in markets that are most saturated, such as the Windows certification markets and even in the server market, aside from the [professionals with] power-user certifications, are looking to expand their skill set. Vendor-independent certifications are really starting to take hold, and that’s where we are seeing some of the growth coming from in the IT space.

SEL: So if certifications have become less product oriented, how do people track their professional development? Are they following specialized area interests in, say, virtualization or Web services?

JL: Definitely. This is one of the things that we are starting to see, as people become more familiar with the technology. To address these more specialized areas, LPI launched the LPI Level 3 certification in January 2007. As we took our questions to the global marketplace, we heard that operating in a mixed environment was important to enterprise customers. More specialization occurs at the top, in different vertical areas, such as virtualization and also security, Web services, mail and messaging. These areas can become much more vertical in the future, especially in mixed environments.

SEL: How are Linux administrators using these certifications?

JL: At the higher levels of certification, people who are more senior in the enterprise with three or more years of experience with Linux in a corporate environment are moving into more mission-critical areas.

In years past, people were certainly using Linux, sometimes unbeknownst to the CEO and CIO of their organization, because it was solving print services or Web services problems. But now that it has become more entrenched, people are looking to upgrade what their Linux OS does or Linux environment does. And that’s why you’re seeing success in the Linux IT space, with products like Sugar CRM being deployed, proving its value. Others are also making that same transition.

SEL: What challenges do you see facing Linux managers in the enterprise-level IT space?

JL: Even if a manager is working on a mission adoption curve, a disruptive technology such as Linux or open source always presents a challenge. I think that the biggest challenge is in the amount of applications available. As companies look to migrate, they are looking to user-end applications. Security, portability and scalability are also to be addressed.

When you look at the trends for North American enterprises with between $50 million and $1 billion in revenue, whether they’re in applications, servers, database management or software development, more than 50% of these companies are doing something with open source, including widespread adoption, limited adoption, and evaluating a pilot. And in the enterprise, we are seeing a growing wave in services. As more funding goes behind services, open source usage in companies trends upward.

Some of the figures to which Lacey referred to can be found in the following reports:

Optaros 2005: The Growth of Open Source Software in Organizations
Actuate 2007
Ovum Research 2007

We would like to hear from you. If you have an opinion on vendor-neutral certification, please share it in the comments section below.

Thoughts on the Linux job market

The Foote Partners report comparing average pay for certified IT skills versus non-certified IT skills got a lot of people talking. While news that the average salary for non-certified professionals was higher in the third quarter of 2007 came as a shock to some, others were not as surprised.

So what does this mean? To answer that I asked some of our SearchEnterpriseLinux.com experts what they think this survey says about the current IT job market and the Linux front specifically.

Bernard Golden, CEO of the open source software systems integration firm Navica, Inc., says the trend is very interesting but ultimately makes sense. While he recognizes that there is a need for certification and that certification is still very much in demand by both organizations and professionals, Golden points out that certification is only good for demonstrating ability in established, commodified skills. The job market has shifted away from “standard issue stuff” in the industry, which demanded basic skills from large numbers of employees and Golden said those days are long gone. Drawn to certified credentials are organizations that still require professionals who can perform basic skills (cost centers, for example).

Golden adds that certification can be more helpful offshore as a way of establishing credibility. “Offshore, they aren’t looking for innovation, just commodity skills … non-differentiated skill sets,” he said.

In today’s IT environment, certification alone isn’t enough to command a higher salary, Golden said. But the outlook is better for professionals with more expertise to offer potential employers, regardless of whether or not they have certified skills.

“If (an organization) needs to find someone with a particular skills set, above and beyond that of the average IT professional, an alpha-candidate, someone who won’t need certification to convince an employer that this is someone with the background and confidence to do the job, that is something special,” Golden said.

Expert Don Rosenberg, president of the marketing consulting firm Stromian Technologies, agreed that people who are senior enough not to need a certification will do better in the job market. Professionals who have had enough time to develop their niche or some kind of specialized function often will not need to bother getting certified, he said.

“It is a lot of trouble to go through a certification,” said Rosenberg, who believed the Foote survey reflects this to some extent. But he also expressed some skepticism about the study. He said it is problematic to gauge average salary for IT professionals across the board, citing major differences between Microsoft and Linux pros, the latter of which Rosenberg felt are typically more qualified and command higher salaries. “It takes so many Microsoft certified personnel to do what Linux personnel can do,” he said.

Rosenberg said Linux professionals could be blowing the curve, while the marketplace could also be seeing a surplus of Microsoft certified administrators forcing Linux out of the marketplace.

Nevertheless, Golden and Rosenberg both agreed that things keep looking up in the Linux job market. “Linux and open source skill sets are in demand,” Golden said. As as a member of a local Linux users group is seeing more job postings for Linux jobs showing up in the mailing list.

“People are starting to reach out in slightly unconventional ways,” Golden said. “I’m taking this as a sign that, having exhausted conventional avenues, employers are trying harder to find Linux professionals.”

For professionals who want to move up in the world, Golden suggested they develop skills that set them apart from the certified crowd: “When somebody needs that skill set, they’ll beat a path to your door.”

Noncertified IT pros earn more than those with certified skills, report shows

A new report from industry research firm Foote Partners LLC finds that the average pay for noncertified IT skills topped that for certified professionals while compensation for IT jobs increased again in the third quarter of 2007. David Foote, CEO and chief research officer at Foote Partners, calls this “a significant event” that has not occurred in the industry since 2000.

The survey includes Linux system administrators in the premium-skills category. Last month, the technology jobs site Dice reported a 30% increase in Linux job postings on its site. Along with a healthy surge in jobs, pay for Linux pros was also higher than the national average for all tech professionals, according to Dice.

In May, Foote Partners reported a 9.1% increase in average salary among 149 noncertified IT skills over the last year, according to their IT skills pay survey.

Foote believes that this represents “a key milestone of several events to come that are shaping IT workforce evolution.” Foote Partners has been reporting that pay for noncertified IT professionals has been steadily increasing, while compensation for certified IT skills has been steadily declining for more than a year.

Foote Partners LLC is an independent workforce information consultant and market research firm for the IT industry. The company is based in New Canaan, Conn.

Novell Workgroup layoffs imminent

It was but a rumor last week, but today it looks like it’s all true: Novell is set to layoff a large chunk of its Workgroup division.

The number last week was an estimated 50-60%, but that’s still unconfirmed right now. What we do know is that an inside source at Novell said the layoffs are happening now, and specific departments are not yet known.

Regardless of your personal feelings about Novell the business, there’s nothing good to be gleaned from this news today.

Blogger and Alfresco guru Matt Asay tries anyway:

I’m no fan of Novell, but I hate layoffs. I’m sincerely sorry to see this happening. The good news, however, is that there are much better companies to work for out there. Like all of them. Just ask Greg Collier. He left Novell a year or two ago to join Mozy/Berkley Data Systems, which was bought by EMC recently. Or Chris Stone, now CEO of Streamserve. Or John Vigeant who left Novell and joined XenSource (you know what happened next). Or Charlie Martin who is now sitting at MuleSource. Chris Cooper (my old boss) left to be a VC with UV Partners. Bill Mason went to Red Hat and is now at Zmanda. Etc.

Over at Linux news aggregation site LinuxToday, comments (always starting with the standard “I don;t like layoffs either, BUT…”) have already started to compare Novell to Enron.

Linux job numbers surge, remain behind Windows

If Dice’s numbers are any indication, then the Linux job market it experiencing a healthy surge right now. Dice, for those not in the know, is “career website for technology and engineering professionals, and the companies that seek to employ them, in the United States,” according to the Dice.com web site. And if you read all the way to the end of this post, then your IT library could see a surge in free books.

An article over at Datamation tells it like it is:

Dice, the tech jobs site, reports that it had 9,631 Linux job listings in August. While this is a big number, what’s truly eye-catching is the percentage growth since January: Linux job listing are up a robust 30% – three times the increase of overall tech job listings. (Since January, Dice job listings have grown by 10.2%, to a total of 96,548 tech jobs.)

To be sure, Linux jobs continue to trail the mighty Windows, which had 16,895 listings. Linux also falls behind Unix – still healthy after all these years – which boasted 14,954 listings. (The AIX flavor of Unix had 2,302 jobs, and Solaris posted 4,055.)

So, while Linux job growth remains healthy, it still lags behind Windows and Unix — which is not really a surprise at all.

Salary numbers were also healthy for Linux pros, which Paul Melde, Dice’s VP of technology described as both “systems administrator as well as software developer.” The average 2006 salary for Linux professionals was $77,950. The national average for all tech professionals of $73,308. The best paying area of the country for Linux professionals is Silicon Valley, where Linux pros make $96,578! Other top-paying Linux areas, according to Dice, are Washington, D.C. ($86,882), Los Angeles ($86,618), and New York ($86,305).

Let me know all about your own IT job search–past present or future. The “best” comment — meaning randomly selected by yours truly — gets a free copy of the Dice Technology Job Search Guide Matt Stansberry and I picked up and video blogged about from LinuxWorld last month (the book has a $24.99 value. Our video, however, is priceless).