PowerShell Certification, why I think we need one.
I normally do not write opinion pieces, I feel that if I can contribute anything worthwhile to the community my efforts are best served explaining or demonstrating a technical area where I have some level of expertise. I have however one subject that I have been mulling over for the past few days that is an exception to this rule, that is certification. Not any certification but a PowerShell certification, this however does not exist. I think we (the community) need a PowerShell certification for a number of reasons (the following are my personal reasons, which I hope some of you share).
· First, trying to obtain a certification drives the individual to a certain competency in a given product or area.
· Second, it gives the individual an idea of what given competency level in a particular product or area is and what is required to have that competency.
· Third and simplest reason, it’s a goal that one can drive towards.
I have taken a number of different certifications in my career and I find the process of preparing for the certification the most valuable part of the certification process. This is not to say that certification doesn’t help getting you a job, certification at the least has gotten my foot in the door at one employer. Employer’s look to certification as a sign post on an employee’s career as saying, yes I have interest in this subject, I have dedicate some of my time outside of my job to show you what I can do. This does not mean if you take a certification you are necessary an expert, or people who have certifications are better than those IT professional that do not, but it is a sign of sorts of dedication or interest to an area going beyond the standard 9-5 (or 7:45-5, plus off hours support and project go-live/implementation weekends J ). It is does offer a potential employer something to differentiate two otherwise equally qualified individuals for the same position.
So back to the original point, we (or at least think the community and if nothing else I would like) need a PowerShell certification. Let me give you a little history as to why I am asking for this certification to exist. I am not a complete newbie to PowerShell, I’ve been using it for about a year or so in production environments, and I’ve read a few books one in particular Professional Windows PowerShell (a Wrox book by Andrew Watt) which was the first book I read and was great and helped me come up to speed. Recently I started to read what I am beginning to consider the bible for PowerShell, Windows PowerShell in Action by Bruce Payette. This is a fantastic book, but it has also made me feel like I know little to nothing about PowerShell. That is why I am asking for a PowerShell certification; until I started reading Bruce Payette’s book I thought that I had a pretty good handle on PowerShell. Yes, there was a few things I didn’t’ think I knew, but over all I thought I had this PowerShell thing down. Now I feel like a newbie in this area and I have to go back and re-examine everything I’ve written, thinking how poor the implementation is. This is a good thing, though it is a little humbling of an experience. (I have some examples of scripts that should be re-evaluated on this site, but I’m going to leave them up as hopefully I’ll be able to look back and see my skills improve over time, and if nothing else they work) For a while now I have known of the 3 different and its upcoming release in Windows7/Windows 2k8 R2. Last night however I found a post (from May 1st 2008) from the PowerShell Team detailing some of the new upcoming features in PowerShell V2. That got me thinking, I just barely have a handle on V1, V2 already has three CTP’s out and I have no idea what is going on in the newest release, I need something to help guide me or at least something I can use as a sign post to make sure I’m on the right track with PowerShell V1 so I have a chance of hanging on to V2.
If you think about it a PowerShell certification is not straying too far outside certifications that are already offered by Microsoft. Currently Microsoft offers certifications in Operating Systems, Server Application, and different parts of the . So in closing if anyone who reads this blog has any interest in a PowerShell certification show your support by putting in a comment or sending me an email. I would like to know if I am a lone wolf on this one. If anyone one who reads this blog has any influence over certifications tracks at Microsoft please do what you can to make this certification a reality.