Hopefully the practice exams won't allow people to just brain dump... I know some people who have basically brain dumped the first Admin test and it frustrates me because I worked my tail off to just know the stuff and didn't even have study guides for some - much less a full practice exam! Then they memorize the practice exams and pass the test.

But that's my rant for the day! I think there could be some value in this exam. I need to update my CLP to 7 since I have it at 6.5. I also need to get my PCLP (without brain dumping!).

I have been avoiding updating my PCLP from R6 to R7 mostly because I'm not running R7 in production anywhere yet. I'm not very comfortable drilling for an cert exam on something I don't have any real-world experience with.

I also tend to have a hard time with the Domino admin certs because I've never worked anyplace that uses the Notes clients. My knowledge in that area is always theoretical and relatively weak.

I tend to only fine value in certifications personally when I'm looking for a job. It helps fill in checkboxes for recruiters, and it opens doors that might not otherwise open. Once I have a job, I don't tend to have trouble demonstrating that I have the skills that I need to get things done that didn't change when I got my PCLP, and aren't diminished by the fact that I don't have a MCSE.

I understand that organizations have a different value associated with certifications. Sometimes contracts require them. Sometimes there's more money in a contract for someone with certifications versus someone without. At least, it's a bar of knowledge to get over. More in tune with the spirit of certifications, it's a way for a person to say "I know my stuff and here's a way you can see that I'm dedicated to what I do".

The security certification's an interesting thing for Domino. At least in the admin exams, the security aspect of running Domino has been as built in as much as security is built into the products. It makes sense to break it out as a speciality cert. If I remember right, there's a security focused MCSE specialty out there too. Then you have the more general Security+ and CISSP type certifications. There are probably going to be a lot more "security guy" positions out there in the future instead of the more common "admin that reads security guides".

I touch upon what IBM can do to add value to this certification at { Link }