Josh, Haha nice one, yes I think I have accumulated quite a few certificates over the years, however I would never put them on my C.V. I would rather show my previous work - anyway that works for me since I have a fairly large portfolio of previous-projects. I agree that the Chipuka would not add anything you could not do on your own (screening), but I still believe this holds quite a bit of value - saving me from doing that first level screening could be quite a time-saver. Naturally this all depends on how well received it is going to be, if it turns out that none of the "good" developers get certified then you would still have to do a manual screening and little would be gained. Another point to remember is that you may not always be looking for the "best" developers who can come up with marvelous solutions for everything, for some positions, a junior developer with a solid understanding of basics is more than enough - and I believe that Chipuka _could_ be used for identifying this. Personally I am a fairly technical person, and I am able to do much of the "heavy thinking", i.e. coming up with the structures, frameworks, data-structures etc.. What I need is quite often someone who can follow my lead and "fill out the blanks". Finally you have a valid point, that it would probably be more productive to raise the general level. That is look at the root cause, that there are simply too few "great" developers in Kenya for a major IT-industry. And some sort of "elite" university program might be more helpfull than a(nother) certificate. .. Mike On 2/14/12 11:17 AM, Josh Handley wrote:
Mike, now that I know you have a bunch of certificates my respect for your technical skills has dropped a couple of notches.
Seriously though even if Chipuka can accurately measure coding skills then it would just help weed out the job applicants who can't do loops and arrays. However, the problem isn't that I can't weed those folks out already. I have become quite good at eliminating under qualified candidates early on in the recruiting process. The real problem is that the overall number of applicants in Nairobi who are able to pass my screening tests is relatively small. Creating another certification by itself doesn't bring up the skill level of the average Kenyan software developer it just tells you which ones are not skilled and which ones are. The real focus should be on getting more developers that have the necessary skills. This can be done through better training at the university level and before (university is really too late start), on the job training etc...
Some will argue that adding the certification will help the educational programs focus on the right skills but if that is really the goal then wouldn't it be easier to just work directly with the universities and schools to improve their curriculum and teaching? My experience with big tests is that you just push to people to study for the test and they don't end up with a deep understanding of the subject matter.
I hope I don't sound overly negative on the skill level of Kenyan software engineers. We have hired a team of really top notch Kenyan developers at Bridge who are doing fantastic work and have taught me a lot. Most of them gained their skills studying at local universities and working at local software companies. I just don't think that there are enough engineers at that level to support even the current local demand let alone enough for IBM to come in and hire hundreds of them for BPO.
Josh