The challenge for all suppliers is to ensure that those standards are reached during the certification process. For example, the P.E. exam requires not only standard testing, but also a level of experience in order to attain this distinction.
The challenge for all customers is to understand what should be expected from a person with a certification as opposed to experience within the marketplace. This is exemplified with the trouble of having "certified" people who don't have experience.
Simply put, certifications, in most cases, are the result of an individual who had the ability to pass a multiple-choice question test which often-times has questions that would be considered "tricky" or irrelevant to the real experts. In some cases, certification is not proof that the certified person is able to handle situations that someone who has lived through the experiences could.
Overall, I am a true believer in certifications. Certifications provide a standard structure to expectations. I would encourage all customers to fully understand what the certifications mean though.
For those who are contemplating to either work and gain experience versus becoming certified, I would encourage them to do both. Experience will get you prepared for what you will live through more and more. Certification will force you to learn a lot of material that can provide a foundation to be better prepared for the variety of experiences you will live through.
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I do not completely agree to what you are saying. Certification has its own importance. One need not be made to understand the difference between Management from IIM's and mgmt from some Local mgmt school. The difference is seen all by itself.
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Experience is no doubt more valuable is agreed but then if that is the case why do people go for management studies after graduation. They should have directly gone for attaining experience in the market. I hope that this illustrates the value of Certification.
Struggle and hard work is required everywhere whether it be a Sapient College or a non ATC. Also if Certification was not so important, then why are people running behind it even after they have 2 years of working experience. And also the companies are ready to spend such huge amount on their manpower for the same..
There are a lot of companies still available (and this list also includes the reputable companies in SAP) who take in freshers from the Sapient. However, take note that Sapient never guarantees you of a placement. It assures to help you and has a strong track record to prove it.
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Believe me, the certification is nowadays demanded by the clients for the SAP Functinal Consultants going to implement for the respective companies. And I would still stress that you have to stray along a bit more for the same and you definitely can succeed.
