Freebie iPods and Training Stories
The Sun Training folks were so tickled with the mention I gave them
the other day about being #1 in training, that they offered me a 4 GB
Apple iPod! We already have two iPods at my house plus an XM2go
receiver, so I'm going to give the iPod to one of you.
But first, send me a real-life story about certification or training
courses you've taken from Sun, or are dying to take. This could be onsite
"instructor-led" training, or online courses. Funny, inspiring,
or whatever.
My address, as usual, is Firstname-dot-Lastname @ sun.com (Martin Hardee). Subject="My
Training Story" (so I don't miss your email in the other 500 I get
every day. :-) Or, post it as a comment below.
Posted by Rabbs on March 16, 2005 at 11:38 AM PST #
My Sun Java Certification saved my house! ...Seriously, it did!
In April of 2002, I joined the ranks of the (far too) many computing professionals who suddenly found themselves out of a job when their employer realized the bubble they were riding on had popped. Being the sole income for the family, I was "a bit" stressed, however, I was still pretty upbeat because I had (what I thought were) marketable skills, an excellent work ethic, and well... dang it, I'm just cute.
As you can probably guess, cute don't cut it in the real world. I spent five and a half months looking for a job and watching my bank account get smaller and smaller. Eventually, we got to the point that we decided to sell the house, move back to Nebraska and have my wife and kids live with my parents in the country while I sleep on my brother's couch in the city and look for work. My wife and I decided that on Friday we would talk to a realtor and put the house on the market. And then...
Flashback: 2 months earlier.
With my ego effectively reduced to the size of a tadpole, I started trying to figure out what "they" were looking for that I wasn't providing. I knew I interviewed well, but the problem was that I simply wasn't getting past the resume screening to even have a chance at the interview. I had heard that having a certification on your resume would NOT get you a job but it might get you an interview. Sounded like exactly what I needed.
I immediately began studying for the Java Programmer certification and quickly found out that there was much more Java than I had yet run into. It still wasn't helping me in my job search but I felt like I was at least DOING something to make progress. Plus, I was actually learning... ...A LOT! Finally, after many I-haven't-studied-this-hard-since-college weeks, I felt I had filled in the critical gaps in my knowledge and took the leap to schedule the exam.
The day of the exam came, and my days of NOT being Sun-certified went. I passed the exam and prepared myself to wade through the job offers that were due to start pouring in. When I walked out the front door, I found... ...no line of prospective employers waiting to swoop down on me and my certification. "Man, this economy is messed up. I guess I'll just have to..."
Flashback: 2 weeks before Exam Day
I had an interview for a contract Java position and really did well. During the interview, certification was mentioned in passing and I dropped in that I was scheduled to take the exam soon. After the interview, I was told that it was down to me and one other person and could expect to hear back soon. I checked back periodically (frequent enough to appear enthusiastic but not so frequent that I would appear deranged) but still got the same answer: it's a tie, nobody wins yet. Fine. I had studying to do anyway.
Flash-forward: Newly-certified
I called the company I had interviewed with and left a polite professional message wherein I calmly informed the hiring manager of my recent certification and carefully avoided using the word "Yippee!"
Flash-forward: Wednesday (2 days before meeting with the realtor)
The phone rang and I got offered the job! It was only a six-month contract, but it was enough to let us keep the house! Furthermore, on my first day working, my boss told me that the Java certification (and the fact that I called to let him know about it) was what pushed me into the lead and into the job.
Since then, that six-month contract got extended to last 18 months and eventually became a permanent position with the company.
So... My Sun certification helped me get a job that saved me from having to sell my house.
But, even more important than all that, it made my daughter think I was really smart. :)
Posted by Dave K. on March 17, 2005 at 08:57 AM PST #
A bit off-topic, but...
I've been to a lot of BEA's training courses and, at least in Finland, they're using hired guns to run those trainings. On one of those courses, the trainer was an ex-SunEd guy and he was so good that one of the participants took that course twice! :)
Posted by Lasse on March 19, 2005 at 06:04 AM PST #
My story is a little different that I am not a certified java programmer yet. But, my story is some what unique in a sense that I tried to get going on the SCJP 3 times and it gave different positive results either in my professional or personal life.
It may or may not sound funny but here it goes.
In the year 2000, after a long deliberation and introspection I started preparing for SCJP. It never happened, I nailed a interview after the initial couple of weeks of SCJP prep that I got a new job with about 30% raise. This new position never gave me time for completing the SCJP initiative.
I tried again in 2001; this time the result was on a personal level. In the middle of intense preparations I got my first child. That sort of delayed the SCJP dream, since kid & my job had higher precedense over SCJP.
My 3rd trial was in 2004 and the result was a new job with position as a architect with a leading wireless firm in US. Again new job & responsibilities didn't let me complete the initiative.
May be it is bad that I haven't got done with the certification; but in a sort of coincidental way some thing very positive takes place every time I start going after SCJP. I do hang on to the SCJP prep material(books etc).Hope to complete it some time this year(I am sure there will be some positive out of this round of prep, with my previous history). May be a free IPOD :)
Posted by Kishore Dandu on March 20, 2005 at 06:39 AM PST #
Posted by Maulik Shah on April 02, 2005 at 07:53 AM PST #
Posted by Paul Greidanus on April 02, 2005 at 07:55 AM PST #
Way back in the Dark Ages, circa 1994 or so, just as the Internet was starting to lay roots with software like gopher and ftp and the only real way to be a part of this budding technology was to be on a college or military campus, I was a High School Student. A friend and I had obtained systems credentials for systems on the local downtown campus.
We were young, sneaking on to campus every couple nights and being granted access to the 24 hour UNIX lab. Sun SPARCStations (2's if memory serves) were connected to a VAX mainframe. The admins, being college students and not really overly concerned with system security, never bothered us. I guess that they figured if we had accounts that we had a right to be there. ... It was there that my love for Sun gear and UNIX in general planted it's seed. Years later, I was working with a TelCo for a "Private Internet" project they were proposing to the major automakers, who were afraid of blind public traffic for CAD and other assorted items that they used to move virtual parts around to their third party manufacturers. Because of the nature of the systems involved, I was placed in Competency 2000 training and given all the basic level courses.
As a student, I was typically lazy. I knew enough to answer the questions with the canned answers that were being sought and didn't worry too much about the actually learning aspect of it. I mean, I'm not an archaeologist, so I don't remember any of my anthro and other people and culture related courses.
The Sun training was different. I poured over the courseload binders that were given to us. Absorbing every scrap of information I could find, and did quite well in the exams. Unfortunately... [over time] ... I allowed my certs to lapse.
I am now in a new position, again after many years, that has some equip on the backend that might give me the leverage I need to get back into certification in time for Solaris 10 to become huge. (I foresee it dwarfing even what it has accomplished today.) Also, as we know, Java is everywhere. You add that to a company that likes to promote the technical aspects of it's employees and I believe that I might once again be challenged like I was so long ago by a technology that so fascinated me, that I could not put down even the most boring of Sales binders in needs to gather all I could on the newest technology.
Aah. That feeling of youth ... the drive and pursuit of knowledge that for all other intents and purposes is like magic. Even though my daily job has other requirements, a certain Redmond based ideal has never caused me to tear through documentation, manuals, literature, and man files like those days sneaking onto campus to see what this new web "thing" was all about.
I do hope I was able to convey my intense emotion in these simple written words, for if even a tenth of it has been brought through the electronic ether then maybe others will understand why Sun, who is not on every desktop, is still a major factor in this field.
Posted by Eddie Booher, Jr on April 02, 2005 at 07:59 AM PST #
Posted by Mac Tolentino on April 17, 2005 at 04:50 AM PDT #
Posted by vijaykumar on March 14, 2007 at 05:55 AM PDT #