How To Measure Linux Proficiency?

[Kevin Brown]

> the point (though vague) is this: does it really prove anything if you are 
> degreed or not? I have found, in my travels, that a lot of college degreed 
> people haven't the first damned clue about things out here in the real world 
> (Like a guy I know in Kansas with a Comp-sci degree and hasn't the first 
> damned clue about programming in any language???). 
> 
> Then there are folks like me who actually learned almost all that they know 
> from being OUT HERE 24/7 (and because we don't have a degree, we get passed 
> up for hire almost every time). Perhaps its time the private sector start 
> taking a hard, long (and objective) look at what constitutes real experience 
> (and base it on real world circumstances). Otherwise, I can predict that We, 
> as a nation, shall fall by the wayside because our population has become too 
> dumb to function.

The presence of a degree is useful for HR departments to use as a filter 
to screen people quickly.  Most of the time they don't set the 
requirements, just filter for them and the appropriate keywords to find 
candidates to fill a job.  The presence of a college degree is just the 
newest filter because so many people are now getting them instead of 
entering the work force straight out of high school.  Also the Net has 
made it easier to flood HR systems with resumes and job applications and 
they only have so many hours in a day to screen them.