How To Measure Linux Proficiency?

[Matt Graham]

From: alex at crackpot.org
> Quoting Joshua Zeidner <jjzeidner at gmail.com>:
>> The Question is... how does an employer measure Linux expertise 
>> objectively?

With great difficulty.  (So some of them look for the RHCE label.)

> earning an advanced degree does show a person has  
> commitment, and should have a good general understanding of the  
> subject.  But none of that is a guarantee.  I've met a lot of  
> knotheads with masters degrees (in many fields).

Yep.  There are even a number of complete idiots with PhDs out there.
I've seen them; my father's a professor, so I met a number of ...
less-than-useful people in the department who all had PhDs.

> You find out what people know, and what they're good at, by talking to  
> them and finding out about what they've done in the past.  It's not  
> objective by any means, but I think it's also less artificial than  
> trying to establish arbitrary tests or benchmarks.

This is true.  However, it's also harder to reduce this to a nice little
number and put it into a happy chart.  I have seen researchers, HR
departments, bean counters, and ordinary folks just freeze up and
have a cow when it comes to data that has to be interpreted in a more
time-consuming fashion than "normal" data.