Best Approaches for J2EE Certification?

facetiousprogrammer writes "I have been working for several years at the same company. As part of the 2007 goal, my team is required to get the Brainbench J2EE certification. We have a good knowledge of the Java programming language itself but very little exposure to J2EE. Other teams in the company are using J2EE daily — hence the push for certification. What would be the best approach to be successful in getting the J2EE certification knowing that we won't work or get formal training on J2EE? Is it a desperate cause?"

Those who can, do. Those who can't, get certified

[theangryfool]

While I'm a fan of brainbench, I have to say that getting certified is of dubious value. We've been interviewing for a while and there is almost zero correlation between school, certification, and ability. If anything, there is almost a negative correlation between certification and ability. It's as if people who don't know what they are doing get a certification to offset that minor problem.

Head First Servlets and JSP book

[dougsyo]

The book that helped make it clear to me (in spite of the at-first-simplistic style) is Head First Servlets and JSP by Basham, Sierra and Bates. The book makes a specific point of highlighting what will (and won't) be on the J2EE certification.

TBH, you either love or hate the Head First books.

Doug

Re:Back in the day...

[VGPowerlord]

You mean, you didn't get the nasty email from they saying that all your certifications were null and void back in... 2001, I think it was?

I did.

Re:Those who can, do. Those who can't, get certifi

[bluebox_rob]

If anything, there is almost a negative correlation between certification and ability. It's as if people who don't know what they are doing get a certification to offset that minor problem.

Surely that would depend on what certification you are talking about? If someone gets a high score in, for example, the Sun Certified Java Programmer exam, then you at least know that they are familiar with many of the intricacies of the Java language, and a SCJD qualification means that they have written a networked Java system that has been gone through line-by-line by an examiner at Sun. No qualification is a rubber-stamp guarantee that someone will be a good fit for a job, but it can help narrow down the things you need to check for.