[asterisk-biz] Digium certified asterisk professional or CCIE VOIP

[Steve Totaro]

>> Risking tomatoes thrown at me, I'll put my $.02 in here as well.
>>
>> There are, I believe, three components to successful consulting with
>> Asterisk:
>>
>>  1) Experience.  There is no substitute for experience.
>>
>>  2) Involvement.  If you don't know what is going on with the
>> project, and you don't know who is doing new things, you will
>> inevitably fall behind.
>>
>>  3) Certification.  Getting a dCAP certificate is proof of your
>> ability to solve many problems with Asterisk, not just those you've
>> seen before.
>>
>>
>> Experience:
>> Experience teaches you a set of solutions for particular problems, and
>> the process of experience is to move from "not knowing" to "knowing"
>> via being presented with a problem that you have to solve via trial-
>> and-error.  Often these experiences are very deep, meaning that you
>> spend a lot of time learning the intricate behaviors and methods of a
>> certain set of solution components.  This is great, in that it also
>> has byproducts of teaching you what does NOT work along the way which
>> is just as valuable.  There is no substitute for experience.
>>
>> Involvement
>>   Being well-versed in Asterisk requires knowing how the project is
>> proceeding.  Optimally it would involve your contributions back to the
>> project in the form of code, documentation, white papers, testing, bug
>> work, or anything else that allows other people to benefit from your
>> now-growing experiences.  The most successful people using Asterisk,
>> and the ones who get the big jobs handed to them, are the ones who are
>> "community leaders" by virtue of their involvement.
>>   Knowing what is happening in the Asterisk community also implies
>> knowledge of what solutions other people are building in the
>> surrounding ecosystem.  Who is doing what programs for Windows?  Who
>> has a decent log parsing tool?  What is the best device to use for an
>> attendant desk?  All of these questions are asked and answered on a
>> frequent basis on the mailing lists, IRC channels, and other forums.
>> Getting involved gives you relevance, which is REQUIRED to continue in
>> a consultancy business if you wish to be successful.
>>
>> Certification
>>  Getting a dCAP is 100% a good idea, and I'm not saying that just
>> because I work for Digium.  :-)  The certifications get your foot in
>> the door in many companies.  Let's look at it this way, as well: as
>> the number of Asterisk-capable installation and integration shops
>> increases, the number of criteria necessary to compare them against
>> each other becomes more important.  Just like having a good grade
>> point average gets you to the interview step of University
>> applications, so might the dCAP certification get you to the next step
>> of an evaluation process that allows your experience and community
>> involvement to be considered as the next decision factors.
>>   The dCAP certification gives you a broad range of miniature
>> experiences, and the instructor can tell you what does not work.
>> Learn from THEIR experience.  The classes are not expensive, and they
>> are not long, but IMO they provide more than their time/money
>> investment in the actual learning that you do.  You end up not only
>> with the piece of paper, but actual knowledge to go along with it.
>>
>> Summary:
>> If you have a first step you want to take that gives you the most
>> return in the shortest amount of time, get the certification.  Then
>> get involved - write code, author some white papers, put up some
>> demonstration dialplans.  Experience is the end result of involvement,
>> and certification is the first big step you can take and is a bonus
>> for those potential customer companies which deem it higher than some
>> other things.  The combination of these three elements is what will
>> win you business.
>>
>>
>> PS: Everyone who thinks they know a lot about Asterisk should talk to
>> Jared about a few questions on the dCAP test.  There is a lot you
>> probably don't know, and that would take you a while to Google the
>> answers to.  I've talked to a few Asterisk experts who have taken the
>> dCAP and they've all been somewhat surprised at how difficult some of
>> the test questions were, and what they didn't know.  This isn't
>> because Asterisk is difficult; it's because Asterisk is a toolkit, and
>> some methods of combining tools are not always obvious.
>>
>> JT
>>
>>
>> ---
>> John Todd                       email:jtodd at digium.com
>> Digium, Inc. | Asterisk Open Source Community Director
>> 445 Jan Davis Drive NW -  Huntsville AL 35806  -   USA
>> direct: +1-256-428-6083         http://www.digium.com/
>>
>
> I will be getting my FSAP, continue building systems, and stay current
> with experience and offerings of open and closed source solutions.
>
> Thanks,
> Steve T
>

Sorry meant FSCAP.

-- 
Thanks,
Steve Totaro
+18887771888 (Toll Free)
+12409381212 (Cell)
+12024369784 (Skype)