IT Insights Blog — TestOut Continuing Education

One of the greatest minds the world has ever seen once made this observation: “Simplicity is the ultimate form of sophistication.” If Leonardo da Vinci himself could espouse such a mantra and still bestow on the world a dazzling legacy of artworks, inventions and scientific discovery, then it seems safe to say that we ourselves could benefit from spending some time covering the basics.

There are a lot of different reasons to get certified. Many employers offer better pay to employees who enter the workplace with one or more cert, or get one while on the job. And if you're considering a new career direction, then there's no better way to build a new IT skill set, or enhance an existing one. Many (if not most) working professionals, however, also view certification as a tool to directly improve their job performance.

Legendary football coach Vince Lombardi had a passion for reviewing the basics. At the start of every season, he would stand in front of his players, hold up the ball, and say, “Gentlemen, this is a football.” Lombardi would then explain the basics of what a football is and its role in the game. He would follow this up by taking the team onto the field and explaining the out-of-bounds and yard lines and the end zones. Lombardi didn’t think his players were stupid, and he knew what he wasn't telling them anything they didn’t already know. He just strongly believed that having the basics firmly in mind was essential to long-term success.

Have you ever been taking a certification exam, gotten to a question that you couldn't immediately answer, and thought, "OK. So what would this look like on my computer screen?" Maybe you stare at the ceiling for a second, attempting to conjure a mental picture, or close your eyes in concentration. Many of us are kinesthetic learners, meaning that we are most successful at internalizing concepts when we can use a "hands on" approach and go through something step-by-step. It's often far more common, however, that advanced knowledge is presented in a manner that requires us to learn visually, through reading, or auditorily, through listening. If you've ever been to a college lecture hall, or purchased a textbook, then you're likely well acquainted with those approaches. 

Here's something to think about for all of you working IT professionals out there. When is the last time that your manager sent you an urgent e-mail to start the day that was written up sort of like this: Dear Ted, I need you to look into this issue right away and get back to me. Suppose that I have an application whose behavior depends on the environment variable BAR. Which of the following command lines may be used in a bash shell to configure the application?