Do Brainbench certifications carry any weight with employers?

Question

Back in 2000, I got a bunch of programming certifications from Brainbench. However, they didn't seem to be doing me any good, and they needed to be renewed every year, so I let them lapse. Recently I've been hearing more about Brainbench, and I've been wondering - do these certifications impress potential employers at all, in 2009? What has been your experience?

Answer 1

I wouldn't think so. I've reviewed hundreds of resumes and don't think I've ever seen Brainbench certifications listed.

Answer 2

I once had to take a Brainbench exam as part of a job application process, but it was a complete joke. I was new to the programming field at the time and it ranked me as an Expert VB developer when I had never written a line of it!

I realize that this is not the same as a certification. But, if the pre-hire test was any indication, I'd say they're worth nothing.

Answer 3

Suggested reading: Paul Graham's After Credentials. Main take-aways: the value of certifications will decrease in parallel with the (supposed) trend toward smaller businesses:

Let's think about what credentials are for. What they are, functionally, is a way of predicting performance. If you could measure actual performance, you wouldn't need them. [...] Large organizations can't do this. But a bunch of small organizations in a market can come close.

Answer 4

The value of these is very slightly above zero. I think what is the more important question is: would you really want to work in a business that heavily leverages these tests, when many many many of the good jobs/employers do not use them.

Bottom line: not mainstream enough to be of any value.

Answer 5

The company that I work for has started using BrainBench to evaluate new job applicants. In addition, it is being used to determine where current employees might need training. As far as I am concerned, the free BrainBench tests are worth taking and if you do well, there is no harm in including it in your resume (you never know which companies out there use it as part of the evaluation process of job applicants).

I dont think BrainBench tests are worth paying for (unless your company is paying for them, then take as many as possible).

As for the quality of questions, it depends on the test and it varies wildly. I found the OO design patterns requiring quite a bit of thinking (but it was also broad in scope - asking questions about Java specific patterns - which irked me as I am a .Net dev). There were other tests, that were pretty useless (system analysis, broad and mind numbing questions).

Bottom line: Useful, as you never know which company you are applying to, might use them. Would I use them as part of hiring process? Sort of yes: I would definitely ignore someone with really low scores, but at the same time wouldn't hire someone just because they had high scores. Also, I personally find the percentile scores are more useful than the actual test score, as it tells you how well the applicant has done in relation to all other test takers. (unfortunately, one issue with BrainBench's implementation is that percentiles are locked at the time a person completes their test. So for the first 1000 or so test takers, the percentile scores could be skewed - lower scoring people will have higher percentile scores and higher scoring people will have lower percentile scores).

Answer 6

In general, programming certifications aren't worth the time and effort required to get them. Real world experience will ALWAYS trump a certification and even degrees from fancy universities in many cases.

However, like degrees from fancy colleges certifications may well help you stand out from the crowd when you're looking for a first or second year job. It shows your prospective employers that you really care about your chosen profession, etc etc. If all things are equal between one noob programmer and another a certification may help push you over the edge.

But, in our field, there still aren't enough people with the skills to fill all the jobs. So, if you're a competent noob you can nearly always find a first year job. After a year or two of experience you'll be golden and certifications won't make much difference.

Answer 7

Like any widely known test, there are always ways to cheat. There seems to be a big market out there, coming mainly from Asia/India, where people are desperate to get hold of exam dumps and the like to cheat in tests. So what does a high score in a test whose questions can be posted on a dodgy web-site really mean? Ask a few tricky questions in an interview or get someone to code something up on the fly, and sort the men out from the boys!

Answer 8

We don't care what certification, degree, experience, job title, etc etc that you have had. If you can not answer our programming questions or write code on the borad during our job interview then you may not be considered.

On the other hand, if you could answer our test questions and could write code on the board then you may be considered.

Our experience shows that candidate with BS in computer science degree are much better programmers than the ones that do not have it. Candidate with MS in computer science in our experience are not that successful as compared to the one with BS in computer science.

This is just my opinion. Your mileage may vary...

Answer 9

Let me comment on Brainbench, Prove-IT and any other "Recruiter Skill Tools", they are worthless and do more harm than good, here's why

Prove-IT, Brainbench and similar recruiting tools

Answer 10

BrainBench certifications are definitely good to have.

Answer 11

be a part of CMM L5 company and have some global certifications including Brainbench , i am think it has the more or less same value from the others. But as on my view if the candidate d'snt have the real time exposure and if he/she have good command on there field then they can servive on the industry .