Any way to find out how many SCMAD are there in the country?

[Chengwei Lee]

If there're a lot of SCMAD around, I guess the cert won't be so valuable already. On the other hand, if the country has very few SCMAD, those certified would be hot stuffs in demand.

So is there a way we can find out how many SCMAD are there around? From Sun? From Prometric?

[Theodore Casser]

Prometric just administers the test for Sun. I imagine they probably would know the answer, but it's not their place to say.

As for Sun, as far as I've seen, they don't give out the information, by and large, as to number of certified persons in any of their paths, so I wouldn't expect them to give out the number of SCMADs.

The value of the exam, I think, isn't diminished by the number that exist. The question I've always had, even since the beta came out, is the awareness of companies in the marketplace of the certification - their perception is what would really determine the value.
[ August 04, 2004: Message edited by: Theodore Casser ]

[Chengwei Lee]

I do agree with you on the perception of companies affecting the value of the certification.

But its a simple case of economics, when the supply of SCMAD far exceeds the demand for it, the value will depreciate & vice versa.

[Theodore Casser]

Originally posted by Cheng Wei Lee:
But its a simple case of economics, when the supply of SCMAD far exceeds the demand for it, the value will depreciate & vice versa.

Respectfully, I have to disagree with you there.

I don't know that it would "depreciate" the value of the SCMAD if there are far more certified professionals than there are jobs requiring it. On the contrary, I think it would then make it a necessity for folks who want to get a J2ME job to either have the certification (or be on the road to it) or have an equivalent level of expreience. If there are a glut of SCMADs in the field, it would simply serve to make those without it stand out in a slightly negative context.

On the other hand, as you're pointing out, if there are far fewer SCMAD certified persons than there are jobs, it makes those individuals stand out, certainly. (For instance, my SCWCD definitely helped with making me stand out when I applied for my current job, which mostly involves JSPs and servlets.) I don't know that the equation works, that fewer SCMADs makes the certification more valuable - extending my example above, I'd hesitate to say that my SCWCD alone made me seem more valuable to my employer when he was hiring, but rather that it was another tool in my arsenal to stand out.

Just my $0.02.