CNA Or Bust

"Gần mực thì đen, gần đèn thì sáng," so goes the Vietnamese proverb. Translated word for word into English, it means if you are near the ink, you'll be blackened, but if you are close to the light, you'll be bright. The somewhat equivalent English saying is "Tell me the company you keep, I'll tell you what you are."

In the office, some of my colleagues have been getting together to do group study for the CISSP exam. The sample questions that they discuss bore me to sleep, but such is the case with certification exams. A bunch of useless info to be memorized, perhaps never to be used in the future. However, seeing them diligently convening for their weekly meetings has inspired me to make an effort at rallying my other colleagues to study for the Certified NetWare Administrator (CNA). A bunch of us took the prep course in November 2006. The instructor had kindly walked us through the process of applying for a test voucher and our manager gladly approved us all. We had all the materials to study for the cert exam... only if we had the time and the will. Ideally, we should have taken the exam within thirty days of completing the class. The voucher is good for one year, but it turns out the exam itself will be retired on May 31. Supposedly, some newer exam will take its place, perhaps with more questions reflecting the current NetWare state-of-the-art. So, with less than a month to go, I finally made the call to the testing center and obtain a registration number. Next, I plan to study at work during lunch hour over a few days, take the few practice exams that I should have. I will even buy a book just to get a practice exam if I turn out not to have any. I was sure the instructor sent me something before the actual start of the class, I even thought I detached the PDF and kept it on my Mac, because I was aware that my work email is purged every ninety days, except for messages specifically marked as exception. No luck, I searched my Mac hard drive and few flash drives, but the practice exam was nowhere to be found. Oh well, I've written to the instructor just in case he still has the exam. I am also counting on some colleague to still have it.

For now, I've arranged the first group study for next Tuesday. The next one will be Thursday, then so on into a second week. I plan to take the exam on Friday, May 25. It's an ambitious plan, given all regular work, overtime hours to be expected, a review for ATPM.com, and other fun things I do, but I just have to do something about my status. I know that I know much about computers but without any certification, I'm all just talk.

CNA Or Bust!