112 Chapter Three Staffing Your IT Team ´ ´ accreditation on their re sume . Novell's restructuring of their certification program helped deal with this. It's an interesting commentary that 10­15 years later, having a CNE was considered of minimal value since Novell had lost so much mind and market share. Vendors must monitor their certification programs like the Federal Reserve monitors interest rates to balance between too much and too little growth. Vendors don't want their certification program to be so easy that it has no value or prestige, but at the same time, they don't want the programs to be so hard and elitist that too few people are able to pass the tests. Test-Taking Skills Whether it was in high school, technical school, or at the Department of Motor Vehicles, we all learned that a passed exam only represents knowledge at that particular moment, which may only in itself represent the ability to study prior to the exam. The same can be said of technical certification. If someone is certified, you know what their knowledge set was at the moment they were tested, which could mean they have the ability to study very hard, have a steel-trap memory, or have information that was ingrained during years of experience. While many IT Managers recognize this, many also look for certifi- ´ ´ cations on re sume s. Similarly, many managers looking for programmers prefer indivi- duals with four-year college degrees, even though a college degree may add no value