WARNING! This is a very very long description of the blunders of CertFirst - if you are interested in the summary please scroll to the bottom.
I recently took a new job. Neat. As a part of the assimilation process I was asked to attend a PostgreSQL training course that happened to start a few days after my start. Having been a MySQL ninja for many moons, I was not worried about picking up the semantics of a new open-source relational database.
I was excited, among the published perks included an iPod Touch for each person attending, 5 days straight in Newport Beach, score!
Then the bad news started to roll in. First, my co-worker had informed me that he had paid for this course in January (it was now September) and had been strung along by the management at Certfirst for the last 7 months in scheduling, and rescheduling the course. Nonetheless, I was excited that the course was actually happening and that we would be able to attend - and at the end I would be an expert in PostgreSQL.
Now I should preface all of this with the fact that I have been to a few technical seminars. I have also designed and been the sole presenter at even more (around a dozen) 3-4 day technical seminars around the world focusing on asterisk based telecom systems.
So I show up to the training seminar, with my new Coworker and we sit down in a small room in a rented out office space in a 20 story building near UCI. Not quite Newport Beach, but I am not complaining.
Once in the class we are introduced to the instructor a bit late (30 minutes) and he introduces himself, and the course. This goes on for a good hour, WOW. Now I am all for some history, but the instructors experience in working on Atari computers back before I was born is not exactly relevant to learning PostgreSQL.
At the end of his introduction he informs us of a few quid pro quo’s. First, the manuals have not arrived. There was an elaborate story about shipping requirements and whatnot. Second, the books that we would use as a reference “PostgreSQL” would not arrive until the 3rd day of the course. Again, another elaborate story. Finailly the laptops that were sitting in front of us, that would be used as a test system were non functional. Again, an elaborate story about how the Certfirst HQ is supposed to set them up before they are shipped. The instructor did not have the root password insisted on reinstalling them.
The instructor then announced that he would work through the non-lab required material on the first day, and then spend the end of the first day fixing the laptops so that the second day we could start with the labs. Great.
Then the content begins with “A breif history of time” which includes such nonsense like “Oracle owns MySQL” and “MySQL doesn’t have replication” and “Oracle is a re branded PostgreSQL” ”PostgreSQL will scale to 40 billion rows, no optimization of queries is required, because PostgreSQL will optimize itself on the backend”. This dude is losing credibility, F A S T. He goes on to explain “how file systems work” but in a way that makes no sense, he also attempts to explain the 777 / rwxrwxrwx file permission systems, again with epic failure.
The entire class is lost. The instructor somehow makes the segway into “PostgreSQL architecture” which makes no sense, I am totally and utterly lost. I cannot begin to describe the jumbled mess of what this guy is trying to explain. Somehow we get to lunch time and the instructor points everyone to the nearest cafe.
Now, having attended a bunch of trainings and there is ALWAYS a catered lunch, I mean every time. You don’t pay thousands of dollars and not get a cheapo $10 catered lunch.
Anyways, the class (minus instructor) go down for lunch and we all quickly realize that we are all equally disappointed in this dude. And not just like a little bit. We are all COMPLETELY lost. Me being an optimist (of sorts) I announce that we should give the guy the benefit of the doubt. Having been in similar situations with technology failures in trainings - it is a rough mess that needs to be dug out of carefully, and quickly in order to salvage the course.
After lunch the instructor announces that he is dismissing the class so that he can work on the laptops so that we can begin on the lab-based instructions tomorrow.
!!!!!!!
On my way out for the day I ask for my parking validation. “Oh we don’t validate”. Again, another no-no of training. THOUSANDS of dollars are spent on these courses and they can’t validate parking? Whatever, I talked my way out of paying the $15 parking fee.
The next day (after parking a block away at the Starbucks parking lot) I arrive, on time optimistic that the second day will go better than the first.
It didn’t. The instructor announced that he was unable to get Linux installed on the laptops properly. He couldn’t figure out how to get them installed with SUSE without kernel panicking. He decided to move along (without the books, mind you - as they also have not yet arrived) with the course ad-lib.
At this point I was going to attempt to describe the kind of useless blather that he was teaching, but I will spare you. Lets just put it this way - I did not learn a damn thing out of this portion of the course. He was attempting to explain the authentication multiple authentication mechanisms within PostgreSQL but was failing to communicate it in a way that made any sense. During this presentation I went ahead and read the PostgreSQL documentation and then realized that the instructor had no idea what he was talking about.
After learning basically nothing for the first half of the second day. The instructor then announced that he was cutting the class short around lunchtime. At this point 2 out of the 5 days have been lost. Mid way through the second day - seeing this coming I went ahead and fired off the following email to Certfirst:
Super-Sales-Guy,
We never got a chance to speak directly, but we played phone tag several
times in the weeks leading up to this week’s training. I was excited to get
expert insight into the PostgreSQL Database. My company paid 2 tuition’s and
I am accompanied by my coworker Greg. To put it very lightly, I am extremely
disappointed in the classes performance thus far. Day 1 was spent going over
logistical issues, there was zero substance included in the Day 1 training.
We were sent on our way at around 2:30 when Tom made it clear that he would
be unable to start the class as scheduled due to logistical problems.
Logistical Problems:
* Network access - The network was not setup, this caused a loss of
the ENTIRE day on Day 1. Day 2, the network had not been touched or tested
in the night. I had to personally troubleshoot the problem with the Cert
First equipment, which was a trivial problem with a cable plugged into the
wrong port on the switch. * Laptops - There is 1 less laptop than there are attendees- I am using my personal laptop. This is fine because I have vmware, and Linux already installed. My fellow classmates are not so fortunate.* Laptop Software - The ‘required’ software was not installed on the
laptops. They do not have VMware and Linux setup properly. This means that
my fellow classmates are not able to follow along with the ‘instruction’.
There was no apparent effort on Tom’s part to solve this problem between Day
1 and Day 2. Everything was how we left it on Day 1. There is no working
installation media on site, the (broken) installation Media is being copied
as we speak and I have very little confidence that it will end up working.
Even if it did, Tom’s plan is for us to install the OS for the ENTIRE day.* Late Books - The coursework was not provided on time, instruction
booklets are out of date, and the large 800 page PostgreSQL books were not
here on Day 1. * Projector - The projector does not work properly, Tom is thus
skipping instructional items. Not that anyone in the class could follow
along anyways.Instruction Problems - Today, Instructor actually began some introduction to
PostgreSQL. However, the instruction is disappointingly disorganized and in
some cases, downright false. Some quotes:
* “PostgreSQL will scale to 40 billion rows, no optimization of
queries is required, because PostgreSQL will optimize itself on the backend”
* “MySQL is owned by Oracle”
* “MySQL does not have subselects, triggers or stored procedures”The fumbling, disorganized instruction is more of a distraction than
anything else. Combined with the logistical problems, my attendance here is
utterly useless. I have been forced to read through the (provided at 10am
today) 800 page PostgreSQL book and using my own hardware and software to teach myself this database software.Salesguy, what is the point of coming to a course, paying large sums of money -
that has no apparent value. I have taught at training classes for many
years, on open source and telecom systems. The performance here is something
that you and your company should be ashamed of. Thus far 30% of the course
has been a total waste. Please respond back today with answers to the
following questions:1. What is Cert First going to do to solve these immediate problems to
prevent the course from continuing on the current path?
2. What compensation will myself, and mycompany receive for our
troubles - assuming they are resolved in a timely manner?I feel compelled to warn other people about the poor performance of this
course. Through blogs, mailing lists, and through my personal network unless
these problems can be resolved in an adequate way.I look forward to your reply.
Thanks,
Mike
I did not receive a reply from the sales person. The next day I come into the course to learn that the network is down. Half of the laptops don’t work and mine won’t boot at all. Happily, I know how to use VMware and I installed a fresh copy of CentOS on my laptop. By the 3rd day. The manuals and lab supplemental materials have arrived. To which I have then used to go through the exercises myself , reading out of the book(s) on my VMware. The rest of the class is lost at this point and unable to continue with the course.
I proposed a question at some point during the morning of the 3rd day about replication. The instructor answered (par for the course) in a manner which didn’t make much sense. After a bit of googling this turned into a brainstorming discussion between me and the others in the course. It was great, I had actually learned something!
At lunchtime, I announce to the others in the course that I will not be attending the remaining days. Furthermore, I invited them over to my house where I would be setting up a lab on vmware to continue to go through the exercises. 3 out of 5 of the other classmates took me up on this offer and we spent day on my dining room table learning about PostgreSQL.
The last day of the course, myself nor my colleagues bothered showing up. Instead we simply went into the office to go about our normal workdays. We engaged our legal department to try and retrieve some of the monies wasted on this course.
SUMMARY
Certfirst used bait and switch tactics during the sales process, and failed to deliver a meaningful training course. I left with no useful information other than using Google and reading through the provided “PostgreSQL” book that is a $40 amazon.com buy. Whatever you do, DO NOT ENGAGE THIS COMPANY ANY ANYTHING! You will be wasting 5 days of time, and thousands of dollars would of learned more about PostgreSQL trapped in a hot cave in southeast Asia filled with native cannibals. At least I wouldn’t of been as bored in the cave.
I would be surprised to learn that they had run this course before, and that the instructor / company knows anything about PostgreSQL or anything else that they are teaching for that matter. Let this serve as an official warning to never do business with Cert First or SaiFirst companies. You have been warned!