6/11/2003 -- A very interesting thing happened the other day.

Even though I am in no position to hire anyone, I continuously get resumes sent my way. Whether they come in the form of e-mail attachments, or are delivered by the postman, they all end up in the same round drum. Most of the time, I don't bother to spend much time looking at them, since I don't have any jobs to offer, but something on one caught my eye on one and wouldn't let go. It held my attention and sent my brain for a spin:

There, amidst the alphabet soup appearing beneath certifications, a gentleman listed Wireless+.

My mind raced with questions. Did another vendor pick up this certification and run with it after CompTIA announced they were postponing its creation? If so, what vendor had done so? How had I missed it? Could someone else really use the "plus" at the end of a certification and get away with it; doesn't that violate some trademark or something? Maybe it was CompTIA after all, and I just hadn't been keeping up with the news.

Though there are always plenty of other things to do, I picked up the phone and called the applicant. After the usual introductions needed to assure someone that I am not a solicitor or creditor, I asked about the Wireless+ certification, starting with the vendor behind it.

"CompTIA, the company behind A+," was the reply that came without any hesitation at all.

When I asked about that exam being postponed, and never even going to beta, the first pause came. It was followed by one of the slickest responses I've heard, "When I had my resumes printed up, they were still planning on putting the exam out. Since I've never failed any certification exam, I knew that I would pass it, too, and prematurely I added it to the list."

The explanation was good, but something didn't sound right. When you have business cards printed, you typically print 1,000 or so at a time because of the cost savings. Resumes, however, are often printed in much smaller quantities or just run off on expensive paper one at a time on a LaserJet. I knew coming straight out with a question about this would probably end the conversation rashly, and I wanted to find out more first.

I focused, instead, on the ability to pass every exam the first time out. I told him of my own frustrations, and what a bear I had found the Server+ exam to be. "Yeah," he quickly countered, "I'm planning on taking that one next week." Planning on taking it next week? I guess it was positive thinking that had already put it on the resume as well. Any hopes for continuing a meaningful conversation dissipated when I realized that the resume and the person were both works of fiction.

I hung up the phone with more questions than I had before the call. Can anyone "fake" a certification? Does calling yourself Server+ certified make it so? No one walks around with a copy of their passing score report in their pocket. There is a great deal of talk about those who are paper-certified -- able to pass a test without really knowing the technology well -- but what do you call someone who doesn't even bother to take the test before calling themselves certified: vapor-certified?

I contacted CompTIA and posed the question to them: As an employer, how would I know that a potential job candidate is truly certified if they can't produce a passing score report? The answer came quickly from Terri M. Johnson, certification security manager:

"&The candidate would go to www.comptia.org/careerid. The candidate needs their CompTIA exam score report to log on and to create their login information. The candidate is given steps in order to accomplish the sending of an electronic certification status to a third party&"

I went to the location (which redirects elsewhere), and checked it out. There are a number of things that can be done at the careered page after logging in - such as upgrade contact/demographic information, view your transcript etc. Sure enough, the ability to forward your "validated CompTIA certification credentials to a third party" is there as well. In order do to this, you indeed must have your score report.

I am not sure how many employers know of this ability to have credentials sent to them from CompTIA if the person really has the certification, but I know that all of them should. Without this feature, or without extensively utilizing it during the hiring process, it is all too possible to have fictitious certifications work their way onto a candidate's resume as was done with the one I received. CompTIA has a great thing going here, and until every vendor follows suit, we may be dealing with vapor certifications for a long time to come.