# Profession with the lowest amount of top-certified people **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 9, 2011, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742 "2011-09-09T17:42:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 7:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742/21 "2011-09-10T07:14:05Z")
MLB baseball team managers. Possessor of my soul. ---
**Author:** ![Namkcalb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c89c15/32.png) [@Namkcalb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Namkcalb)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742/22 "2011-09-10T07:37:10Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > [There are only 6 Grand Master Chefs in all of Europe](http://www.quora.com/Who-and-what-determines-if-someone-is-deemed-a-master-or-grand-master-chef-1/answer/Jonas-M-Luster) I feel so bad misreading it as Master Chief šŸ˜› ---
**Author:** ![Una\_Persson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/una_persson/32/346_2.png) [@Una\_Persson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Una_Persson)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742/23 "2011-09-10T13:31:05Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > About only 20% of people with a B.S. in engineering become licensed Professional Engineers. Itā€™s just not required for most engineering jobs. If you add to this number the enormous number of people with ā€œengineerā€ in their job title who never received an eingeering degree, the percentage would possible be just 1-2%. Itā€™s difficult to find good numbers. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742/24 "2011-09-10T13:51:41Z")
I believe Iā€™ve read somewhere that there are fewer than 100 certified forensic anthropologists in the US. I donā€™t know if that means there are other people working specifically in forensic anthropology as opposed to medical examiners and archaeologists and such who work with bones in a more minor way. ---
**Author:** ![chappachula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d2c977/32.png) [@chappachula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chappachula)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742/25 "2011-09-10T15:43:41Z")
Does soldier count ? There are millions of 'em, but only a couple of generals. Thatā€™s probably the profession with the smallest percentage of ā€œtop-certifiedā€ people. (political commentary ahead: yes, I know that soldiers are professionals, with a lot of certificates. And god bless 'em for doing a good job. But Iā€™m not sure itā€™s the type of job certification that the OP was asking about.) ---
**Author:** ![RaftPeople](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/6f9a4e/32.png) [@RaftPeople](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RaftPeople)\ **Post date:** [September 10, 2011, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742/26 "2011-09-10T18:35:21Z")
> [@RickJay](#): > > They donā€™t sound like ā€œdronesā€ to me, they sound like smart people applying a fairly reasonably screening process. > > HR departments are deluged with resumes; going through all the applications would take more hours than there are in a week. They need to apply basic standards to get the number down to a manageable level. Itā€™s an attempt to deal with the volume - but itā€™s a failed attempt - which means these smart HR people did not analyze the problem and identify the true predictors of a good tech hire. In tech, certs are pretty much useless. They donā€™t actually identify the qualities that make a good tech person - and those qualities are primarily, smart, ability to learn (on your own with little guidance) and flexible problem solving. ---
**Author:** ![Hunter\_Hawk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/50afbb/32.png) [@Hunter\_Hawk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hunter_Hawk)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742/27 "2011-09-11T16:24:15Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > **Saint Cad** : **robert\_columbia** is correct; certification in the software world isnā€™t held in very high esteem among the people who write code, who are more interested in past work or, perhaps, academic achievement such as degrees and work in PhD programs. Things like MCSEs and Cisco certification mainly say you have achieved a (very) minimal competence in some companyā€™s proprietary software, and say even less about your general knowledge than they do about how well you perform in the workplace. > > In the computer science field, top people are going to be PhDs and people held in high esteem in some sub-field despite the fact they lack degrees and certainly lack certification. Counting the second group is going to be challenging. I canā€™t speak to Cisco, but FWIW Microsoft also has more stringent levels of certification such as Microsoft Certified Master and Microsoft Certified Architect. I havenā€™t gone through the training, but I occasionally have need to chat with MCMs (Iā€™m in one of the product groups at MSFT) and theyā€™re pretty sharp folks. There are few enough of them that I think all of them are listed on a single web page. [http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/master.aspx](http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/master.aspx) ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [September 11, 2011, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742/28 "2011-09-11T17:46:37Z")
> [@chappachula](#): > > Does soldier count ? > There are millions of 'em, but only a couple of generals. Thatā€™s probably the profession with the smallest percentage of ā€œtop-certifiedā€ people. > > (political commentary ahead: yes, I know that soldiers are professionals, with a lot of certificates. And god bless 'em for doing a good job. But Iā€™m not sure itā€™s the type of job certification that the OP was asking about.) Interesting thought, but Iā€™m not exactly seeing ranks as the same as a certification. Certainly, ranks can be considered different to job position, so you can have someone with the rank of Colonel whose job in the Army is Principal (what word would be better) of a Basic Training program. Another Colonel could be captain of a bomber. And, I donā€™t think you get a large degree of leeway with regards to when you apply for ā€œcertificationā€ at the highest rank, as itā€™s at least in part driven by the needs of the military - you canā€™t just promote everyone to General just because they ā€œhave what it takesā€ - you promote until you donā€™t need or canā€™t afford any more Generals. E.g. can I, a civilian, show up at the nearest Navy base and say I want to take the Chief Petty Officer certification exam, so that if I ever decide to enlist, I would start as a Chief Petty Officer? I highly doubt it - it doesnā€™t work like that. ---
**Author:** ![mac\_bolan00](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b3f665/32.png) [@mac\_bolan00](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mac_bolan00)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742/29 "2011-09-12T00:13:01Z")
certain medical specializations? just like that epstein guy you often read about at readerā€™s digest (before.) my friend whoā€™s now retired said he was the only qualified child neurologist in the manhattan area. ---
**Author:** ![Cerowyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/82dd89/32.png) [@Cerowyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cerowyn)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742/30 "2011-09-12T01:59:19Z")
Certifications for programmers are eminently useful for subject knowledge. I **absolutely** use them when Iā€™m hiring contractors; I have zero interest in training a contractor, who might otherwise by an astounding developer, in the technology I need them to use. Even when hiring a full-time developer, it can make the difference between two otherwise equally appropriate candidates. ---
**Author:** ![Zakalwe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zakalwe/32/270_2.png) [@Zakalwe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zakalwe)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742/31 "2011-09-12T02:07:01Z")
> [@Barkis\_is\_Willin](#): > > About only 20% of people with a B.S. in engineering become licensed Professional Engineers. Itā€™s just not required for most engineering jobs. Thatā€™s fascinating. I personally know 5 people that I know for a fact have a BS in engineering (I say it that because I may know more that I donā€™t know about - if you follow). 4 of the 5 are PEs. Reply to Cerowyn, glad that works out for you. It never has for me. In my experience, certs are a completly UNreliable indicator of performance. For example, Iā€™ve twice been hired to mentor new PMOs filled with PMPs. I donā€™t have one, but Iā€™ve got a metric boatload of successful project management experience. ---
**Author:** ![SmartAlecCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/67e7ee/32.png) [@SmartAlecCat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmartAlecCat)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2011, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742/32 "2011-09-12T02:10:42Z")
> [@SmartAlecCat](#): > > Last I checked, there were well under 100 board certified feline specialist veterinarians. They usually add a handful a year. My board certified feline specialist veterinarian estimates this at about 80. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/profession-with-the-lowest-amount-of-top-certified-people/595742.md?page=1)