Hi Experts!
I want to be hp certified first level. I know hp0-091 exam is no longer available. I found three books that claim to cover exam objectives for hp0-095: two from asghar ghori and one from rafeeq rehman. Checked reviews and other info and seems that the 2nd edition from asghar ghori is the best.
Please assist me in making the right decision so I start my preparation.
Rafeeq's book is for HPUX 10.20 and 11i v1.
The new exam deals more with Itanium I believe.
For this reason I'd avoid Rafeeq Rehmen's CSA book.
So the new certification is for 11i v1 or v2
I am always dubious of certification, as I think:
(a) It is used by people to try and show that they know something that they don't have the experience to back up.
(b) It only shows that a person knew it at a point in time (eg. the end of a boot camp).
(c) It is a moneyspinner for the suppliers.
(d) It is a treadmill for the candidate; once you get on you have to stay current.
(e) It shows an inclination to collecting ticks in boxes rather than getting the job done.
I was recently involved in the recruitment of two (well paid) UNIX sys admins, and certification was not a criteria. In fact, we had one cv that was certified to the hilt, and we didn't even interview the candidate.
That is an interesting recruiter's point of view 
...
Prowla, what criteria were used and how did you gauged them ??? 
We did some techie test questions and gauged the responses. The questions were not that involved TBH (eg. how do you manually build a kernel in HP-UX), but they were very revealing.
Ok cool! Ill pay attention not to be too 'pretentious' next time ill send my resume ... :o
This is very uncommon point of view today and I personally think its a very bad advice to tell e person that certifications generally are a negative thing. Certifications are very muched asked for in this day of age when people lie there asses of when writing their CV:s. Certifications are of the same kind as university courses, good merits but it means nothing if it stands alone.
But it all depends on what kind of certification it is. For example Solaris certifications from SUN are better career boosters than a masters degree in computer science (at least in sweden), but internal Solaris "certifications" from a lets say Cap Gemini are generally laughed upon.
But I as most people do share the suspicion towards technicians with loads of certifications. If certifications are to be implementen into the CV, make sure they are of the official kind and have som other sort of backup in the CV.
Certification isn't a bad thing; it proofs at that time, you at least knew something.
More important, it gives non-technical recruiters something to hold on to.
As there are certainly more recruiters without technical knowledge, certification isn't such a bad idea.
Rafeeq's book is a good start - but it does mis some stuff compared to the 095 exam. When experienced, this will not be a problem.
basically, that about sums it up.
In my daily job I do HP-UX admin, MC/ServiceGuard admin, HP Data Protector, HP OpenView Operations for UNIX, Solaris 10, shell scripting, and more, I guess. On top of that, we're bringing VCS and NetBackup into the mix, and probably Linux too. I've also done C and Perl programming. Now, there is no way I could take and maintain certification in all of those, and even if I did, then I wouldn't be able to retain all of the information in my head. So the certification would be essentially meaningless, and any job spec that stipulated it would be unrealistic.
I think that certification may be useful as a tool to try and demonstrate that you are qualified in an area but you don't have the experience to back it up. But an employer would always choose an experienced candidate first.
The most important skill is knowing how to find the answer. ( and it's not "post a question on www.unix.com". 
)
Just so...