Web Certifications, do they exist?

ve

I have a background in software development, but am branching more and more in to web based stuff. I am involved in a business dealing with web technologies (web design/development, web services, web 2.0, Ajax, Rails, etc). What I would like to know is there any certifications I can go for that will improve my credibility with such technologies.

The only thing that I've come across is the Java (Web Component Developer and Web Services) exams. Are there even any courses, respected certifications for web designers in the 2.0 era.

steve-hosting36

The best way to improve credibility is a decent portfolio of work you have completed.

ve

steve-hosting36 wrote: »

The best way to improve credibility is a decent portfolio of work you have completed.

Yes I would have thought that alright, seems to be quite common amongst the web design community, however web design is not the sole base of my work. For example I may develop web services, reusable web components, web based software applications, along with traditional web sites, ecommerce sollutions, etc. So not all my of my work has a visual representation that I could stick in a portfolio.

Thank you very much for your help, I appreciate it

Sposs

If you wish to provide development work as well , i think a computer science/engineering degree would be the best to have.

ve

Sposs wrote: »

If you wish to provide development work as well , i think a computer science/engineering degree would be the best to have.

I already have a Bachelors & Masters degree in I.T. I'm more reffering to the kind of add-on qualifications I can pursue. The best way I describe what I'm looking for would be...

If you were looking to hire someone for a role that spanned the above techologies what would really make them stand out. I'm not talking a graduate developer, but someone who has their relevant degree(s) + (possibly experience) + certifications. Appologies I didn't make myself clearer initially.

One thing that really sticks out in my mind is the lack of focus on areas such as web based technologies in our colleges and Universities. There are quite a lot of jobs at the moment in the area of ASP.NET, Ajax, Web 2.0, etc stuff. Much more in recent times than there was not that long ago. A lot of application platforms are tending towards the web, and this introduces the need for people who understand how to develop content for multiple browser platforms and devices, to component developers and enterprise architects).

You'd think that someone with a B.Eng or B.Sc. degree in I.T. (or similar) would be sufficient for a web design/developer role, but the amount of people I have met that look down on the art of web development and think that simply installing a copy of Dreamweaver and a quick knowledge of HTML and they're set to go. Maybe 10 years ago many would have gotten away with that idea, but the whole "web based" arena has become much more complex and requires a much greater appreciation and knowledge of a wider range of technologies in order to be successful (and that's just from a technical perspective). Although I do strongly believe that anyone with aforementioned degrees can get in to the area, but shouldn't automatically assume they're qualified to hit the ground running, right off the bat.

The bottom line, I've met too many arrogant people in I.T. who have Bachelor's and Postgraduate degree's and if asked..."can you develop a high quality web site", they look at you like you've just insulted their intelligence. I have the degrees, and I don't think for a second that I'm an expert in this area. I think it may be something that's easier to get started with, but extremely difficult to become and expert on. There seems to still be a inferior stigma associated with web technologies, particularly web design amongst I.T. professionals, however I believe it's just as difficult to become an expert in, as anything else. It is for this very reason I think we have so many businesses around the world (and Ireland very much included) offering services in this area. 90% of them IMO being terrible at what they do. So to not fall in to the same 'ol 90%, if you are amongst the remaining 10%...

what puts you above the rest?

A few years ago I used to find people's attitude towards Visual Basic quite similar. A colleague of mine once said..."Everyone can use VB to quickly produce application prototypes, but I've yet to find anyone who can in all honestly call themselves a Master of VB".

PixelTrawler

Well on the microsoft front there are the MCPD programmes for certification on .net including asp.net so this is in essence web certification.

Theres a forum on IT certification under the EDU tab that may have some useful information

ve

Joebloggs4817 wrote: »

Theres a forum on IT certification under the EDU tab that may have some useful information

Christ on a bike, I hadn't spotted that. Cheers

Mod feel free to move to other board if you feel it fits in better there.

aidan_walsh

ve wrote: »

Christ on a bike, I hadn't spotted that. Cheers

Mod feel free to move to other board if you feel it fits in better there.

As mod of both, fair enough

CuLT

Qualifications are pretty sparse for web-specific development. I'd love to see universities and colleges work on more specialised computing courses rather than going with the - more popular - sub-humanities and sub-arts qualifications.

Ginger

If you are interested in the .NET web certs I can run you through them

ve

Ginger wrote: »

If you are interested in the .NET web certs I can run you through them

Yes I would be very interested in learning more about them. For example...

Which one to start with, and where to progress?

How much value can they bring to my CV?

I hear that the MS certs need to be updated regularly, so does this mean that I must be constantly going through the study/sit exam/certify cycle for them?

Anything else you think that I should know?

Thank you very much for your offer and time, it is greatly appreciated

Ginger

Right I will go through by framework just to make things easier for you... There are currently 3 versions of the .NET framework that you can certify on.

.NET Framework 1.1

There are 2 developer certs using this version. The thing is that they are not specifically aimed at web devs. Tho you can web developer specialties to make up the cert.

The 2 certs are the MCAD and MCSD.NET.

The MCAD is the basic developer certification and the MCSD.NET aimed at the advanced levels.

To get the MCAD you need to take 3 exams, consisting of 2 core and 1 elective. The core exams can be made up of Windows Forms or ASP.NET web appilications and then .NET Web services and XML stuff. The elective can be chosen from a fairly long list.

The MCSD.NET is 2 more exams consisting of 1 design exam and 1 more core exam.

As you can see neither is specifically aimed at web developers, but you can get the MCAD using the Web Applications exam, .NET Web services and say the SQL elective. That is fairly close to the web developer track.

Both are extremely well recognised certifications at this stage as they have been around for ages. Once you have the certifications you dont need to recertify as you have them for life. They dont retire per say, you can always say you are an MCAD or MCSD.NET


.NET Framework 2.0

These certifications come under the new generation of exams and certifications. There are couple of different ones that require different exams to achieve. The difference with the new generation exams is that they are more focused at job role and allow you to specialise in particular technologies easier.

There are 2 certifications types and these are the MCTS and MCPD. The MCTS is the tech specialist certification and is geared at the person that understands the how aspect. The MCPD is the pro developer cert and is geared above the MCTS and is the why aspect if you undertstand me.

There are 3 MCTS certs and 3 corresponding MCPD certs. The one that you would be interested in would be the Web developer track and possibly the distributed applications track.

The MCTS .NET 2.0 Web Applications is as you can guess by the name is geared towards the web applications developer.

To get this you need to take 2 exams which are

• 70-536 .NET Foundation
• 70-528 Web Applications

The 70-536 exam is a common exam and is required for all .NET developer MCTS certifications. Once you have passed it, it covers the requirements for all the certs. IE you only need to pass it once!

The MCPD Web Developer is the high end certification for .NET 2.0 web developers. It is geared at medium to large scale .NET devs, those people developing larger applications on the 2.0 framework.

To get the MCPD you need the MCTS Web Applications and then you need to pass one more exam, which is the pro/design exam 70-547

So you can do it in a two step approach. Get the MCTS and then get the MCPD. In total the MCPD requires just 3 exams to get.

The MCTS .NET Framework 2.0 Distributed Applications is the cert concerned with .NET web services and .NET remoting. It covers things such as WSE 3.0, Web services and .NET remoting. Again you need two exams to achieve it.

• 70-536 .NET Foundation
• 70-529 Web Applications

The MCTS Dist is the most "enterprisey" of the 3 MCTS for .NET. The corresponding MCPD is the MCPD Enterprise Applications Developer. And this requires that you hold the .NET development MCTS (Web, Windows and Dist) and complete 1 more exam so takes 5 exams to do. So for most people is not the best MCTS to start with if you want to get the MCPD certification for it.

These certs are beginning to become more and more recognised. Some of the HR people havent quite caught up with the new letters yet.

As for the refresh, the original thinking was this. That the MCTS would retire and be removed from your transcript when mainstream support for the product ended. And that the MCPD would have to refreshed every three years and if you didnt it would be removed from your transcript. Thankfully this is not the case

Whats happening now is the following and this will apply for all the MCTS and MCPD and MCITP certifications for the future (subject to change!!)

Your MCTS will still retire when mainstream support for the product ends, but it will stay on your transcript as a retired certification. The same is being done for the MCPD, in that you dont have to do a refresh every 3 years, and that it will only retire at the same time as the MCTS. So its not a bad solution. Just means that when MS end mainstream support for the product you are certified on, your certs will also retire, but you will still have them on your transcript.


.NET Framework 3.5

This is the newest full release of the .NET framework. In this incarnation there will be 6 MCTS certifications and 3 MCPD certs.

The 3 of these MCTS certs are currently finished their beta periods and should be released in April.

These will be

• .NET Framework 3.5 Windows Presentation Foundation Applications
• .NET Framework 3.5 Windows Communication Foundation Applications
  
• .NET Framework 3.5 Windows Workflow Foundation Applications
  

There will be 3 others and they have yet to enter their beta periods. But they will be based on ASP.NET, Windows Forms and ADO.NET

To get any of these certs they will be again a 2 exam process.

You will need the 70-536 exam and the corresponding exam for the MCTS. As you can see the same exam for the .NET 2.0 MCTS certs is gonna be used for the .NET 3.5 ones.

What they did was this. Originally it was called, .NET 2.0 Foundation and they renamed it for the .NET Foundation so that it would cover the principles of .NET development and not be version specific. Confusing eh!

So if you complete any of the MCTS exams for .NET 2.0 you will need only 1 exam to get certified on the 3.5 framework. Most people dont know that these certs even exist yet and they are not too much in demand but they will start to become more and more marketable as the technology moves on.


For your own benefit, I would skip certifiying on the 1.1 framework and concentrate on the 2.0 framework.

Best route would be to take the MCTS Web Applications. Do the 70-528 exam first as this is the most applicable and then you can work on the 70-536 exam after that. A lot of people do it the other way round, which means you are doing the tougher exam first. You can see their reasoning as the 536 exam is a common exam and so if they want to change tracks after the first exam they can.

What value do they bring to your CV.. Depends on who is hiring you and what they want to see. Some hiring people dont know what any of these certs are (have even seen a request for CCNA when asking for a dev!) and some do.

In my estimation they show that at some point in time when you did the exam you knew enough to pass it, and by that you must have read or known your stuff to pass it! Some people say that they can add monetary value, which is possible, but more often it gives you the edge to get further in the door than it would if you didnt have them.

Any other q's just ask

Ginger

There are other certifications out there that cover other web technologies

Such as Zend's ZCE

IBM have the Certified Application Developer on WebShere

Adobe have there ACA and ACE programs

Sun have there raft of Java certs as well

There are probably others out there that I am not aware of.

ve

Wow! - Thank you very much for all of that

I had considered going for the Zend PHP 5 exam. Eventhough I use would use PHP quite a bit (still wouldn't consider myself an expert), it's not something you see in high demand. I understand you can develop web services in PHP, etc, but what is it about PHP that practically leaves it unconsidered by larger enterprises as a technology platform?

Are J2EE & .NET the only platforms really being used for enterprise web based systems?

Ginger

ve wrote: »

I understand you can develop web services in PHP, etc, but what is it about PHP that practically leaves it unconsidered by larger enterprises as a technology platform?

Dont ask.. its easier, just smile, nod and back away slowly!!!

ve

Ginger wrote: »

Dont ask.. its easier, just smile, nod and back away slowly!!!

Holy Crap :eek:

I read the whole thing, and was going to post, but decided to leave it in the end

Where around the country can I sit the Zend exam?. I've decided I just want to do it to validate my PHP knowledge (mainly for myself, and to a lesser extent my CV). As my current needs do not demand .NET, I will just keep it in mind.

Ginger

Probably Pearson Vue or Prometric

Ginger

ve wrote: »

Holy Crap :eek:

I read the whole thing, and was going to post, but decided to leave it in the end

Where around the country can I sit the Zend exam?. I've decided I just want to do it to validate my PHP knowledge (mainly for myself, and to a lesser extent my CV). As my current needs do not demand .NET, I will just keep it in mind.

Very sensible indeed (in not posting) and the certification.

As you can see you will need to make you know the standard SQL language rather than MySQL implementation. Just one to watch..

I dont know anyone who has done the Zend exams so I cant even comment on them.

If you do go for, please do drop back and relate your experiences

ve

Ginger wrote: »

If you do go for, please do drop back and relate your experiences

Will do, cheers