icon33 Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Does any one know if W3Schools PHP Certificates are Valid? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trq Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Valid for what? I would be more inclined to go with a more reputable company like Zend. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Of course they're valid. I can give you a certificate as well if you give me some money. I won't guarantee that you get any recognition for it though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vermillion Posted February 23, 2009 Share Posted February 23, 2009 Of course they're valid. I can give you a certificate as well if you give me some money. I won't guarantee that you get any recognition for it though. Well, a certificate is a certificate one, right? I guess the Zend one is powerful, but wouldn't having more of them give you more chances at the time of getting a job? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aniesh82 Posted February 24, 2009 Share Posted February 24, 2009 Of course they're valid. I can give you a certificate as well if you give me some money. I won't guarantee that you get any recognition for it though. I also agree with this statement. Zend certification is there and is globally recognized. Then why u are thinking about another one without any guarantee? People are like this. They are not ready to accept anything.. always need new things .. and wandering.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
waynewex Posted February 28, 2009 Share Posted February 28, 2009 Of course they're valid. I can give you a certificate as well if you give me some money. I won't guarantee that you get any recognition for it though. I also agree with this statement. Zend certification is there and is globally recognized. Then why u are thinking about another one without any guarantee? People are like this. They are not ready to accept anything.. always need new things .. and wandering.. Profound. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted February 28, 2009 Share Posted February 28, 2009 The point of certificates and degrees and all those other pieces of paper you get from schools and colleges and companies is that employers can look at it and know someone out there who is well established vouches that you can do whatever that piece of paper says. I can make my own site and setup a test and at the end of it, hand out a certificate if someone passes my test. I can make the testing process no less secure than anybody else out there, etc.. but if nobody knows who I am, why should they care whether I back someone or not? It is not a matter of validity but a matter of reputability. The Zend certification is the most reputable certification out there right now, because the people who created php, also created Zend. Who can more reliably vouch that someone is good enough at php, than the people who wrote the language and are the ones most responsible for pushing it forward? That does not mean that the Zend certification is the only certificate out there, or that it is or will ever be the only reputable/recognized one. But it's all relative. Even the Zend certification doesn't mean a whole lot. Technology is constantly changing. Software is constantly changing. Procedures are constantly changing. Having a good paper trail to point to for potential employers and clients still trumps any certificate offered, when it comes to this stuff, unless you are looking for a more traditional job like Network Admin or something else that would expect real college time anyways. Going through the exams and getting yourself certified certainly won't hurt your chances of getting a job or clients. But as it stands right now, it simply doesn't mean a whole lot. Let me let you in on a secret: you will learn a lot more by getting involved in a learning community like phpfreaks than any certification out there. Helping out answering questions in the help forums gives you actual experience, not just reading theory from books. You put yourself in the position of figuring out how to solve something for yourself, instead of the person asking for help. This teaches you the detective skills you need for tracking down bugs, reading the finer print of the manuals, etc... The more you help, the more visible you become, not only to the community, but to everybody else. Here is part of my actual resume: phpfreaks.com Staff Member, 01.04 - present • Volunteer work for a community dedicated to helping aspiring web developers learn php related coding practices and procedures, and offering free tech support for php related issues. Someone has a problem, we try to answer it. • As a staff member, My additional responsibilities include forum moderation and administration, and writing web development related tutorials, blogs and articles. • I have contributed over 7,500 posts and almost 1,500 hours to directly or indirectly helping members with their issues, as well as helping to shape and grow the community. In addition, I have written several tutorials for phpfreaks.com, teaching programmers some of the most common tasks associated with web development. That is a verifiable paper trail of real world problem solving and knowledge put to practical use that any potential client or employer can look at and see for themselves what I am capable of doing. You're damn right I have that on there. And how do I know that that's just as good as any certificate, if not better? I have no certifications in anything. Yet I get clients on a regular basis that come from here. People who I've helped on the forums come and ask me to do paid work from them. People see my freelance post in the freelance section and I stand out from the other people. I was approached by a pretty large company with a lot of big name clients a couple weeks ago that has contracted me to work x amount of hours a month for them. I even got a nifty title out of it: Implementation Analyst. Makes me sound vastly important, eh? Haha I know that's a lot of horn tooting but I'm just mentioning to point out that if you're goal is to gain credibility for potential clients/employers, just going around grabbing certificates might help, and it certainly won't hurt anything (except maybe your pocketbook), but in my experience, the best "college" you can go to is a decent learning community and making yourself a part of it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Philip Posted February 28, 2009 Share Posted February 28, 2009 I have to agree with CV on this one. Honestly, I've learned more here by helping than by asking questions. Maybe it's just me, but when someone asks a question and I don't know the answer I'll either go and try to solve it, or see what the reply is and try it myself. If you're going with a certification - w3schools is known, but for beginner stuff, not for the advanced like zend. (IMO) that's a lot of horn tooting When don't you toot your horn Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daniel0 Posted February 28, 2009 Share Posted February 28, 2009 Maybe it's just me, but when someone asks a question and I don't know the answer I'll either go and try to solve it, or see what the reply is and try it myself. I believe this is often the case. There have been some problems presented in some topics that I genuinely found interesting, and that made me research the topic and sometimes write small scripts that I thought were pretty neat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
.josh Posted February 28, 2009 Share Posted February 28, 2009 that's a lot of horn tooting When don't you toot your horn At least I admit when I play off-key. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vermillion Posted March 1, 2009 Share Posted March 1, 2009 Maybe it's just me, but when someone asks a question and I don't know the answer I'll either go and try to solve it, or see what the reply is and try it myself. I believe this is often the case. There have been some problems presented in some topics that I genuinely found interesting, and that made me research the topic and sometimes write small scripts that I thought were pretty neat. Same here. I just saw someone asking about selecting just one field in a SQL query, and since I didn't know, I did some research, to see if I use that in the future. You learn more by helping and by receiving teachings from fellow members. That's how I learned PHP, pretty much. I just read one book to get started, but I got the advanced knowledge from other members. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
redarrow Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 You can do a php collage course, free if in london. worth £3.000 You can also do a php online course. Does not matter what course you do, does not mean your a good php programmer, Anyone that got any cert, dose not mean there a good programmer that rubish. Cert's mean crap, unless nedding a job via a offce 9-5. A person that provides a good web site profile, with proven work for client's, shows there worvy, as a php programmer. Word by mouth is the best way foward, in php programming. To many copy and past programmers now. most real programmers do it for fun and then get asked from time to time to help/ design peoples projects no cert better then that. Even the zend cert can be tricked,there are programs that emalate the zend exam, the programs are updated from those that take the exam. so is a cert well worth the cost? sorry for my spelling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trq Posted March 3, 2009 Share Posted March 3, 2009 sorry for my spelling. The forum software has a spell checker built in, are you sorry you missed that button too? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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