Hi everyone,

 

i have been/will be studying the following languages/programs and was wondering if anyone can suggest some good recognised certificates or qualifications:

 

XHTML

CSS

Photoshop

PHP

Flash

 

 

Dont really want to go for a full design degree, but alot of jobs want that, so am trying to add something else than just a portfolio if i go for a fulltime jobs.

 

Reaper

The best qualification is experience IMHO

Every freelance contract and full-time job I've got in the 10 years that I've been in this business has been on the back of my portfolio and the ability to talk intelligently about it. I have no web design or development qualifications whatsoever, and I wouldn't even know what they are, let alone where I should go to get them...

I can't advise on qualifications I'm afraid, but as the others have mentioned, experience counts for an awful lot. My personal opinion is that qualifications in those sort of subjects show you can get 70% on a prometric test, but give no indication of how you can benefit a business.

 

It depends on the sort of role you want as well. Someone that can bang out a bit of code are ten-a-penny (or cheaper for logo design) in Asia, and they are all over anywhere on the internet you might look for work like a rash.

 

If you're looking at providing a service, you need to look for the 'added value' you can bring to a job - business experience, local or market knowledge, analysing company goals and how a website can help achieve them, etc. You really need to offer value for money rather than being cheap to compete. You will be dealing with businessmen who want to hear how the money they give you will benefit their business. A certificate in a specific programming language will not do that.

 

If you're looking for working for a bigger company as an employee, then it's really a case of experience and portfolio, or a relevant degree (which might go somewhere to giving you that). Everyone and their Dad's mate's Nephew is a 'Web Designer' these days and it's a hirer's market. If you're working for them as a freelancer, then your experience and portfolio will be more important.

 

I wouldn't discount getting qualifications in the subjects you mentioned, but I don't know what they are, and I doubt a potential client will give them much thought - they just want to see you can do the job, they can get on with you as a person, and you can bring benefit to their business.

 

Having said that, it depends what the exam includes. If a course in PHP/MySQL will also teach you good analysis techniques, program design, database design and normalisation, etc., the personal benefits of studying these concepts will possibly outweigh the the benefits of having the piece of paper. You will know them and be able to apply them to other things.

 

OK, I've got IT (professional and conceptual, rather than specific technologies) and design qualifications behind me, and have years of business experience. If I wanted to spend time passing an exam right now, I would be more inclined for one in marketing to demonstrate I could apply my skills to promoting a company, which is largely what this job is about. (And I would get to learn all the buzz-words clients might want to hear too!)

There is a qualification you can obtain for the web design industry, it's called Certified Internet Webmaster (CIW). I spent just under two years studying CIW and after passing my second exam, i realized that a cert in this industry means naff all!

 

I can tell you that the study material is pretty basic and the exams ain't that hard. Then again that was over a year ago that i took my last exam, things may have changed?

 

And also if you like flash then there's the Adobe Certified Expert (ACE) certification you can take. I wouldn't recommend either. I wasted months trying to pass an exam that would eventually give me a worthless piece of paper that didn't mean anything to anybody except yourself. In the end it was a personal goal.

 

Everybody will tell you that a good portfolio would get you where you want to be, not certificates, not in this industry anyway!

Buy yourself a couple of books, sign up to http://www.lynda.com and sit down in front of your Computer and practice, practice, practice!

 

I recommend these books:

 

"Foundation Website Creation with CSS, XHTML, and JavaScript" ISBN: 9781430209911

 

"CSS: the missing manual" ISBN: 978-0596526870

 

These should get you started.

 

- Neil

im studying CIW too...Its over £3000 and after what everyone is saying im thinkin of cancelling it as i dont want to waste that kind of muny.

 

and yes...like neilp said - you learn the basics and it even shows you deprecated xhtml tags.

also, it teaches me IE and netscape!!

 

so i may cut my losses now....

 

*JUST READ THE AGREEMENT AND I CANNOT CANCEL AFTER 7 DAYS!!*