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I have some software engineering background in Java but would like to move towards web development. With no background in web programming I am considering studying for a certification and gain some more knowledge and prepare myself for potential jobs. Can you please advise if there are any certifications worth taking and if passing them gives more value to my resume?

Really appreciate your insight. Thanks!

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5 Answers

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I understand how most people say experience is better, but I understand your position because the same people who want experience over certification are unwilling to hire someone without experience. Experience is good but when you work on a site you have a particular role and many people end up boxed in their view of a particular technology.

I am microsoft certified for several MS technologies including ASP.NET and i'll tell you it's well worth it if you are willing to put in the effort because of how much you learn.

The difficult thing in learning a platform is knowing the libraries and the intricacies of that platform and thats what certification is meant to do. I have seen people with many years experience struggling with relatively simple tasks. In this industry it's important to understand whats relevant to your job and staying upto date in that particular area or else all the experience will not save you. Certification and experience is a killer combination.

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Well I guess no certification won't land you those positions. You'll fill others just as well paid. And you'll be probably surrounded by better developer. I've experienced some Ad catedra developers that didn't provide any useful results. – Robert Koritnik Dec 21 '10 at 15:49
Thank you Duke. Are you aware of more platform independent certifications? – TRoh Dec 21 '10 at 16:34
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Sun Certified Web Component Developer - SCWCD (not sure what the current status is though following the transfer to Oracle)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sun_Certified_Professional

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Thank you Paul. I was thinking about taking SCWCD but it first requires SCJP ( the java certification) and I am already considering taking the java one to refresh my java knowledge. – TRoh Dec 21 '10 at 16:32
up vote 4 down vote

Microsoft's MCPD in ASP.NET

or... did you have a particular technology that you wanted to work with?

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Yep it all depends on the area he/she wants to work. I'd advice to learn Linux first and its shell ;) – Olivier Pons Dec 21 '10 at 10:04
Thank you James! I am still researching about what technologies I should learn. Not sure if coming from java I should pursue JSP and servlets or move to php, python and others. I am also considering more front end technologies such as javascript. – TRoh Dec 21 '10 at 16:30
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In my opinion; your portfolio with the projects you have completed is better then any certificate.

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I second that. Especially for public web applications, having a link to provide, is much better than a certification, in my book. – Nikos Steiakakis Dec 21 '10 at 7:34
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+1 ...Proving real life experience is far more important than certificates, many of which can be obtained by memorizing freely available exam dumps. – Programming Enthusiast Dec 21 '10 at 7:40
+1 I will add "references" to this answer. – user2567 Dec 21 '10 at 8:23
Thank you Ahmet, I would love to gain the experience but I don't have any opportunity to do so. How can I acquire some experience if I am not currently working on any projects? Don't you think that studying for a certification can help me build the fundamental understanding? – TRoh Dec 21 '10 at 16:27
Then just start to read about keystones of web development. At first you have to know what is HTML and then read about JavaScript, you are familiar to java so that will be easy, after that just a little bit CSS for beautifying your design. HTML, JavaScript and CSS are three things you must learn about client-side. When it comes to server-side there are many choices about both servers and languages run on them. With the Java knowledge you can learn Java Server Pages (JSP) easily. – Ahmet Kakıcı Dec 22 '10 at 6:17
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I would consider taking a look at Zend's certification for PHP 5 http://www.zend.com/services/certification/

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Thank you Alberto. – TRoh Dec 21 '10 at 16:31

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