Do we really need the CIW Certifications?

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

I'm certainly not a veteran, or have any experience working in the industry, but, it was over a year now that i started asking questions such as yours.
What i gained from these was sound advice that i took on board and realized what i had to do. Advice came from people that are already in the industry ( web design that is), and people who are trying to get in the industry.

Also i got a lot of feedback from the employers that i applied to ( which must be hitting on 40+).
What i realized is that there is two options: Web designer? or Web developer?

If you want to be a designer then it will help to study graphic design applications such as Photoshop, Fireworks, and illustrator. And it will certainly help to have some artistic flair. You will also need to be proficient on (X)HTML, CSS and perhaps javascript? Also PHP is also a good one to know!

If you want to be a developer than you are looking at learning ASP.net, C#, or basically you need to be looking at passing the microsoft certs such as MCAD, MCTS ect. And it will also help to have good logic skills.

I've been searching and applying for work on a lot of job sites such as www.reed.co.uk or www.cwjobs.co.uk and from there I've gained a good understanding of what these companies want. What skills they are asking for ( which i must say, can be a lot!!!!)

Also be aware that you can break down web design if you want. What i mean is...you can concentrate on certain areas such as .... Flash and Actionscript developer, or HTML and CSS coder or graphic designer?
What i realized is that i love using flash and actionscript and i have concentrated on learning them. Good money in the long run to! I am also looking at Flex 2.

Hope this helped? and i wish you all the luck!!

 

Oh man! Ad-blocking software has been detected! :'(

This website is run by the community, for the community... and it needs advertisements in order to keep running. Blocking our ads means your killing our stats!
Please disable your ad-block, or become a premium member to hide all advertisements and this notice.

Hello Nelly,
Thankfully i have read a similiar one of your above posts before in another thread, and DID give you props for it, so was waiting for you to take a stab at this thread too! You did actually help me decide that it was th dsign area i was mor inclined to. I am no good with logic so its the design area for me!lol. THANK YOU so much for the whole breaking down of the web design aspect. The whole do this or that thing, and knowing what to study first and foremost is the key to me. Thanks again, and to others who have helped too!!

 

Hello Nelly,
Thankfully i have read a similiar one of your above posts before in another thread, and DID give you props for it, so was waiting for you to take a stab at this thread too! You did actually help me decide that it was th dsign area i was mor inclined to. I am no good with logic so its the design area for me!lol. THANK YOU so much for the whole breaking down of the web design aspect. The whole do this or that thing, and knowing what to study first and foremost is the key to me. Thanks again, and to others who have helped too!!

 

Ok guys -- a couple of things:

1. Whoever said spell out your CIW credentials is 100% correct.
Most hiring managers in position to bring on a web designer either networking their way into the position by establishing out standing skills, publishing them, trying to build a small freelance business of their own and going to all the right events -- if they're self-taught; or they were classically trained at either university or college [community college if you in the U.S.] with stellar work on an internship. Certification -- they feel [as someone has said] -- is for network admins

2. Public Portfolio, Public Portfolio, Public Portfolio
Deviant art, or wherever, post your portfolio online and constantly work on it. Currently, my design skills still are not good. I work as a Jr. Systems Engineer [VMware], recently re-entered university to finish my undergraduate degree [just completed my CIWv5 Web Foundations Associate Cert -- its apart of my curriculum at WGU >> http://bit.ly/tSPdn ], trying to make Enterprise Architect, Mentor for youth, and volunteer for my church so I don't have as much time as I would like to put into my design skills. But I know that I will have to become good at GIMP, Inkscape, Photoshop, Illustrator and Dreamweaver to name few, if I want that opportunity to even make any real money as a freelance designer. So I will need to put in the work and make headway with my design skills. I have made the investment in money for CBT's but not time, so that has to be my next goal -- carve out some of my EA prep time for Web Design. period. You should do the same.

3. Decide on direction.
Are you trying to become a multimedia producer, and website administrator, a web developer, web designer, or an web architect [essentially, all of the above + Service Oriented Architecture -- highly recommended unless you just LOVE Design work]. For me, the end game is Web Architect, so I will be building development skills along side my design.

4. Finally, consider something that IS in demand to couple with you Design skills
Most employers in the states are pretty greedy and they are looking for the designer/developers. This creates an issue for a lot job seekers in the web space because they have often been taught that the two don't typically reside in the same person. This is my reasoning for advocating Enterprise/Web Architects. When you take on this mindset and prepare with the appropriate credentials, everything becomes about quality, efficient, effective design -- even code. This is a place that having the CIW Master Website Manger shines, because it forces design, development and administrative skills -- Systems Thinking [obviously appealing to me].
But if you take it a step further and add an actual web-focused development skill -- such as the ZCE [Zend Certified Engineer {PHP-based Web AND Object-Oriented Programming}] and bundle something like the LZA [Licensed Zap Architect -- a Service Oriented Architecture certification] you suddenly have a web skillset that can be translated right up to the Enterprise Architect level, or you can focus on delivering great web applications and portals -- you choose. And lets not forget, PHP is the driving force behind a lot of the major CMS applications [Drupal, WordPress, etc.], as well as one of the dominant scripting languages behind Facebook. Tell a perspective employer that you can Architect a solution with great visual design, lightweight code, and taps into [or helps them create] a facebook following, and you will have an entire department laid at your feet, with the salary to match! ;-)


http://bit.ly/T0vxt

 

Being an architect and having design skills are two different skillset's entirely, its like expecting a set designer to be able to operate a movie camera.

Most good designers are arty types, they are not going to be great coders, system integrators, system administrators or infrastructure architects.

Good architects have managerial and client facing skills as well as a techincal background.

A true appreciation of SOA is not something you pick up in five minutes in class.

Most of the architect certifications are not that well known or respected and they tend to be a bit expensive. Few people can really agree what an 'architect' really is or if we should have them.

Generally you are going to be expected to have some development credentials for many of the positions you are talking about.

There are teams of 50-200 developers and architects behind the sites you mention, they have some pretty skilled people, they are not going to bow at your feet because you have a few certs.

Facebook uses HipHop for PHP as standard PHP does not scale to the loads facebook experiences. They have even tweaked parts of the Linux kernel to get extra speed servicing requests.

Most of the CIW certs appear to cover general knowledge that one could learn on the first year of any IT course. There are a couple of more advanced modules but employers don't seem to care. They are likely to just read CIW as CIW foundation and bin your CV.