[thelist] HTML Certification

Barney Carroll barney.carroll at gmail.com
Fri May 8 16:51:28 CDT 2009


In my experience the best way to put it is to describe yourself as an
expert on front-end technologies, a hand-coder of all the relevant
languages and fully familiar with the major IDEs, and then when it
comes to interview/phone conversation tell them to look at your
site(s), put it through the w3 validator, run automated accessibility
tests on it for WAI etc. IF NEED BE. It may be they aren't at all
interested in that kind of superficiality, while others are really
impressed by stuff like that. Extra points for front-end developers go
for understanding of back-end environments (ASP/PHP/Python/Java,
Zend/Zope/.NET/SQL etc), familiarity with scrum, extreme programming,
versioning working process, unix command line, etc.

The truth is everybody's definition of expertise on these technologies
differs wildly. For instance many people praise valid CSS and see
invalid CSS as a critical failure, while I see people capable of using
invalid CSS to guarantee cross-browser performance as far more
clued-up. Just as sometimes the people responsible for your potential
job will be lead developers wanting to know how your code philosophy
fits in with their own, and other times you will have a
business-owner, HR agent or project manager reading through your
resume and they will just want to see tick-boxes and the words
'brilliant at interwebs'. Keep it concise and list the technologies
you feel confident with, and save the rest for the interview/covering
letter depending on what the job spec asks for.

Honestly speaking though, certification is something I wouldn't trust
in this environment. Qualifications for coding ability, especially for
front-enders, are null and void seeing as 'the book' evolves faster
than it can be written. For you to be credible as an expert, you
should be proud of abilities that aren't yet formalized.

Regards,
Barney Carroll
Web designer & front-end developer

web: www.clickwork.net

mobile: +44 (0) 7594 506 381
home: +44 (0) 118 975 0020

twitter: @barneycarroll



2009/5/8 Ran Mano <rm at manointeractive.com>:
> I will be starting a job search later on in 2009. I've been self-employed for several years and am revising my resume. Can anyone recommend HTML/XHTML/CSS/Usability certification. I have a lot of experience (dating back to 1994), but no formal training. What about w3schools.com/cert ?
>
> What do employers and HR departments look for? Any recommendations?
>
> Thanks,
> RM
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