[thelist] Certification...[OT]

[sales at iibiz.com]

> Potential customers/employers just barely (sometimes) know enough to ask
for a portfolio when it comes to web developers. What they do ask for is
certification...those little important looking pieces of paper that seem to
carry some weight.

Well, I always end up "educating" my potential clients in this regard.  I
always TELL them to check portfolios!  When someone is just getting quotes,
they get such a wide spread of pricing.  And I have a real puuurrrtty piece
of paper hanging on my wall - from IWA (International Webmasters
Association).  It don't mean jack - three years ago, I wrote them a check
for $40 for membership, and they sent me the certification.  But it did
actually land me one project specifically.  The person had read some article
somewhere (this was years ago) that said "any serious web designer should be
a member of IWA", so she was actually only interviewing people who could
prove they were.  *smirk* what a joke.

> Should we, as the cognitive elite of the web, perhaps look into accepting
the social responsibility of doing something about this?

That's cute.  Can we all put that on our business cards?  "Cognitive elite
of the web" - impressive.  I do believe that CIW is trying to position
itself as a parallel to MCSE type certifications, except specifically in the
web arena - that's why they're charging so much.  There's different levels
of certification depending where you think your niche is.  And they are not
tied to any one company, such as Microsoft or Macromedia.  In my classes
they gave us demo versions of everything from FrontPage to Dreamweaver to
Flash to IIS to Homesite.  We explored the uses and restrictions of each as
well as learning basic usage on each.  (Yuck!  I actually had to spend time
with FrontPage!)  There's also a large section on networks, hardware,
routers, etc......zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.........but stuff any designer SHOULD
know.

But bottom line, having taken the courses myself, would I accept that
someone is a great web designer/developer based strictly on if they have a
CIW Certification?  Nope.

Sandy