| Author |
What's Your Reason For CIW Certification?
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| hacker 2001-08-01, 10:52 pm |
| Am just curious, what's the reason for people here taking the CIW exam? Personal achievement, vanity, employment, knowledge, value, etc??
Since CIW exams are not as readily recognised as CISCO or Microsoft, and are definitely more expensive in terms of study materials (no Sybex, ExamCram, etc) and exams, perhaps some of you might wanna share some thoughts? | |
| Gareth Leung 2001-08-02, 6:31 am |
| Gain more knowledge from the certs and backup my job.  | |
| hacker 2001-08-02, 8:25 am |
| quote:
Originally posted by Gareth Leung
Gain more knowledge from the certs and backup my job.
Wouldn't an RHCE or a CCNP be better to do that? How about the others? | |
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| For knowledge, career development, exam experience, etc etc
I personally am interested in E-business, web marketing, web security, project management, application programming etc....... I already have some internet/intranet/e-comm knowledge but wanted to back it up with formal training.
This was the only cert that i knew of in this area at the time i started it. I am not really intereated in networking at all, so I don't have as much to choose from. Most of what I want to learn isn't really covered in certs but I thought CIW would develop my basic understanding.
I want to expand my skills with XML, VB, ASP, OOP, DB's, .NET, Flash and most things over the net including both business transactions and document presentation.
The only acknowledged certs in that area are MCSD's and maybe MCDBA. I'm really only doing these to back up my knowledge for when i apply for jobs. I think you would have to be crazy to try and pass MCSD without really trying to learn the languages. By the looks of the curriculum, it would be a lot harder for me than it was to pass my NT MCPs. | |
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| Honestly,
It is for a job,as what is really happening -for me and many others I know- you are a beginner and you have never had a job ,but you have to have at least 2 yrs exp. to get a good job / or be certified which they think mean your good to some extent .
( I know you can be good without cert. ) but that's the way it goes 
so I'm waiting for my first job after finishing this track...
I love web designing and e dev. so I took this track ...
but really for the ecommerce...I took the courses for *Knowledge* .
later -and for knowledge too- I wanna learn asp,xml,jsp... | |
| Gareth Leung 2001-08-02, 11:03 am |
| quote:
Originally posted by hacker
Wouldn't an RHCE or a CCNP be better to do that? How about the others?
Basically, my jobs is somewhat like a webmaster, which mainly maintain & administrate the website. | |
| shareen 2001-08-02, 2:54 pm |
| Hello there,
Well for me It's to learn new skills and although I am already a web designer there is so much I have learn't already. And yes also for the certification of the CIW for jobs that I will be applying for in the future. I am heading overseas next year so this certification will be great. Yes there are Microsoft exams but they are different for people like myself who are not administrators..........I am more of a designer and this course is perfect as it also teaches networking skills. Also the great bonus is that my employers are paying for it. I asked my employers to pay for it as part of my new contract. | |
| hacker 2001-08-02, 5:56 pm |
| I take it that you are still in college or something, or working and studying CIW at the same time? | |
| hacker 2001-08-02, 5:58 pm |
| I guess most people are using the CIW track as a backup for their main certs like CISCO or MCSE, to gain the extra edge.
As far as Web designing goes, there is no other comparable cert except product knowledge like Adobe's ACE and Macromedia's exams or heaven forbid, MOUS for Frontpage!. | |
| hacker 2001-08-02, 6:01 pm |
| Hi Shareen:
Do you already have a job lined up overseas? Where and why overseas? Want to know where Web designer skills are in demand. | |
| fatnuts 2001-08-04, 1:50 pm |
| I want to get a job in web design.
I have already done Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver courses but i think you cant beat knowing all the background stuff that the CIW teaches. | |
| BootData 2001-08-04, 7:24 pm |
| shareen,
your employer is paying?
I envy you 
reasons for me are simple:
1. knowledge
2. professional/reputable cert
3. proof of knowing the stuffs
4. the titles of course 
5. present needs
6. future needs
my present job isn't directly related with web-stuffs, but i've always been fascinated with web-related stuffs.
hoping to get a new line of job (in the same company, though) sometimes soon - web-related hopefully .. | |
| hacker 2001-08-04, 9:51 pm |
| BootData:
I guess most of use are thinking of the benefits, BUT in the future, less so for the Here and Now . | |
| hacker 2001-08-05, 9:39 pm |
| Any other comments from anyone? | |
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| with certs like CIW, impressing a possible employer isn't going to be your first reason to obtain it.
i didn't complete my MCIWD only for future benefits as I think even in the future it may not be recognized like other certs. The CIW programme seems like a cert to prepare you for a certain market rather than specifically concentrate on one technology.
eg. CCNA/P/IE will prep you for working with cisco products and such, but CIW doesn't seem to give you such a focused knowledge on one particular product or technology. Therefore it seems like it can only be a primer for what lies ahead in regard to career development.
I will never regret completeing my ciw cert mainly for the fact that it teaches you details that you wouldn't normally bother learning but are forced to as a requirement for the cert. I believe I will benifit from these small details that you miss during unstructured self study. I probably already have but am now onto my MCSD which i gather will be a lot more invloved.
anyway, thats my 2c + gst ))) | |
| BootData 2001-08-06, 8:14 am |
| ddd,
nicely said | |
| hacker 2001-08-06, 5:36 pm |
| ddd:
Does your employer recognize the CIW certs? Did you receive any benefits, indirectly or directly as a result of the CIW cert? | |
| shareen 2001-08-06, 6:11 pm |
| quote:
Originally posted by fatnuts
I want to get a job in web design.
I have already done Macromedia Flash and Dreamweaver courses but i think you cant beat knowing all the background stuff that the CIW teaches.
You really NEED to know HTML to start with, then comes the cool stuff like flash, javascript etc etc. HTML is the bases of web-design and you need to know it before anything else. You can get by without knowledge of Flash, Dreamweaver and other wysiwyg programmes until you know HTML. | |
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| hacker:
No I haven't received any benefits from my employer. I did get two weeks of annual leave to do my exams, but I would have received those later anyway.
I work for a company that provides mainly online/phone solutions to clients. A lot of our company revolves around its call centre for the largest ISP in Australia. Now if you have ever worked in or near a call centre environment you would realise these people aren't very technical and only interested in management and making it to the top.
I am actually employed as an "Intranet Representative" but receive very little support from my Senior Staff because they are so caught up in cut each other down so they can get to the top.
What I'm trying to say is: The people who are mainly responsible for our Intranet don't know the difference between email and the www. So there is no way they would even understand the concept of CIW or most IT certifications.
Hence, I'm trying (as hard as i can) to move on to greener pastures Somewhere that I actually feel welcome and where I am provided with the right tools to do my job. | |
| hacker 2001-08-06, 9:30 pm |
| ddd:
Great to know that you have a nicely laid out plan: MCSD, M CIW Ent Dev., etc, the REAL toughies .
If you work in the environment as you state, wouldn't a CISCO cert be more appropriate to handle VoIP, ISDN, ATM, etc. type support? | |
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| I dont really want to stay where i am, my ideal position would be with web apps development, e-business, etc etc.......
I think its going to take quite a while to do MCSD and MCIWED... Its just what I like though. I have been playing around with VB with db's and objects and its pretty interesting developing your own programs and needing to figure out your own algorithms etc
There just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day | |
| megageox 2001-08-22, 8:00 pm |
| First off, I'm an instructor in an IT school in Miami. Being a teacher is really a great source of income and provides a lot of free time to work elsewhere (not to mention the benefits of free books). Well, not only is my job paying for my certs, but I get a 10% raise also.
ACICS (accredidation) also "requires" IT instructors to either have a bachelors degree or be certified. CIW is wonderful!
Is that a good enough reason? | |
| Flem26 2001-08-22, 8:17 pm |
| I've falling into this particular certification for a number of reasons. I am interested in E-business, web marketing, web security, project management, application programming and the like.
I have a Bachelors in Advertising/PR, and I work as a web designer for a small business in my town. I'm all about versatility. And challenges. Prove to the masses that you can do it all. Or least some of it all . . . | |
| Sotet 2001-08-22, 11:33 pm |
| I thought certs would look good WITH experience.
I originally sought MCSE back in 97, but didn't take the tests and got another tech job anyway mostly working on NT.
My natural inclination is art, so I am now learning Photoshop THRU and THROUGH, I can only "get by" in it.
I want to get more in design and out of web server support. I have mostly worked on Windows and some Unix. (forgot lots of Unix)
Anyway, without studying, I get about 60-70% on practice tests, but haven't taken the plunge. ...need to while it is still fresh...
I have been trying to learn Frontpage 2002 inside and out and FP is abominable for an advanced webmaster. So buggy!!!!! | |
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| the general consensus is that there aren't any questions on the exam for apps..... (ie. Frontpage)
are you doing the cert21 practice exams? doing them a few times should get you ready to pass the foundations | |
| hacker 2001-08-23, 12:48 am |
| quote:
Originally posted by Sotet
I have been trying to learn Frontpage 2002 inside and out and FP is abominable for an advanced webmaster. So buggy!!!!!
FP is truly an abomination... puts in too much M$ code that you don't need. Dreamweaver, Namo, Coffecup, UltraEdit, etc much better.
Sorry it this is in the wrong thread, just my 2 cents worth . | |
| RBrugger 2001-08-23, 10:09 am |
| Hi folks, I'm going after the CIW cert. so that I would have something on my resume that say's that not only am I committed to this field of work but I also have a measurable level of expertise. I don't have any degrees or employment experience in this field so I'm hoping the CIW cert will show my intention.
You can see some of my web work at: http://www.rbwebs.com | |
| dcoursen 2001-08-23, 3:07 pm |
| Mine is kinda long story but in a nutshell, I saw an add for this class then did some investigtion. I found out that CIW is going to be a standard that employers look for on resumes in the future. When I looked at what was being taught it had all of the programs that I have seen in the want adds (DreamWeaver, Flash, FrontPage etc.) So I signed up, and now I am half-way through my certification. | |
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| Nice start on your site
Like the javascript mouse overs.
Using Dreamweaver or handcoding?
((I know off-topic))
Stay away from FrontPage unless that is all you have. I actually use Frontpage, but I FTP files and do not use frontpagee extensions.
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IMHO, I think certification can help to some degree when you haven't worked yet in the industry and you have not college degrees.
A technical forum which may be helpful for site designers (even if it centered aroudn search engines) is webmasterworld.com | |
| Drummer 2001-08-23, 4:33 pm |
| I'm a career changer. I started out in TV production, got sick of it, started dabbling in web design for fun and decided that's what I wanted to do. The company I've been taking my classes through wanted me to do both the Design track and the Administrator track. I've had to pay for both tracks but this company has already agreed to hire me when I'm done with Administrator. They gave me a hire letter before I took my first class. | |
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| What do you guys think are the 'up-and-coming' technologies for web applications? Like what study would you suggest if I wanted to get into web apps?
Obviously you need DB, scripting, etc etc
any suggestions would be much appreciated!
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| hacker 2001-08-23, 6:54 pm |
| From what I've seen, there are really two camps that are hot, though it is humanly possible to get everything under one's belt:
(1) Linux/PHP/Perl/mySQL/PostGre.
(2) Windows/ASP/MSSQL/.NET.
The rest are usually optional for either camp, Oracle, Java, etc.
Just look at the number of scripts being produced at www.hotscripts.com . Take a look at the survey results to your question.
My $0.02 worth. | |
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| (1) Linux/PHP/Perl/mySQL/PostGre.
(2) Windows/ASP/MSSQL/.NET.
Right on the mark, hacker! they line up by category, too.
M$ vs. Open Source....
pros and cons to all. There is some middle ware stuff such as XML which is independent of these platforms... | |
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| do companies ever use anything but windows as the platform for the end user?
im not really educated about *nix and have always used MS products, thats why I am interested in whether linux is only used for the backend.........
thanx for the info guyz.......
also what do they use for programming on *nix platforms? | |
| Sotet 2001-08-23, 10:03 pm |
| >do companies ever use anything but windows >as the platform for the end user?
gummits usually are the ones to have NON -Windows OSes, but they are few and far in between: I have seen: OS/2, AS400 (terminal for end user) Unis use Macs and such. Most things ARE windows for End user by far.
For corporations, I'd say 95% is Windows. Unix is more backend, not user end.
>also what do they use for programming on >*nix platforms?
PHP, Perl, CGI, Python, SSI, and Cold Fusion
********
found on usenet today (not related to this =)) a geek funny:
ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI! | |
| hacker 2001-08-24, 1:48 am |
| I guess it's hard for anyone to deny that Windoze rules the desktop. In fact, just as I was getting comfortable with Gnome 1.4/Ximian/Enlightenment and KDE 2.0.1 running Redhat 7.1 and SUSE 7.2, guess what, XP! I'm using Build 2505 and it really is so cool, way too cool.
I mean, do you really want to use StarOffice when there's Word, Excel, Project, Visio and tonnes of apps out there.
*nix rules the server market and they are going for the desktop. M$ owns the desktop and it wants the server market.
For the time being, best to use *nix for back end and M$ for frontend . |
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