web development career questions: pigeonholed by previous experience

Question

I've been doing some LAMP programming for the last six months on contract, and am considering a formal web certification to be considered more seriously for web development positions.

I think I've been pigeonholed with my previous technical expertise- I have 9 years experience with quality assurance/automation, and 3 with cm, and really want to break into web programming.

For someone who has technical experience in other parts of the industry, how do you recommend such a career jump?

I ask the certification question, as I've seen job desc. that require/demand this. I've looked at W3Schools- but after doing serious web development, I see that they only scratch the surface of the details of programming with javascript, php, mysql, and ajax, and don't even get into jquery.

Are there more serious programs for someone who really wants to do this work? Or is it worth it at all professionally to be certified?

thanks much,

-Larry

Answer 1

My advice is to get really good at your work, through side projects and self study. And to do this it is important to generate and sustain passion for it. This will get you into the higher echelons of programmers, and career and jobs will follow as people will actively look to hire you. Certification is only one aspect of showing your skill set.

Answer 2

• If you want to impress a potential employer, work on web dev project (open source, or by yourself), and make the end result available online. I definitely would pay a LOT more attention to actual sample of quality work (especially accompanied by code showing how you did it and some chat about it) than to any cert.

• I have personally never heard of reputable certification in specifically web programming, nor seen one on anyone's resume. Just an anecdote - not like I ever specifically tried to seek that info.

• As noted many times in career development threads on SO, it's far more important for many employers to see that you know the basics of development (algorithms, code development life-cycle, testing methodologies - where you have a definite leg up); and especially communications skills. No amount of certs from dubious or even reputable sources can compare to ability to listen to, comprehend, and explain back the requirements. You can bone up on jQuery at work if needed much easier than communication skills.

UPDATE

• Upon further reflection, to pass HR screening, you may benefit from a token cert. So pick the cheapest/fastest/easiest one possible to obtain (while being still reputable). But as far as technical interviews, good teams would rather get someone showing deep understanding and passion for the topic (and above-mentioned live examples of your excellent work) over a certificate.