Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Certification

I've finally decided to go ahead and take the R6 update exam... 5 years after getting my R5 certification. I know that certification really doesn't mean much to most companies, despite the CLP salary survey that says otherwise. But for me, it's like having a bit of Stuart Smalley on my cube wall. "I'm good enough, I'm smart enough, and gosh darn it, people like me." All this for a measly $125 and a lost Saturday morning...

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Good luck on your R5 to upgrade R6 exam :)

I just did mine in LotuSphere 2005 in January.
It was pretty easy, even though it was Principal CLP R5 to R6 Certified Advanced Application Developer upgrade, but I learned a few new things about R6 while going through the practice tests.
Colored view entries was the most interesting thing for me :P

My tactics to pass the real exam is always to repeat the practice tests until I get 3 success passes in a row, I think I failed one practice test, so I had to do 4 practice tests in a row.

The average CLP (PCLP) salary is also a good motivation for me, and that's why I value the Diplomas a lot. Also when we hire some developers, the first thing I ask is that if they have Principal CLP (CAAD) exams done. If not, I am very suspicious about their quality of work.

Esther said...

Thanks, Mika. I actually took my exam a few weeks ago, and passed with a much better score than I expected. Mine was also the upgrade exam, but we still have people on R5 so I haven't been able to use many of the new features.

I did use SelfTestSoftware's practice test for several months beforehand, and obviously it worked, although I still don't feel like I really understand some of the features I haven't actually used yet, like the data connections.

I like to keep my certifications up-to-date, although I don't think my company or any in the Midwest for that matter really pay what you see in the Lotus salary survey. I don't know anyone personally who makes that much, but it's nice to dream! The certifications don't really seem to mean much around here - when I was in consulting, no one cared, and certainly no one does now that I work in-house. There are a few other developers here who haven't taken an exam since 4.6, and some have never taken any kind of certification. I think a lot of companies think certification is easy to get, and it really kind of is. I don't know that I equate my passing with the quality of my work. (Now, if I ever get my Java certification, that's something I'll be proud of!)

Anonymous said...

Come on, do the Principal test too, or Advanced in R6+.
If you passed the normal CLP test so easily, I know you can get the best grade too :)
Principal (Advanced) vs normal CLP (CAD) is basically nothing else than knowing how to solve problems in real life applications, and improvising a bit with LotusScript.
I'm actually planning to do a CAAD to CSAD upgrade too, not IBM acknowedledged of course, and it's free of charge, just to see who are really capable to solve real life problems in ND where the manual ends.

Esther said...

I automatically received the Advanced certification since my R5 certification was Principal.

Anonymous said...

Ah, excellent!