Laravel Certifications

Nevermind, I just found this: https://laracasts.com/forum/?p=49-laravel-framework-certification/0

I'm WordPress certified.

In in seriousness, frameworks shouldn't have or need a certification because it's forever changing and it should really mean nothing to employers. If they don't go off your projects, code and your enthusiasm alone, you should look elsewhere.

That's not always true though @bashy. For example, my empolyer no matter how many times I tell him what it is, doesn't even know what github is, wouldn't know what to do with sample code or past projects. My job interview involved maybe 5 minutes of tech talk. They looked at my resume and the certifications that I have.

"you should look elsewhere", they don't go off of your projects, code and enthusiasim alone, is a terrible, terrible, terrible, i can't say it enough, terrible piece of advice.

Employers love certifications, meaningless or not, same as a college degree. My $50,000 and 4 1/2 years ended up being nothing more than a piece of paper, which told me what I already knew, that I am smart.

Not all developers work at traditional it/software firms or in a traditional environment where there is someone who actually knows IT.

If you think certifications do not matter in the hiring process no matter how meaningful they are, you are sadly and grossly mistaken.

I think the argument sways both ways and I think what @dberry mentioned does make a lot of sense.

I recently started at a company here in the UK in July as their only in-house developer after working in a studio of ~3 full time developers.

I remember feeling literally drained of all my technical knowledge when I went for the studio job interview but then when it came to my new position I felt like they wanted to know my deceased pet hamsters blood type rather than what technical languages I can write or implement.

I don't have any technical qualifications and came out of college after 3 months due to wanting to get out there and gaining experience - something which I hold much more valuable than a degree or qualification.

That said if you were going into (for example) a Magento Development position I believe that having the certification would certainly aid you in the application process as it's quite a strict framework with only so many ways of doing certain things, where-as Laravels philosophy is basically 'get out there and make something cool'.

I didn't say anything about it being true, what they require or look at... it was my opinion? :P

@Sam, haha, your hamsters blood-type... I totally get what you are saying though. That's about how my interview went, mostly just questions to see if I would fit in with everyone else.

I do think that a Laravel cert would be tough. It's not like Symfony, Zend, Magento, etc... in that (as of right now) Laravel has a far shorter life-cycle in between major versions and it's namely built on top of other packages (e.g. Symfony) with some really cool layers on top. I see Laravel as a framework in the literal sense, but in my own head I describe it as a the glue that binds together the best packages and practices in modern PHP development.

From that regard (not the stance that certs don't matter) I think getting your Symfony cert, Zend PHP Cert (not the framework), etc... would work just as well.

Side note... I do recommend digging into Symfony specifically the packages that Laravel uses, there is so much there that you can unlock if you know how to use it. I don't know how many times I've duplicated code that was already written in one of the Symfony classes that Laravel uses, simply because I didn't know it was there. Take the time to gander through the vendor folder to see what ammo is under-the-hood.

@bashy 100% true.

If your employer doesn't know what source control is, good luck.

As a freelancer if a prospective client doesn't know/listen during the planning stage I drop them. To many bad experiences and zero empathy from the client.