Think you can master the Zend Framework? Prove it!

To create an industry-wide standard that recognises a developer's expertise in using Zend Framework, Zend announced the new Zend Framework Certification exam in ZendCon 2008. The purpose of the exam is to establish a measure of distinction that employers can use to evaluate prospective employees. The first person in the UK to pass this exam, in December 2008, was John Le Drew from the talented Ibuildings team. We interviewed John to find out what the exam was like.

Getting started

Taking the Zend Framework Certification Training was a new professional milestone for John. Being the main Zend Framework trainer at Ibuildings UK, he felt that taking the exam would be a proof of whether his skills were on the required level and also help him to communicate the different aspects of the exam to trainees who might be interested in getting certified in the future.

There are plenty of online resources available to help you prepare for the exam. John did not use any resources other than the Zend Framework Study Guide. "Reading the book and the manual was sufficient to understand what was required for the exam", he says.

The exam

The actual exam consists of multiple choice questions - similar to the PHP5 certification exam. You need to purchase an exam voucher at zend.com, and register at any of the 300+ Pearson VUE testing centres around the world. The exam covers various topics, such as MVC, forms, database, web services, infrastructure, and so forth. A full list can be obtained at the Zend website. "The things I felt were covered in particular depth were Zend_Form and Zend_Search_Lucene; this felt a bit strange, as especially the latter isn't particularly important in real-life development", John recalls.

Life after certification

Getting certified has several perks to it. You will be added to the Zend Yellow Pages, which is a great way of promoting your skills and expertise, whether you are a representative of a company or a freelancer. You will also be able to use the Certification logo in your website, making it immediately visible to potential visitors. In addition, although the exam itself does not improve your skills per se, most people feel that they've still learnt new things: studying for the exam forces you to deal with topics that you might not have used in your previous development work, and you will need to investigate them a bit further in order to prepare for the exam.

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