Welcome to my first installment as a LinuxWorld Magazine writer. I'm taking over from my colleague Rob Jones and I hope to continue on the same track of providing information on certifications, as well as discussing the nuances in the Linux/Open Source recruiting landscape.
For this article, I decided to focus on one of the relatively new Open Source certifications that are permeating the marketplace: the ZCE, or Zend Certified Engineer, based on the popular PHP language from Zend, the PHP company. As the use of PHP in the enterprise grows, it's only natural that certification go along with it, as with ZCE.
Since it's less than a year old, I decided to take a different approach than in the past. I figured it would be best to go directly to the source of the most accurate information on it and its relevance in the marketplace. So I did a brief e-mail interview with Daniel Kushner, director of education at Zend.
LWM: How long has the exam been in existence?
DK: Since July 26, 2004. We launched the program at OSCON 2004.
LWM: What is the number of ZCEs now?
DK: Around 400. There's a high rate of adoption in the enterprise that's starting to use the Zend PHP Certification in the recruitment process.
LWM: What is their breakdown of location? How many in the U.S., Europe, etc?
DK: Back-of-the-envelope calculations would be approximately 40% U.S., 45% Europe, and 15% ROW.
LWM: What is the pass rate of the people that take the exam?
DK: Around 85%. This number is dropping as we emerge out of the early adopter stage. I expect it to reach 80% and then level off.
LWM: What is the amount of experience that you recommend for someone looking to take the exam?
DK: At least a year of daily PHP development. The exam tests real-world experience. Books, training, and cramming aren't enough to pass the exam and can't replace hands-on.
LWM: Do you advise people to buy the study guide?
DK: Definitely. Not only as a study guide, but to learn the important elements in the PHP language that you might not use on a daily basis or don't know about. This is what I hear again and again from professional PHP developers.
LWM: Do you happen to have any data that suggests the difference in salaries for people with the certification as opposed to without it?
DK: I don't have specific data, but on a recent survey I did with current ZCEs, at least 25% noticed a salary/revenue increase directly related to the Zend PHP Certification.
LWM: Is it strictly a multiple-choice exam? If not, what else is involved?
DK: On the multiple-choice questions we specify the number of correct answers. So, for example, if there's a question where three choices are correct, the candidates will be specifically asked to mark three answers. There are about 12% open-text questions. These are usually one-four word answers that are graded automatically by the testing engine. Open-text questions are normally about function names, code output, and variable types.
LWM: Where is the exam administered?
DK: Zend partnered with Pearson VUE to deliver the Zend PHP Certification at 8,000 test centers worldwide. Using a secure, reliable, and high-performance infrastructure, VUE handles most test delivery. We also provide paper-based exams at various conferences. Upcoming conferences would be php|works (www.phparch.com/phpworks/), and the Zend PHP Conference (http://zend.kbconferences.com/).
LWM: Do you plan on having any follow-on certification to the ZCE? Perhaps something that would encompass other parts of the LAMP stack?
DK: We're currently discussing the possibility of an advanced-level certification. This would be a natural extension of the current certification program. With regard to a LAMP stack certification, there are other entities that are looking into this. I'm in contact with them, and the Zend PHP Certification will the "P" in LAMP.
As a result of being able to get much of the core information about the ZCE, we wanted to go "to the street" to get the viewpoint of a company that has compensated its employees to get the ZCE. I wanted to find out firsthand why this company felt that it was necessary to have its developers obtain this certification. Gregory Stoltz, CTO of Direct Response Technologies, was kind enough to take time out of his schedule to have an e-mail chat with us about why it's so important. This is what he told us:
LWM: Could you tell me about your work/development environment and why the Zend certification was important?
GS: Our company provides a number of hosted solutions to our clients. All of these solutions are built on a solid LAMP platform and PHP is at the core of all of the software we create and support. Our company has had large-scale PHP-based applications in production for over eight years and having a qualified and motivated team is vital to our success.
LWM: When and why did you decide to get your employees Zend certified?
GS: Two reasons:
- To demonstrate to our employees that we are committed to their continued growth and professional development. Achieving a certification regardless of the particular technology area helps to build a sense of confidence and provides the employee with a tangible accomplishment that he can take with him should he decide to leave.
- To demonstrate to our clients and our non-development employees that our development team has the skills and abilities required to support them. It's difficult for non-technical people to really understand whether a particular programmer knows what he's doing or not, particularly when working in the context of a large and growing team. Certifications help to demonstrate competence.
GS: Nothing that I would attribute to the certification specifically. Our team is constantly evolving and experimenting with new approaches to tackle the challenges we face. Our team is talented and experienced. The certification was one objective method of validating our belief in its capabilities. Each and every member of the team has taken and passed the certification exam but they joined the team with some background in PHP.
LWM: How would you rate it in comparison to other certification programs that you have sponsored employees for in the past?
GS: The Zend certification is the first certification program that Direct Response Technologies has formally supported. In past roles, I've had members of my team seek other certifications like the Novell CNE or Microsoft or Red Hat certifications. Those certifications comprise more than a single test and are more difficult to attain. Zend certification is a single test that takes less than an hour to complete. It certainly helps having some real-world PHP development experience prior to preparing for the test. However, it is just a single test.
LWM: Would you as a company/manager do it again? Future hires?
GS: Yes, we'll certainly continue to support certification. In fact two team members took and passed the exam last week and all future team members will know from the start that they will be expected to achieve the same goal. We're also going encourage all of our team members to achieve the MySQL professional certification.
LWM: What were the employees' thoughts on getting certified?
GS: The members of the team were universally excited about the certification. They all studied hard, coached each other, and many scheduled their exams for the same day. Not a single member of the team expressed any reservations. Some of the team members who took the test later in the process expressed some nervousness over the results not wanting to get shown up by their peers but were nonetheless excited to participate.
LWM: What were some of the comments about the exam itself (easy/hard)?
GS: Most found the test acceptably challenging. There were some comments about some of the questions being outside of the scope of PHP development. However, those questions were relevant to the skills being tested.
To complete the puzzle, we wanted to get insight from a current ZCE on his/her experience after getting this certification. For this we turned to Marcus Whitney, chief Architect of MyEmma.com. He offered us this insight on why he believed it was so important for him to get his ZCE:
LWM: Could you tell me about your work/development environment and why the Zend certification was important?
MW: It was important to establish a standard here for new employees that we only hire the best PHP professionals. I couldn't demand others be ZCEs if I wasn't one myself.
LWM: How long have you had certification, and why did you decide to get it?
MW: I got it in September 2004. I got it because it was a stamp of approval to my peers at the PHP|Works conference.
LWM: How would you rate it compared to other certifications that you've gotten in the past?
MW: I've only done BrainBench certs in the past. Being in Open Source, I see the ever-increasing role that certifications are playing, but when I got into the industry they just weren't as relevant.
LWM: As a manager, are you considering making it part of your company policy for your current developers? Future hires?
MW: Yes, absolutely.
LWM: What were some comments about the exam itself (easy/hard)?
MW: The test is not simple. Many PHP programmers use PEAR and third-party libraries.
LWM: Do you have plans to get any other LAMP-related certifications?
MW: I think so... but I'm not sure which ones at the moment. I'm thinking MySQL is probably next for me.
After doing the interviews, it appears that the ZCE is gaining clout in the corporate world. In the last few months, we at HotLinuxJobs have started seeing corporations ask for the ZCE; as a result, it's become a focus of a number of our searches. With the increased use of PHP in the enterprise, the ZCE has positioned itself for a bright future.