Are Software Certifications a Complete Waste of Time?

Creative COW by Kylee Wall

Occasionally I'll find myself in a discussion about FCP or Avid or Adobe certifications, typically on Twitter because where else do I ever talk to anyone? Usually a younger editor is asking about a specific certification, and a dozen industry vets jump in and go on and on about how certification is a complete waste of time and money, and no one should ever under any circumstances get a certification.

And I won't be surprised if any comments I get on this post are more of the same because I'm going to be uncharacteristically blunt and tell you that your opinion of certification is probably wrong.

Oh no I di'n't, girlfriend.

Yeah, I'll say it! If you can find no worth in a software certification for anyone, you're dead wrong. Boom. End of story. If you think I'm a moron, at least one of the following thoughts is probably yours. Here is why you are wrong.

"Certification just shows you can push some buttons."

EXACTLY. That is true, to an extent. If you have a certification, it shows that to some degree of accuracy determine by the powers that be, you can effectively control an NLE. Or you understand it well enough to feel your way through it. You have to have a good foundation in it, or else you wouldn't have passed the test. Does it mean you're a great editor? Hell no! Is it an indicator that you know what you're doing? Hell no! No one is saying that. They're just saying "I know where to hit the buttons in Avid to make the things do stuff, and here's proof." This is really useful for a younger editor. The job market is beyond saturated. If you don't have a lot of reputation or experience, you'll get filtered out quickly for the smallest reasons. A certification could possibly keep you in the hiring process through a round of cut-offs, simply because you have some tiny amount of demonstrable technical skill. read more...