I'm studying for my ACE (Adobe Certified Expert) in PhotoShop, and was wondering if there are other members out there that have gone this route as well. Does anyone know how the pending upgrade to version 7 impacts certifcation for version 6(x)? At $150 a pop, I'm not sure if I should wait and polish my skill set on the "new" features in 7 or just get it over with and take the exam now. I worked for a while for a software developer and "certification" was a really big thing, they would even pay for the exams (as long as you passed LOL). Now I'm the senior graphic artist with another company and I'll have to pay for the exam myself.

Anybody got an opinon??

I would wait until 7 comes out, so that you have the most current certification. However, I am not sure how much weight their ACE program carries. The last time I looked at it, the requirements were very basic. Unless you are thinking of teaching, My opinion would be to let your work speak for itself.

This sounds like a cash cow to me. Here in Quebec, we have something called a Bilingual Certificate, which you can get out of high school. Allegedly, this is proof to employers that you are bilingual. The truth is, they couldn't care less what papers you show them, if they speak to you in french, you better be able to respond to them in french. Truth be told, I really don't know why you need to take a certification exam for the company you work for... they obviously dig your work. What if you failed the exam, would they fire you? The fact that they would have to rely on someone else's test results rather than the work you churn out for them, no offense, sounds fawking stupid. If you have no choice, I guess take the exam, but to me that just means that the company doesn't even trust their own judgement wshen it comes to who they keep on the workload. If someone told you that Joe Satriani never took a guitar lesson in his life, would it make him less of a guitarist than he already is? It shouldn't, "Surfin' with the Alien" speaks for itself.

Thanks for the input Alpha, I am thinking of helping at a local technical school but they require a degree to teach there and the certification would be a plus. I started working in the graphics field right out of high school and never bothered to go to school and get a degree, but I've been working with PhotoShop since version 2.5 (I still have it loaded on my MacSE "doorstop"). You're right in that a persons work SHOULD speak for itself, and in my current position it does. I figured the ACE would be a whole lot quicker (and cheaper even if I have to pay for it myself) than going to get a degree!

From what you are saying, I think it makes sense then. I would love to hear how it goes after taking the exam. Like I said, I have thought of this myself, and always put it off as it really wasn't required for me.

I took the ACE Exam for Photoshop 5. One thing you should know is six months after the release of a new version of Photoshop your certification is technically invalid. So depending on your reasons for taking the test you should consider waiting. The disadvantage of waiting is it takes quite a while to become proficient enough in the new features to have the confidence to take the test. The test is HARD. Not too hard but you need to be up on color setup, calibration, working with publishing houses and idiosyncracies of file formats. So be sure you really really know Photoshop inside and out before you go in or you may not pass. As for the promotional aspects for your career, nobody is looking for ACE certified experts but I think it does carry some weight when you can flash the piss poor looking certificate. Because frankly just about everybody and his uncle claims they are good at Photoshop. Not many can prove it. I tried the simple preview test on my friend who thought he was pretty good and would take it too.. He got thirty percent. I got 95 percent. But the preview test is much easier then the real one. If you only get eighty percent on the preview test I recommend you study more. You need seventy on the real test to pass. As I mentioned earlier the certificate is the cheesiest looking thing I have ever seen. My friends would see it and laugh that it looked like it was run off on cheap color printer. However like the diploma for the scarecrow, and the heart for the tinman, it is just trinkets. But you know you have proved to yourself at least that you really know the program well. So while some may see it as meaningless it may be a meaningful trinket to you. I should think only a very tiny percent of the people who use Photoshop could pass the test and I should think a good percentage of those who go into the test without some years under their belt or some serious training can't pass it either. So you can feel fairly proud of yourself if you get the certificate.

Atomic... (can I call you that? or is it Mr Cow?) Thanks for the input, though it doesn't make the choice any easier! I'm going to see if my "time-in" (work experience) will be enough for the teaching position in which case I won't take the test. If not than I guess I need to decide if I REALLY want to teach in the evenings (which will seriously cut into my creative time...) because I don't really need the money but I enjoy helping others learn. Like Ansel Adams would say "Let's see what develops!"