Earning a Software Certification
Quick Tip!
Earning a certification is a great way to help prove to the Digital Corps that you are qualified for a promotion.
Helpful Staff for this Topic
Digital Corps students are encouraged to earn certifications in industry-standard software. The credentials earned by passing these tests help show employers that you have entry-level skills in the tools of your discipline. They can serve as excellent personal challenges to grow your knowledge and make a great metric as the end result of a semester goal.
At least one certification is also required for promotion at the Digital Corps (for teams with this requirement).
Costs and Limitations
Professional certifications are often quite expensive, typically ranging in hundreds of dollars. The Digital Corps covers the cost of student certifications related to the Corps mission. The tests listed below are the most common ones attempted by students and can all be taken for “free,” though the Digital Corps may consider assisting with the costs of other certifications on a case-by-case basis.
Students who fail an exam must wait one full week before attempting to take the exam again. The Digital Corps will cover the cost of the first two attempts to pass an exam. Any additional attempts beyond two will be addressed on a case-by-case basis.
Quick Tip!
Talk to your team lead if you are unsure if you are ready to take a certification.
Adobe Certified Associate Exams
Tests over Adobe Creative Cloud programs are the most popular to take during employment at the Corps. The following certifications and their corresponding exams for Adobe software are currently available:
- Visual Design Using Adobe Photoshop
- Graphic Design & Illustration Using Adobe Illustrator
- Print & Digital Media Publication Using Adobe InDesign
- Digital Video Using Adobe Premiere Pro
- Visual Effects & Motion Graphics Using Adobe After Effects
- Multiplatform Animation Using Adobe Animate
- Web Authoring Using Adobe Dreamweaver
You will be quizzed over software questions, as well as general knowledge about the related discipline named in the exam title. If you are getting ready to take your first certification, choose the program you are most comfortable with to increase your chance of success.
What to Expect
Adobe certifications follow a standard format and are administered from within the software program itself. The test is approximately 40 questions long, is timed at ~50 minutes, and requires at least a 70% score to pass.
After you launch the software on your computer, a certification panel will appear during the test with questions and prompts. Half of the questions will cover industry-related knowledge and will be presented in standard question formats (multiple choice, true/false, etc.). The other half of the exam will be in the form of tasks to perform using the application.
Some hypothetical prompts might include:
- recoloring an image in Photoshop
- saving a PNG from a provided file in Illustrator
- changing page margins in InDesign
- crossfading audio levels with Premiere Pro
- adding keyframes to a layer with After Effects
- creating a reusable symbol in Animate
- inserting a table into a page with Dreamweaver
Exam Prep
Adobe has prepared study materials for each test, which include a listing of objectives, a study guide with sample questions, and a visual explanation of how the test works. View the resources by visiting the link above and navigating to the page for your chosen software.
The Digital Corps also makes practice exams available, which can be set up at your convenience. Each practice exam takes approximately one hour, and can be taken on-the-clock.
Tips for Studying
Read through the list of objectives provided by Adobe and discuss any you don’t understand with your team lead. The questions on the exam are randomized, so you should be familiar with all of the listed concepts.
The key to performing well on the Adobe Certified Associate exams is knowing your way around the software. The test is timed, and searching for unfamiliar menu commands and options during the real-time software questions is a common time sink. Spend some prep time looking through all of the menu options (File, Edit, etc.) to give yourself the best chance.
Scheduling an Exam
Message Brandon or Riley to set up a practice test and then talk to a staff member to schedule a time to take the exam.
Quick Tip!
Be sure to leave yourself at least an hour when scheduling your exam.
Ready for a challenge?
Adobe also offers an “Expert” certification for each of its applications. These exams are significantly more difficult and require complete mastery of the software—Corps students have successfully earned Adobe Certified Expert credentials before, but not without lots of studying. Talk with your team lead if you would like to get started.
Other Available Certifications
Some other popular certification choices at the Digital Corps include offerings from:
- Hubspot
- MailChimp
- AWS
- Talk to a Dev Team staff or GA about the available cloud certifications from Amazon. These are very difficult, and will require extensive study.
- Google
- Most Google certificates are now legacy products and have been converted into courses from Google’s Analytics Academy. Talk with a staff member for more details.
Quick Tip!
If you are interested in earning a certification that is not listed above, talk to your team lead to see if it might qualify.
