It's not that I think vertification in general is a bad idea... It's just that PTC's implementation of the program seems to have stalled...
With certifications like MSCE, you are pretty much guaranteed that people will know what that is in five years. This is because that certification program has reaached a "Critical Mass" whereby there are enough people getting certified to sustain the program.
A bit of history:
There used to be a program called the PTC "Certified Engineering Provider" (CEP). It was a 2-day test involving actual modeling. That certification cost a lot of money ($1000, I think?). I got mine back in 1998 (or was it '99?). However, that program was dissolved a few years later and is no longer in effect, although many previously certified CEP consultantsstill use it for advertising purposes.
The new program cam on witha splash a few years ago (June 2003)with the release of Wildfire and a lot of people spent money and got certified as "Level 1". PTC promised that there were other "levels" of certification under development that would be rolled out soon after level 1... that never happened.
If you look at PTC's site, you'll see that there have been no users certified in the USA or in the UK in 16 months... that is not going to lead to a critical mass if you ask me.
Still, if you've got the money sitting around and want the certification, there is certainly no harm in it and it might look good on a resume if you are in the job market. If you're already employed, I don't see much value in it.
With the CEP program, they had two levels plus an analysis track. Once certified,m you were provided logosd that you could use on websites and business cards. That made it a good idea for consultants. I don't see the same value for consultants with the new system.
Good thread:
[url]http://www.mcadcentral.com/proe/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=23 798&KW=certification[/url]
Other threads:
[url]http://www.mcadcentral.com/proe/forum/search.asp?KW=certific ation&SM=1&SI=PT&FM=0&OB=1 [/url]