5 Hidden Advantages of Adobe's Magento 2 Certifications

On Twitter, I asked, what advice would you give to a new Magento developer? And one of the replies I got said, invest in your career and get certified. So this got me thinking. Everyone knows the main reasons to get an Adobe Commerce certification, this being the resume bump or that cred you can show off on LinkedIn. But what are some other benefits of getting certified that perhaps maybe you didn't think of? So I put together a list of five things that a certification can really help you out with that you probably haven't thought much about. The first item is what I call discovering edges. When you go through that certification process, it'll give you a chance to refine your skills and make sure you know what you think you may know. Every time I start studying for a specific cert, I know that I know everything. Then I take one of those practice tests and then immediately realize that I really know nothing. Well, it's not that I really know nothing. These test questions can really be specific, specific to certain edge cases or something that you may not come across yet in practice. Let's think of this as sort of an old pirate map that's mostly undiscovered. You know all of the main areas of the map, which are things like dependency injection, the data layer plugins. Then you walk into an area of the map that maybe you vaguely heard about or know nothing about at all. This will force you to learn more about that specific, specific edge. And not only that, because the edge is surrounded by other areas of the map that haven't yet been filled in, you also have to cover the other areas of the map that surround it. These are the types of questions that will force you to deep dive into the areas that you may not know that well, but that'll ultimately make you a much more seasoned Magento developer. Now that you've become familiar with some of these edges, you'll be much better equipped to handle a project in a real life scenario because you'll be prepared for some of those odd things that may come up in practice. We've touched base on something else here while talking about discovering edges, and that's learning. When you've uncovered the pieces of the blank map, you may have found it a bit aggravating to need to deep dive into these random areas that you're really unfamiliar with. The process of learning these new edges can be daunting and intimidating, especially if you don't have any previous experience in that new subject matter. It can be very hard to stay motivated trying to understand or learn something completely new, unfamiliar, foreign or complicated, and Magento as a whole is a really perfect example of this. It is an incredibly complex and involved system, making it really difficult to really wrap your head around all of these different aspects. Just when you think you know everything, there is some new foreign intricacy or nuance that pops up that you'll just have to learn. Magento is also ever evolving with new features and concepts being added to every single release. This makes it even more of a chore or challenge to really stay up to date with all of these concepts. It's really no wonder why so many new to this platform are constantly frustrated, but the rewards of making it through these hardships and coming out the other end is definitely worth the effort. It can help to have a formalized process for learning these new items. When you come across something new, jot down some notes, research some blogs, scour through some Magento stack, exchange questions and answers, or dig into a bit of the core code yourself. Write some demo code to help you understand what's going on and change it all around to figure out how this all works and with everything. It's important to remember to take things one step at a time and be patient with yourself as learning something new is never going to be easy. Having some self compassion and treating yourself to a reward after learning something new can really go a long way. Before we move on to the next item and while we're still on the subject of learning, it's a good time to mention my passion and livelihood. If you are looking for continued Magento education and need some help, check out M Academy. This is my online school where my magnum opus is to teach everything there is to know about Magento. Something else you'll need to do when getting certified is to learn how to stick with something for a longer than reasonably comfortable period of time. Learning all of this is a lot of work and the the need to persevere through some adversity is a prerequisite to becoming certified. Angela Duckworth actually wrote a great book about this called Grit. Grit is the power of passion and perseverance and is one of the main defining factors of success. Learning anything new is almost always difficult. It's a big part of being a computer programmer though, and even a bigger part of being a Magento developer. If you're new to Magento and want to become certified but get frustrated every time you learn something new start, you'll probably want to work on upping your Grit. A big part of becoming Magento Certified is that it's additional level of proof that shows you can stick with something for a prolonged period of time. Grit is a factor employers look for when trying to find new hires, and it's not only with programmers. It shows you have an increased level of self control and discipline and most gritty employees just have much higher levels of job satisfaction and performance versus non gritty employees. Grit can help you persevere through difficult times and circumstances without losing confidence, and also help you become more consistent and more focused in your work environment. You'll also be able to bounce off these difficulties while learning something new and learn to keep going in the face of some adversity. Since you're watching this, you're probably already a programmer and have dealt with this stuff your entire career just like I have, so you probably know a lot of this already. But if you can work on being comfortable with being uncomfortable, it can really level up your career. This process also helps weed out so many developers that just don't have any level of grit or any perseverance that can take an extra step to get certified, but it also helps with something else. The next item is something we've probably all felt at some point and maybe even still do today, and it's the fact that at some point we all feel like an imposter. Having that cert badge next to your name definitely relieves a bit of this imposter syndrome because you actually have proof that you know your stuff. I heard something a long while ago and it really stuck with me over time and it was if you feel like an imposter and that feeling doesn't go away, maybe you're just an imposter. These are some tough words, but we are basically all imposters on some level because no one knows everything about a specific topic or all topics, and there isn't one person out there that knows everything there is about about programming or even Magento. It's just impossible. But if we can discover those edges, learn to learn, and have a sense of grit, it really won't even matter. Once you get your cert badge, you've literally proven to Adobe, to yourself, to your family, to your friends and to the world that you have the qualifications of xyz. So for example, if you've taken the Adobe Certified Professional Developer Exam and passed, you've shown everyone that you really have the knowledge and skills and it needs to become a Magento Certified Professional. At this point you will have proven this not only to Adobe, but to the rest of the world and most importantly, to yourself. And passing the exam will definitely help eliminate some of this imposter syndrome that you may have been feeling from time to time leading up to the exam. Your certification is almost a tangible way to show off to the world and to yourself that you have the stuff and expertise to know Magento. By having that badge, you know that you're definitely on your way to having a successful career. And if you don't take the exam, well, you'll never know if you're really an imposter or not. And that definitely won't help your imposter syndrome go away at any time. We're down on the last item, which means there's one other thing that a certification may or may not help with. But before I get to it, be sure to tap that like button if you found this video at all helpful. Let's say I'm a CTO or hiring manager or or tech lead in charge of new hires, and I have two really great candidates. They're both standout developers, have a long working history as a programmer, similar experiences with Magento, and they both have very similar qualifications. I just can't make up my mind because they are almost equal. But there's one big difference. One of the candidates has a couple of Magento certifications, and the other one doesn't have any. Who do you think I'm going to pick? That said, there are always ways to get a job as a Magento developer, and even if you have no experience at all, if you'd like to learn more, check out this video on how to do just that.