How worthwhile to get CLA?

[Chuan]

Hi,

I am a graduate student in the US and trying to evaluate if it is worthwhile to take the CLA exam before my graduation.

There are two main reasons for me to raise this question:

(1) I love LabVIEW and I am full of passion when developing LabVIEW API, GUI, demo,etc. I am hoping that my job could be LabVIEW software engineer in future.

(2) I got my CLAD in 2011 and obviously it is not strong enough for job hunting. So I went a step further and got my CLD in 2013. A few companies started to contact me about some job opportunities but they hesitated after knowing my foreign status because H1-visa sponsorship is required.

So I would like to get an understanding that how competitive a CLA is for seeking a job in industry. I understand that CLA does not guarantee a job becuase other aspects will also be considered. But I would definitely have a try if CLA can greatly increase the competitiveness.

Thanks in advance!

Chuan

[crossrulz]

It greatly helped me when I decided to move on.  But even before that, my former company was using me as a marketing tool: "We have one of the two CLAs in Ohio" (there's now 4 of us, possibly a fifth coming if he passed his exam about a month ago).

But the best part of being a CLA is the CLA Summit.  Imagine 100+ LabVIEW geeks getting together to talk about whatever we decide ahead of time.  It is lots of fun and you will learn a lot as well.  NI holds one at their headquarters in Austin and then one somewhere in Europe.  This years Euro Summit is at CERN (I'm jealous).

[mallorim]

Hi Chuan,

Congrats on your CLD and good luck if you decide to pursue your CLA.

Currently, we don't have any official feedback around the benefits of a CLA in a job search, but you have the right idea posting here to get word of mouth value from the community of LabVIEW Architects.  I wanted to chime in though- if you are interested in learning more about the CLA Summit crossrulz mentioned, you can go to ni.com/cla-summit .

Regards,

Mallori

[T.Hamberger]

hello Chuan,

I am a fresh CLA, I am NO employer  and NOT from the States, so I cannot assess the h1-visa "handicap".

Your situation is, that you will finish your studies and then want to apply for a job. For that, your CLD is a good choice:
There may be others who say that they are "labview experts", maybe with "some" reference, but compared to these, a CLD is a proof that one can work with Labview efficiently. (I think especially as a career entrant a CLD is a "unique selling point" as most developers (for example me) took CLD later in their lifes - e.g. only after they went to the training courses (mainly sponsored by employer))

Whether CLA is of advantage for you now, I am not sure:
Jobs where it may be interesting for employers to get a CLA are for BIG projects or for project leaders. But these are not the typical career entrant jobs. If I would have to hire somebody for such a job, I would like to see what project experience one has already made besides the way one has to learn to pass the CLA (learning for CLA can be different to real projects).
So, If you have already a professional labview experience and are determined to get such a challenging job, the CLA may be useful.

Nevertheless, you wrote that you "love" labview. In such cases, preparing for CLA should do no harm. 

[Chuan]

Thanks a lot, Hamberger:

I did a LabVIEW toolkit development project during my graduate study and have a few intern experience. What you said made great sense, a employer would still doubt if a CLA entrant without any actual project management experience can lead a team. I think mostly they can be convinced by his/her LabVIEW knowledge and self-learning ability.

Chuan

[Rodéric]

Hello Chuan,

I agree with Hamberger, a CLD is more than enough for a student (entry level job), we just hired two newly graduate CLDs. CLA is always a must, it might help for job hunting, but I see it as a personal achievement more than a thing I can sell to the human ressources^^  

As for the H1 I have no idea as I live in Europe! 

Best regards,

[Chuan]

I got a pretty good job offer in US one month before getting my CLA and one year before my graduation. To answer my own question, I would say CLA could be something adding my value, but not something determinant for finding a job.

[JÞB]

Well, For me personally, it would get Tim off my back!

Tim (Crossrulz) asks me when I'm certing CLA at least once a week and it gets annoying sometimes

That being said-  3 years ago you could not find a job posting on any search engine that mentioned NI Certification (OK maybe a few percent) Today, for the Fortune 500 companies I target, Contract opportunities mention NI Certification at high percentage and even the smaller companies are listening to the recruiting agents and using the "Requirement" more and more.

Yes, I will take my share of the credit for driving that education of recruiters and development teams.  I LIKE programming in LabVIEW- driving adoption by promoting certification and delivering solutions is how I am attempting to ensure the next automation project wants to use LabVIEW--now you understand why I have the deep orange bars over there (<<<) next to the 8-Ball and, that "shield and challice" logo down there (vvv) in my signature line.

CLA vs CLD depends on exactly what job offerings you are targeting.  I target companies that struggle with success delivering solutions for automation.  They would not be educatable on the nuances between a CLD with a proven track record of delivering and a CLA (Although, in all humillity I believe I preform at a CLA level, I just do too many "Cowboy code" projects too trust myself to hand off shell code at the right scope.  I've run across self proclaimed "LabVIEW Experts" that get confussed between auto-indexing tunnels and shift registers--NO KIDDING!)  

Either CLA or CLD is however, required to become a Certified LabVIEW Consultant (There are other requirements as well)  The Market for those seams to me to be fairly open.  It keeps the rain off my head an soup between breastbone and spine- my step-sons and wife eat nearly every day and remain in comfortably (not POSH) living quarters.  

If YOU are targeting "Lead SW Eng at xxx Corp with a strong team" CLA would go a long way.  So, How valuable is a CLA?  What do you want to do with it?

[crossrulz]

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@JÞB wrote:

Well, For me personally, it would get Tim off my back!

Tim (Crossrulz) asks me when I'm certing CLA at least once a week and it gets annoying sometimes

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I have backed off some.  I think I might average once every other week now...