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Certification
I'm a CLD for three more years...
Yay, me. I don't think I'll ever do the CLA. I'm more of a nuts n bolts kind of guy. Give me a framework and I'll fill in all the blanks for you. I can do the framework, too - but it's really not my strong point. Probably because I just don't have many under my belt yet.
I did the 1 hour test. It was surprisingly difficult because a lot of the questions were about features and things I rarely use. I have to say that hanging out in the forums actually did a pretty good job of bridging the gaps in my knowledge, and definitely enabled me to pass the test.
Score another victory due to forum participation. 🙂
Congrats Bill. Honestly the renewal by points is pretty generous and I don't intend on taking any exams for renewal. Do you have a local NI User Group that you can attend? You get 5 points for each meeting you attend, and 10 for each you present at. Most meet quarterly so this is 20 points for attending a year. The CLD is good for 3 years so that is 60 points and you only need 50 to renew.
What about the beta? NI always wants more users to help flush out issues and helping out with a beta test is 15 points. This means doing just 3 betas of LabVIEW in 3 years is 45 points, so attending one user group gets you 50. Of course you could also participate in other betas like TestStand, DIAdem, LabWindows CVI, and any others offered. Then there's attending NI Week which gets you 15, or presenting which gets you 30 (and a free ticket to NI Week). My CLA is good until 2023 so now's a good time to look into other certifications I can get.
@Hooovahh wrote:
Congrats Bill. Honestly the renewal by points is pretty generous and I don't intend on taking any exams for renewal. Do you have a local NI User Group that you can attend? You get 5 points for each meeting you attend, and 10 for each you present at. Most meet quarterly so this is 20 points for attending a year. The CLD is good for 3 years so that is 60 points and you only need 50 to renew.
What about the beta? NI always wants more users to help flush out issues and helping out with a beta test is 15 points. This means doing just 3 betas of LabVIEW in 3 years is 45 points, so attending one user group gets you 50. Of course you could also participate in other betas like TestStand, DIAdem, LabWindows CVI, and any others offered. Then there's attending NI Week which gets you 15, or presenting which gets you 30 (and a free ticket to NI Week). My CLA is good until 2023 so now's a good time to look into other certifications I can get.
That is a really great way to re-earn your CLD, IMHO. NI did a great job making it meaningful to re-certify. The points method shows that you take your LabVIEW very seriously and are an active contributor to the community. The short test is meaningful because it makes sure that you are well-rounded with your LabVIEW knowledge. I guess that it also indirectly it tests the forum body in general for it's knowledge because I learned the most from reading other people's threads. I actually go there mostly to read interesting stuff that I thought I would come in handy one day. I also like to compare my responses (both real and virtual) to the consensus in the forum. Then of course, there is the long test, which... well let's just say that every so often my wife will wake me and say that "You were having the dream about the test again, weren't you?" 😄
billko,
Since I am planning to re-certify my CLD this year, I wonder if you could share some info regarding to it. Of course nothing which is not allowed! I have got the prep guide and the 2 sample exams from here: http://www.ni.com/gate/gb/GB_CUSTEDCLDREXAMPREP/US
The prep guide seems to be seriously outdated (LV 8.6 & 2009 ??? 
)! I did not look into the sample exams yet, I wanna have proper silent and whole 1 hour to test myself 🙂
I know I can write an email to the certification dept at NI, but maybe you could give me some hints what I can expect? For example, should I look deeper into the new Channel wires, etc...?
Thanks very much!
Edit: and I have to check how many points I have now...I might not far to to be recert by points....? 🙂
Blokk wrote:
For example, should I look deeper into the new Channel wires, etc...?
Any new features within the last 3 releases should not be on any NI exam (they should be based on 3 versions back). Though, I have not heard of the CLD-R getting any updates for a long time. But you could always take the 4 hour practical again to recertify!
Just as the CLD long test examples are very good examples of what the real tests are like, the re-certify examples are very good examples of what the re-certify exams are like.
