Leveled Up: PHP Certified

On Wednesday, I took an extended lunch break in order to take the Zend PHP Certification test at a local Pearson VUE Testing Center.

After a few years of using PHP and studying for a few months, I am a Zend Certified PHP Engineer!

Books that have helped me:

• Programming PHP, 3rd Ed by Kevin Tatroe, Peter MacIntyre, & Rasmus Lerdorf
• Zend PHP 5 Certification Study Guide, Third Edition by Davey Shafik and Ben Ramsey
• Reviewing the Zend PHP Certification Study Guide and doing the problems contained within.

People who have helped me along the way:

• My wife.
• My kids.
• My mentor and fellow KCPUG co-organizer, John Kary
• KCPUG leader Dan Holmes and the great members of the KCPUG.
• Cal Evans and the great speakers at NomadPHP.
• Adam Culp for giving me the push at Lone Star PHP 2014.

Practices that have help me:

• ABC: Alway be coding!
• Added an hour appointment to my calendar every day, after the kids were in bed, to study.
• Watched NomadPHP talks (live, recorded, or on Youtube)
• Listen to various podcasts about programming, not all about PHP
• Practiced
• Kata
• Present at KCPUG (forced me to really think about the how and why)
• Followed my curiosity in code

These practices and personal connections will continue long after my certification studies ended. I'm looking forward to the next leg of the journey.