TOPIC:

How many of us have taken the ESRI Technical Certification? If you have, did you take the Skills Review course prior to taking the exam?

I have taken the Associates Certification and failed it 2x. (3 if you count the beta test). I took the prep course offered by ESRI and it helped a little.

In my defense, I took the Beta without ever having laid eyes on Arc 10. I don't have the GISP. I came into GIS from being an Environmental Scientist, so am comparatively new to GIS. Never took a GIS class in college, all OJT for me.

I think I can do anything with the ESRI software, but I can't tell you what some of the stuff is called. If you have a formal GIS education and experience with the technical lingo side of ESRI software, you're probably golden. I've been teaching Desktop I and II for over 4 years now and the only reason I took the cert test was to keep teaching the classes. ESRI is phasing them out in the near future, so it wouldn't have mattered in the long term anyways.

If you have any questions, let me know.

Thanks for your input.

This year will be my 17th year in the field. I was weighing if I needed to take the training that is specifically directed toward the certification.

William Howell, GISP