Get that Paper[work]

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about certifications over the past couple of weeks. Oh, right — hey, welcome back to the regularly-scheduled JavaScript for Everyone newsletter! Feels like its been a while, huh?

Now, I should start off by saying that I don’t really have any professional paperwork — I have no degree, no web development certifications, I'm not forklift certified, I never joined the Nintendo Fun Club, nothing. It doesn't come up much day-to-day, which I know is a position of immense privilege.

I was fortunate enough to have started my career at a time when the industry was even more “wild west” than it is today, lo those twenty-odd years ago. “We’re all just making it up as we go along” lived a lot closer to the surface back then. Nobody started building websites already knowing how to build websites; there were no jobs requiring “a minimum five years experience” at any one thing, because barely anybody had five years experience at any of it, Tim Berners-Lee aside. The entire concept of "career web developer" hadn't been around that long. We weren't — or at least, I wasn't — 100% certain that there was a career to be had in making websites.

Things were a lot simpler then from a technological standpoint, too. Starting out now, with only a computer and a can-do attitude, you'd begin your career playing three decades worth of catch-up. A lot has changed to account for that. College curricula that include front-end development, well, exist now; it didn't back when I got started. Reputable code schools are out there helping new web workers establish baseline levels of know-how that set them up for continuing to learn the trade. Courses like this one — if it doesn’t sound too braggy — aim to make the process of learning the details of sprawling, arcane topics a little more manageable, and help you progress beyond "foot in the door" and into higher-level roles.

These things all have one thing in common: they all end in paperwork. A degree, a certificate; something that proves that you did the work. That's paperwork I don't have, and that's where I start to stumble a little. I have a visceral reaction to the idea of gatekeeping credentials that not everyone can reasonably afford, and a system that values them. If I started my career playing by today's rules, well, maybe I wouldn't be here, and you wouldn't be reading this. For better or worse, that’s never far from my mind. I've always downplayed on-paper credentials in my own career, so it follows I've been reluctant to bring it up when I talk about the course. But the more I talk to people about it, the more I think my baggage is doing you a disservice, and that's not fair.

Paperwork certifying that they've done the work is how people get courses like this one paid for by their employers, how they get promoted, and how they prove to potential employers that they're capable of taking on bigger and better roles. Those are the rules of the game we're all playing now — I don't get to opt out, and I certainly don't get to do so on your behalf. Shying away from talking about paperwork isn't going to change a system that makes me uncomfortable any more than refusing to tip is going to help someone earn a living wage.

So, listen. In no uncertain terms: you’ll walk away from this course with a certification.

You’ll have earned it. I can say without a shred of reservation that I'm proud of this course, and my goal for it is to help you become a better and more successful web developer; that's what matters to me. You will. You'll know it and I'll know it — but I'm also going to make sure you have the certificate to back it up, so everyone else will know it too.

Put it on LinkedIn, put it on the fridge — print it out, fold it once, and dramatically slide it across your boss' desk. We’re gonna get you that paperwork, then you're gonna get that paper.

Course Statistics

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• Deliberate this Puns: 6
• Unintentional Yet Unremediated this Puns: 1