Certifications help you stand out from the crowd, but they can also help you discover your passion and future career path. We’re always amazed at how certified students move from high school to college to fantastic careers. One of our favorite stories is Eliot Chang, an Adobe Certified Professional and USC alumnus (you can read part one of his story here). His Adobe certification has taken him on the path to user interface design.
Read on for Eliot’s advice on how to maximize the value of your certification.
I began my journey as a designer in high school, picking up Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Illustrator as a hobby making t-shirt designs for my school’s various clubs. Eager to test out my newly found skillset, I participated in the school’s Business Professionals of America (BPA) Graphic Design competition. That year BPA had partnered up with Certiport to offer certification tests for the student participants. I quickly got certified and set out to become a designer.
As I dove deeper into design, I realized that the field wasn’t limited to just visual design. I soon picked up the prototyping tool Adobe XD and began designing not just posters and t-shirts, but mobile apps and websites as well. This, in combination with my degree in computer science and my certifications from Adobe was what jumpstarted my career. My experience with graphic design and prototyping landed me my first job as a designer for a startup consultancy firm named Fokcus. The following year I joined an Internet of Things startup named Aeris as a user interface engineer. This position eventually led me to landing my current position as a design fellow for the venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins.
A lot of students ask me how to even get involved with design. My advice for any students out there that are interested in design is to just go for it. Whether it’s a t-shirt or a poster or an app, find something that interests you and start putting pen on paper - after all, just getting started is the hardest part. With all the great resources online today it’s easy to pick up new skills and eventually get certified to stand out.
Ready to add Adobe Certified Professional certification to your resume? Learn more here.