Just wondering if anyone has the ZCE here.
1: How long have you done PHP for?
2: Do you have a programming background prior to PHP?
Does it have any real value anywhere?
I think so. Even if it didn’t, as a personal goal I’d like to work towards it.
Personal goal is just not all that important for me and since it costs probably over $100 just to take the exam, it would be a waste of money, at least for me. I noticed that the whole area or IT certifications is not nearly as hot as it used to be just 5 years ago. It turns out employees don’t pay attention to certifications anymore (maybe only Cisco certifications are still somewhat important if you looking for Network Engineer job) and more and more people realizing that it’s just not all that valuable.
It is very true that for technical (IT) jobs, the certifications may not be important because it does only need skill. But as far as I know, the certifications are very useful for the companies to judge/evaluate one before hiring because certificate are the proofs for the person. Otherwise you need to evaluate him/her before you hire.
@JREM: I am ZCE (PHP 5). I passed the exam couple of months before.
1: How long have you done PHP for?
- 5 years.
2: Do you have a programming background prior to PHP? - Yes I have worked on Visual Basic and traditional ASP before. Also before 3/4 years I had worked for small projects on Perl and RoR.
BTW, why do you need to know these? Are you willing to here ZCE ? 
Yep, ZCE here.
Some employers like to see it, a few demand it. Personally, I think it shows that you’ve at least set aside some of your own time to learn some fundamentals. Not that a ZCE is (or can be) a better developer, just someone that has bothered themselves to invest time in the language.
1: How long have you done PHP for?
No idea, really. A while.
2: Do you have a programming background prior to PHP?
Sure, a spot of C#, Java, BASIC, ABAP and VB.
Knowing what I know about the exam, I would feel happy working with someone that had it. Because the people who pass it must be pretty smart. It’s a lot of stuff to know on that exam, a LOT.
I am going to try to get it in a few months, I need to improve on Array Sorting, SOAP, SPL, Regex, and quite a few other things.
Another ZCE here, took the exam 3-4 years ago.
Will actually most probably take the new 5.3 ZCE exam later this year together with my employees.
Personally I believe that the ZCE exam is way too easy, so in reality there is no real “value” in having it, if you consider if it proves a person is a good programmer or not.
However we have noticed that some of our clients has responded positively to that all our programmers have passed the exam, so for us being ZCE has paid off. And after all the fee is not really expensive if it helps you bring in new projects/work.
For your questions:
- Around twelve years, though Ive only worked with it for the last seven years professionally.
- Just what I had at school, assembly and pascal.
Yes, since last year.
Good question, think 7 years or so.
The general crap from school, then learned Perl and switched to PHP when demand for Perl dropped to nearly zero.