I'm either certified or certifiable...

Well, I don't talk shop very often in my blog, but after some recent successes, I think it's due. Obviously blogging isn't my 'day job,' and probably never will be. And that's quite all right, I think.

In case you didn't know, my trade—my livelihood—is a graphic designer and illustrator. I work for the largest (and arguably the best) school products corporation in the world in their printing division. On top of that, I also freelance extensively. I've been blessed to have this kind of opportunity for a career, and even more blessed to actually be good at what I do.

So what exactly does it mean to be a designer? Well, it's really quite simple. My job is to make the printed page (or web page) look cool. As a graphic designer, I've had the opportunity to stretch my skills in every possible way, from illustration to abstract. In short, I get paid to play!

Now, for those of you that absolutely hate your job, don't be jealous. I mean it. No matter where you are in your career, or even if you're still in school, it's really quite simple to have a career that you'll absolutely love. It's a mere three-step process:

1. Find out what you like to do more than anything else in the world. I remember while giving this little three-step wonder to a fifth grade class, one boy said, "Well, I like to argue." It's not difficult to figure out what I suggested as a career path for him.
2. Become the best you can be at that one thing. To the boy who liked to argue, I said, "Your first response to any statement should always be, "how do you know?" Learn to argue—and learn to argue well. Then, there's a thing called law school. You can then either go into law or politics." He had the most peculiar grin on his face.
3. Finally, the last step is really the best of all. Once we've found out what our one most-loved thing to do in the world is, and we've become the best we can be at that one thing, it's quite obvious what this third step should be: find someone to pay you to do it.

I took my own advice fourteen years ago and left my job as a movie theatre manager to pursue graphic design. I wasn't able to finish school due to a wonky job schedule as a server, but I managed to find every opportunity to design cool stuff with my home PC. After printing off a design job at a local copy shop for one of my best friends (a design to be printed on a Zippo lighter for an Air Force squadron), I was offered a job on the spot.

The guy asked, "So, do you know how to use a Mac?"

"Well, I've not used one much..."

"You did this on a PC?"

"Yep."

"Good. You can figure out a Mac. When can you start?"

I was given a classic opportunity to learn not only the software used in the printing industry, but was given hands-on training. I learned over a six-month period how to use Quark XPress, Adobe Illustrator, and Adobe Photoshop. Before then, I had never heard of these programs beyond a passing reference in some art magazines.

As fantastic as the opportunity was, there was one clear favorite of the programs, Photoshop. It was version 3.0, the latest available at the time (I would later be forced to use 2.5 at another job—for those Photoshop users out there, there are no layers in 2.5). I remembered what I saw in one of those magazines about Photoshop. The writer said then, "I have seen the future, and it is Photoshop."

Nothing could have been more prophetic. I saw a glimpse of my own future with this application, and knew that it would only be limited by my skill and imagination. Since I knew my imagination was somewhere in orbit of some distant planet in another galaxy, I knew I had to increase my skill. So, I spent every waking moment learning this software.

Fast forward to 2008.

After building up thirteen years of expertise and experience in using several Adobe applications, I had been asked by my employer to help with training for our employees and eventually for our customers. I’ve become sort of the “go-to” guy for questions in Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator for quite a while now, and I wondered if I could do something more.

A few years ago, I was asked to attend a formal training session on InDesign since we needed to make the shift from PageMaker to the new page layout tool from Adobe. The instructor’s presentation was so thorough that I asked him what steps he took to become a trainer. He said that he was an Adobe Certified Instructor. He explained that there were a few tests required, so I decided to look into it more.

After a good two years of procrastination, I found myself being asked to train more and more people in these Adobe applications. The positive feedback from those classes compelled me to find out exactly what I needed to do. Adobe requires that their trainers pass their rigorous ACE (Adobe Certified Expert) tests and have some sort of teaching credential.

Since I didn't even have a degree, I knew that it would be the teaching credential that I'd have a problem with; at least until I found out about CompTIA’s CTT+ certification. This nationally-recognized technical trainer certification was just what I needed. Since it required a brutal testing process, I needed to take a class to prepare myself.

I selected the CTT+/Train the Trainer course offered by NetCom in New York City. After finishing course as taught by Jeff Furman, I passed the written test on the first attempt. I then submitted the video we filmed during the course, which was evaluated – giving me yet another passing score. I am now CTT+ certified! Okay, one down. Two to go.

After these resounding successes, I quickly enrolled for the Adobe tests in Photoshop and InDesign. I’ve already taken (and passed) the Photoshop ACE exam, and I’m confident that the InDesign test will also result in a passing score. As exciting as this new certification was, I had one more step to go.

I then submitted all my information to Adobe—a copy of the CTT+ certificate and the passing score on the Photoshop ACE—which will make me the only Adobe Certified Instructor for Photoshop listed in Tennessee, which is a surprising accomplishment after just a few months of determined effort.

My CTT+ certification wasn’t the end result; instead, it was the beginning of what became a triple-certification which has placed me into rolls of the top Photoshop users in the country!

So yes, I'm in a celebratory mood these days. My InDesign test is just a few days away, and it's kind of nice to not stress out about it.

It'll be even nicer to expand my opportunities to train others. Nothing gives me a thrill to see a group of people actually using an application that just a few hours before completely intimidated them.

Well, I take that back - hearing a client or customer say, "That's exactly what I wanted. How did you do that?"