Levels vs. Badges vs. Certifications, etc.

@Aurore It feels there a few different units of measurements in the Unity Learn dashboard, and I have a question, maybe two for each.

1(A) Is the XP we gain from each tutorial just a sort of gamification of the tutorials to help us feel we are progressing? 1(B) Will they be tied to some sort of proficiency rating later?

2(A). Badges, I see they are tied to the Acclaim/Credly system for posting to our professional profiles. Will there be more badges besides the essential & junior programmer pathways in the future?

2(B) Will, they match up with our Unity certifications or will there be badges for those, potentially specialty badges for specific types of programming (character controller, network, data architecture, AI, etc)?

2(C) Will more pathways for specializations be created as well?

3(A) I see Associate, Professional, Expert level certifications from Unity. Each has a list of recommended requisites. If a programmer passes the certification for say expert which is 5+ years of industry experience, yet maybe only has 2 years of job experience, should a developer safely assume he is advanced in his competency vs. other developers with the same years of experience?

4(B) Does Unity have any job placement data based on those who obtain the Official Unity Certificates?

Thank you in advance,

- Cody

 

For 1), probably. The main way to learn Unity has always been the manual. The "Learn" section was created later as a light intro for people new to game design and coding who prefer videos to text. Gamification seems to fit well in there. The general feeling also seems to be that a different person/team(?) is handling Learn -- thus the new mobile-friendly look.

For 3), my feeling is Unity created certifications since it's expected and a good move. Then they're either widely adopted or they aren't. In Unity's case I feel like they didn't really take off -- are you seeing lots of Ads wanting Unity programmers with certain certifications? I feel like in the game designer world it's always been more about a portfolio. I think they did the work to make minimal certificates and waited. Only if employers start demanding more, will Unity do more, Otherwise there's no point -- it's adding an extension to a birdhouse that birds aren't using.

 

Since making this post I would have to agree with both points. I received their $300 exam prep course for free on Coursera for free through Coursera's financial aid approval ( not a student loan, no cost.) The course and the forums there have been dead for two years, and one of the posts was stating that the course itself in no way would prepare you for the exam, even with the two years of experience.

Then you have this thread where Unity staff won't bother to reply to what I feel they would want to answer if they were really trying to promote their learn program. So with all of that, super appreciate your reply @Owen-Reynolds, gotta agree with you 100%.

I have been more in the edu/gov contracting world, with some projects in the indie scene, anything with university/government always requires a paper trail of proof you are vetted to do your job, regardless of your level of competency.

 

I came hear looking for answers to a similar question. Following thread to see if there is a response from Unity. It would be great