Has anyone here gotten AVID certified at some level for Pro Tools? Have you found it helpful in finding work? Was it worth the time and money? I have been using Pro tools for well over 13 years and keep being told I will need to start at Pro Tools 101 to be certified (It is very expensive and time consuming). Have any of you tested out of required classes and still been AVID certified?
asked Jul 26, 2011 at 14:15
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I know a few people with some qualifications but I've never got around to asking why. I looked them up and like you was completely put off by having to start from scratch. Plus having to pay all that money which is quite a lot considering it's a corporate qualification.– ianjpalmerCommented Jul 26, 2011 at 14:37
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12 Answers
Heyo - most people here probably know that after working for Avid happily for over 7 years (left easly last year), if you cut me my blood looks a litttttle bit purple, but bias in context and having just taught the entire curriculum at UTS:Proschool in Sydney over the last 6 weeks I can pass on some observations on the current curriculum if you want them.
Theyre up to rev 5 or 6 of the curriculum atm, the second PT9 revision. So its been changing quite a bit over the last 2 years. Yes you still get two questions the same popping up in exams every now and again, but the questions with false answers have been mostly weeded out. Exam, pffexam, whatever, if you want a piece of paper, you can sit it, but the course should be more than just reading the book/having the book read to you and sitting a multiple choice exam. The job of the teacher is to impart the concepts and workflows and context of the features you are trying to master.
PT101- easy course Pt110 - massive course if you try to do it in 3 days, elastic audio in depth, starting into automation, all the midi features PT201 - intro of trim and write to all and HD architecture and the 48 bit mixer, signal flow discussions, editing automation 210M - beat detective, trims, VCAs, drum editing workflows, sync concepts 210P - machine control, VCAs, preview, write tos, trim, satellite tech, 310M and 310P more detail on automation modes, more shortcuts you are expected to know, more assumed knowledge and pracs dont walk you through everything like they do in earlier courses. only a multi choice exam now but the old gauntlet pracs are part of the course
Basically - if youre in here, on this forum, you probably care about your craft, are self-motivated and read the manual, watch videos etc to further your skills. You could do a course with a good teacher who you respect and get something more out of it, fleshing out holes in your knowledge you may not realise you have, or you could get a teacher who reads from the book, hasnt much real world experience and doesnt add much to the experience.
Pick your school and teacher wisely and it could well be worth your while.
Lastly - if you care about exams, you have to do them all in sequence, if you just want the knowledge, some schools are prepared to accept experienced operators into advanced classes on the understanding they arent interested in certification exams, just the book and learning experience, so you may not have to start at 101 everywhere.
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Just curious, why did you leave and what are you doing now?– UtopiaCommented Jul 27, 2011 at 18:28
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Reasons I left? I was lucky enough to have a gig where although I was often passing on info to clients, clients were often mentoring me as well and I learnt a tonne of new skills - however, I didnt have the creative opportunities to use them - frustrating. Also, my "mandate" was sales but I loved training. Lastly, I got married and my wife and I are thinking of starting a family sometime soon and I didn't want to feel pressured to keep a high paid job and never chase a dream. So I left, opened a premix room, train/consult part time and love it all. Left on good terms. Commented Jul 28, 2011 at 6:13
Try to see if you can enter at a more advanced level. It can go agonizingly slow with the newer users in those classes when you're operating at a level like you are.
Does anyone know if you can shortcut it and just take the test without doing the classes? That would be ideal...
I've studied the Pro Tools manual 4 times through: version 5, 6, and 7 twice, so going to a class and starting from scratch to get an asterisk next to my name on a resume is a waste of money.
But, in the end, I think that high quality products and samples are a much better thing to show on your resume than an AVID cert IMHO.
I went through a bit of the training a while back and found that it gave me no advantage. In a intensive ProTools environment or facility, I can certainly see some of the training coming in handy - more of a technical understanding of PT in larger scale/professional environments.
I certainly didn't need the training to get where I'm at. By no means whatsoever am I bragging, but spend time and learn the environment. They're expensive classes that give you no real world experience. And good luck!
I am Pro Tools certified at the 210 level. It has done nothing to truely advance my career. The books are a great resource for a beginner, and you should strive to know PT inside and out, but paying for "classes" was a waste in my opinion.
I don't know if they've fixed them, but their tests were all screwed up a few years ago. Some questions had multiple correct answers, some had none, and the test itself is randomly generated from a pool of questions. The big problem with that last one was that the same question would pop up multiple times (including those with multiple/no correct answers).
answered Jul 26, 2011 at 15:34
If you are new to Pro Tools then the 101 book is worth buying, you can purchase it from Amazon.
I got certified as part of my educational initiation to sound work. In my experience, being PT certified is like telling people you were an Eagle Scout; folks might be impressed that you put time, effort, and money into achieving such a title, but that doesn't mean you can do the job better than the other guy. If my work were being weighed against another sound editor of equal talent, I imagine it could serve as a tiebreaker, but not much more.
answered Jul 27, 2011 at 3:40
I have the 210 post certification. Have had none questions about this when getting jobs. Infact a lot of my most recent jobs had to be done in Nuendo... I think the books that comes with the courses is a great resource to have, but i wont be getting any other certificates.
Newbie here. I recently picked the brain of an audio director at a very well known video game company who advised me to get PT post certified if I wanted a leg up in the audio post job market. Now I'm reconsidering things after reading this thread! Being that my only experience is working on small projects at home for fun, my plan was to hopefully become expert certified in post production at an Avid training school >> intern at a post house >> work on small indie projects for little to no money >> work my way up from there.
Should I reconsider my strategy if certification has no real pull when it comes to landing a job in this business?
I have the 101 and 210 cert (got them during school), and it has never come up in an interview. I think that it definitely doesn't hurt to have on the resume, but all in all it probably wouldn't have been worth the effort if it wasn't already part of the course material I was working on.
Another thing to consider is that it probably varies in importance based on the field you're working in. I work in Game Audio and I would guess that it means just about the least here, and probably means a little more in post houses.
That being said, if you have 13+ years of ProTools use, you hopefully have a pretty nice demo reel going, and in my experience your demo reel should matter 100x more than any cert ever will.
hopefully that helps, best of luck!
-T
tldr; Have 210, hasn't made a noticeable difference...time could be better spent making a cool website or polishing your reel imo.
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