In this new post to the PHPClasses.org blog, Manuel Lemos looks at the PHP Certification Exam - whether it's worth it, how can you take it and includes an interview with a ZCE, Mauricio Garcia about his experience with it.

Although I am certain that having a PHP certification is not the only way to demonstrate that a PHP developer is really qualified, I am sure that it helps hinting employers about his skills, and so become more open to negotiate better salaries. Having a PHP certification also helps a developer stand out from the crowd of developers that apply to a job but do not have any certification.

In the interview Manuel talks with Mauricio (a Brazilian PHP developer) about whether or not he feels the certification is worth it, how a developer can take it and what they need to do to prepare for it as well as a mention of a book that might help.

Michael Kimsal has also posted some of his own thoughts on the certification issue (and of the comments made during the interview).

Michael Kimsal has posted his opinion on why PDO, the database interface layer for PHP, sucks.

Every so often I try to use PDO under PHP5, and every time I run in to basic functionality problems with no ability to find out what's going on under the hood.

He includes a few comments supporting his statement including an issue where a prepare() call didn't work, his frustration with not being able to see what's "under the hood" and the lack of documentation to help with these sorts of issues.