Brainbench offers free and pay certifications on a variety of office/language/computer related topics. It keeps a transcript of your scores and even little gifs to attach to your resume. Here’s the question…if an employer saw that Brainbench certification on one’s resume, would they just laugh at it? Do the certs hold any weight? Are they respected in the real world or are they just a way for Mr. Brainbench to make a buck?
Has anyone had any experience with it? I just took a free English Vocab test on a lark and bookmarked a bunch of computer related tests, but should I bother taking them?
As far as I know, no. Both in my last job and my current one I am responsible for hiring technicians. Your Brainbench cert would mena nothing to me because it’s not a closed test enviornment. All it tells me in any real sense is that you’re able to log onto a web site and use a browser.
Additionally, most of the tests aren’t very hard. I’ve taken several and found that they are based more on very general low level knowledge than on the knowledge I would want you to have were you to come work for me.
Should you bother? Well, that’s up to you. I’d take the free ones, especially if they are in an area that you’re not familiar with. They might give you an idea what’s generally studied in that particular area.
Just wanted to bump this up because I had the same question today. I was looking at a website, http://www.itmoonlighter.com/index.cfm, and it asked me to link to my Brainbench certifications. I’d never heard of it, so went over, and for fun took the General Business one. It said I scored higher than 99% of the others who’d taken the test (imagine that, at a site aimed at techies). Was just wondering if either of these sites was familiar to anyone here and whether it had grown at all in the 1+ years since the last response.
Max Carnage, did you end up doing anything with this? Did it help?