Welp, I guess this makes me a CSS and HTML expert, if only this certificate was issued by a respectable, honorable, trustworthy and highly overpriced university that offers this kind of bootcamp-like, short-term, high-intensity courses.
Where's my job offer? Can't you see the certificate specifically says that 
Don't get me wrong, I'm actually quite satisfied with myself for finishing such a long course about two of the most basic yet necessary skills when it comes to web development, and even though I'm not planning on working on Website Design for the long term, this sets me up to being able to land a short term Frontend job or to develop some simple websites for small businesses and for the friends and family for an affordable price.
But why is Udemy offering a Certificate of Completion after one finishes the course, if each lesson can be marked as finished by just checking on a box? Anyone, literally anyone who buys a course on Udemy can get a certificate by spending a few minutes checking all the lesson boxes instead of watching every video and letting the interface check the boxes for them once the video finishes and it automatically send you to the next one.
In the end, this kind of certificates are useless, and I'm not sure that any serious HR manager of any company will take into account that your CV includes any number of Udemy certificates. All we get from online courses is the knowledge and experience we stack, and no matter how many we do finish, it's up to us to put that knowledge to work and create a portfolio that speaks for itself.
I've been doing some thinking and more research and I've come to the conclusion that in order to land any kind of web development related job I have to have a landing page that acts as a resume, as well as a regular CV, but in the end the former is just a formally because the latter will tell the potential hiring dude (or dudette? I think that's more common) everything they need to know about my possible skills and what I can bring to the company.
Is holding yourself accountable enough for a person to thrive in the modern world where almost anyone can get an online certificate, and pretty much everyone who enrolls in an university and pays the tuitions will get a degree, or is self-accountability just a plus in a global job market that is rapidly - if it's not already there - heading towards a Melee-type or MMPORP, free for all environment, where people are not competing against their University peers but against the Chinese brainiac or the Indian geek who will definitely kick their ass on each and every single aspect of any given job opening?
In a world where education is costless and all the information exists inside a cellphone and all we have to do is reach out for it instead of watching cats getting wet on YouTube, having discipline, organization, a schedule, a timeline and holding yourself accountable to them, means you are probably on the Top-Tier side of any field, or at least you will be once you finish up your self-set learning program.
But how does this play a role when it comes to actually landing a job?
Well, it turns out that traditional companies are still going through the normal hiring process and use the same old filters to decide which job applicant is qualified for any given job opening, and although it seems that the tide is slowly turning towards knowledge instead of papers, we are still a long way from that scenario despite the pandemic pushing and forcing said tide turn.
But then again, do I really want to work in a traditional company?
I don't think so. I left one of the most traditional companies 5 years ago and, despite loving the Coliseum as I used to call it, I would never go back - unless I got offered a 6 figure salary, which is not going to happen yet - to an old-way of working kind of workplace.
Because you see, I got an online certificate!
