Tang Moying
中文

I Obtained the Certified Jenkins Engineer Certification and Certificate

2020-01-18 4 min read 616 words

Introduction to CJE

Certified Jenkins Engineer (CJE) is the official Jenkins skills certification exam launched by CloudBees (the main contributor to the Jenkins open-source project). It covers knowledge in three major areas:

  1. Jenkins
  2. Jenkins Pipeline
  3. Jenkins Administration

Quoting the introduction to Jenkins certification on the CloudBees website:

Earning certification means you have the skills and hands-on experience needed to implement and use Jenkins.
For Jenkins engineers, getting certified can help you demonstrate your proficiency and skills.
For managers, hiring a Jenkins-certified person guarantees that they have professional Jenkins knowledge and skills.

Introduction to CloudBees

The relationship between CloudBees and the Jenkins community

  1. Kohsuke Kawaguchi
    • Jenkins community lead and CloudBees chief scientist
  2. Coding and releases
    • Project development is carried out by CloudBees together with the community
    • The contributions CloudBees engineers make to the Jenkins project are significant
    • Project releases are carried out by CloudBees together with the community
  3. Publishes the Jenkins community monthly newsletter
  4. Organizes Jenkins World and supports many Jenkins events

The CloudBees company

  1. Founded on March 9, 2010
  2. Has hundreds of employees worldwide
  3. CloudBees is a leader in enterprise DevOps, powering the continuous economy
  4. Helps customers deliver software at the speed of ideas

Looking back on my exam registration journey

I actually wrote this article on February 5, 2020. At that time the epidemic was still developing, schools had postponed the start of term, and various public events had been called off. I too was holed up alone in my room, so I had plenty of time to write articles.

Based on when the events happened, the date of the article is written as the day I passed the exam and obtained the CJE certification.

Looking back now, I still feel quite emotional about it.

Because there was no test center for the CJE exam in Zhuhai and the nearest one was in Guangzhou, I had originally planned to take the exam when I passed through Guangzhou on my way back after the New Year. At the time I saw that there happened to be one more session just before the New Year holiday (January 18, 2020), and I was fairly confident in my Jenkins skills, so I decided to “register early and get it over with”.

If I had actually registered to take the exam after the New Year, I wouldn’t even be able to take it now…

Registration is done through a globally unified website https://www.webassessor.com/cloudbees; the fee is 150 US dollars and only credit card payment is accepted.

So I decided to first apply for a foreign-currency credit card from China Merchants Bank (招行).

  1. January 6, 2020: applied online for a China Merchants Bank VISA foreign-currency credit card
  2. January 7, 2020: document review completed
  3. January 8, 2020: card produced and mailed out
  4. January 9, 2020: received the card and activated it
  5. January 10, 2020: registered online for the January 18 exam
  6. January 18, 2020: went to Guangzhou, took the exam and passed

Not long after the exam ended, I received the exam-passed email sent by CloudBees.

Showing off the certificate photo

My CJE certificate

There are a few points to note about the CJE exam.

  1. Before the exam, your pockets are checked and must not contain any items; smart watches may not be worn either;

  2. Candidates take the exam in individual rooms, with the whole session recorded;

  3. The exam platform is globally unified, and both the interface and the questions are in English;

  4. The questions probe Jenkins skills very deeply; without several years of real Jenkins work experience it is almost impossible to pass.

Below are some Jenkins- and CJE-related study resources: