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Yiu "Ricky" Yu was well regarded in his professional career as a senior Web administrator for HCC Surety Group when he chose to pursue CIW certification for validation. "I wanted to show that my IT knowledge, skills and experience were well established," he said. Having worked for HCC Surety Group for eight years, Ricky also sought to refine and develop his skills in e-commerce, networking, security, scripting languages (JavaScript and Perl), databases and development (ASP.net). "I had researched many certifications," Ricky said, "and CIW was the only one that offered the combination of IT skills I sought."

A graduate of the University of Houston in Texas, Ricky augmented his formal IT education with self-study toward certification. He purchased CIW self-study training materials from the CIW Web site store that included coursebooks, online classes and CD-ROMs. Ricky completed three CIW self-study courses in eight weeks and was able to instantly implement the skills into his work at HCC Surety Group. "I apply a lot of e-commerce skills to my company Web site," he said, "and I utilize Web design and XHTML standards. It makes my company Web site look more professional and provides more back-end security."

Ricky is developing Web-based applications that allow HCC Surety Group customers to obtain quotes and purchase insurance policies for all states via the Internet. Looking forward, Ricky plans to add Master CIW Administrator, CIW Security Analyst and Master CIW Enterprise Developer certifications to his repertoire.

"CIW has many IT paths for the candidates to study. It is my goal to pass all of the CIW exams and continue to improve my IT skills. CIW certification is an excellent resource to show your employer that you have the sufficient skills to get your work done," Ricky said.