King of the Who?

It's been a good long while since the age of imperial Rome, and even longer since the halcyon years when the empire bestrode the ancient western world and the decrees of its rulers were law. The best known of the ancient Romans were figures of enormous historical consequence. Even great world powers only last so long, of course, and the rulers of the late empire were often forgettable in their own time, and have been almost entirely forgotten in ours.

In the waning decades of the western empire, exactly 1,592 year ago today, Valentinian III became the western emperor at age 6. It would hardly be surprising for anyone alive today to not recognize his name, or not know the first thing about his life and times. Valentinian's mother, Galla Placidia, guided all decisions while acting as her son's regent until he was 18, and the general Flavius Aetius dominated the remainder of Valentinian's nearly 30-year reign.

Valentinian's name is in the history books, and he was the nominal ruler of an empire (or at least of its crumbling western half) for almost three decades. That's a fair amount of pomp and circumstance without much at all to show for it. In fact, Valentinian is mostly remembered for assassinating Aetius a few months before being assassinated himself. Emperors, after all, don't very often do their own dirty work.

IT certifications are sometimes looked at with a similarly critical eye. The have impressive acronyms and fancy-sounding titles. And while digital badges are writing an abrupt end to the age of ink-and-paper certifications, such credentials at least used to look nice in a frame on the wall. For all of that, however, what matters in the IT realm is what you can do, not what you know. Or, more to the point, what an impressive acronym says that you know.

That's why TestOut certifications are performance-based, and why our exams test what you can do, and not so much what facts you were able to memorize long enough to fill in some bubbles on a Scantron form. When an employer sees one of our Pro certifications on your résumé, we want that to be a flashing-light indicator that you are an IT doer. That's just good for business — the value of our certifications is a huge chunk of our reputation.

Not even Roman emperors are remembered forever just because they had fancy-sounding titles and lofty imperial pedigrees. Success in the workplace, and in most areas of life, is a product of what you actually do with your knowledge and talents. Action, not words or letters, is so important to TestOut that we guarantee the skills of anyone who earns one of our certifications. Don't be the guy who looked impressive on paper but never did anything. Get a TestOut certification, and your actions will speak louder than any words.