Hello, So what's the scrore?

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If you are still actually reading this (looks like you blew your top even though many people have taken time to give advice) I was going to suggest you may want to check out your local college. Some of them now offer classroom / tutor led courses in professional IT qualifications. They are usually a hell of a lot cheaper than private training companies also.

I used to lecture part time at my local college teaching things like the MCDST and various other MS technical certs. That was all evening class based, so it fitted in with peoples work commitments.

 

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Aaaaand... Relax.

 

Look guys, i'm sorry if I blew my top... it's been a long day!

Look come on that's why I came here. I've spent a few weeks speaking with training schools, checking out local college, looking at MS website and now joining a forum.

Everywhere I went gave me different answers, offered a different qualification and cetification path, and then i came here and it all went completely pearshaped, it's enought to make anyone miffed, without then getting snide remarks on your first post!

At the end of the day i'm in no hurry, I want to investigate, find the best path for me and take my time...

I'm not thinking of getting my exams because i want a job in IT, I got one of those!

I'm thinking of doing it because I want to , why not, beats sitting in front of the T.V. drinking beer everynight!

as well as..

When you are promised training and then never get any, when you spend years working evenings, weekends, even all night, producing websites, web apps, inergrated MS Access / SQL2000/2005 systems and then they don't pay you!

It's time to better yourself and move on!

So to dip my toe in the water with MS certification and because I was told it was part of the path for full MCSD, i thought I'd take MCDST, but if you guys are saying different, i'll respect that, I may have self taught, but it's been with a lot of help from support forums such as this, so I do respect the value forums such as these provide (and yes, in that case i should know better!).

Now at the end of the day, I'm jack of all trades master of some, and I'm not bothered about what resulting job you get with the MS certifications I may obtain, ultimately from my experiance I get the most pleasure from coding and writing web systems.

Surely for any employee having basic windows OS & Office skills is desirable, and it surely won't hurt having MCDST or similar?

You would hardly ignore someone's o'level and a'levels (GCSE's) just because they have a dimploma or doctorate?

I can see a developer requiring MCDBA or equivilant, most apps need to plug into data storage of one type or another, and SQL is the main candidate for the job, even if on occasion i'll still use dilimited flat text files, hey XML is no different.

So ok guys, lend me your pearls of wisdom.

If your ultimate goal is to be a programmer (and not a bug testing code monkey!), I would guess .NET is the way to go, what would YOU start with first, just as a taster, just to be sure getting these bits of paper are for you?

Also (under the new exams) what is required for web app developement? Hey maybe I want to learn C or ActiveX or VBScript and write desktop apps, who knows, but I beleive web apps is the way of the future, if not already what with cloud computing , VMWare and SaaS (Software as a Service).

At the moment all my apps are witten using X/HTML / JavaScript (AJAX) / MS SQL / PERL , but i'm finding perl lacking in some departments when you want to truley interact with the client machine.

I'm currently struggling to find a way of writing a webapp to enable the FTPing of very large files from client machine to server NOT using the HTTP MIME encoded protocol, those current technologies don't give me access to the windows API for inet.dll use (I'm struggling to get my head round how to use activeX and facilitate similar with ASP).

So I know I need more skills in the client/server interaction department when moving into the web apps arena, I just keep having this niggling feeling that it would be so much easy using .NET and the .NET framework.

Or maybe I need to learn FLASH!

 

.NET would be a good idea but yes there is no harm in getting the MCDST but it is in no way related to programming as it's for someone who is supporting Windows XP and the apps that run on it.

 

This entirely depends on the employer, many employers only care about your last qualification or role, its the 'your only as good as your last movie' approach.

Certs in general at least indicate a deadication to personal development and a willingness to learn, so yes any cert even a MCDST might help.

However since everyones time is limited you are also best focusing on what you want to do, some employers may see you embarking on a non development route as lacking direction or focus.

Most development jobs focus on skills, what can you deliver, can you solve difficult problems etc. If you have a lot of experience delivering for a company then you are already ahead of a lot of people.

Certs for development are a nice to have, many developers know how to use databases and SQL, they do not see the need for a formal qualification. MCDBA no longer exists, why not look at MCTS 70-431 instead if you are still keen.

I'm no XML fanboy, but XML does have many advantages over delimited text files.

I went and did a HND at college, my first main language was ADA, then C and then C++. There were also many others. My advice is start with whatever interests you most and that you think you have a shot at mastering.

.NET is probably the most obvious candidate for people currently looking to learn a general purpose language yes. You could do a lot worse. Even with .NET you still have many choices, VB .NET, C#, F#, LINQ, Managed C++, IronRuby, IronPython, PowerShell, J# (And these are just the main ones, theres many more).

Nothing wrong with C, its a great system level language, 90% of nearly all modern OS's are written in it.

ActiveX is really a component technology closely related to COM but with GUI support.

I would not learn VBScript unless you have to, learn PowerShell instead, which is basically .NET anyway.

Interesting stack.

Browsers are built to support HTTP, you will have a much easier time using HTTP multipart POST upload.

Browsers typically have a sandbox security model, opening network connections is not usually permitted unless you install a signed browser helper object or plugin. Such objects can be written using ActiveX(typically in VB or C/C++), Flash/ActionScript or Java Applets.

It probably is, a lot of things are VERY easy in .NET. However if you are trying to row upstream by trying to break the design/security model of your middleware probably not. You may even find it harder.

Learn whatever interests you, that way you are aways a winner.

Best of Luck.

 

On the subject of mentoring Google runs the Summer of Code it sounds like a good way to get mentored, as is joining an Open Source project.

 

Thanks for the info peeps, it's not feeling so confusing and daunting now!

Not sure HND/BSC is the route i want, if, as someone metions o-levels & a-levels aren't important to an employer when the have MS certs.

Dunno would an employer preffer someone with 20+ years IT experience and a college qualification or someone with 20+ years in IT & MS qualifications?

Perhaps MCTS is the right way to go.

no , what I meant was I understood MCSE was more networking and support track than coding, so thought MCSE wouldn't be the right choice for me, but again correct me if i'm wrong.

Cool, i'll check them out, thanks for the info. Didn't even know we had a British Computer Society!

Dunno if I'm ready to take part in open source projects yet, but it is certainly something to consider when better qualified.

I still think I want a SQL qualification, I know there is much more to SQL than a few basic select,update,insert,delete,sum,count statements!

I have no idea what or how to use stored procedures, optimisation, DTS or enterprise scalling solutions.

One SEO guru told me if I used my SQL.pm perl module in a large ecommerce environment, i'd kill the server!

But in the environment I currently use it and for home/hobby sites, it's certainly done me proud

 

"One SEO guru told me..."

Mmmmm, lots of dodgy people claiming to be SEO gurus about, I wouldn't trust half of them to reboot my PC, let alone anything else.

I'm not that familiar with perl, generally large ecommerce solutions use specialist caching solutions to avoid hitting the database. When they do hit the database they often use other techniques like clusters or sharding to help scale.

 

I don't know about certification for developers but if you want a helpful community whilst your learning etc then this forum: http://www.dreamincode.net/ is full of helpful types!