Upgrade from MCAD to MCSD or MCPD?

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As I'm sure you're aware, Microsoft are retiring the MCAD/MCSD certs next year. I'm wondering whether it is worth going for the MCSD, as it concentrates on .NET 1.1. Most employers these days want at least 2.0, so I feel it would be a wasted effort. Getting IT certs is like hitting a moving target, as there are always newer versions of the technology coming out. I reckon it would be much better to do an upgrade exam, and then do any further MCTS exams required to get an MCPD. Any thoughts on this?

 

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You can look at it one of two ways. If you get certified on MCSD, you prove to an employer that you've been working with the technology since the 1.0/1.1 days. However, if you know that the employer you want to work for uses 2.0, then it might be more beneficial to go directly for that certification. If it were me, I'd go for the MCSD.NET and then upgrade.

 

Yup.

And what he said.

 

I've had a look at the syllabus of the MCTS/MCPD certs and overall I think they're much better than the previous certs. They seem to go into more detail about C#/VB.NET syntax, as well as using the class library to write web/windows/distributed apps. According to a poll on the Code Project, the majority of developers were targeting .NET 2.0, and relatively few were using 1.1 or 3.0/3.5. Since 3.0/3.5 are really just 2.0 with a few extra libraries, my gut instinct tells me to go with the MCPD, as it will be in more demand by the time I've done it.