Yes, yet another person asking "what certification do I go for?"

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Hello all.

I've recently been made redundant after 14 years as a senior developer/programmer/systems analyst (or whatever the job title was each year) and have about 20 years overall of programming experience.

Unfortuanately, other than touching on a limited amount of SQL, XML, HTML and a (very) small amount of java at work, nearly everything I've done has been with earlier 3GLs such as FORTRAN, PASCAL, C, as well as a range of in-house software.

Clearly these days, highlighting FORTRAN skills on a CV is akin to going for a construction site job and highlighting your great wattle & daub experience, so I need to retrain. The problem is what to retrain in.

I have been advised that .NET is a good way to go, and I am looking to stay in programming, leaning towards application development rather than what looks (to my untrained eyes anyway) to be the more back-end world of the MCSE route.


Looking at the forums, where people have posed similar questions, it does look like Microsoft certification is not necessarily the answer, or at least it should be regarded as a continuation of your training, not the starting point. My question is, if that's the case, what is the starting point, and where do I go from there?

Should I be going for some kind of basic level certification, or should I just be buying one of the many training books such as the "MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536): Microsoft® .NET Framework—Application Development Foundation" in the amazon training books link? And then what?

Essentially I want to be able to get to a level where a company that isn't demanding people with x year's experience would be willing to take a punt on me, and then continue to press for further certification once I'm doing the job and learning more.

Unsurprisingly any request for advice from training sites "reassures" me that their courses are the very thing I need, and at the moment I'm drowning under the options available, and the expensive consquences of making the wrong choice.

cheers for any advice, and apologies for rambling on.

 

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You are a programmer with years of experience, so you are not in a bad place really.. sounds like you just need to adapt and become familiar with the flavour of the month.

MCSE is NOT for you really it is a completely different ballgame. it covers server administration and the planning and deployment of Microsoft products ie Active Directory services, exchange and the like.

From what i have heard experienced programmers don't benefit much from certifications, it's more about selling yourself by showing people what you can do.

Hopefully someone that understands more about the world of programming will be along soon to give you a better run down. in the mean time, don't sign up for anything