a little advice

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Hi All,

I have been using .Net for about 2+ years. I want to do some kind of certification as I'm a contractor and pretty much live or die on the strength of my CV, plus I'm interested in doing it too.

Due to the MCAD/MCSD being retired I thought the best route for me would be completing the MCTS examination then leading on to MCPD. Any advice? Does this seem sensible?

Although the MCSD is being retired would it make more career sense to do this than an MCPD?

Tips, help advice much appreciated.

 

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Its entirely up to you, both tracks are still available, you have just under a year to complete the MCSD I believe.

Personally I think the newer tracks are better because :-

1. They are more focused on the different technology tracks.
2. They are more technical in nature.
3. They target the most widely in use version of .Net which is 2.0.

You can still however do a mix and match, take the older exams to get a certification of MCAD or MCSD and then upgrade to MCPD if you prefer.

 

Forgive my ignorance, is the MCPD the newer track or the MCSD? (I assumed the MCPD was the newer)

I also assume that when the exams are retired there will be a direct 'upgrade' exam to whichever new qualifications Microsoft come up with?

Basically what I'm aiming for is the most upto date, worthwhile qualification.

Thanks for your help.

 

Old track was MCSD.

New track is MCPD but this is split into three sub-tracks for three different MCPD certs.

MCPD is available on .Net version 2.0 and on .Net 3.5.

See here :-

http://www.microsoft.com/Learning/MCP/MCPD/default.mspx

Upgrade exams exist for transitioning from the major certs.

To take the latest and greatest you should do MCPD 3.5 however not all books or exams may yet be available making it rather unpractical.

 

Excellent, thanks for clearing that up.

I think I'll do the MCTS and then move on to MCPD; and from there who knows.

I *think* concentrating on the MCPD based around .NET version 2.0 is probably the bulletproof option for at least the next year or so.

I plan to home study, can you recommend any good study guides, mock exam resources etc for the web track and/or the desktop track?

I do both 'disciplines' at the moment, so am somewhat undecided as to what to tackle first, although for either one the MCTS is a pre-requisite so from starting there can you make any recommendations?

Thanks again.

 

Personally I use the MS Training Kits and MeasureUp, they seem quite good to me but only just passed my MCPD Windows .Net 2.0 as it was very tough.

I looking at doing 70-528 at the moment with a view to maybe getting MCPD Enterprise.

I have not used any other resources so cannot comment on whether they are any better.

 

When you say very tough, in what way?

Also, could I ask how long you were using the framework before you took the exams and how long it took from deciding to do the MCPD to actually getting it?

Cheers.

 

I have been developing for Windows since 1995, however obviously very little of that was in .Net, most was in Win16/Win32/MFC /ATL !

Professionaly I am currently a Java programmer so my exposure to .Net at work has been limited, I had developed a couple test web sites and web services, integrated Java and .Net web services etc.

I was between contracts when I decided to take MCPD Windows, it took me just over 3 months full time study.

I found many questions tricky despite days of cramming with MeasureUp and only scraped through all three exams, they are in no way easy, although they probably are easier than the SCJP.

 

Excellent, thanks for your help.