Pigeon-holed

GoneShootin

Right lads I'm starting to fret just a small bit. I've been developing in PHP now for over 2 years, and do so in my current position. But I look at the recruitment options out there, and PHP does not factor highly in the results. In my mind I need to make the shift to something in the .NET flavour.

The problem though is that I would be hitting the .NET ground cold. My VB knowledge is nil, hell we didn't even do anything Microsoft based in college. C/C++ and Java it was,and because I've not been developing in those areas for so long I may as well start from scratch for all the good it would do me.

So I've been poking about at the Microsoft site, getting myself nicely confused with all the MCxx certifications, VB, VB.NET, C#, ASP.NET and so on. I'm looking to get my toes wet and the sooner the better.

I'm looking at this book. Build Your Own ASP.NET 2.0 Web Site Using C# & VB and it could be a good starting point for me. My main question though is thus:

"To boost my CV and employment opportunities, how can I best educate myself and work toward some kind of recognised certification?"

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated!

Evil Phil

Um, if I were in your position I'd be looking at java certs. Seeing as you have some background in that. My €0.02.

It's new years ffs. Worry about it tomorrow.

dazberry

GoneShootin wrote:

So I've been poking about at the Microsoft site, getting myself nicely confused with all the MCxx certifications, VB, VB.NET, C#, ASP.NET and so on. I'm looking to get my toes wet and the sooner the better.

As we've talked about here before - I'm doing the MCPD. Really I'm doing it out of desperation so I can trade in my old pointy headed Dilbert boss for a new pointy headed Dilbert boss. Never the less I'm hoping that it will create an opportunity - other things may happen in the meantime or it might all be a waste of time - at best its being proactive - at worst it feels there's light at the end of the tunnel.

Everything else aside this is how the exams/certs are structured:

[1] .Net Framework 2.0 - Application Development Foundation Exam 70-536

[2] .Net ... Web-Based Client Development Exam 70-528

[3] .Net ... Windows Based Client Development Exam 70-526

[4] .Net ... Distributed Application Development Exam 70-529

[5] Designing and Developing Web based ... Exam 70-547

[6] Designing and Developing Windows based ... Exam 70-548

[7] Designing and Developing Enterprise ... Exam 70-549

1+2 or 1+3 or 1+4 = MS Certified Technology Specialist (TS) in the respective area.
1+2+5 = MSPD (Professional Developer) Web Application
1+3+6 = MSPD Windows Applications
1+2+3+4+7 = MSPD Enterprise Applications (this is the one I'm ~doing~).

Since you're in the PHP world - it may well be worth looking at 1 and 2, 70-536 and 70-528 and going for the TS Web Application. Probably better to do that 528 first (web) and the 536 (fundimentals) next. Likewise I'm doing the 528 first - and although we've covered all the ASP.NET stuff - we haven't finished the database stuff yet so we don't have enough to sit the exam yet.

The catch? There are self paced books for each exam. If you wanted to learn specific things and most likely learn them better - there are many better books out there - but the self-paced books are more focused towards the exams - so are better structured toward getting the exams.

For me its sort of a triple edged sword. The good is what interests me - the bad is what doesn't but is on the course so there's good reason to make an effort, and well the ugly is the stuff that is a bit quirky (in a way only MS could do) - that you'd do a completely different way (I've already ran into this a couple of times) - but have to learn it that way for the exam regardless.

HTH

D.

GoneShootin

Cheers dazberry, very helpful indeed.

Ginger

The handy thing about going for the MCPD stuff is that the tools are free for you to get a flavour of what to do... The VS.NET 2005 Express editions are free to download as is SQL Server 2005 Express.

You can use Mono http://www.mono-project.com/ASP.NET to allow you to run ASP.NET pages on Apache (if you are more familiar with running apache rather than IIS) but be aware that all the MS Exam stuff will be based around IIS

The exams are quirky and require a better knowledge than is in the books and being brutally honest they can be really annoying especially when you look at it and none are really the right answer at all..

I would still keep the PHP in the picture expecially handy for conversion projects and other such things.

Best of luck

GoneShootin

Ginger wrote:

I would still keep the PHP in the picture expecially handy for conversion projects and other such things.

No doubt! Despite my best efforts I can't shake the PHP nightmares late at night

Ginger

ASP.NET requires a small mind shift to get you used to it.. but if you have ever done any functional programming its fairly easy to get the hang off.. even coming from classic ASP it wasnt that bad..

Most people find the hardest bit the whole deplyment and moving from debug to release builds..

Much of the exams are based along the lines of builds,trace, debug and localisation

philologos

PHP is great imo anyway. but yeah I'd probably need to learn more, but I'll probably do that when I get into a decent Computer Science course (hopefully). doing LC in 2008