What courses should a prospective programmer take?

CodedFire

Hi guys,

I've been teaching myself C# for a while now and have decided to get serious about it. I'm planning to start applying for jobs next summer but a lack of leaving cert or college degree is putting me off. There is also the subject on whether or not I actually know enough. I've heard Microsoft does certs on programming that help show employers that you are capable in a given field but im having trouble finding them. All google is throwing up is dodgy get rich schemes.

Anyone have any experience in this senario?

Ginger

There are a couple of certs you can take

There are certification on 3 versions of the framework

In 1.1 there are the MCAD and MCSD certifications. Theses are due to be retired in March 2009. They are quite well known and established which means usually that HR people will recognise them quite easily.

The MCAD consists of 3 exams (2 core exams and 1 elective) and the MCSD is a superset of the MCAD and its 4 core exams and 1 elective.

Its a broad certification category due to the elective requirement meaning that you can have an elective in such things as SQL Server 2000/2005 or BizTalk. Also it can be quite confusing as the exams have different exam numbers for the different languages for example

70-305 is the Web Applications exam in VB.NET and for C# its 70-315. Both have the same content just in the different language.

In the 2.0 there is the MCTS and MCPD certifications.

There are 3 different MCTS certifications that you can take and they show competency in different aspects of 2.0 .NET development.

They are

• MCTS Web Applications Development
• MCTS Windows Applications Development
• MCTS Distributed Applications Development

For each of these certs it requires 2 exams. They each require that you pass 70-536 exam which is .NET Foundations exam. As the name suggests it deals with the foundations of .NET development. Once you have passed this, you dont have to pass it again if any other cert requires it.

The MCTS certs are the how of programming certs. They deal with, you want to achieve X task, how to do you do it.

The MCPD is the next level up from the MCTS and is based around design and architecture decisions. It is the why type cert.

There are currently 3 MCPD certifications in .NET 2.0. These are related to the above MCTS certs.

These are

• MCPD Web Applications Developer
• MCPD Windows Application Developer
• MCPD Enterprise Applications Developer

For the MCPD Web and MCPD Win they are 3 exams. The first 2 give you the MCTS in either Web or Win and then the final MCPD exam.

MCPD Enterprise requires 5 exams. You need the MCTS Win, MCTS Web and MCTS Distributed and then the final MCPD exam. So its fairly long getting that one.

MCTS and MCPDs are becoming more and more recognised. Still there is only about 12,000 MCPDs worldwide.

For 3.5 there are 6 MCTS certifications and 3 MCPD certifications.

They are similar to the 2.0 certs except there is a couple of new ones to cover the new technology silos in 3.5

So the MCTS' are (exam numbers in brackets)

• MCTS Windows Application Development (70-505)*
• MCTS ASP.NET Development (70-562)
• MCTS ADO.NET Development (70-561)
• MCTS Windows Presentation Foundation (70-502)
• MCTS Windows Communication Foundation (70-503)
• MCTS Windows Workflow (70-504)

* Will be released Q1 2009

All the above certs require 2 exams, and again the base exam is 70-536. So if you pass it, it means that all other certs are only 1 exam each.

The 3 MCPDs will be

• MCPD Windows Application Developer 3.5
• MCPD Web Applications Developer 3.5
• MCPD Enterprise Application Developer 3.5

The requirements for these will be similar to the MCPD 2.0 except in the Enterprise Developer one. This will require 4 MCTS' and 1 MPCD exam. For the MCPD Ent, it will be MCTS Win, MCTS ASP.NET, MCTS ADO.NET and MCTS WCF

There will be upgrades from 2.0 to 3.5 coming soon, usually 2 months after the release of the corresponding MCPD exam.

Now thats the whole developer certification overview at the moment.

As for training, the books are out for the 1.1.and 2.0 certifications but not 3.5 yet. They are usually released about 6 months after the exam goes live.

I have written a few exam guides and the links are in this post

Hope this helps.. If you give us an idea of what you want to achieve and also the version of the framework you are using, we can help you a bit better

CodedFire

Wow,

Thanks Ginger, I have decided to target the 3.5 framework as this makes the most sense to me. I am unsure on wether to go WIN or WEB app building as the job sections are screaming for Web Apps but I prefer Win apps. Its not that I dont like web apps its just I prefer Win Apps.

Regarding pricing are these exams expensive and is it just you pay the price and sit the exam. IE take as long as you need to study then take the exam?

Thanks for the reply so far!

Ginger

With regards to the exam cost its about 180 inc VAT. Before you book make sure to see the post on Second Shot which gives you a free retry if you fail an exam. And also on how to go about your first exam

You normally just book the exams and do them. Normally you book between 6 to 8 weeks in advance depending on how busy the exam centre is.

You are not required to do a course on them before you sit an exam. In fact most people tend to do self study rather than relying on a course.

The Windows exam for 3.5 wont be released until Q1 2009 so about late Jan or early Feb I think is the current timeline. Which gives you plenty of time to get the initial foundations exam out of the way. There is a post offering some advice on how to go about the exam.

On whether it is better to do web or windows, its a personal choice. Tho I do think that Web programming allows more flexibility as you can go into Sharepoint(WSS/MOSS) development, which is quite lucrative if you have the skills.

CodedFire

Well that gives me more than enough to digest. Thans a mill. As the exam I wish to go for is not out yet il get to studying. Thanks a mill Ginger!!!

Ginger

The MCTS Windows Applications Development 3.5 is a 2 part exam. So complete exam 70-536 first and then when its released you can do 70-505.

Now.. if you dont feel like paying for the exam, you might be lucky and be able to sign up for the beta of the exam. Beta exams are free to take, but you get the exam in its rough and ready form. If you pass the beta it counts as passing the live exam (and so its free!). This will only count for exam 70-505 (which will be labelled in beta as 71-505)

RredCat

Ginger wrote: »

Now.. if you dont feel like paying for the exam, you might be lucky and be able to sign up for the beta of the exam. Beta exams are free to take, but you get the exam in its rough and ready form. If you pass the beta it counts as passing the live exam (and so its free!). This will only count for exam 70-505 (which will be labelled in beta as 71-505)

Hi Ginger,
Are questions (themes) of 71-505 liked to questions (themes) of 70-505?!? I want try to pass this (71-505) exam. But I can't find any information about themes of questions.

donaghs

I was about to say a Computer Science degree is best, or else a post-grad IT Higher Diploma which tends to favour programming.

But without the Leaving Cert..., I guess Ginger's advice is spot-on then.

Ginger

RredCat wrote: »

Hi Ginger,
Are questions (themes) of 71-505 liked to questions (themes) of 70-505?!? I want try to pass this (71-505) exam. But I can't find any information about themes of questions.

71-505 is the beta version of 70-505 ... it will be released I think around the end of Q4 2008...

Ginger

The reason that there is no information on exam 70-505 is because it is not live yet.

The current landing page gives you an idea of what is possibly going to be on the exam. Can be found here

Please be aware that this is subject to change...

cronos

How about you do the leaving cert first?

Mr Floyd

Hi Ginger, thanks for your detailed information and tips, very helpful as I'm also looking into getting into development, I'd just like to hear your opinion on the self training books available on amazon you posted, the user reviews are very negative, most of them say they're riddled with mistakes and over complicated, about 20% of the user reviews are positive, in your experience how did you find them, thanks a lot.

Ginger

I found them ok, but then again I didnt use them too much. My colleagues dound them alright and then have been through a couple of different tracks at this stage

There are corrections for the books which people may not realise

This thread gives a link to all the different exam books and their corrections. That should ease it for most people.

Also the books depend on your level. If you are coming into it trying to learn .NET the training kits tend to be above that level as it assumed that you will have some .NET abilities before attempting the exams.

Hope that helps

Mr Floyd

Thanks Ginger, yes I'm pretty much a beginner apart from doing a bit of VB and C in College years ago, so I found a good tutorial for beginners which I'll go through first, link below. Looks like somebody dropped the ball big time on those books, the amount of corrections is unbelievable! thanks again.

http://download.microsoft.com/download/8/e/7/8e725d96-7ec3-498b-9fa7-86779aed101f/dotNET%20Tutorial%20for%20Beginners.pdf

Ginger

Try the MSDN Rampup series

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/rampup/default.aspx

It provides good training and I am fairly sure there is a discount towards certain exams such as 70-536 when you finish them