Lime in the coconut

"re: Certification: No Magic Bullet - One more thought about the value of a cert. There's a huge spectrum of topics to consider when trying to become a valuable developer. What do you focus on first? Certs can provide a useful syllabus for organizing and directing your self-study as well as a barometer for judging progress. Leverage the 'Skills being measured' section from the Prepation Guide for each MS cert by using it to keep track of the vast amount of vocab, notes, code that you will gather while studying. Properly harvested, these breadcrumbs can then be presented to potential new employers as real and detailed evidence of what you have done and can do."

9/8/2007 4:21:23 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Wednesday, September 05, 2007

Starting off with 70-536

I don't have my study kit yet, but I wanted to get an idea of what the 70-536 exam would cover.
So I googled '70-536' and came across some good stuff!

The Skills Being Measured section was just what I was looking for...
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-536.mspx

Here's a ms-word version cleaned up a bit:
Skills that are measured by Exam 70-536.doc (95.5 KB)

Same list, but Mike put links to each topic (stops half-way)
http://www.dotnetfun.com/articles/certifications/Passing70536Certification.aspx

Joe does the same and for all topics!
http://www.publicjoe.co.uk/536/70-536.html

Same list, but this one's a wiki with nice navigation - a TOC floating on the right hand side
http://en.csharp-online.net/Microsoft_Exam_70-536_Study_Guide

Last one... this one has some good code samples too.
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Microsoft_Certified_Technology_Specialist/Exam_70-536

9/5/2007 4:11:01 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Sunday, September 02, 2007

Study Resources: Books, Sample Tests

Exam4Sure: ~$70
http://www.exam4sure.com/Microsoft/MCTS.html
http://www.exam4sure.com/Microsoft/MCPD.html

TestKing: ~$60 + ~$30 for extra labs (TS)
http://www.testking.com/MCTS-certification-training.htm
http://www.testking.com/MCPD-certification-training.htm

MCPD Self-paced Training Kit (Exams 70-536, 70-526, 70-548): Win
ISBN: 0735625018
B & N - $115
Amazon - $101
Quantum - $103
Campusi - $90
Valore - $120*

MCPD Self-paced Training Kit (Exam 70-536, 70-528, 70-547): Web
ISBN: 0735623767
B & N - $144
Amazon - $101
Quantum - $103
Campusi - $90
Valore - $54*

MCTS Self-paced Training Kit (Exam 70-529): Distributed Apps
ISBN: 0735623325
B & N - $56
Amazon - $42
Quantum - $45
Campusi - $15
Valore - $15*

MCPD Self-Paced Training Kit (Exams 70-549): Designing and Developing Enterprise
ISBN: 0735623384
B & N - $56
Amazon - $42
Quantum - $45
Campusi - $34
Valore - $15*

* If you buy from Valore use the code: 4trinug and receive an additional %5 savings!

On the final order page click [+] below Promotional Code

Enter '4trinug' in the Promotional Code textbox and Click Update to see the savings.

9/2/2007 5:32:39 PM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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How they know you know.

I guess the first test is figuring the out:

what the different ms certs are and
which one(s) do I want,
and then what Exams are relavent?

Where to begin? hmmm...
First eliminate the chaf from the wheat -

I never earned a MCSD or MCAD from the 1.x days so I do not need to consider upgrades.
The Architect series is way out of reach for now so X that.
I'm interested in coding and not doing network, back office, or dba stuff so i can steer clear of IT Pro series.

What's left?

MCTS: Technology Series
MCPD: Professional Developer

The MCTS stuff is the entry level, then you can take it up a notch by becoming a MCPD.

There are 3 tracks in the TS -

Web Apps
Win Apps
Distributed Apps

To take either of the first 2 up a notch in the PD -

Web Developer
Win Developer

Or combine the 3 TS tracks and take it up a notch in the PD -

Enterprise Application Developer

Here's the same list, but now with exam numbers. The exam numbers are all 70-5xx so i'll abbreviate.

There are 3 tracks in the TS -

Web Apps (536 + 528)
Win Apps (536 + 526)
Distributed Apps (536 + 529)

To take either of the first 2 up a notch in the PD -

Web Developer (536 + 528) + 547
Win Developer (536 + 526) + 548

Or combine the 3 TS tracks and take it up a notch in the PD -

Enterprise Application Developer (536 + 528 + 526 + 529) + 549

Since I'm already in for a penny, I might as well go for the gusto...

MCPD: Enterprise Application Developer here I come!

9/2/2007 6:27:56 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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Saturday, September 01, 2007

and so it begins...

For years I've been toying with the notion of earning a MS certification, now I've finally decided to take the plunge.

About 5 years ago we had a set of SIGs that went through the orange books for MCAD - WinForms, Web, and XML. I was still in hw infrastructure mode so I didn't bother taking the tests or even doing anything other than reading. Then in 2004 after I was zapped from that job and I decided to make the leap to programming, I picked up the blue books and started through them. I made it a few chapters in each, but got distracted by trying to get a job. Just to get by I had so much to learn along such a broad landscape that i decided not to commit to getting a cert. It didn't seem like it would guarantee a job, even though it may have opened some doors, so I bailed. Also I looked around at some of my friends who were awesome coders and not a one of them had a certificate...

But, here I sit, 2.5 years after making the jump to coding, after filling the pool with enough general knowlege about web, winform, vb6, access, sql, design patterns, pragmatic programming practices, ajax, xml, etc that i can now swim around some. I've also found myself going back to some basics [of C#] and really trying to get it and recently took a test which ended up proving to me that I could actually retain this stuff well enough to spew it back out - strangely motivating. I have also finished up 1.5 years of slowly going through a few design patterns books and it's finally starting to make some sense. I have a steady day job that keeps me supporting a complicated real world app in a small sw shop that I am thinking of as an intensive case study in terms of architecture, functionality, growth and maintanence over 6+ years and rafts of developers, blending old with new, and watching a next version begin from scratch. Anybody remember the architecture pattern 'the great ball of mud'? One must know dark to appreciate light.

enough. You get the picture, now I'm ready.

ok, back to the question 'why bother with earning a cert?' Well, it may pay off in terms of a next job someday, but the real driver for me is focus. I've successfully used the SIGs in the past decade to slowly build a foundation for learning how to code, so now I want to take it up a notch and accomplish some real tangible milestones. My add hoc approach up till now has done me well, let me absorb as much as I could at a comfortable pace and and deep dive as needed. I will still keep the misc topics alive in the form of WinForm and Web Apps and Web Services SW factories, patterns from the DoFactory Reference app, and taking apart the DinnerNow.net and StockTrader demos.

What's missing? a good, thorough, organized revisit of fundamentals... and that's what I hope to get out of earning my cert.

9/1/2007 5:14:50 AM (GMT Daylight Time, UTC+01:00)

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