Need advice to get started

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Hello All,

I need an advice to get started on MCSD certification, I am an 8 yrs. programmer using Visual FoxPro, VB, SQL Server and have never used any .Net stuff. I need anyone's advice or suggestions to get me started and upgrade my skills to .Net platform, my main concern is to obtain a certification for career purposes so I need anyone's advice to get me started.

Thanks in advance.

 

Hi Angelville,
First up the MCSD certification is dead in the water. Don't go there! MS have replaced it with a certification track consisting on MCTS (technology specialist) exams which can be upgraded to MCPD (professional developer) certification. You need to start with 70-536, the .net 2.0 Application Development Foundation. Then you choose which MCTS (Windows Forms, ADO.NET, ASP.NET, WCF, WPF) you get by which exam you bolt onto that. Then you can upgrade that to a MCPD (if you want).

In your shoes I would start with the language (I am into C#, but you may be more of a VB.net person) and get a good general book and download an express version of VS2008. Have a play around until you get the basics of the .net world. Then start with the Microsoft 70-536 training kit. It is dull as dishwater, but it does the job.

Best of luck!

 

Am with Wagnerk on this.... Skills before the certs because without the skills the cert is just a piece of paper..

 

I think the 536 training kit does a good job of training the various aspects of the framework such as encryption, IO, GUI etc.

My main complaint is that the exams seem to test on relatively unimportant specific aspects like exact class names and methods rather than more useful information like fundamental differences in algorithms, datastructures and tools.

I think theres a real danger of certification based training actually dumbing down and training the wrong aspects. Instead of skilled people you are building a base of photographic memory pedants.

 

Couldn't agree more! There is a significant dumbing down of everything programming.

 

MCSD is currently obsoleted
try MCTS and first of all 70-536

 

Not true at all! The MCSD exams will not retire until March 2009: link

 

Hi,

I was stuck in the VB6 time warp for quite a while. I went with the WROX press books (the red ones with all the faces on). These are much better than the Microsoft books including the training books for the MCTS and MCAD as well. The MS ones do nasty things like dragging a data adapter on instead of just instatiating an object in code. Nasty Business.

I moved over on .NET 2.0 but I am sure the VB 2008 .NET 3.5 books will be good as well as I have thier C# counterparts.

I wouldn't worry too much about the cert, there are plenty of plebs with that but with no domain architecture experience or knowledge about good practice.

Once you get into it you will love .net, I can't ever imagine going back!!

Hope that helps,
Dom