career delarious. taking MCSD path.

ZeroTech

At first I tried being a tech for a living (temp jobs), but my latest pilot position (35/hr) crashed when coworkers demanded I have great people skills. Since I don’t have a wife, kids, or go to concerts every weekend I can't make friends. When I go on tech calls I will never make the client feel belittle. But as a deviant in social behavior (introverted/quiet), the only course of action is at a job that is secluded. It's too bad but that’s the only way I'm going make a living, because the tech position was so lax and used little brain power. For the past 10 years I have coded in VC++ 6.0 and VB 6.0 making small games and tools as a hobby and for a few clients. A few years ago I spent one week to cram and pass the A+, Net+ exams, yet am unable to pass computer sciences courses that don't compile. I have tried and flunked out of college about 4 times now. Retaking statistics I, three times to get a D! So without a degree and with no social engineering abilities my only hope is a MCSD in my resume. I'm also 23yo so there is still time, but I always feel I'm out of time when I see no future. Although I am confident I can pass these MC exams, can the MCSD really provide a future without a BS degree?

If you skip the above, my main real question is: What MCSD C# books do I need, should I be concerned with which framework to learn from? My guess would be I need a book that’s based on .NET 2.0. My search on amazon resulted in books 3 years old using .NET 1.1! Providing author names, titles, or direct links to your favorite books would be real helpful. Thanks!

JDMurray

Well, you can answer the questions of "how valuable will the MCSD cert make me?" by searching the more popular job boards using the string "MCSD" and seeing how many job postings list the MCSD as "desired" or "required." Also note if those jobs require a college degree and the minimal number years of actual, professional .NET experience is required.

I've been tracking the MCSD for C++ and VB for the past ten years. While the moniker "MCSD" does give you some cred for writing books and magazine articles, I'm sorry to say that employers have never really caught on to Microsoft-certified software developers as a necessary prerequisite for employment. This doesn't mean the cert isn't worthwhile to achieve; however, its presence on your resume alone probably won't have prospective employers breaking down your front door to hire you.

The MCSD was revitalized in recent years by the large number of people needing to learn .NET, and also from the creation of the MCAD cert. However, I don't really see much evidence that many C# or VB.NET employment opportunities are exclusively available to people who have an MCSD.NET cert. Employers seem to be more interested in actual software development experience over certification-only. Requiring a BA/BS in any major is also fairly standard too.

If you want to fully learn .NET, I do suggest following topics the MCAD/MCSD track, even if you don't take the exams. The Microsoft Press MCAD/MCSD Training Kit books seem to be the best. The O'Reilly C# books, while not specifically oriented to the MCAD/MCSD certs, are also very good. And yes, try to favor .NET 2.0/VS 2005 books and material over the older stuff.

Also, TechExams does have an MCSD/MCAD forum, although these days it rarely sees much posting activity. This thread would be a nice addition to it.

TheShadow

I agree 100 percent with what jdmurray wrote and could not have said it better myself. Most employers of software types are of the mind "what have you done lately" and certs are not big on their list, Java certs were an exception for a while but that has cooled way off.

When you consider the number of software projects that are started versus the number that fail (huge), employers are just extremely cautious compared to hardware/networking hires.