Very intersted in C#

jryantech

Alright well I'm quite interested in C# and building Windows Applications so I wanted to build a "Certification Path"

Microsoft Visual Studio


2008 (Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5)


MCTS:Three options for developers who want to demonstrate their technical expertise in using the .NET Framework 3.5; six specialty areas are available: Windows Presentation Foundation, Windows Communication Foundation, Windows Workflow Foundation, Windows Forms, ASP.NET, and ADO.NET
• Learn more about the MCTS certifications on Visual Studio 2008

MCPD: Builds on an MCTS pre-requisite(s) and is designed for developers who want to demonstrate their expertise in using Visual Studio 2008 for one of three specific job roles: Windows Developer, ASP.NET Developer, or Enterprise Application Developer
• Learn more about the MCPD certifications on Visual Studio 2008




2005 (Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0)


MCTS: For developers who want to demonstrate their technical expertise using the Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0; three specialty areas are available: Web Applications, Windows Applications and Distributed Applications

MCPD: For developers who want to demonstrate their advanced skills in one or more of three job-role tracks: Web Developer, Windows Developer and Enterprise Applications Developer




Microsoft .NET Framework


Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD): For developers who want to demonstrate their technical expertise using Microsoft Visual Studio, the Microsoft .NET Framework, and Web services

Microsoft Certified Solutions Developer (MCSD): For developers who want to demonstrate their advanced skills designing enterprise solutions by using Microsoft development tools and technologies, including the Microsoft .NET Framework

I believe these are what I need to look into, because they use Visual Studio 2008, it seems the 3.5s should be my focus not the 2.0s...

If anyone can help me out making a path for certs that deal with C# or anything that deals with .NET would be awesome.

darkerosxx

I think there are plans to phase out the VS2005 certs pretty soon. Might want to check on that further before committing to a plan, but good luck. That path looks good and using VS can be fun.

jryantech

darkerosxx wrote:

I think there are plans to phase out the VS2005 certs pretty soon. Might want to check on that further before committing to a plan, but good luck. That path looks good and using VS can be fun.

That quote is from Microsofts Website, I wanted to know if anyone can tell me a path from a lower end cert to the higher end certs...

Does anyone know the first certification I should obtain that deals with C#?? Then I'll go from there...

dynamik

I believe you'd want to start with Windows Forms for what you want to do. Maybe get into the Presentation area if you're interested in more complex GUIs.

Keep in mind that 2.0 is the standard at the moment. Also, if I remember correctly, 3.0/3.5 is more of an extension of 2.0 than a massive leap, like from 1.1 to 2.0. Here's a brief overview of the versions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_.NET#Versions I guess what I'm saying is that going with 2.0 will put you in a position to work with everything that's out there now, and the upgrade to 3.5 wouldn't be that bad. However, if you're not looking to put it to use right away, you should start with 3.5. Also keep in mind that development certs aren't nearly as popular as other IT certs.

jryantech

dynamik wrote:

I believe you'd want to start with Windows Forms for what you want to do. Maybe get into the Presentation area if you're interested in more complex GUIs.

Keep in mind that 2.0 is the standard at the moment. Also, if I remember correctly, 3.0/3.5 is more of an extension of 2.0 than a massive leap, like from 1.1 to 2.0. Here's a brief overview of the versions: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_.NET#Versions I guess what I'm saying is that going with 2.0 will put you in a position to work with everything that's out there now, and the upgrade to 3.5 wouldn't be that bad. However, if you're not looking to put it to use right away, you should start with 3.5. Also keep in mind that development certs aren't nearly as popular as other IT certs.

It seems Cisco and Microsoft have clear lay outs for their networking and server certifications. I can't seem to find a clear "ladder" for the development certifications....
(IE 70-XXX then 70-XXX then 70-XXX)

darkerosxx

Well that's mainly because the MS certs you're looking at are product-based and results-based, but they're not meant to lock you into a specific type of job. You're going to be using Visual Studio and you're going to work on building projects with X results, but nothing very specific. To my knowledge, none of them focus on C#, but I can assure you they will help you learn it if you use coding more than gui tools.

As dynamik said, forms is what you want to go for. That's where you'll learn the most. The other areas focus more on other programming languages.

Check out this page if you haven't already: http://www.microsoft.com/express/vcsharp/