.Net Certification for beginners

Swathi18

I am an electronics engineer and I have one year of experience in .NET, C#, ADO.NET, ASP.NET programming. After a long gap I want go back to work in US so now I am planning to be certified in .net.

As a beginner which certification I should opt for MCSD, MCPD, MCTS, MCAD etc....if so what are the combitions I should go for...please let me know

Thanks
Swathi

JDMurray

The MTA is for people in school that are trying to determine if they want to be a programmer. If you already have experience in software engineering, and know that's what you want to do, then you don't need the MTA track.

The MCAD and MCSD are for .NET 1.x, which is something you want to stay away from. .NET 1.x is ten years old and uses a security model inferior to what was released in .NET 2.0. Also, I wouldn't bother working on a legacy application that couldn't be updated past .NET 1.x.

The MCTS certifications for .NET are what you should start with. Unless you have a need to work in .NET 2.0 and VS2005, I would advise taking the .NET 3.5/VS2008 track. The specialty of Windows desktop, Web, distributed, etc. application development is for you to choose, but I would favor Web (ASP.NET) development if you are looking for a .NET programming job.

The MCPD is your ultimate goal. The MCPD certs build on the MCTS certs. Once again, I would suggest favoring the .NET 3.5 an ASP.NET tracks.

Be sure to spend the time to read all of the developers certification information on Microsoft's Web site. If you don't have Visual Studio 2008, download the free tools from Microsoft Express.

Swathi18

Hi...Thanks for a lot for your reply....it's really very helpful..
so shall I start with MCTS - Exam 70-536 and Exam 70-562....is this a good start??

please let me know...

Thanks
Swathi

JDMurray

Yes, you definitely need 70-563, and 70-562 is the start of the ASP.NET track. Go to it!

theangrez

JDMurray wrote: »

Yes, you definitely need 70-563, and 70-562 is the start of the ASP.NET track. Go to it!

Is it not required to take the 70-536 first, as it is the basic cert exam ?
only then can we go to 70-562 for asp.net track.

I am new to this cert exams, I am asking this question to make myself clear.

Thank you.

JDMurray

The 70-536 exam is the foundation prerequisite for all MCTS and MCPD certifications on Visual Studio 2005 and Visual Studio 2008.

csturner

Thanks for this information. I have been trying to determine what replaced 70-315 all morning.

I am looking to go with MCTS Certification with an emphasis on ASP.net. Just to be sure, this is the replacement for MCAD?

.Net 3.5 would be my preferred technology, but how much would my lack of 2.0 hurt me?

JDMurray

.NET 3.x is based on 2.0, so you won't be missing anything. It's .NET 1.x that's the defunct technology that's not worth revisiting (unless your job is maintaining legacy .NET 1.x apps).