Help with certification schools

WilliamNorman

Hello,

I have been studying for the 70-536 off and on for over a year now and i just can't seem to stay focus on it long enough to finish it (either personal or work related stuff comes up to get me off track). I was thinking about attending classroom training to help me focus and get it done but i am having a hard time deciding which one to chose.

Background - I have a BS in Computer Science with no real work experience as of yet. I am hoping getting certified would help me get a job.

#1 As far as the job market is concerned would i be better off getting my MCTS in asp.net or MCTS in windows forms applications?

#2 There is a big inconsistency in schools. I looked at CED Solutions and was wondering if they are worth the effort or not becuase they offer a MCPD in asp in only 8 days for $4000 while this other company i found "Hands on Technology Transfer" offers a MCTS in 15days for $5200. Why such the difference?

I don't mind the long days and fast pace but is CED solutions to fast paced where you can't retain the information? Out of these two which one would y'all recommend and has anyone on here used a boot camp style like this before? Are there any others that are better than these 2?

Thanks

JDMurray

WilliamNorman wrote: »

#2 There is a big inconsistency in schools. I looked at CED Solutions and was wondering if they are worth the effort or not becuase they offer a MCPD in asp in only 8 days for $4000 while this other company i found "Hands on Technology Transfer" offers a MCTS in 15days for $5200. Why such the difference?

The difference is the profit margin earned by each school. The hope is that people will value having MS certs, but will be too lazy to study for themselves, so they will pay an enormous amount of money to get a piece of paper that gives them no guarantee of being any closer to a job than they were before they forked over their cash.

WilliamNorman wrote: »

Background - I have a BS in Computer Science with no real work experience as of yet. I am hoping getting certified would help me get a job.

Forget about "hoping." You need some good, hard facts to tell you if spending that kind of money on a few Microsoft certs will get you a good job in the current Texas economy. But before deciding to spend that kind of hard-earned money on paper to hang on your wall, you should be absolutely sure why you are doing it. If it's to get a good paying job then you better be sure there are good jobs out there requiring you to have that paper.

You need to look on job boards (like dice.com) for jobs postings you like in the geographical areas you are willing to work. Notice how many of these jobs require MS programming certs, how many jobs say that "MS programming certs are just nice to have," and how many job postings don't mention MS certs at all. Gauge the worth of the certs between how many job postings mentioned them as "must have" versus not mention them at all.

Are there not a lot of employers that seem to value MS programming certs? Then you are better off saving your money, and instead discovering how to improve your self-study habits and doing the certs on your own--or with the help of other people you find on sites is this.

WilliamNorman wrote: »

#1 As far as the job market is concerned would i be better off getting my MCTS in asp.net or MCTS in windows forms applications?

There tends to always be more jobs in ASP.NET than desktop apps, but there are a lot more ASP.NET people competing for job than there are desktop app specialists. Once again, check what kind of jobs are available in your geographical area and let that be a guide for your goals.

WilliamNorman

Thanks a lot for the great response.

The certification for me would be a way for me to tell a possible employer that i am some what specialized in an area for instance ASP.net. I Visit Dice.com almost everyday and from what i can tell most employers don't require you to have a certification but they are requiring 3-5 years experience with ASP.Net. So my reasoning is that this class would teach me all about ASP.Net and they wouldn't care that i didn't have the 3-5 year experiece. Is this going about it all wrong?

On a side note i was also wanting to take the class to advance my programming skills. I'm not so much a self learner since i tend to get distracted a lot especially if i am at home where there are a lot of distractions so it seemed like it would be nice to be in an environment that made you focus on the material. Again i could be wrong.

Thanks again for the help.

JDMurray

WilliamNorman wrote: »

So my reasoning is that this class would teach me all about ASP.Net and they wouldn't care that i didn't have the 3-5 year experiece. Is this going about it all wrong?

Yes, this assumption is very inaccurate. Certs are almost never a replacement for actual work experience (the exception might be for a cert of a brand new technology where nobody has experience).

Imagine that you are a business owner looking to employ an ASP.NET programmer. Do you want someone with 3-5 years of actual, hands-on-the-keyboard experience, or would you prefer someone who has only passed a couple of cert exams? Remember, you are spending your hard-earned revenue on that programmer's salary and you need timely and quality work produced.

WilliamNorman wrote: »

I'm not so much a self learner since i tend to get distracted a lot especially if i am at home where there are a lot of distractions so it seemed like it would be nice to be in an environment that made you focus on the material. Again i could be wrong.

I really like attending college classes to force me to study things I ordinarily wouldn't on my own. A 10-, 12-, or 16-week semester is long enough to get most subjects under my belt. And it's a slower pace that gives me time to (re)work the assignments and digest the material.

However, many cert training classes are the 3-5 day boot camp style, where the primary goal is to have you pass as many cert exams as you can, and not necessarily retain the information that you will (briefly) learn. Once again, if the cert paper is your ultimate goal, this may be the way for you to go. Just realize that the learning style can be very intense, and not everyone does well in very fast-paced classes.

There are many testimonies from TE members in these discussion forums who have taken boot camps for one cert or another. They are worth a read before you spend the money.

WilliamNorman

My goal would be to fully learn the material but I guess i also wanted the certificate on my resume to help it stand out from every other resume. Seems like this class might not be for me. I am going to look through the forum and see what i can find about these boot camp style classes.

Thanks again for the help.