MCSD Certification

Gary Coutts · Guest

Hi,

I am looking to get MCSD certified and would like some advice.

I have 18 years experience in an real time/embedded environment. I have used
Visual Studio 6 and .Net 2003 mostly to write test software for our embedded
application. I fancy a slight career change and would like to do more
Windows development.

I am based in the UK and there seems to be lots of course available but I
would prefer to study at home with the relevant books.

Do I need to take accredited courses or can I home study and then the take
the exams?

Can anyone recommended a got set of texts for the MCSD?

Is it better to go for the MCAD then move on to the MCSD?

Also anybody know what the market is like ( in the UK) for windows based
programmers?

Cheers

Gary Coutts

Rich · Guest

I've recently completed MCSD and did not take any courses. I wish I could
recommend some books to you that I had found to be really complete and
thorough text books for what you need to know for all the exams - but I can't
honestly say I ever found anything like that.

I will say that I considered the four MS Press "Red Books" were a worthwhile
investment, since I got the soft-copy collection from Amazon for about $120
U.S. But I really don't think they're worth much more money than that. The
70-300 book was especially deceiving in terms of how its content only vaguely
reflects what the exam is about. It's a real shame, if not a sham.

If you read some of the other posts on this board, I think you will find
that a lot of folks who have gone through this mill like the Exam Cram books.
I used a couple of them and found them to be helpful.

I think the hardest thing is knowing what stuff you need to know really
well...what topics you only need a general understanding of, etc. That might
be where courses would help but, as I say, I didn't take any.

Possibly your best source of thorough information is going to be MSDN. What
I tried to do is use the books to sort of keep me focused on what topics to
work on - and then go to MSDN for more complete information on a given topic.

I think the hardest thing is knowing what stuff you need to know really
well, what topics you only need a general understanding of, etc.

Practice tests can help with that. But, from what I saw, the ones that come
with either the Exam Cram books or the MSPress books were really bad.

Good Luck

"Gary Coutts" wrote:

Cindy Winegarden · Guest

"Gary Coutts" <GaryCoutts@octec.co.uk> wrote in message
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Hi Gary,

Nick · Guest

Hi Gary,

I am also in the UK and have been watching the job market recently so maybe
I can help.

Windows based programmers in an IT department style setting are not always
the best paid of jobs. Stay away from these if you can, but unfortunately
most of the jobs advertised seem to be these at around £20-30k. For rather
silly reasons, C# seems to be used more for commercial software (it
therefore pays better) and VB.NET for in house apps. With your embedded
knowledge though and your experience, you should easily be able to command a
higher paid salary should you wish, especially if you have specialised
applied knowledge and end up working in real engineering or in a software
house.

Most people here, swear by the Que Publishing set of books for both VB/C#
tracks. I used these AND also used msdn webcasts and have yet to fail an
exam.

Regards,

Nick

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Microsoft News · Guest

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Gary Coutts · Guest

Cheers Cindy

"Cindy Winegarden" <cindy_winegarden@msn.com> wrote in message
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Gary Coutts · Guest

Cheers Nick

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