Re: The value of MCSD: added value to a degree?
- From: "KMA" <KMA@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 21 Jun 2005 12:31:01 +0200
>>But, I don't feel like I'm learning anything new about .NET in my day
to day duties.
Then for this reason alone it's worth doing the exams. Let's face it,
they're not expensive so the financial "loss" is not significant. From your
post it's clear that you have a thirst for knowledge. You already have an
academic qualification, some paid experience and from what I can gather some
projects on the side. These count for far more than MCSD. Perhaps the only
other reason to get it is if there is a position that requires it, but such
vacancies are rare in my experience.
"uv2003" <jsgough@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:1119321390.127369.113470@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Greetings all,
>
> I would like to get some opinions on what you think the value of an
> MCSD would be in my situation.
>
> Goal:
>
> I want to work with a team that follows an artifact-driven approach to
> analysis and design, and uses code generation and design patterns as
> appropriate to implement systems. I'd prefer to use .NET as the target
> platform.
>
> What I hope to get out of the MCSD:
>
> I currently have a bachelor's degree in computer information systems
> and a C/C++ programming certificate. I have experience with a range of
> web application development techniques, including object-oriented Perl
> 5 coupled with CGI.PM long ago, and now ASP and ASP.NET. I'm hoping
> that if I do the MCSD, I will reinforce a lot of what I learned in
> school, but for a specific development platform. In doing so, I'm
> hoping it will add value to my degree to show that I have the broad
> knowledge of system development gained through the degree, and the
> specific platform knowledge gained through both hands on experience and
> the certification. I also would like to learn more about ORM, as
> opposed to ERD that I'm currently familiar with from school. I have
> Terry Halpin's book about it, but it's so large and I have not had
> time, but it looks like the Solution exam has some parts about using
> ORM.
>
> Some people on these boards are saying that the certificate is
> worthless compared to a degree, while others are saying it's a good
> addition to the degree or in some cases better. I feel like .NET is
> here to stay for a while, as a platform, with both Microsoft and Mono
> behind it, and that the skills gained learning it in depth can only
> help in the long run.
>
> What are your opinions and experiences with this?
>
> Thank you,
> Josh
>
> That is my question and the basics of my situation, but for additional
> background here is some more info:
>
> Education Background:
> I have a bachelor's degree in computer information systems from a good
> public university (GSU in Atlanta). I took all the most difficult
> programming courses in the degree track because I really enjoy the
> challenge of programming, choosing courses to focus on object-oriented
> development. I followed the C++ track that culminated in a C++
> certificate in addition to my degree. Other key courses taken included:
>
> Math courses: learned set theory and equations, etc...
>
> Decision Sciences: learned about making business decisions and
> analyzing data.
>
> System Analysis (Learned about business processes, case studies,
> writing requirements specifications, UML Use Case modeling, Conceptual
> Diagrams, etc etc, the life-cycle process, CASE tools introduction)
>
> System Design (Learned about using object-oriented approaches to
> solving the business needs using both hand-written code and CASE tools
> and about the Gang of Four design patterns, database modeling with ERD
> created from the conceptual diagram, logical and physical
> implementations, component-based software, etc)
>
> Database Management Systems (Learned all about data normalization, SQL
> syntax, triggers, stored procs, etc -- We used Sybase if I recall
> correctly)
>
> Goal:
> As stated above, I want to work with a team that follows an
> artifact-driven approach to analysis and design, and uses code
> generation and design patterns as appropriate to implement systems. I'd
> prefer to use .NET as the target platform.
>
> Work history:
> While in the degree program, I worked as a developer at the university,
> and implemented one of the university college's web-based document
> collection systems using Perl, CGI.PM and Oracle for Linux. This was
> before .NET came out. I wrote all my Perl in modular, object oriented
> style and really enjoyed writing and learning about object-oriented
> principles. I gained a lot of respect for the thousands of Perl
> libraries and the LWP package in particular. When .NET came out, I
> liked compiled languages better now that I had C++ experience and
> wanted to get more experience with using compiled languages for web
> development. ASP.NET had a good WebForms namespace and implementation
> that differentiated it from the various JSP tag libraries available at
> that time, so we chose to use ASP.NET instead of Struts.
>
> So, I and my coworker implemented the college web site using C#,
> ASP.NET, Custom Controls, XML, XSLT, XHTML, CSS. We didn't need a
> full-blown database, so we used XML files to allow content editors to
> submit stories about events happening in departments. We used some gang
> of four design patterns in the application. We used the GotDotNet
> Thumbnail generator Web Service to query all the department-level web
> sites home pages every morning and generate new thumbnail images for
> the links to them. That was a lot of fun to make all of that. There was
> no politics, no games, just a job to accomplish and a timeframe within
> which to do it. I felt like I was applying what I learned in school.
> That site has been running for over 3 years now.
>
> After that, I took a permanent position with a large government
> contractor and am currently working on a very interesting, but aging
> scientific data collection application implemented primarily in ASP
> 3.0, VB 6, COM, and SQL Server 2000. We have made some advances with
> .NET, like using the SQL Reporting Services tool, but have not done a
> lot of heavy .NET development yet. I feel like there is too much
> political shuffling right now and that the prospect of doing exciting,
> new .NET development, or any object-oriented development for that
> matter, is slim right now, so I feel like I'm losing time that could be
> spent gaining deeper .NET development skills. There is also a portion
> of the organization that wants to go with J2EE for everything, but the
> recently hired enterprise architect takes a heterogenous view, but I
> still think common sense is going to take time to catch up with the
> politics.
>
> Side Projects:
> I started to learn the architecture of DNN. I started creating a module
> for DNN for pulling in content from disparate web sites and extracting
> patterns of text using regex or xslt. This is fun and keeps my
> knowledge up, but I'm thinking now about doing an MCSD.
>
> I've read a lot of commentary on this board that differs in opinion as
> to the value of the certification. In my current position, I work with
> a small team that is not using a formal methodology and is not using
> exclusively object-oriented principles or design patterns and
> code-generation. I want to work with these technologies again. I am
> very interested in applying tools and patterns to reduce development
> time where appropriate, and to automate tasks. There are some
> interesting approaches out there now with Hibernate/NHibernate and
> tools like IronSpeed. I'm having no luck really learning about these
> things in depth in my current position though.
>
> I feel like my degree taught me a lot because I put a lot into it. I
> feel like my work experience after college has so far (4 years) taught
> me about some specific technologies (SQL Server 2000, ASP, Source Code
> Control tools, Versioning tools, deployment packaging, etc), and more
> about the general process of development and a wholllllle lot about the
> value of documentation and well-tested systems and test cases data
> sets.
>
> But, I don't feel like I'm learning anything new about .NET in my day
> to day duties.
>
.
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- The value of MCSD: added value to a degree?
- From: uv2003
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