Re: I need your certification advice

They will not drop MCSD .Net certification until .Net Framework 1.1 is
dropped. And it is not going to happen soon. Also you can take upgrade exams
from MCAD/MCSD to MCPD (look at exams 70-551, 552, 553, 554), they will be
made avaiable in May.

And the main question is - which platform are you going to use. If you name
..Net 1.1 then pursuing MCSD is obvious and if you think about .Net 2.0 or
you are not sure then go for MCPD track.


Regards,
Alexey

"Jon in Canby Or." <JoninCanbyOr@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:DEAE9757-57F1-43ED-BEE0-33F242721BD4@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Way back in the 90's when I started my consulting business I looked at
getting my MCSD. I got part way into the process and Microsoft changed the
requirements. I got busy and never got around to it again and nobody has
ever
questioned my qualifications so I never bothered with the MCSD. Most of my
clients are small to medium sized businesses. I did most of my work with
VB6/ASP/SQL Server and for some reason for the last year and a half I've
been
getting nothing but MS Access work. Some time ago I got VS .net 2003
enterprise but have only barely scratched the surface of it as I haven't
needed it professionally... yet. Now of course there's 2005 out and I'd
rather not waste hundreds of dollars spent on 2003 yet if I don't have to.

Nonetheless I've felt my skills becoming more and more obsolete as time
goes
by and I feel it's time for a major push to update them. I've read
hundreds
and hundreds of pages of .Net textbooks on ASP.net and C#, but I want the
focus going for an MCSD can give me.

I think I can push for the MCSD this year utilizing my VS 2003 & .net 1.1
and catch up on 2005 & 2.0 as I get there, but I fear they'll change the
MCSD
requirements again and drop the older stuff. Plus they've got this new
AJAX
tool coming out...

If you were in my position which direction would you go?



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