Through my career I haven’t seriously focused on getting any certifications. While I always find time to play with and monkey with new technologies I haven’t taken the time to get any official “stamps of approval”, specifically in Microsoft technologies. Not to mention, working as a full-time employee doesn’t give me much incentive to get certified. Once hired, companies seemed to forget how much official training you’ve had.
Once I started as a consultant I was told that certifications, regardless of what or how many, help to start the conversation with potential clients. Certs aren’t necessarily used to prove you understand everything about a particular topic, they are used to help categorize ability and fit within projects. So that I can understand and respect.
So, finally, after all these years I’ve scheduled up my first exam, 70-315 Building Web Applications with C# .Net. Now, no laughing at me. This test is quite old and barely applies anymore. There have been a few newer tests which supersede this one but I’m taking it for a moral victory. I actually began studying for this test 5 years ago. After 7 years of actual development experience with C# and web applications I’m pretty sure I have the skill set to pass. I just need to polish up on the official Microsoft answers.
So May 5th is the day that I hope I will finally pass my first certification exam. Wish me luck
