Has anybody been certifed as a Microsoft Certified Solution Developer? Did it help you to land a good job? Did you take training or just learn on your own? If you did take training, how much did it cost, and where did you take it? Any more thoughts or ideas on this subject would be greatly appreciated.
Wether or not you are not currently an IT developer in the traditional sense (B.Comp. Sci. or similar), I strongly urge you to look into .NET developer certification. Not because I see it as “better technology” than SUN/J2E, but because right now, .NET professionals are fetching a higher price on the market and I believe the trend will continue for some time. I’m going to be hiring several Microsoft certified professionals in the near future and I’ve been doing my homework. I was very surprised to learn how much more expensive .NET folks are when compared to the J2EE crowd. I think it has something to do with the abundance of the latter and relative lack of the former.
Thanks for the reply, QuickSilver. I’ve been out of IT for about 3 years now, but am looking to get back in the field, and hope this is a good way to do it. As an example, how would you feel about someone in my position (who had gone on to earn the MCSD status) as far as giving him an interview and considering him for a position? How heavily would my gap of 3 years affect your likelihood of granting me an interview?
I just want to re-itereate. MCSD is one way to go. But certainly not the only way. Still, having come from multiple IT backgrounds, including IBM mainframe, Unix and Microsoft, it’s my opinion that it would be hard to go wrong with MCSD.
As for your 3 year absence, well, I won’t lie. It’s not reassuring. I’d want to know what you did for those years. My opinion would vary depending on what that answer might be, eg. military vs. prison. 
But I’m also a big believer that at the end of the day, credentials and skills being fairly equal and demonstrably verifyable, people hire people and personality/character wins the day. If I felt that you were eager, smart, fairly charismatic and a good fit/asset for my team, then yeah, I’d overlook something like a reasonably explainable absence.
Not to keep you too busy responding here, but I was in New York City after 9/11, got laid off, couldn’t find a decent position, and so have been selling real estate for the past three years. How would that strike ya?
You tried a new career, discovered you missed IT and made a real effort (MCSD, etc.) to get back into it. I’d consider you depending on how your resume stacked up against the others on my desk. If possible, consider looking for an IT job in the real estate arena. It would read like a good/logical transition back into IT.
Good luck.
IMHO it can be worth it. There are some companies that are Microsoft Development partners. They are required by their agreement with MS to have X number of certified developers. For them it will be an advantage to have as many certifications as possible. No other shop that I have ever worked at cared about those kinds of certifications.
I’d like to add that it’s relatively inexpensive to get done if you are comfortable with training yourself using the web and books. You can get training versions and introductory books at very low costs, and the tests themselves are also not all that expensive (last time I checked about 250 bucks each?)
I’m an MCSD, and you can bet I mention it on my CV … it helps if you have some sort of track record of accomplishment to back it up, though. (Which may be where I’m going wrong. But never mind.)
I did it by home study, and a modicum of low cunning and native guile. Each exam cost about £100 - I got my (then) employer to pay for them, but I could have managed it myself, no problem. From my point of view, it shows that I know enough to pass the tests, and I’m committed enough to do them … It’s not a magic passport to a job, but it’s worth the effort, I think.