Carrer Advice Desperately Needed :(

[Aleena]

I recently found out that the company I have worked for the last 3 years will be consolidating their R&D at another location. For personal reasons I am declining the transition package and staying in my hometown (a semi small community). I am currently a Software Engineer II working with embedded real time systems. We develop in Smalltalk (not very portable) and C++. I am stronger on the Smalltalk front and most experienced with GUI front-end applications. We work exclusively in Linux. It is not likely I will find a job that requires my current skill set so I am trying to develop a plan to move towards .NET certification, most likely the MCTS/MCPD route.

My job will end Dec. 29th. After that I figure I will have about 10 to 12 months with severance, savings, etc before I absolutely need to have a new job. Within that time I would like to get a certification under my belt to make me more marketable. I have a two-year-old son so he will still take up a portion of my time but I will also have lots of time for study (probably 8 hours a day). I do have some opportunities to develop real world applications. There is a web site I did for a friends business several years ago that I could port to .NET. I never had time before my son was born to finish the shopping cart, etc that was desired so I could use that as an opportunity to develop skills. I can also do a front-end database application for my husbands side business. It will require an inventory system and profit tracking/reporting. At present I was using old style asp and access but I figure I could redo it with SQL Server and .NET.

In school I always leaned toward database front-end applications and web development. I took classes in client/server, corporate web, etc and really enjoyed them. I actually really like that kind of work. I was offered my present job right out of school at a time when IT was lean all over and even though it wasn’t what I had always envisioned myself doing out of school I loved the people I worked with and the pay was good. I consider myself fairly intelligent. I don’t eat, sleep, and breathe my work like some in this field but I can be focused. I have a good grasp on OOP and relational databases. I do have some experience from an internship I did the summer of my senior year. I wrote a web front-end for the company intranet that tracked in house software. This was done in VISO using asp, css, etc.

So I have a few questions…

Is it smarter to do the new MCTS/MCPD Certifications over the old MCAD?

How off base am I in hoping to be certified before I can’t pay my mortgage payment?

What is a reasonable time scale before I would be ready to take the test?

What software will I need to get my hands on? Just SQL Server and Visual Studio 2005?

My current employer develops in XP (Extreme Programming). Will I need to be familiar with CMMI?

Will anyone take me seriously without actual on the job experience?

Thanks for any input anyone can offer. Just feeling lousy this week about my prospects and could really use the advice of some experts here. I feel so put of the loop

 

[SouthwestNut]

I would be interested in others responses; here's my take
Employers greatly undervalue learning something in class, but not having it as work experience. My solution is to try to simulate anything you learn and turn it into work experience. Do something for someone who can vouch for your expertise. Ideally you can find a friend who would serve as a reference.

I don't think certifications do much for people (love to hear other opinions). Work experience is more important than academic persuits, IMHO.

 

[Ed2020]

SouthwestNut.

I haven't done any of the MS certification but having worked with people who have I would agree with your statements.

Certification helps. If you are applying and up against somebody unqualified you will have the edge (assuming your experience is similar). Experience tends to be valued more highly though.

Unfortunately it can be something of a no-win situation - you need experience to get the jobs, but you need the jobs to get the experience.

My advice for Aleena would be to take a lower paid job (to work on the experience aspects) whilst she studies for her certification.

Ed Metcalfe.

Please do not feed the trolls.....

 

[Ed2020]

One other thing I forgot to mention:

Prospective employers (especially if you're being interviewed by a fellow tech) like to see real world examples of what you can do. If possible get a site on the internet or take a disc of sample applications along with you to prove what you can do. It's worked for me a couple of times.

Ed Metcalfe.

Please do not feed the trolls.....

 

[paterson]

I don't have any experience with the certifications that you are listing, but I do have other certifications.

My opinion is that certifications in the Technology sector are best seen as keys to entry level jobs, a licence to learn if you will. That's it!

The flip side of that is no certifications with real world experience. If you are interviewing with techs, you will be fine. Most techs only care if you know what you are doing! If you are interviewing with upper managers and HR people, they usually want to see the certifications because certifications are easily identified.

Obviously, combining certifications with real world experience will give more opportunities to you.

In your situation, you are wondering if you need these certifications. Considering that you don't exactly have lots of experience with the career change you are proposing, I would try and get the certifications as quick as possible. Then try and get a job and start gaining experience.

Something different to consider would be to find a job doing what you do now with a company that also has potenial opportunities for where you want to get to. That way you might get to "unofficially" get some experience. Just a thought!

Good Luck!


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My Biggest problem is that I almost always believe what I tell myself.