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Going from a Helpdesk Position to a Developer Position. RRS feed

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    Good Day All,

     

    I am currently a helpdesk technician (no certs except Word Expert), who has always had a intrigue for development, and have messed around with java and some vb. My question here is I want to take the next step in my IT career, and pursue certifications in Developing .NET applications. After reading the forums and seeing a slew of information, Working in a IT environment already I sometimes observe how some of the developers start out by, looking at example source code and "hacking it" to work the way they need it, but I want to learn in the most structured way possible the ins of outs of good .NET programming be it VB,C# or C++. Any good places I can go or books I can read that will give a good foundation in being certified in .NET 3.5 because my goal is to be a MCPD.,

    Friday, July 16, 2010 1:45 PM

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    If you are new to .NET, I would suggest you try 70-536 exam first.

    http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-536&locale=en-us#tab3

    I tend to use MS Press Self-Paced Training Kits when preparing for MS exams.

    The best way is to browse "Preparation Tools and Resources" for each particular exam, of course the cheapest way is to buy a book instead of going to live classes.  There are pros and cons about Self-Paced studies vs. live classes.

    Also note that .NET 4.0 exams just came out recently:

    http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/cert-vstudio.aspx#tab2

    Hope this helps!

    Thanks, Michael Mei
    • Marked as answer by Rubel Khan Sunday, July 25, 2010 4:17 AM
    Friday, July 16, 2010 2:14 PM
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    Hi,

    First of, a Word certification is also a certification ;-)

    If you want to start the development path i'd recommend 70-536 as Michael stated. In addition to that I'd advice you to take a look at a OOP course as well. Those courses are the real base for development. When you look at Object Oriented Programming you'll find the structure of what you will learn in 70-536 and other .net exams much easier to understand.

    So take a look here:

    http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/course.aspx?ID=6367a

    and for a starting article here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa289512(VS.71).aspx

    And after that go ahead and become the developer you want to be (and keep helping people even if you leave the helpdesk position ;-)

    Maurice

    • Marked as answer by Rubel Khan Sunday, July 25, 2010 4:17 AM
    Saturday, July 17, 2010 7:51 AM
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    Thanks for all the great suggestions, I picked up the 70-536 self paced book, and I noticed that they expect you to have some programming background in Visual Studio and in VB or C#. Do you guys recommend any good books to help build up my programming knowledge, and learn the most out of visual studio and c# or vb. I visited http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa289512%28VS.71%29.aspx, i was looking for some more indepth.

     

    Thanks again.

    Monday, July 19, 2010 6:07 PM
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    If you are have some prior programming experience, then I would go for the books by O'Reilly. (e.g. Programming C# 3.0)

    If you have no prior programming experience at all, I would suggest books by Deitel.  It's generally considered the best programming textbooks but it's more expensive.

    http://www.deitel.com/Books/C/VisualC2008HowtoProgram3e/tabid/2933/Default.aspx

    http://www.deitel.com/Books/LiveLessonsVideoBasedTraining/tabid/3299/Default.aspx

    Myself I used "C# 2008 Fundamentals I and II DVD video" and "C# 2008 for Programmers", they are really excellent.

    Hope this helps!

    Thanks, Michael Mei
    Monday, July 19, 2010 7:47 PM
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    I have to agree with Michael on this one. I have an oldie from Deitel and that's a great resource to start with. I don't know their video lessons. What i also used were the videos from www.learnvisualstudio.com also a great place to start.

    Maurice

    Tuesday, July 20, 2010 5:50 AM
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    wow thanks guys,

     

    would you recommend c# over vb?

    Tuesday, July 20, 2010 12:19 PM
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    C# is preferred but if you might find VB is easier to learn.

    At Microsoft mostly C# is used, but many other non-software companies use VB as well.

    If you absolutely have no prior programming experience then I would suggest you start with VB first.

    Hope this helps!

    Thanks, Michael Mei
    Tuesday, July 20, 2010 2:18 PM