I am a second year college student from India,and I recently came to know about the Microsoft Certification Programmes , I have the fllowing issues which I am unable to resolve by myself:
- Does my being an Indian bar me from these certifications?I mean, Will I have to face any major problems in getting them?
- I recently started working on the >NET framework,and lack experience,and the website mentions that those with at least 2-3 years of working exp. with these techs should go for certifications,so should I opt to not go for it?
- I only have about 1 year in hand for which I will be able to devote much time, and work seriously hard for it, is it gonna be enuf?
- Please help me out!!!!
No, just the fact that you hail from India does not bar you from getting a certification from Microsoft. The primary restrictions right now on india are that folks who are NOT from india can not take the Microsoft exams in india without prior arrangement with Microsoft. Those who are actually FROM india are not affected by that restriction. This was put in place by the Exam integrity team as part of a trial in high risk areas to curb proxy testing (a method of cheating whereby you have someone else take the exam under your name).
This does not affect you, given that you are a resident there.
The 2-3 years of experience is a guideline. I personally hold the position that you should have some experience in the technology that you are getting certified on. The certification tells a potential employer that you have a certain range of skills that you can apply on projects for them. If you do not have that skill, I would advise you to work with the technology a little more before attempting certification. If you work witht he development technology and you feel comfortable enough with it to warrant to a business that you can do programming at a professional level, I see no reason that you should not certify those skills.
If you have a year left to certify yourself, that should be plenty of time. For the MCPD track on .NET 2.0 or .NET 3.5, this works out to roughly 1 exam every 2 months. In my personal experience, this is highly attainable, particularly if you are regularly working with the technologies on which you are certifying during this period.
Hopefully this helps :)
Glad to answer anything else I can if you have more questions about certifying on Microsoft development technologies.
- Wayne S. Anderson
MCITP, MCSE, MCT http://blog.avanadeadvisor.com/blogs/waynea
