Hey guys, was going to college but I had to stop due to financial hardships. I am thinking about working to get my MCPD certification in ASP.NET Developer 3.5 on Visual Studio 2008. Through this I was hoping i can get a good job and continue my education.
My question is - what are the possibilities of me getting a job with the MCPD certification.
I do have 2 years experience in server side development. But it is with php. Anyone with experience with this scenario ? Thanx alot guys!
While I think @Mehrdad's scathing comment is probably correct, it's nevertheless a fact of life that many employers do use certifications as part of their candidate-filtering process (just like many others use college degrees and GPAs). So, if you can get some certification (at a reasonably low expense in time, energy, and money, including the "opportunity costs" of not following other opportunities because you're busy prepping for, and getting, your certification), it will indeed increase your employability; so, unless the "reasonably low expense" part is missing, it may be a good investment of time and money on your part.
Even if the position you're hired for tx to the certification is indeed with an employer who's "doomed to fail", as in @Mehrdad's opinion, it will nevertheless give you demonstrable experience (and therefore further increase your future employability -- many employers do take your work experience, or lack thereof, into account as part of their filtering process, and it would be hard to assert that those employers are horribly wrong in so doing;-).
I guess the only way it could help you is that your chances to have an interview increase. But if they discover that you passed these exams using braindumps - it's a huge minus.
Often the issue is getting CV recognition (by agents and/or clients) rather than employers hiring on the basis of qualifications.
If you have a professional qualification then your CV has some extra attribute over other candidates. That means your CV may be put at the top of the pile. You may get your foot in the door first for an interview.
What happens after that is a separate issue!
IMHO, after being on both ends of the interview, your time is better spent in open source contributions. However, this greatly depends on the business you are interviewing at. I was at one workplace where we interviewed several developers and even tho some had ms certifications the ones that really stood out were the ones that were active in the open source community. I won't go into a long tangent here, but open source contributions undergo a lot more scrunity in the programming world than a piece of paper that you may have. In addition, it shows you can understand a codebase and how it functions with little or no direction in addition to other positives. I know thus doesn't really answer your question but I felt the need to mention this since noone else has.
Go for it. It will help you resume get some attention. Also, find a open source project to contribute to or create an open source project and work on it. This way , you can let potential employers look at your code and understand that you are serious about what you do.
Since you are not attending school now, you probably should do some certifications.
I mean you have the time now right?
But don't do the certifications just for the purpose of "getting a job". Do them to learn and expand your own skills. The certs alone will probably not land you a job, but they don't usually hurt you either. Learning the material and perfecting the skills being tested keeps you fresh and helps you perfect your craft.
Unlike just hacking around at whatever project interests you, the formal nature of the certification curriculum forces you to leave your comfort zone and venture into areas that you might not chose to explore on your own.
In addition to certificaitons, should still get involved with open source projects, and/or work on portfolio applications that you can show any potential employers. In fact, I strongly advise that you ALWAYS keep a side-project or two going throughout your entire career, not just when you aren't employed.
The trick isn't so much to gear yourself to "getting hired", the trick is to show that you are passionate, self-motivated, and are an active developer all the time.