Are MCTS certifications worth the bother?

Question

The question is pretty simple - could MCTS certifications make a difference in my professional career?

I am studying for exam 70-536, the book is painful but pretty straightforward (I went through the book twice - now I am doing it for the third time on the new edition supposed to be better) but the test simulation is brutal - you easily get asked stuff that's not in the book and looking around forums etc. people say it's known that the book is not enough to pass the exam.

Is it worth the bother in your opinion?

Answer 1

It's worth the bother if any of the following are true:

1. You like to demonstrate that you can learn post schooling.
2. Any jobs in the area you are looking for have a MCTS requirement.
3. Someone else is paying... then it never hurts to have additional skills.

Answer 2

I wouldn’t mind having one, if only I could get past the “Using Value Types” section in the Training Kit ;-) I find the books excruciatingly painful.

Answer 3

This has been discussed in other threads, e.g. here. I'm also studying for the same exam, and am doing it partly because it's helping me motivate myself to learn more. Most people tend to think they're pretty worthless, but I don't think it does any harm, and if you do it the right way you can fill in gaps in your experience. I personally think it will help you both get more interviews, as well as increase your knowledge. But of course you need to want it too. Dean

Answer 4

If you are working with Microsoft Partner companies they usually have a certain percentage of the company which must hold Microsoft certifications to keep their partner status, so those companies at least would have a higher interest in finding candidates who are MCTS certified along with other Microsoft shop certs.

The MCTS 70-536 .NET 2.0 framework also applies to C++, VB.NET, and C#. It is said to be compatible with people who are programming managed code to COM, .NET 2.0, or .NET 3.5 all together. In a sense it's the LCD of .NET for a developer.

Answer 5

I have started to read through the book, and as I go through each chapter (so far) I have learned atleast one new thing that I didn't know about C#./net.

I think it is worth doing it if you want to prove that you can learn even with your own money.

Answer 6

Say you want a person to write a WPF applications and you can’t find someone with real life experience in WPF, witch of these two would you choose. (All other things being equal, e.g. they have all been using C# for years etc)

• John says he has read a book on WPF but has no real life experience
• James says he has read a book on WPF, passed the Microsoft exam, but has no real life experience.

I think if you only had time to interview one person it would be James.

• But what if Peter comes along and says he has read a WPF, has no real life experience but has helped to an open source WPF project. Hence has not no time to take the exam?

Now it gets a bit harder...

It is clearly better to be James or Peter then it is to be John.

Once you get to the interview, it’s how well you can express what you know that counts, not if you have been certified. (Answering questions on StackOverflow may be good interview practise.) However you must get the interview first and that is not easy in this market.

After saying all that, in the long term it is how well you do your job that effects how happy you are at work and what long term rewards are.

I have found in the past that studying for Microsoft Exams, is a effective way to get a wide breath of understanding of what Microsoft thinks is important about a given piece of technology.

If you start with the aim to learn and understand the technology well that the exam covers, you will again a lot more then just passing the exam....

However if you just aim to pass the exam with the least possible effort, then you will only pass the exam… Now that is a complete waist of time and money!

Answer 7

The MeasureUp practice exams that come with the book are crap. Like the books, they're full of errors and ambiguity. Use them, but don't trust them.

The training kits for both 536 and 503 are not enough. Use the training kit as an overview. Then read on.

I just received my MCTS in WCF. The real exams had questions that I had no clue on. Always use multiple sources.

Buy Transcender or Self Test Software to practice for the exam. Both have great explanations and references to MSDN. These aren't enough by themselves, either but they're much better than the MeasureUp practice exams that come with the book.

The real exams are very difficult and passing them says a lot about you as a developer. I have learned a TON studying for these exams and any employee who knows anything about these exams will recognize their significance.