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Not sure if you're still checking this post, but Bill Gates gave a short answer to choosing a career in his QA on http://www.microsoft.com/billgates/columns/1999q&a/QA3-10.asp[^]
HTH
Cheers,
Simon
"From now on, if rogue states want to buy weapons of mass destruction, they're going to have to go on eBay," Mr. Bezos said.
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Actually experience is the best thing to have, this will be more important than a certification. Some companies love people with certs. and some companies really don't care. A cert. will not hurt, but experience is crucial in this day and age.
Good Luck!
R.Bischoff | C++
.NET, Kommst du mit?
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Just a quick question: Are there Microsoft exam discounts for Microsoft Certified Partners?
Microsoft UK said no, but local MCTs are saying yes.
(Then again when I phoned the MCP line for SA I was put through to the UK MCP support line... odd that, I thought MS thought SA was part of the Far East...  )
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa
Ray Cassick wrote:
Well I am not female, not gay and I am not Paul Watson
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MS SA is part of EMEA, I think. At least as far as MS is concerned.
Cheers,
Simon
"VB.NET ... the STD of choice", me, internal company memo
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SimonS wrote:
MS SA is part of EMEA
Yeah, was just kidding there 
I just love it when I see big corporates dividing the world up and putting some countries in the oddest divisions.
And Europe, Middle East and Africa is a rather large area 
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa
Ray Cassick wrote:
Well I am not female, not gay and I am not Paul Watson
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Paul, if you still haven't come right then send me details offline (you should still have my emaill address if you haven't thrown my CV away, yet  ).
I'll forward it to one of the heavies at the Jhb office.
I'm sure they can make an arrangement in exchange for a case study or something...
Cheers,
Simon
"From now on, if rogue states want to buy weapons of mass destruction, they're going to have to go on eBay," Mr. Bezos said.
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I just want to get an idea on people's opinions of the MCSD .net. Would you hire someone with this qualification and do you think it is worth the enormous expense (£4000 in the UK).
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Scoop wrote:
and do you think it is worth the enormous expense (£4000 in the UK).
Crumbs. Come to SA, much cheaper to get it here (you can get it for R9000 during December, which is £562. Plus you get our great summer weather! )
Scoop wrote:
Would you hire someone with this qualification
If the only difference between two candidates was this, then yes.
Really judging candidates on their bits of paper is not worth much IMO.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa
Ray Cassick wrote:
Well I am not female, not gay and I am not Paul Watson
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Does anybody know of a by country/city list of Microsoft Certified Trainers?
Specifically we need a .NET trainer based in Cape Town who is willing to do onsite training for some staff.
I spoke to Microsoft SA but they would not give me a list as they are affiliated with the training companies and individual trainers would undermine that blah blah, so much for MCP status huh.
Also has anyone done exam 70-315? Hard? Easy? Shouldn't bother with training? ta
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa
Ray Cassick wrote:
Well I am not female, not gay and I am not Paul Watson
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I don´t have access to mcpmag secure site anymore, but there´s a list of MCTs there... maybe you can find any from Cape Town
www.mcpmag.com[^]
Mauricio Ritter - Brazil
Sonorking now: 100.13560 MRitter
![Jig | [Dance]](https://codeproject.global.ssl.fastly.net/script/Forums/Images/jig.gif) I've gone sending to outer space, to find another race
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Mauricio Ritter wrote:
I don´t have access to mcpmag secure site anymore, but there´s a list of MCTs there... maybe you can find any from Cape Town
Lovely, I will try it out, thanks Mauricio.
The ironic thing is that the reason why I want a list of trainers is so that I can get training to become an MCP. Yet I need to be an MCP before I can get access to the list. Ironic huh? MS don't want anyone using individual trainers, only accredited training houses.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa
Ray Cassick wrote:
Well I am not female, not gay and I am not Paul Watson
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Paul Watson wrote:
MS don't want anyone using individual trainers, only accredited training houses.
Exactly, this is their policy, because they believe training is more than a MCT: it includes books, (maybe) a laboratory and sometimes several MCT to teach you different aspects of the technology, simulated examinations and so.
lazy isn't my middle name.. its my first.. people just keep calling me Mel cause that's what they put on my drivers license. - Mel Feik
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Daniel Turini wrote:
Exactly, this is their policy, because they believe training is more than a MCT: it includes books, (maybe) a laboratory and sometimes several MCT to teach you different aspects of the technology, simulated examinations and so.
Yes but it is our money, our time and our choice.
For instance many accredited training houses refuse to tailor their courses for us. I understand they have systems and I understand those are the recommended course modules needed to pass, but sometimes we actually DO know what we need and what we don't. All we need is to pass one exam, yet they, like every true salesmen, try to sell us the whole elephant and the elephant leather suitcases. So I don't think we get impartial advice from them.
Also our aim is to get two or three good trainers that we can rely on to come in and train up our chaps whenever needed. Obviously they would source the right books and assess what modules we need and don't need.
Really MS should let us decide. MS simply needs to police the quality of the qualification and recognise those campuses and individual trainers who are trustworthy so that we can then choose.
Also this whole campus push seems a bit of a farce when you consider that MS themselves provide an online store where you can buy all the required material and DIY. Maybe MS simply sees that there is more money in backing campuses (who can give kick-back) than individual trainers who won't give kick-back.
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa
Ray Cassick wrote:
Well I am not female, not gay and I am not Paul Watson
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Paul Watson wrote:
Yes but it is our money, our time and our choice.
I agree. I've said that MS believes it, not me
Paul Watson wrote:
For instance many accredited training houses refuse to tailor their courses for us. I understand they have systems and I understand those are the recommended course modules needed to pass, but sometimes we actually DO know what we need and what we don't. All we need is to pass one exam, yet they, like every true salesmen, try to sell us the whole elephant and the elephant leather suitcases. So I don't think we get impartial advice from them.
Well, I have 11 certifications and at first I bought a 4-course and exams pack from "Brás e Figueiredo" here. I regret that. They had the most delicious snacks for the coffee breaks, but those are the most expensive snacks I've ever bought.
Not because the course quality, they are very good indeed. It's because I already known almost everything they were teaching there. You have this mixed feeling: "I paid for this, so I should be here everyday!", or "WTF, I'm losing time here, and the money is already spent!".
The other 7 certifications, VC++ included, I've took the self-training way and it's fast, easy and cheap.
I've seen your code in CP before and I believe you do not need a certification course. Get some simulated exams, and go! Two or three failed exams are still 20% of the price of a course.
I think that certification courses are good for people that are starting a path, not in the last mile, like you. And you can always have your questions answered in CP forums, if you have one.
lazy isn't my middle name.. its my first.. people just keep calling me Mel cause that's what they put on my drivers license. - Mel Feik
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Daniel Turini wrote:
I've seen your code in CP before and I believe you do not need a certification course. Get some simulated exams, and go! Two or three failed exams are still 20% of the price of a course.
I think that certification courses are good for people that are starting a path, not in the last mile, like you. And you can always have your questions answered in CP forums, if you have one.
 Appreciate the sentiment Daniel, thanks.
Unfortuanatley though it is not just for me. Two co-workers need it as well and they have only just installed VS.NET.
Thanks for all the hard won advice, much appreciated
Paul Watson
Bluegrass
Cape Town, South Africa
Ray Cassick wrote:
Well I am not female, not gay and I am not Paul Watson
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Paul Watson wrote:
Yes but it is our money, our time and our choice.
Did you forget the part where you said you were dealing with Microsoft? 
Paul Watson wrote:
Really MS should let us decide.
Come on Paul, look at Microsoft's track record, you can't make decisions, they do it all for you.
Michael Martin
Australia
mjm68@tpg.com.au
"I personally love it because I can get as down and dirty as I want on the backend, while also being able to dabble with fun scripting and presentation games on the front end."
- Chris Maunder 15/07/2002
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im trying to to do a language module to get synonyms of an input string.
And have decided upon using the dictionary provided by word.as creating an efficient dictionary itself seems like reinventingthe wheel.
i came upon the msth_am.lex and msth32.ll files
along with couple others too
which i believe is used by the word application for its thesaurus /spell check and other lex functions.[this too is only an assumption]
there seem to be functions exposed like
ThesaurusCheck
and
ThesaurusGetString
could anyone provide me inputs on -
1.how to use these functions?
2.is there any more efficient/simpler method to acces the word thesraus function
though i dont sem to be getting much inputs from else where including microsoft
open to any suggestions
fordge
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HI Everyone ,
I'm new here to the Code Project site . Many of you at one time or another ,or multiple times ask yourself about where your headed in your career . Well lately I'm asking this question . I have been a Lan Administrator for 3 years ...I'm suddenly in a position to take on multiple tasks at my Job that involve programming . They are Tivoli(scripting mostly) , SQL ,VB,HTML,Oracle,Perl,Javascript. Now the problem I is that since I don't come from a programming background this stuff is very hard to grasp because I have never seen it before . I really love the idea of programming and would like to switch to more programming full time . I'm 31 years old and I want to get some advise (especially from people that have switched from a Lan administration position to a programming position ) on how I would go about it . I mean the building that I work in is full of programmers and developers.Am I just dreaming here ? Or can someone with my background make the switch ... mind you that I don't have a College degree but I have been to technical school . I have taken Microsoft (MCSE) courses and I'm knowledgable in a Windows enviorment of how things work . My weaknesses seem to be scripting and programming in general . I have started teaching myself perl from a book and C++ from a book which has turned out to be really good even though I'm just scratching the surface (I/O,Data types,Functions,Structs so far ) . So for the long post but I would appreciate some advise good or bad
Thanks for reading
Chris
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Hi
I am glad that you are ready to switch to programming. In fact in systems administration nowadays it is really becoming important to do some server side scripting which means programming. I would suggest that you take some real programming courses sanctioned by Exams and project submission. Reading books really help but project submission makes you learn things that you would not otherwise. I have gone through the Programmes set by NCC, a leading certification body worldwide.
Visit their website at www.nccedu.com
Good luck
- Prakash
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I come from a hardware background (component level repair of computers and peripherals) and switched to programming full-time about 10 years ago. I am very glad I made the switch. Of all the possibilities you mention, I'd personally get involved with SQL, Oracle, and C++ (if possible). That's where the money and best opportunities are. Scripting is a dead-end, and most programmers don't even consider it programming. VB is okay, but generally doesn't pay as well as C++. Therefore, if you decide to follow my advice, brush up on databases by reading, experimenting (carefully! get advice from a DBA about setting up your own copy), and taking a few courses (if you can). If your company doesn't use C++, you could learn VB now and then learn C++ later. The good news is that once you learn one computer language, learning another is fairly easy. That's because many of the concepts are similar and only the keywords and syntax change. Good luck.
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I find myself in the same situation but maybe a bit further down the road. Like yourself I've been a LAN admin for about 5 years and have been encouraged to learn everything I can about SQL ,VB,HTML,Oracle,Perl,Javascript and C++. A year ago I started to lean everything I could about C++,VB and SQL and I'm now looking for jobs to make the switch to full time programmer.
I've had a bit of background with programming (ANSI C) so these things have not been so hard to pick up. I would suggest that you take some of the MSDN courses. I've taken a few and they’ve helped me out allot. It also help's to have a small project that you can use to test your skill out before you dive deep into development. After about a year of programming I've come to the conclusion that, unless I were to do this full time, I will never have the level of knowledge needed to program comfortably. The MSDN cd’s have saved me quite a few times and you should plan on getting them if you’re going to be doing any windows programming.
Chris Foote
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I'm evaluating very seriously working on another country.
Any of the fellow CPians have any information on how to get a job in one of these countries: Spain, France , England , Ireland , Germany , Netherlands , Luxemburg , Belgium, Switzerland ?
There are any agency that could help me in getting a job on any of the above countries ?
I known that are some agencies that help foreign workers on getting It jobs , but I don't known of none.
Any good sites that could ease my task of looking for a C++ programmer/developer job on these countries ?
Any kind of informational, positive and negative feedbacks are welcome
Cheers,Joao Vaz
And if your dream is to care for your family, to put food on the table, to provide them with an education and a good home, then maybe suffering through an endless, pointless, boring job will seem to have purpose. And you will realize how even a rock can change the world, simply by remaining obstinately stationary.-Shog9
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Thanks Dylan , i'll check it out.
Cheers,Joao Vaz
And if your dream is to care for your family, to put food on the table, to provide them with an education and a good home, then maybe suffering through an endless, pointless, boring job will seem to have purpose. And you will realize how even a rock can change the world, simply by remaining obstinately stationary.-Shog9
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You can have a look at:
http://www.elanit.com/
I don't know if they're good, though.
Eric
China PRC
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