Let the Games Begin...

One of my New Year's resolutions this year is to complete my MCAD certification, then deciding whether to pursue the MCSD. One of my professional goals last year was to take the Web Applications test (Test 70-315), but projects and job changes got in my way. In order to keep me motivated, I thought I would keep a diary of my progress. Perhaps it will help someone else who is interested in pursuing their certification by motivating them.

Just a quick professional bio to let you know my background. I finished my A.A.S in Computer Information Systems in May of 1995. I have worked as a software developer since that time, with just a couple of very short gaps due to lay offs. In school, I studied Assembler (on the mainframe, ugh), COBOL, C, Pascal, Visual Basic and C++. My first programming job was writing Clipper code for a video production company. While there, I also used C++, Visual Basic, Macromedia Director, Java and Delphi. This is where I started learning HTML and developed my first web sites. I left there and moved to a software company that wrote software for telephone companies. I used Delphi and then Borland's C++ Builder to write software that interfaced with telephone switches to transfer call records. My next stop was a commercial mortgage software company using Borland C++ Builder. My job there was outsourced, so I ended up at a bond trading company writing Visual C++ and learning C# and .Net. The company was an early adopter and had a product written in .Net mostly finished before the official .Net release. I learned just enough .Net there to be dangerous and when the funding ran out and I had to leave, I went to work for a consulting company. My first contract was at a major computer manufacturer that rhymes with Hell. I wrote a very cool call metric reporting system in ASP.NET. Alas, due to project mismanagement, the company I worked for screwed me out of money* and I was unemployed for the longest period in my adult life, 2 months. I did a quickie 6 week contract at an insurance company, then hired on full time at a health care company doing intranet ASP.NET development. That is where I first got the bug to get my certification. I left there and went to work at a banking software company for a brief period of time, and when my manager from the health care company called from his new company, I ended up where I am now. I work for an engineering company developing intranet apps in ASP.NET. I use C# exclusively, mainly because VB doesn't look "right" to me.

That's longer than I wanted it to be, but I wanted to give some background.

*Note: If you are in Nashville and have a job offer from New Century Technology, or a similarly named company: Run; run away as fast as you can.