Wednesday 29 October 2014

Know Your Microsoft Certification – Part 1

Which Microsoft certification is best suited for you?
The answer to the above question depends totally on your current position in your company or the path you would like to choose to build up your career. Microsoft certifications help in increasing your expertise and market your skills to others.
Below mentioned are the different job titles and how each certification will help you in your career progress.
Software Application Developer
If you are a software developer, then Microsoft Certified Application Developer (MCAD) and Microsoft Certified Professional Developer (MCPD) certifications are best suited for you. Microsoft Certified Professional Developer makes you an expert developing various platforms using Microsoft .NET Framework 2.0
Microsoft Certified Application Developer covers the whole application stage starting from the development of the software to its maintenance.
If analysis and design of software appeal to you, then you can go ahead with Microsoft Certified Solution Developer (MCSD). The MCSD covers the whole of the application stage going through design, development, testing and maintenance.
Systems Engineer
For a systems engineer, the MCSE or MCSA are the best options depending on the depth of study you would want to take. The MCSE is a standard certification in the industry and provides all the skills from analysing the business requirements to the design and deployment of infrastructure. The MCSA is one level lower and it mainly focusses on the managing and troubleshooting areas.
IT Business Analyst
A candidate who has mastered Microsoft Office can go ahead with a MCP or MCSD which will bring a lot of help to most of the business analysts. If you want to do other certifications as well, then you can go for MCP as it opens up several career paths. But, be sure to choose the best one of all the options. The MCSD is basically the ultimate level which handles the full application lifecycle.


Systems Analyst
A typical systems analyst has to cater to many roles which need the candidate to go for a MCSD or MCAD depending on the candidate’s current job and his requirements. The Microsoft Certified Application Developer takes care of the application stages starting from development to maintenance. Whereas, the Microsoft Certified Solution Developer certification might be helpful for an analyst to get a good overview of the full application cycle from analysis, through design, development, testing and maintenance.
Software Engineer

For a software engineer, either a MCSD or a MCSE is an excellent choice. The choice though depends on your current job and the current demand in the market. If you opt for MCSD, then you would gather knowledge of how to design and develop development tools, technologies and platforms. On the other hand, if you go for MCSE, you would gain the knowledge of doing analysis, design and implementation of infrastructures.

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