Xtra MS Qualifications worth it?

With all the new MS stuff (2005) in beta and becoming available soon, I started thinking if it's worth to get certified in .Net.

The way I saw it, is that I got mcse and mscd (in vb6) just to get my foot in the door back when I knew zit.

Now I'm hard at work preparing myself for a whole new start next year, and even took on a really low paying job, just to have Microsoft as ex-employer on my resume.

But I'm not sure. Keep on studying the way I do now (creating pet-applications) and learn as I move on, or follow the courses (on my own) just to get certified .... is this really worth the trouble?

And if it's worth the trouble, what is better? MCSE or MCAD. I know "Solutions Developer" sounds better than "Application Developer", but the latter sounds more like what I want to do....Creating applications...

Any input will be welcome, expecially if you are involved in employee selection and give me an employer's perspective on this.

Cheers

Oh, another thing. I don't know about the rest of the world (next year I'm off to some place new in there), but here in China it seems opensource technologies are much much more popular.....Should I rather spend the little free time I got on stuff like Java, Linux, MySQL and that stuff???

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Originally Posted by StrangerInBeijing

Should I rather spend the little free time I got on stuff like Java, Linux, MySQL and that stuff???

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Learning new skills is never a waste of time.

As far as the certifications go, I would go for the one the best suites what I see as my career goals.

I just completed my MCSD.NET. I don't know if it's worth anything right now but I will find out in a few months when I start looking for a new job.

based on what would one decide between MSCD & MSCAD?

I see if you do MCSD, you cover all that you do for MCAD anyhow...does this means I get both on my card ??

MCP, MCSE, MCSD, MCSD.Net, MCAD....gosh, that will look cool seeing I know zit