Hi Simon, Firstly, it's probably worth talking to your current employer to see if this is something they can help you with. Sometimes this kind of sideways change can be beneficial for both parties (especially if it means that the business can hold on to a valuable resource).
Personally I don't think I'd bother with a C# course or specific certification. A copy of C# in a Nutshell (or some other title of equal awesomeness) will probably teach you as much and be more useful in the future (as you can keep referring back to it). For potential employers, I'd guess that a C# certification on your CV might not be enough to get an interview. You're far better off participating in open source projects / local community groups in my opinion. As far as the technology choices to look at, I'd consider WPF/Silverlight. Admittedly I have no idea whether or not there is a ton of work out there for these (I'm stuck in WinForms land) but they both rely on XAML (slightly different versions) and so does Windows Phone 7 so you get a toe in the web, desktop and phone development camps all at once. Given you have SQL experience I'd probably look at Entity Framework 4 as well. You might end up working on a project where you don't actually touch the UI. Hope that helps and good luck with your transition! -- Michael M. Minutillo Indiscriminate Information Sponge Blog: http://wolfbyte-net.blogspot.com On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 11:44 AM, Simon Kuldin < [email protected]> wrote: > Good afternoon everyone, > > > > I’m looking at expanding my technical skill-set for future career > opportunities. My real desire is to learn Dot Net programming (as I’m a > programmer by heart). > > > > My current experience is 10+ years as a Developer/Consultant for Microsoft > Dynamics NAV, and I also am getting a fair bit of experience in > administrating SQL Server. > > > > I want to move my career sideways to be less ERP focussed, and more overall > development focussed. > > > > Any recommendations on how I would go about it? > > > > Is it worth me doing a course to get official C# certification? Would I > be better off focusing on just Windows development (since that is where my > skill set is mainly set around), or due to demand should I try Web > development? Any good websites that provide information and little tasks > for you to try to test your knowledge? > > > > I’m sorry if this is not the appropriate avenue to ask.. but I really feel > like I need a change in my career, and I think I need to be more proactive > in making it happen. > > > > Cheers for your help! > > > > > > *Simon Kuldin* | Senior Technical Consultant | *PRISM* > > Suite 3, 214 Bay St Brighton, VIC 3186, Australia > > *P:* +61 3 9596 8633 *M:* 0408 310 957 *W:* www.prism-solutions.com.au > > > > [image: prism-v5.jpg] > > *People. Responsive. Innovative. Simple. Methodical.* > > >
