On Making Productive Use of Down Time

One of the facts of life in consulting is that occasionally you will have gaps between engagements. I'm in one of those gaps right now. So, while I'm looking for that next contract, I decided I would also fill out my portfolio a bit. I've been certified on the IT Pro side of SharePoint for a long time, but never got around to taking the development certification exams. Those who know me know I'm not a "hard core" developer who lives in Visual Studio, so I don't have the whole API memorized. That doesn't mean I can't code when I have to (See my rewrite of the CodePlex SharePoint 2007 Org Chart web part). I just spend a lot more time in the Architecture and IT Pro space.

In any case, since the dev exams will be required should I ever decide to attempt the SharePoint MCM, I decided to get it over with. Last week, I walked in and took what is nominally the "second" development exam "70-576: PRO: Designing and Developing SharePoint 2010 Apps" cold (without any preparation). As I expected, I passed. This morning, after taking a little time last week to review the API subjects covered, I took and passed the TS exam "70-573: TS: Microsoft SharePoint 2010, Application Development". Again, I'm pleased to say that I passed the exam.

Once my transcript is finalized, I will be able to add to the certification logo at the bottom of my site: "MCPD: SharePoint Developer 2010".

That's one more notch in the belt, and one big step closer to MCM.

And now, back to the search for my next engagement...