Kumar Sonu

Hi Forum Members,
I want to do a Software Architect Certification and I am exploring the options of which one is a good industry recognized certification. I found this link which somewhat helps, Best Architect Certifications but it would be great if the forum members can guide me.

Couple of points:
1. I am not considering Oracle because its too costly (as far as I know)
2. My intention is to target a Software/Solution Architect Certification and not an Enterprise Architect Certification.
3. I am currently a SCJP, SCWCD, SCWSD 5

I have been a Java Developer for 9 years and I am in a full time job with an IT company. I always had difficulty in designing without actually coding. It is only when I code I start to visualize and then I make changes to the logic and eventually create to a good program (and hopefully a good design). But this is now becoming a missing skill in me because whenever I attend design meetings in my project I am hardly able to provide inputs. This will soon become an issue and people in my office will think that I am useless or "just another developer". Due to this I sometime feel embarrassed to tell people in my office that I am an experienced developer because with experience one is supposed to be good in OOAD skills. I really want to grow in my career and improve on my design skills.

Please advise how should I overcome this limitation ? Is this something to do with how my brain processes information ?

Jayesh A Lalwani wrote:In the software industry, if you aren't growing, you are dying. The easiest way to make yourself obsolete is to do the same thing day after day for years. Sooner or later, someone will find a way to do your job in a better way, or find a way to automate parts of your job. So, if your question is "Should I look for new roles?" Yes, you definitely should!

However, the big question is "As what?" One thing that is constant in all software engineering roles is that the role can became very tiring if you don't like it, and can be a breeze if you love it. And if you hate your role, you are going to leave it. It doesn't matter what it is. So, one thing is for sure, don't take a job that you know you are going to hate.

So, what kind of job should you take? You might need to do a little more introspection here, and you might want to do more research into your job ecosystem. There are various ways one can grow in software industry without becoming an Architect. One way is to become a contractor and work short term gigs. However, you will need to understand what you are getting into. There are pros and cons in every job.

Personally, I've taken challenges that I have opened up. I haven't really a plan for my career. I just go where I find something interesting. Yeah, after 20 years, I'm not a CTO of some company. But, I've had interesting experiences, and I have made lot of money.

Thanks Jayesh for the valuable advice. When you suggest contracting you mean that by taking up contract roles I would be able to explore different roles and hit fresh challenges ?

Hi,
I am going through a very confused phase of my software career. I have around 10 years (9 years and 9 months to be exact) of experience as a Java Developer (Front end, middle ware and backend) and I really like programming. My mind keeps wondering that shall I continue working a developer or shall I start looking for role of a Software Architect ? This is more of a fight with myself where I see people making the move or fellow colleagues asking me why don't I start looking for roles up the ladder and this is when I start asking myself these questions as well. Frankly speaking I don't like stuff which managers/architects do like talk, talk and talk, chase people, fight with business.

Please advise what shall I choose ? Is it beneficial to stay as a developer/senior developer in the long run.

Hi,
I am Senior Java Developer with 9 years of hands-on experience. Off late I have started looking out for a job change and started preparing for interviews. I have not been into job hunt from last 5 years so not really sure what to expect in the interviews. It will be great if forum members can help me in providing some inputs on what kind of preparation is needed for someone like me (with this experience level) who is looking for a Senior Developer and team lead kind of a role. My confusion basically is that I am past the mid-experience level so what kind of questions should I be expecting apart from project experience.

Lets not go into a war of the words. Thank you everyone for the useful inputs. Fact of the matter is that I am still here.

Sujeeth,
No I have not received it yet.
Please refer to threads in 'Certification Results' and search for SCDJWS specific posts. You will get lot of pointers.

Thanks.

I am a Software engineer in India and I am into my 5Th year of professional career. I have worked with Java and J2EE technologies.

From a long time I have been craving for an overseas opportunity (by asking the organization where I had worked to send me abroad) but somehow lady luck does not smile upon me. I find it difficult to understand that it is all luck which brings this opportunity to individuals or is it some other skill which I don't possess. I have always strived to increase my technical knowledge by doing java certifications and self learning. Some people might argue here that I should have increased my business knowledge but again my job role did not allow me to learn about business/domain knowledge. Whatever business knowledge I learned, I forgot it in a hurry as I never got a chance to do work on my learnings.

Guys any suggestions on what I can do in the future to open some closed doors.

As a note I work in Banking and Finance domain. And my prime job role is to develop banking web application projects (using Java).

Thank you Ivan.

Yes, I checked in Oracle's CertView database and my certification history was not visible there.
Latter on I contacted Oracle and asked them to merge my Prometric ID with the new Oracle ID. They have taken up my request and lets see how it goes from here.

Thank you MZ and Arulk.

I attempted the Java Web Services exam on 5th September, 2011. I passed the exam. I had made the registration for the exam through Pearson VUE account.

Now, one of the pre-requisites for the exam (1Z0-862) which I have passed is that I should also be a Sun Certified Java Programmer

I had passed the SCJP exam in the year 2007 itself but the exam was part of SUN certification program at that time.

My concern right now is that to receive the Certification Success Kit from Oracle will Oracle validate that whether I have already passed SCJP or not ?

If yes, I am not sure if the information is already available with Oracle or not because I have not been able to find my SUN certification details anywhere in Oracle's website.

Is there a next step from my side ?

After 4 month of rigorous preparation I am glad to have passed the SCDJWS - 5.0 exam with a score of 83%.

This was my preparation:
1. Read relevant topics from RMH (Cant recall how many times but had to often turn the pages when in doubt)
2. Ivan Krizsan and Mikalai Zaikin study guides. Both are excellent resources and a must.
3. Practised from MZ's quiz to identify weak ares.
4. Basic Profile
5. Also read from: Java Web Services Up and Running as it has several example to try out.

Other points towards my preparation:
- I took a long time to prepare because I am someone who understands by practising so spent lots of time trying examples from Ivan's guide and from Java Web Services Up and Running.
- Ivan Krizsan's guide is wonderful and helped me prepare for topics which are not covered in RMH.
- MZ study guide is excellent as it helps in giving you in depth knowldge.

The real exam:
- Very tough
- Lot of real time scenario questions so it tests your knowldege

A big thank you goes out to all Ranchers who had the patience and skill to answer my questions. Some of the guys I would thank right away are:
Ivan Krizsan, MZ, Deriko Prata, Gabor Kovesdan, Ulf Dittmer (Sorry if I missed someone)

I am glad though that I am through it with a pretty decent score ..

Few questions:

1. When should one feel confident enough that he/she is ready for the exam ? I have somehow got a feeling that you cant be 100% prepared, in terms of learning, for this exam.

2. Do the real exam questions tell you to select more than one answer in case of a multiple choice question? E.g: Select 2 or Select 3

3. Let say there are three answers for a given question. I select 2 correct and 1 incorrect option (checkbox selection). In this case will I be awarded partial marks for the 2 correct options or is that my entire answer would be considered wrong ?

Thanks in advance.

You need to register for the exam through this: Pearson Vue

Got it. Thanks again and sorry again for the name ..