Jeanette Said:

Do you think doing a microsoft certification like MCAD opens up career chances for you?

We Answered:

A Microsoft Certificate helps supplement experience but without experience, it doesn't do much.

Say if I interviewed two people with the same qualification and same experience but one is certified while the other is not. At the end, I will be more inclined to hire the certified person.

Dennis Said:

What are the career prospects for an Oracle Applications developer in US IT industry?

We Answered:

I am a technical recruiter who works nationwide- and right now, if you have any oracle applications, especially with Oracle 11i is HOT! You can probably make anywhere from $70-100hr. in the midwest. Definitely on the coasts you are looking at more money.

I'd say any experience you can get is good experience. You're going to make more with contracts too. If you're looking for a job, let me know! I've got a ton of oracle stuff going on now.

Cody Said:

How to start a career in J2EE and be SUN certified?

We Answered:

You need to master:

- Java language
- the Java classes from J2SE (Standard Edition). You don't need to study all the classes. You can concentrate on some ones, like java.sql.*, java.io.*, for example. Skip java.awt, javax.swing, they are needed for form applications, not web apps.
- Java Server Pages: it is out of J2SE, and is part of J2EE. You need to use a web container, like tomcat, see http://jakarta.apache.org
- Servlets: only to complete you knowledge
- And then, you can study some framework, like Struts (see the jakarta site), and Spring:
http://www.springframework.org
- For persistence, you can study some ORM, like
http://www.hibernate.org
- Please, skip Enterprise Java Beans, is a dead end, in my opinion. You can check
http://www.theserverside.com
http://www.jboss.org

Angel "Java" Lopez
http://www.ajlopez.com/

Tracy Said:

Is a move from application development to back-end development career progression?

We Answered:

not always. Sometimes its the opposite. Depends more on the technologies.

Marilyn Said:

What is application developer an database developer?

We Answered:

An applicaftion developer is just that - someone who develops business specific applications for a company. Most application development is done in languages like C#, Java, or VB, and - if a web app - the web end is done using languages like ASP, JavaScript, PHP, or similar technologies.
A datbase developer is someone who typically develops packages, stored procedures, jobs, etc. in a database environment like Oracle or SQL Server. While SQL is used for almost all database operations, each product has it's own "flavor" of procedural language, and depending on what platform a developer is working in, they need to know the specifics of that language. Oracle uses PL/SQL for example, while SQL Server uses T-SQL. Both similar, but different.
I do not think one is necessarily better than the other, as both are important. I think it is good to know one very well, and have a good understanding of the other so you can be flexible. People get in trouble when they know one or the other - but not both. If you know app development, and they outsource some of those jobs, you can hop over to db duties. My suggestion - become an expert in one, while knowing the generalities of the other. In today's world, flexibility rules. But, you don't want to get it at the expense of expertise in something either. Good luck.

Seth Said:

How do i become a web applications developer?

We Answered:

First off, you will need to learn basic web design using (x)HTML and CSS.

Then, you'll most likely want to become very familiar with some sort of backend language, like PHP and a database like MySQL.

Then, to combine the two, you should learn JavaScript which will ultimately give you the ability to create powerful web applications and connect them to your backend through AJAX.

If you are unfamiliar with many, or all, of the terms I used above, I would head over to
http://www.w3schools.com
and look at their basic HTML tutorial, and many things will follow from there.