Quote Originally Posted by webhoundx View Post
Hi All,

I was wrestling with this idea in my mind, did some searching online and thought I should hear some ideas from you masters too Can really use your experience...

I have been a software developer for the last two years. (on to the third year now) I have been developing in C, C++ mainly on device driver level. I have been purely a developer not much experience on designing...
Recently I have been feeling that I need to do some further studying/get some certification. Guess you know what I mean. I have a Bachelor's degree on Electrical Engineering. (Studied C/C++/Java but not much on Software Architecture and stuff)
I want to call myself a Software Engineer and I feel I need to learn a lot to get there. I would like to hear your ideas about a suitable course/degree to follow.
My first thoughts were
- follow a Masters in Software Engineering. (I have no intension in going to full time studying. So a distance learning degree ? ?)
- Start from a certification like CSDA and continue to add qualifications on C\C++ ? ?

Please, any advise is deeply appreciated

Thanks
webhoundx
Whichever course you choose to take, focus on learning the material and not just earning the "Certification". While Certs might get you in the door (or bubble your resume up a list a bit) the certs themselves are nothing more than evidence than you can pass a test.

One thing I do to stay current with the technology is to continually have a professional book (or 2 or 3 or 4) going. I order these all as PDF files now so I can have them handy on my development laptop at all times. If I'm bogged-down in a project or just need to "stretch my head" a bit I can always pull one of the books out and read up on a new technique. I abandoned the "formal study" method about 25 years ago as it's hard to tailor formal classwork to suit what I needed to know to complete a project. Kind-of a "pay-as-you-go" approach to learning, if you know what I mean.

HTH,

-Max