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Getting a foot in the door

 
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Hi,

From the title of the post you can probably guess that I'm looking to secure my first Java job (in the UK and ideally in Edinburgh).

I sit the SCJP in a few days time, and I'm very confident that I'll pass it. My question is- what's the next step?

My situation: I have a one year conversion degree in IT (from one of the UK's top unis), but no Java programming experience. For the past 3 years I've been setting up and running a small but fairly successful 2 person ecommerce business. I'm planning to leave sometime around September to start a Java job, with the intention of becoming an enterprise architect (not immediately, obviously ).

That being the case I'll be wanting to apply for jobs by August at the latest. I'm also planning to take July off to study.

My original intention was to sit the SCWCD and IBM XML and Related Technologies exams in the next few months. My question is: would I be better doing the SCJD, and more importantly, do I have the time to do the SCJD? I have no real knowledge of Java beyond what the exam covers. Also, I have some experience of PHP/MySQL web development, which would no doubt make the SCWCD exam an easier route.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Regards,

Gordy
 
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What is a conversaion degree?

--Mark
 
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Hi Mark,

It's a masters degree (MSc) in computing science for people who have an undergraduate degree in some other discipline. I'm not sure whether it's just a UK thing.

It's called an MSc, but really I think it's more like a crash course undergrad with a 3 month dissertation: At my uni we shared some courses with the undergrads. A guy who was in the year above me went straight on to a comp sci PhD after it, though.

Gordy
 
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I would say to take SCJD first, I know you study a lot for SCJP but you need to DO something first, some projects that make you a Java Programmer instead of a Java Student, in my country people that change their careers to get a Java jos, sometimes don't have clear the concepts of what makes a good Developer and SCJD will definetely force you to learn that.
 
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