Ultimately a Xamarin Certified Mobile Developer

It starts with a call from a project manager as we have something to discuss with you. So by attending a small meeting got to know that ‘Are you interested to be a Xamarin Certified Mobile Developer’.

I am little bit proud that from all of the people from mobile development they selected me and some few fellows. I think over it and concern with my family members and reply with my ‘YES’ in two days.

So, what it means?

Lets get something out of the way immediately. Xamarin University is awesome, but a bit expensive about 1000 dollar per year if you are a one man developer.They have actual live classes with actual instructors and the opportunity to ask questions etc. So that is really great.

This also allows for some cool interactions, some instructors start off by greeting everyone and checking where everyone is from and also be prepared for flash quizzes. Almost all classes have some individual of class exercises so you get the hang of the subject right away instead of just listening passively.

Besides that you can watch back the videos, do some self-guided classes (with the same flash quizzes and exercises) and.. GET CERTIFIED.

Another caveat of this method is that attendance is required for the classes that are required for certification. You cannot start the exam until you have attended all of the mandatory classes. Which are awesome, so no worries there.

Getting into it!

Once you have signed up, the first thing you need to do is specify the times you are available for classes. If you’re in India, like me, then some time slots aren’t ideal. But hey, they try their best! And if you really can’t find any suitable time slot you can request a separate session which does suit you.

Keeping this in mind it might take you a while to follow all the courses you want, unless you are willing to follow classes which happen in the middle of the night local time.

Then when you look around you have several pages to point you in the right direction depending on what you main goal is. Also there are some classes which are recommended to follow first. One that is more or less mandatory is the ‘Orientation and Welcome [XAM101]’.

You may notice the XAM101 tag at the end. This is a coding system which gives you a hint about the subject and the level of expertise that is required before following this class. These are the prefixes available today:
XAM: Xamarin general, mostly in the form of Xamarin Forms and cross-platform stuff
IOS: targeting Xamarin.iOS
AND: targeting Xamarin.Android
CSC: in-depth C# concepts
ENT: enterprise, targeting enterprise solutions
FSC: for you scarce F# developers out there
XTC: you wont get high, but you will learn everything about Test Cloud and testing in more general.

These are all separate tracks. Or some of them can be combined to a track to achieve some goal like certification. The number behind it tells you something about the expert level.

About certification

So there are 20 classes for certification exam from which 16 classes are live classes and renaming 4 are self guided. It takes about 2 -3 months to cover these all the classes. If you already have some experience, no worries, there are a couple of things you can do to get to the exam faster.  First there is an introductory exam. This is a test to prove that yo already have knowledge about Xamarin. If you crack these exam with 80% or more, then you can skip 5 classes out of 20 classes. The test consist of 50 question for which you have 60 minutes.

It is certainly doable. There are some tricky question in that. Just pay attention and give your best shot, as you have less time. If you do not crack it, no worries, you have to attend that 5 classes and appear for certification exam.

Now the classes are awesome. The instructor are even better. They take all the time to explain you everything. and have lots of patience to listen to your question and answer them correctly. They give a chance to introduce each and every attendee in chat window. Classes tend to be about 20-30 persons which also has a bit of a downside.

When all mics are unmuted and you are responsible for own muting, people sometimes forget or people simply just don't know it because they come in later. So you hear a lot of noise and ‘oops, let me mute the mic of someone coming in’. It isn't a total disaster, but could be a bit disruptive. Here the total upside is that you can use the mic and ask everything you like.

They provide training material for each class. So by attending all the classes and having a revision with training material you are all set for certification exam. The exam consist of 150 question for which you are provided 3 hours. To crack these exam you should at least be correct for 120 question, so that you achieve 80%. Some of the question are tricky and have to pay lots of time for that. So use the time in smart way to en corporate all the question. All The Best...

My First Day at..................Symphony

At last….. By all of my efforts, sacrifices, pains and like this lots of other things which can’t be expressed from heart, brought me at this day to feel it.

My first day was very surprising, amazing and mostly cool because, wait have some patience you will know it by moving downwards.............

So , my first day begins in the early morning and believes it without any alarm I wake up, but last night my alarm was set and for backup my mom was there, which is going to wake up me by a call. So, when my eyes get opened I’m quite afraid and you know that everybody feels it. I prayed to god and hoped that everything will be fine. So as usual I done my all morning routines and pack my all office stuff. I wear my new (light blue) formal shirt and (black) jeans along with my new formal shoes. I went to office on my vehicle (Activa), which was 14 km away from my hostel.

I start from hostel and directly stopped my vehicle in front of lord Ganesha temple of D.P road. I prayed to god and complete my remaining journey along with listening some music on my cell.

The road of the journey was Makhhan and my vehicle moving on it like hot knife ………..

Finally, I reached the office and parked my vehicle, guess what a surprise is waiting for me i.e. I got my lost pen-drive in my jeans right front pocket when putting my vehicle key in same pocket. So, at that time my heart said to me that your company is lucky to you dude. Now, actually you will think that getting pen-drive doesn’t matter any lucky thing, but here lies the real story that the jeans which I wear on that day, was last wear by me when I lost my pen-drive. Interval between those days was 1/3rd a month. Before one day I watcheds the movie three idiots, so I said to my heart don’t worry uncle “Aal izz well” and see really “Aal Izz Well”. So that’s it, but for me it is very lucky because my pen-drive was giving me company, since from my B.C.S second year.

So that’s the surprising part of my story………..

And here begins, the amazing part…………..

When I reached the office (8.45 am) and meet my colleges. I gave my intro to them. They gossip about detail theme of office and telling me details of each and every member of the office. Suddenly, my mobile warned ‘Attention battery is low’ and I watched on her desk, she also having same cell as I do (Sony Ericsson W580i). So I hasted to ask her that do you have charger of this, but at last I join my all confidence and ask her, she replied, yes and told that I always borrow with me and lastly my cell get full of energy. Now amazing part of the story begins here, I don’t know that, two of my colleges are senior of my college (Wadia College of Pune). When I talk to my senior, she said you don’t know really! So I told few of my senior names to her which are close to me. She replied, and said I know them by yawing her head. So that’s amazing for me to have no fear about asking her for help.

Now another amazing thing is that, I came to know lunch is there from company. So, I replied to my heart that’s cool because, he is afraid of that everyone will bring lunch (Tiffin) from home and what he will do.

So that’s the amazing part of story……………………

At last Manager (ajay sir) of company came towards me and assigns a pc to me, then he said login to demo account and learn how Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) technology works. Finally, he said to me that you have to work in ASP (Active Server Pages). I began with my work by taking a pray to god in my heart.

At 1.30 pm I taken my lunch and again continue to work. Then round about 5 a pm Company’s CEO (Ravi sir) came towards me by looking towards my work and said, did you manage it properly. I replied, yes sir.

Finally, correct at 6.20 pm (I remember the time) gone towards Company’s Director (Atul sir) and said I’m leaving sir. He replied me by giving a sign of “hats off ".

Here I complete my wonderful and unforgettable day by returning to my hostel on that Makhhan road…………So that’s cool naa………………..