I've been saying for a while that I would like to get back into programming. After the events of the last week, I have pretty much decided that, after years of resistance, I need a Microsoft Certification.

I'm now looking at MCSD in C#

Going to have a conversation with the wife later on today, as I am contemplating taking a few weeks off, and home studying, rather than paying several thousand pounds for a course.

I have already passed the C&G C++ programming courses up to Level 3 and I have HTML Level 2, again with C&G and think that this may be a good next step, as I'm not getting any younger, and should really start thinking about what I want to do when I grow up!

Any thoughts on the subject?

By the way, I am not going to discuss the work situation at this stage, so please do not ask. Let's just say that I walked away with my head held high, and it was a mutual decision, with no animosity involved, and leave it at that.

John
If its any help I spend most of my time managing large projects quite often involving the implementation and configuring of COTS packages / platforms.

Most of this work seems to be in java land ...............

Good luck with what ever you decide.

Thanks, Alun. I started out using GW/Q Basic before moving onto Visual Basic, (not .Net - I stopped at Version 6) before moving onto C++ so I want to stick with C# as I really don't want to move over to web based... anything in fact, as it just looks like it's more trouble than it's worth.

Looking online now to try and find the training materials for the course I mentioned in the OP, preferably free, but inexpensive would be nice

Cbt nuggets are really good and not expensive.
Depending on what part of IT you want to work in will decide on the best certs, for support type roles I'd be looking at things like 70-680 and the MCSA path.
For dev stuff then you want to look at SQL and .net as most of it is done in visual studio

If you are doing home study, have a look at http://join.itpro.tv/twit/ (7 day free trial as well). It is supposed to be good and I've been thinking about getting back into programming myself, I am supposed to be a project manager, but spend most of my time doing translations and presentations for others, then getting bollocked for not keeping up on the project management...