Happy Anniversary to Me: 10 Years as Microsoft Certified Partner

On October 1, 1999, I took (and passed) Exam 176: Designing and Implementing Desktop Applications with Microsoft® Visual Basic 6.0, thereby officially becoming an MCP (Microsoft Certified Partner).

Years earlier, I had made a conscious decision to ride Microsoft’s coattails, having developed a fondness for Visual Basic as a quick and dirty development tool. Fortunately, I never had to build a Windows application using MFC or ATL, since my career has focused on middle tier and database code, with a few opportunities to play with .NET (C#) WinForm apps and VB6 ActiveX controls.

This certainly wasn’t the only road to follow, and I wouldn’t even say it was definitively “the best” choice. Many developers have built successful careers around Java, the “LAMP stack”, etc. But it’s worked out well for me.

In a few months (January 25, to be exact), I’ll celebrate my 10th anniversary of passing the last of four exams required to achieve Microsoft Certified Solution Developer certification.

A lot of water has gone under the bridge in those 10 years, and a lot of code (good, bad, and ugly) has fallen out of my head. Not a bad way to spend ten years.