Finally it is over!!!

Yes it is over... I finally took the SCJP certification on Friday 14th July 2006. It was at the prometric centre in Andheri-east. I first came to the office, had a nice breakfast given by mom and then left for the center. The center is quite good and the people are very professional and supportive.

It has been a long journey. When I joined the company, I was straight away put into Java CoE(Center of Excellence). It was however a very disorganised entity. No guidance of any sort to us beginners and we were sometimes supposed to resolve queries for technologies which we had not even heard about before. So we concentrated on many different things at different points in time. No focus and no attention on any particular domain or technology.

Slowly but steadily we learnt a few basic things related to Java and then soon we started preparing for Java certification. But it soon took a backseat as I was told to prepare a KSS on JSF. I got deeply involved in that and hence certification took a blow. After that finished, I got involved in portal training. The portal technology helped me to make sample applications using BEA weblogic portal and I also helped a colleague in her real life project.

After that we again started studying for the certi. We had to start anew as the tempo had gone down and we had to refresh ourselves on the minor details. But it was shortlived as we again went into a training and then into a project. I got involved in another KSS this time on Java 5.
I also gave a presentation on Internet and web technologies to a group of librarians. I also got a chance to work on proposals which was quite a new experience. How new business is achieved and what are the finer details in making a proposal to the client. We didnt won that but still it was fun to work.

Soon after that we demanded to our PL to give us some project experience as we felt that just sitting here wont give us any experience. He relented and brought the concept of 50-50. 50-50 simply means that half of the time we devote to Java CoE and the remaining half of our time is spent in a project. The client was a Travel management and foreign exchange company. We developed the audit trail module. It was a great learning experience for me and I finally worked on a proper project. I also came to know that I can write decent code. At the same time we also continued our SCJP preparation. THe project got over in the first week of July. Now our efforts were entirely concentrated on SCJP 5. I finally gave it and passed with a score of 94%. Its a great feeling as I had really worked hard to make sure that I get a score above 90%. I did face some difficulties though. For instance, there were very few mock papers available for SCJP 5.

Now I am thinking of taking a nice break. Not sure where to go but will have to decide fast.
Bye for now.