Eric Wendelin's Blog

I’m in San Francisco where JavaOne is now halfway complete. This is my first time at the largest programming conference, and I have learned what JavaOne is really about and the best ways to take full advantage of the opportunity:

Talk to every person that is directly behind you in the queues

JavaOne is NOT just about learning, it is about networking. I challenge you to do this and I know that you will be well rewarded for it. You might even find out about good parties, more on that later. Making good connections will take your career a long way, and if you are hiring than you are bound to find people that suit just what you are looking for.

Popularity: 4% [?]

This last Friday I took the Sun Certified Java Programmer exam (Java 5 edition). I am going to talk about the experience, what I would have done differently and why it will end up mattering.

So just how hard is the SCJP? Instead of phrasing it in some vague way, I’m going to tell you what I did and how it all worked out for me. For starters, I studied for about 25 hours over the course of 10 days before my exam. I would say that having 18 months of Java experience did not help much. I also took 2 practice tests but they weren’t as helpful as I would’ve liked. However, I do still highly recommend reading the SCJP Study Guide by Sierra and Bates. It was fairly thorough and contained many helpful tips.

Popularity: 7% [?]