Who pays for certification ?

[testingdeveloper213]

While hiring recuritment agency said MCSD certification is required but only to see if a person is qualified enough or not.

After signing the contract, agency is saying that there client needs me to get MCSD as soon as possible.

I haven't started the contract yet as date is in future, who will pay for MCSD ? I am new to contracting...

[WTFH]

Welcome.

You pay for the certification.

[vetran]

Welcome.

Your company pays for the certification. HMRC contributes as its pre-tax income(for the minute)

then the client pays for it via enhanced rates or more jobs.

or at least that is the way it should work.

[Lance]

While hiring recuritment agency said MCSD certification is required but only to see if a person is qualified enough or not.

After signing the contract, agency is saying that there client needs me to get MCSD as soon as possible.

I haven't started the contract yet as date is in future, who will pay for MCSD ? I am new to contracting...

‘As soon as possible’?
How long is the contract????

If you are any good they’re not going to bin you because you don’t have it.
If you have it but are crap they’ll bin you regardless.

Do it if you want but don’t believe that it is actually needed.

[Mordac]

While hiring recuritment agency said MCSD certification is required but only to see if a person is qualified enough or not.

After signing the contract, agency is saying that there client needs me to get MCSD as soon as possible.

I haven't started the contract yet as date is in future, who will pay for MCSD ? I am new to contracting...

Recruitment agencies say lots of things (and most of them will turn out to be either exaggerated or wholly untrue), it's probably best to go along with them for now and wait and see what the client says (if you get that far).

If you don't have any of the exams which lead towards MCSD, it's either going to take you a long time, or cost a lot of money. I did an MCSE boot camp back in 2003 (7 exams in 2 weeks with 10+ hours in the classroom every day) and even with a healthy discount for taking up a last minute place it still cost me over £6.5k. (But that was back in the days when one could expense it through a ltd. co. )

The short answer is you pay for it, and hopefully it will pay you back in better rates and a higher hit-rate securing contracts. You'll need to make an informed business decision as to whether you need certain certs or not, but you're in a crowded marketplace, and if you don't have extensive experience you ought to have something on paper to help you stand out from the rest.