Learning for Exellence, or something like that.

Hi all,

I'm new to these forums, and I've been using ASP .NET 2.0 ( with C#) for about a
year now. I was wondering if anyone could give me some advice... 

I'm looking for ways to improve and become an exellent ASP .NET/C# web
developer. Can anyone recommend any books, courses, websites etc. That I can
look at?

What do you consider to be the core excellencies that the best ASP .NET
developers have? What do you need to know to be considered a guru?

Obviously it'll take a lot of sweat and hard work, but I'm ready for that, I
just need the best information and the most efficient ways of assimilating it
all.

What do you think of the MS certifications (MCTS etc?) Are they useful (for
learning, not just prettying my CV?)

How do you get to be a ScottGu or an Esposito (without working for MS?)

Any and all advice greatfully accepted.

Thanks,

Dan.te

I'm not one of the "gurus" that you are talking about, but I do have a
few ideas for getting there.  Experience will be your best teacher.  Familiarize
yourself with design patterns.  Finally, you should read a lot.  I have seen
other threads on this forum that discuss paths for taking your
development/design skills to the next level.  Check out some of those for tips
from experts that are out in the field.

Well Asp.net Forums are pretty good enough to enhance your knowledge skills. I
try to visit the forums everyday and see what problems other people have and try
to give them solutions based on my experience as well as learn from different
approaches to similar problem, as there might be many problems that other people
come across and I you havent seen that problem before. Be it asp.net, ajax or
any other.

Design Patterns, yeah, I was thinking about getting into that sort of thing.
Thanks for the suggestion

1) Master C# or VB.net 

2) read a lot of books and articles you can find great ones on
www.codeproject.com

3) watch these videos http://www.asp.net/learn/

4) try to do things (building sites trying things that u just learnt...