As mentioned in my previous post, that I wasn't paying daily attention to the MCA website on when and where registrations would finally open up to the rest of us and nearly missed the application deadline.  Luckily someone blogged (I can't remember where), that there were only a few days left and so I headed over to the MCA site.

Instructions on the site stated that registrations would be open to the first 250 applicants or the closing date of 14 July 2006, whichever occurred first. I didn't procrastinate for too long, just a brief reflection on how I would rustle up the US$10,000 that I was about to commit to.  The registration process seemed straightforward - go to Thompson Prometic, use the provided registration code and hand over your credit card details.  It made sense really - Microsoft already has Prometric as a registration/booking channel and the money would ultimately land up in the right place.  Being call centre phobic I tried to register on the website, but always reached a dead end and had to resort to speaking to a real live person.  Upon reflection this was not too bad either as I was able to speak to a local office, which would be a great help if you are not English speaking.

The same day I received my confirmation from Promteric, all clear and computer generated with necessary reference numbers, order numbers and notification of a 15 minute exam at some non-existent location.  I had a vague idea what to expect from the process and focused on more pressing things at work – pushing the MCA to the back of my mind until I had to do whatever came next.  I also kept an eye on my spam filter in case the important mail was rejected.

I don’t know whether it was because I only applied at the end of the application window or if it was just how the schedule worked, but the next day I received an email requesting:

• A copy of my CV
• A description of how I have displayed each of the program competencies
• An abstract of the case study that I intend submitting
• A completed InfoPath form
  

Not too much of a problem, but it had to be submitted by the next day!  A lot of stuff to get through if you only have one day to think about it and work on it. The ‘Application Package’ contained some helpful guides and enough instructions to negate the need for any clarification.  The email also explicitly stated that the documents must be submitted together and once only – corrections, changes or additional documents would be rejected.

The CV was easy, mine is always never more than one project out of date.  The abstract was not too tough – for a project that takes up most of my attention on a daily basis a one or two page document is no challenge. 

I hit a brick wall on the InfoPath form which insisted that Office XP SP1 had to be installed, and even though everything is fully licensed, it is a service pack that I struggle to install.  After much messing around I managed to get enough of the service pack installed to fill in the form, which is pretty straight forward and really just asks you to estimate your experience on various techniques and technologies that are relevant to architects.  The requirement was to save my InfoPath results as a .xsn file, which InfoPath whinged about so I saved it as .xml and sent it off as is.

Although I managed to find some time during the day to write about my competencies I really struggled to get it all together and sounding good.  The competencies cover such a broad range that it is actually quite difficult to jump from one subject to the next without having to really concentrate.  I can churn out a twenty page technical document or proposal in a day, but those seven diverse pages took a lot out of me.  The competency submissions had a lot of sentences that had 'I' in them - I did this and I do that - but I supposed that was not really narcissistic, rather a consequence of having to write in the first person.

Being in the GMT+2 time zone gave me about 9 hours grace, if the recipient was on the US west coast, but I’m not one of those people who think that same day is 23:59 in a time zone of your choice.  I wanted the documents to be in the inbox of the recipient promptly, completely and in order.  I even thought that it could have been some sort of test - those that submit just in time or begged for extensions may go to the bottom of the pile.  I was not taking any chances.  I managed to get everything sent off it time to arrive early in the morning on the desk of someone on the US west coast. 

I was happy with what I submitted but felt intellectually drained, wishing that I had a bit more time and had thought a bit more about my competencies in the preceding months.  About three hours later I received two emails simultaneously: one thanked me for my submitted application and the other announced a two week extension to the deadline. 

Aaaargh!

I put in a serious amount of effort in a single day only to be discredited by a bunch on whiners (probably in later time zones) who managed to coerce an extension out of the programme operators, who I’m sure needed the submissions to meet their own deadlines.  Never mind, I thought, my submission rocks and I wouldn’t have been able to write it much better if I had months.  At least I was done.

All that I had to do was wait for the next step, the telephone screening, which will be in my next post.

Some advice to future applicants- Get MS Office InfoPath installed and on the latest service pack and go through the competency areas that are clearly described and make sure that you have your thoughts in order up front.

Simon Munro