I've spent the last year and some change studying for and then passing my first Microsoft Certifications which led to recently getting my first Second Line support role.

Many of you reading this blog may work in the IT industry in some way or may be trying to break into it.

I was always advised to get certifications but wasn't too interested in doing work outside of work to do only do more work.

I knew enough to get by and was the technical go to guy for everyone. I could usually work out systems pretty quickly once given a bit of documentation, guidance or just working it out.

I sometimes had the technical knowledge in early roles to resolve complicated issues but not having any certifications would cut me out of the conversation.

I was stuck between First Line and Second Line support but wasn't going to let that be where my career ended.

I remained determined to learn the ins and outs of Windows Server at home on a janky old laptop to learn Active Directory. I learnt about GPOs and File Permissions but knew that at some point I'd have to make this knowledge a bit more legit.

Fast-forward a few years with remote roles from home and being in the pandemic, I had a bit more chance to get creative with scripting. I learnt Powershell to do some very basic Mailbox and Calendar admin tasks using a menu and GUI system.

Many companies I'd worked with up till now really weren't too forward with spending money to get me or any of the engineers certified.

That changed when I started at an MSP who were very focused on learning and personal development. They were a Microsoft Gold Partner which really attracted me as this to me meant they invested in their staff.

This was now around 5 years into my overall IT career with the pandemic now winding down.

They spoke to me about my current skill set and where I wanted to be in a few years from now. We set a timeline and they really encouraged and supported me with shielded training time in hours every week.

Each week I would have 2 and a half hours set aside to revise for my first ever official Microsoft Certification Exam.

I chose to do my all my exams at a Pearson Vue Test Centre as I was worried about noise or other unexpected issues doing this from home.

I booked a morning in January of that year for my first exam.

The first was the MS-700: Managing Microsoft Teams and after about 3 months of Microsoft Learn and YouTube videos I headed to the Test Centre to ace it.

I failed. The pass mark was 700. I got 610. I failed.

Leaving the test centre my confidence was shot and I didn't like the feeling of this kind of failure at all.

I spent the next 9 months dedicated to setting up a real study schedule and taking it as seriously as I would any of my exams back in secondary school.

It was boring but worked. A month after the MS-700 failure, I passed my first exam, the MS-900: Microsoft 365 Fundamentals the very next month in February.

I then planned out my next 2 certs with my AZ-900: Azure Fundamentals and the more advanced AZ-104: Microsoft Azure Administrator with a much better study plan.

I would pass my AZ-900 in that August and then my most proud moment being the AZ-104 first time that October making me officially a Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate.

With this burst of confidence I would then book in my AI-900 Microsoft AI Fundamentals the week after so get 2 Microsoft certs passed in that month of October.

I tried to compliment all of this studying with as much real world experience as I could from work where it was relevant and asked those that could answer some of my more abstract questions.

Plus things like ChatGPT helped to break down some of the more complex concepts to better understand some of the course material but I'll go into a more detailed study plan in the future.

The big questions is was any of this even worth it other than just to stroke my own ego.

Well, the short answer is yes.

Being able to learn these topics in a more structured way helped me in my day to day role and the cross over was noticeable very quickly.

I also noticed that my CV had started to attract more intermediate roles as these stood out amongst other candidates. I was getting way more emails and phone calls from recruiters than I usually did when my CV updated on the job boards.

I was able to start applying for roles that asked for these due to the confidence I had in passing the previous ones.

This allowed me to also speak with confidence about my technical abilities knowing that they had something to validate and check those against.

In turn this helped me land my first purely Cloud Second Line Engineer role and got me out of what I lovingly refer to as the First Line Trap.

For me, getting the first certification was a watershed moment in me being able to progress my IT career to the next step.

The learning in IT is never ending and the non 900 certs last for only 1 year. The AZ-104 will be my first renewal soon but I hear it's open book and less stressful.

However, before that renewal I'll be studying up for my next one the MD-102: Endpoint Administrator Exam to become a Microsoft 365 Certified: Endpoint Administrator Associate

My advice to myself if I could have made one change to my career would have been paying for industry recognized certs like the ITIL Foundation or the CompTIA when my companies weren't providing them years ago.

I know these would have helped when I started but I just didn't see the value in them until now.

For those about to cert, I salute you!

My Current List of Certifications from 2023

• Microsoft 365 Fundamentals - MS-900 February 2023
• Microsoft Azure Fundamentals - AZ-900 July 2023
• Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate - AZ-104 October 2023
• Microsoft Azure AI Fundamentals - AI-900 October 2023

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