{"id":38924,"date":"2020-04-19T10:33:24","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T17:33:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/?p=38924"},"modified":"2020-05-01T04:57:40","modified_gmt":"2020-05-01T11:57:40","slug":"tips-and-tricks-for-getting-your-microsoft-certification","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/tips-and-tricks-for-getting-your-microsoft-certification\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips and Tricks for getting your Microsoft Certification"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Dev Consultant <a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/greg-roe-3a7b66b\/\">Greg Roe<\/a> shares his tips and tricks for attaining Microsoft Certifications.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>During the last 12 months, I\u2019ve put a concerted efforted to beefing up my technical chops &#8211; I\u2019ve passed 17 Certification Exams. See my<a href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/greg-roe-3a7b66b\/\"> LinkedIn<\/a> profile if you want to see what certs I\u2019ve obtained. I want to share my personal story Tips and Trick on how I did this so it may help you.<\/p>\n<p><strong>A word on my motivating drivers<\/strong>:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Cloud has caused a major inflection (disruption) in the way businesses operate and customer solutions are delivered. I want to understand how I fit in and provide value in the new world order.<\/li>\n<li>There is a plethora of new Azure Cloud technologies that\u2019s driven my desire to refresh and \u201cLearn-It-All\u201d.<\/li>\n<li>Job Security. Azure is the fastest growing cloud platform on the planet. There is an industry demand for people who know Azure.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Microsoft Certification Expert Tips and Tricks:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Adopt a learn it all attitude. Be curious. Don\u2019t be afraid to fail.\n<\/strong>No one person or class can get you certified. You have to really want it. If you\u2019re getting your cert because your boss told you to, or you want to \u201cget off the bad list\u201d\u2026 you might be in the wrong role.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pick a certification path, exam strategy.\n<\/strong>Review the many certs on the official <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/learn\/certifications\/\">Microsoft Certifications<\/a> Here are some popular Certifications:\n<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/learn\/certifications\/exams\/az-900?wt.mc_id=learningredirect_certs-web-wwl\">Azure Fundamentals AZ-900<\/a>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/learn\/certifications\/exams\/az-103?wt.mc_id=learningredirect_certs-web-wwl\">Azure Administration AZ 104<\/a>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/learn\/certifications\/exams\/az-203?wt.mc_id=learningredirect_certs-web-wwl\">Azure Developer AZ 204<\/a>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/learn\/certifications\/exams\/az-300?wt.mc_id=learningredirect_certs-web-wwl\">Azure Architecture AZ 303<\/a>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/learn\/certifications\/exams\/az-400?wt.mc_id=learningredirect_certs-web-wwl\">Azure DevOps AZ 400<\/a>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/learn\/certifications\/exams\/ai-100?wt.mc_id=learningredirect_certs-web-wwl\">Azure AI AI 100<\/a><\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule exam first<\/strong>, before you even put 1 hour into study. Putting the test out there motivates me to meet the deadline. I found if I did not do this, I had a lot of false starts and stops.\nYou schedule the exam with our exam partner Pearson Vue. You can take the exam at one of their local testing centers OR you can take at home via remote proctored exam.\nHere\u2019s the link for the <a href=\"https:\/\/home.pearsonvue.com\/microsoft\">Pearson Vue<\/a> . There\u2019s also a link to a specific exam signup on the individual <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/learn\/certifications\/\">Microsoft Certifications<\/a> page.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Start Doing- Get your Hands-on learning<\/strong>. Get an Azure subscription and start doing and learning.\nYou can get a <a href=\"https:\/\/azure.microsoft.com\/en-us\/free\/\">free Azure Trial Subscription<\/a> with a $200 Credit. There are 25+ free anytime services.\nIf you have Visual Studio Subscription you get a monthly $150\/$50 benefit for the Enterprise\/Pro versions. You have to Activate the Azure monthly benefit on the <a href=\"https:\/\/my.visualstudio.com\/Benefits\">Visual Studio Subscription Benefit<\/a> page<\/li>\n<li><strong>Start at the Azure Portal<\/strong> &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/portal.azure.com\/\">https:\/\/portal.azure.com\/<\/a>\nIt\u2019s your main GUI site for creating and managing Azure Services.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Study Resources Galore<\/strong> (Most are Free)\n<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/azure\/\">Azure Documentation<\/a> is fantastic. I particularly would start with the Overview, Concept, and Tutorial Sections of each service\n<a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/learn\/azure\/\">Microsoft Learn<\/a> All Free. Self-guided tutorials on Azure Services and technical certification paths. For example, take a look at the <a href=\"https:\/\/docs.microsoft.com\/en-us\/learn\/paths\/azure-fundamentals\/\">Azure Fundamentals AZ-900 Certification Path<\/a>. You follow this and then you can pass the exam.\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.edx.org\/school\/microsoft?msclkid=0aa667119e001db48a4a396a10856fd5&amp;utm_source=bing&amp;utm_medium=cpc&amp;utm_campaign=new-bs-us-brand-partner-microsoft-free&amp;utm_term=free%20edx%20microsoft%20online%20courses&amp;utm_content=edx-partner-microsoft_b-free\">EdX Free online course from Microsoft<\/a>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.microsoft.com\/en-us\/learning\/partners.aspx\">Microsoft Learning Partners<\/a> Paid Learning, given by Microsoft Certified Training Partners. Classes given locally in your area.\nMicrosoft Funded Azure Certified Training \u2013 Talk to your Cloud Solution Architect, you might qualify for free instructor led training.\nPremier Workshop Plus &#8211; If you\u2019re a Microsoft Premier Customer, talk to your TAM or ADM on many 300-400 deep technical workshops we have that can help your team learn and do and build solutions faster.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule a block time every day to study.<\/strong>\u00a0 For me I booked 5am-9am every day of the week.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 and then filled in open gaps of the day.\u00a0 So sometimes 6+ hours \/day<\/li>\n<li><strong>Practice tests<\/strong> can help. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.measureup.com\/catalogsearch\/result\/?q=microsoft\">Measureup<\/a> is one of the paid practice tests. I go in practice mode and\u00a0read thru the answer documentation.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Don\u2019t be afraid to fail<\/strong>. Go in and take it. I failed a couple on first pass &#8230; not by much, but I was close enough to brush up and take it again quickly and pass the second time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During the last 12 months, I\u2019ve put a concerted efforted to beefing up my technical chops &#8211; I\u2019ve passed 17 Certification Exams. See my LinkedIn profile if you want to see what certs I\u2019ve obtained. I want to share my personal story Tips and Trick on how I did this so it may help you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":582,"featured_media":38475,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5940],"tags":[174,3],"class_list":["post-38924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-development","tag-certifications","tag-team"],"acf":[],"blog_post_summary":"<p>During the last 12 months, I\u2019ve put a concerted efforted to beefing up my technical chops &#8211; I\u2019ve passed 17 Certification Exams. See my LinkedIn profile if you want to see what certs I\u2019ve obtained. I want to share my personal story Tips and Trick on how I did this so it may help you.<\/p>\n","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/582"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38475"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/premier-developer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}