Having joined the Microsoft Team at Dicker Data last month, at the same time as the 2023 Inspire Event kicking off. I was able to jump straight in and watch loads of Microsoft presentations, webinars and keynotes. So, week one and I was already drinking the cool aid, and to my surprise I liked it (a lot). If you didn’t get a chance to attend the Dicker Data Inspire Roadshow event which summarised the key take aways, please do reach out to your Partner Development Manager to get the resource pack.
As we all know the new Solution Partner Designations have given the whole channel a renewed focus on achieving skilling points, for smaller partners this can mean dragging non-technical team members into obtaining certifications to add to the company overall score for skills. As at Dicker Data we also have a focus on training & certifications therefore (and in the absence of anything else to share) I thought for my first blog post it would be worthwhile sharing my introduction to the world of Microsoft training.
Firstly, if you are totally new to Microsoft Training, you are going to need a personal Microsoft Account, this account is then associated with to your Work Microsoft Account. This means that any of your achievements and certificates will count to your employer’s skill point total. If you leave your employer, then those achievements stay with you (and can be transferred to your new employer).
I found that there are four Microsoft training sites that I need access to (the main one is Microsoft Learn). Getting access to those four sites in one hit and then linking the work account to each one is a little bit fiddly, so worth doing when you are in a patient frame of mind.
From those four sites there are courses galore! so where to start……. if like me, you haven’t sat any exams for a long time and haven’t done any formal Microsoft training at all, you might as well start with some easy foundation type courses and build upwards. As I am in a sales / account management type role, I kicked off with the two SMB Master’s courses from the Expert Zone portal (there is a sales one and technical one).
I did both SMB courses & the knowledge check at the end. These exams don’t count to your company skilling targets, but they are free to sit, and you won’t be challenged by the content in any way. You do get a Badge which you can share via Linked in (who doesn’t like earning & sharing a virtual badge). Each course takes a couple of hours and if you work in an MSP you will know the vast majority of the subject matter already. So, half a day down and you’ve done two courses, got into the swing of earning badges and promoting your knowledge (and your company) via Linked in, hurray!
With the couple of SMB course under my belt, I then was off to Microsoft Learning portal, I added the three core fundamental exams to my profile MS-900 (365), SC-900 (security) and AZ-900 (Azure).
As I do have a day job, I set myself a target of three weeks to pass all three exams with an hour or two of study a day. I just did the courses all at the same time, as there is a ton of overlap between the three learning paths. There is a free assessment you can do for each learning path and its well worth doing those to start with …… then from the results, you can see what you already know ….and what you need to study.
I found that the YouTube videos by John Savill are a really easy way to get through the course content, reading page after page of training material gets old pretty quickly. I especially found that the video by John Savill called AZ-900 Study Cram is pretty much all you need to watch to pass AZ-900 (its about two hours long). From the same video series, you can find MS-900 and SC-900 videos (I didn’t watch those, but I am sure they are very useful).
I did the exams via the Pearson online test centre, each exam cost $99 USD, you will have to set up the Pearson app and then adhere to the rules (you will need to be in a quiet meeting room or at home). All the instructions come via email, and you just need to go with the flow (make sure you check in with plenty of time to spare).
After sitting the three exams, I now have three certificates, which (like badges) can be shared by linked in and more importantly count towards your company’s skilling points (clearly certificates trump badges all day long).
In September I am going to work towards a few more fundamental certificates MB-910 (Dynamics) AI-900 (Azure AI). I am also planning on starting one of role-based exams MS-710 (teams), which I have a bit more confidence to take now that you can use the Microsoft Learn resources during the exam (sort of like an open book exam). I am also going to force myself to use Microsoft Get Licensing Ready training material to get some licensing certificates.
I won’t write anymore blogs on training but if you add me on Linked In (www.linkedin.com/in/jonny-ward-0983101b1) you might see me merrily sharing that I’ve earnt some more badges / certificates, (which of course is what it’s all about)
