I passed an exam today!

This morning, at some unearthly hour, I took and successfully passed my first exam & certification in over a decade. It was the DP-900 Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals certification.

I’ve always advised people when asked about certifications, that they really aren’t worth it. To be fair I’ve always been asked that question in the context of “Will having a certification help me get a job?”, and generally speaking, the answer is, “No, it won’t”.

I took my Microsoft SQL Server Database Developer certification in around 2013, and that’s only because a number of my colleagues had done the same thing, and I didn’t want to feel like the dumb one.

So, I signed up for the exam, did the study and passed. What changed? Nothing, although it looked good on my CV (resumé).

That was then though, and this is now. Back then I was a young developer trying to make my way and find my path through life.

Now I’m a SQL coach and mentor. People look to me for careers advice, so I need to be able to take an unbiased view of life and careers, and that’s based on years of career progression, job changes, reviewing CVs and being involved in hiring candidates.

Therefore, when asked about the true value of certifications I have always given the following advice:

• If you have certifications, it may well look good on your CV, but you will still need to prove your worth (your technical skills) in an application & interview situation.
• Having a certification should be a demonstration of what you already know, not a means to learn the material.
• Studying (cramming) for an exam the way I just crammed for my DP-900 is not an effective way to learn.

However, having said all that, I’m now going to contradict myself, and potentially come across as a hypocrite.

For my next project, I’m going to be deploying a data warehouse and ETL solution in the cloud on Microsoft Azure. This may also include file storage and will definitely involve some Power BI development.

My experience with Microsoft Azure is fairly limited, (despite having worked with Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services before) so I knew I needed to skill up, and in doing so make sure that I didn’t leave any gaps.

So I started to work through the training for the Microsoft Azure Data Fundamentals certification. I figured that it would give me a good insight into what I knew, what I didn’t know, what I knew I didn’t know and what I didn’t know I didn’t know.

Does that make sense? Course it does. If you’re confused by that previous paragraph, read it again!

Anyway, having worked my way through the training, it didn’t take me long to decide to just take the exam. After all, it would look good on my CV, even it it wasn’t of much actual value.

So I took the exam, and I passed. In actual fact it was fairly easy.

And now that I’ve completed the DP-900, what’s next?

Well guess what? I’ve already started on the AZ-900 which is more of an all-round Azure certification, rather than the data-based DP-900. This goes into the architecture of Azure, compute and networking services, storage services and access & security. Some of this was covered in the DP-900 but will be studied in more depth for the AZ-900 which is more of an Azure administrator based program.

There are two paths you can follow with Azure certification; Azure administration and Azure data.

If you chose to follow the administration path, all routes begin with the AZ-900 training, exam and certification.

From there you can take the following options / training paths:

Or if you’re more of the ‘data’ persuasion rather than administering and architecting Azure, then you can follow the DP route, beginning with DP-900.

As for me, I’ve got DP-900 done and dusted. Next I’m doing the AZ-900.

Those two are the fundamentals certifications and are to be considered an entry point into the rest of the world of Azure. If you’re new to Azure, then I’d suggest you begin with these two.

Don’t forget though, having certifications listed on your CV is not the be all and end all. You do need the skills, knowledge and experience if you’re hoping to work with Azure on a day-to-day basis. However the journey from little or no knowledge to having these certifications is all part of an immersive learning journey, so even if you follow the Microsoft certifications pathways, the learning materials on their website and back this up with some well chosen YouTube content (check out John Savill, the man’s a legend) and then plaster your certifications all over your CV, that in itself is not going to get you a job.

It’s a great place to start though.