I wanted to write something that would illustrate a snapshot of where I am in the process of getting certified, some of the study materials that I use, and what my goal ultimately is for getting certified.
Before I get into my agenda for this blog post, I want to talk a little bit on how I got here to this point that I am studying for MS-900. As a field tech, I quickly realized how complex networks and systems can be. Every one of my company’s clients have an IT environment that consist of technology from multiple vendors. The moment I realized this, I immediately looked for training on G-Suite Administration which is now Google Workspace. It was my gut reaction to wanting to learn to do simple administrative tasks in the Google Admin Console and leveraging my previous exposure to this system when I was a Special Education Teacher. After binging the 5 course training on Coursera I immediately began researching Microsoft certifications and the MS-900 appealed to me the most. This brings me to what ultimately my goal is.
My goal in choosing MS-900 as part of my learning path is because I want to be able to take on different kinds of tickets outside of the ones I usually take on. All of our clients use Office 365 and I want to be able troubleshoot issues around Teams, Exchange, Azure AD and more. Admittedly, if I wanted to just learn to do these couple of things I listed, getting MS-900 is overkill. I believe this certification will serve me well in understanding how Microsoft applications interact with the cloud and so far I been having a great time with the process.
I use a few things to study.
My study materials:
– ITProTV-Kaplan Practice Tests
-skillcertpro.com
-Microsoft Study Group Discord
-Microsoft Documentation
-Anki
I would say the most important study tool I have is the MS-900 Video course provided by ITProTV as well as the Kaplan Practice Tests. What I usually like to do is watch the whole course and then take a practice tests so that I can see what sticks and what test objectives do I need to study more on. Effectively what winds up happening is that I rewatch most of the course again but this time I create flashcards using Anki at the same time as I rewatch them, targeting the test objectives I am weak in. After I finish making all the flashcards I need to I spend a good amount of time practicing those flashcards and when I feel ready I take another practice test. I thought it was important that I have access to multiple assessments tools so I purchased a few practice tests on skillcertpro.com. I then repeat the process and target the test objectives I am weak in, creating flash cards, practicing them and taking a practice test.
I try not to make studying an experience where I am just reading and watching content though. I take the opportunity to login to an M365 Admin Portal when I am at work and poke around to explore its capabilities. For me I have to be able to see for myself the various admin portals and features that come with M365 for all this to stick. I usually do two things when I get stuck on a concept. I joined a Microsoft Study Group discord server which provides me with a community that I can reach out to with questions which has served me well. Also Microsoft official documentation is great for getting a solid explanation of things. I refer to it almost everyday.
So where am I at in this process to getting certified? I have pretty much covered all the content that will be on the test so I am simply preparing to sit for the exam on March 26. Currently I am really struggling with advanced security and compliance concepts. These things are hard to see first hand because I have not found a client my company has that actually is running their security and compliance workloads in Microsoft 365. To learn these things I have had to rely on just watching these things in a video course which feels like I am stuck in the theoretical understanding of these concepts.
I dont want to settle for this though. I have been working on developing a Hybrid Cloud Environment using Virtualization and Microsoft technologies which deserves its own blog post. From a high level, I want to deploy a Windows Server 2019 Environment and migrate some workloads like security and compliance using a trial version of M365 for Business Premium. More on this at a later date.