Clearing Certification on the latest technology may turn out to be a game-changer for your career. Especially, when it comes to Azure Certifications, which not only adds a weight-age to your resume in general. But also helps you to add a few extra bucks to your hourly charges.
Why read this article?
When we have already entered into the year 2020, many corporate companies highly recommend their employees to clear Azure Certifications this year. Moreover, we have seen major changes with the certification path and exams by Microsoft in the last year. If you are also one of them who is willing to get certified in Microsoft Azure. But somehow feeling confused about which certification and badge is perfect, for them this article is a must-read.
For more than a decade now, providing official training on Microsoft Technologies to many people. Here, I have decided to share some of my key learning with the latest certification tracks available for Microsoft Azure. Furthermore, I will try to add maximum certification information in this article for all of you. And, I promise to keep you updated with all the happenings around Microsoft Azure certification.
Clarification
Microsoft has created a Role-Based Certification path for different Job Roles. For those who want to see a list of all the Role-based certifications, it is available here. In this article, we are going to focus only on Microsoft Azure-related Certifications. We will also discuss Role-based Certification. Not only that, I will give my extra inputs on each exam detail along with it. Above all, I will also give you elaborated guidance on how to prepare and pass a particular certification exam. If you have already decided on a particular certification track and are only interested in how to prepare for the exam. I highly recommend you to go through another article on Azure Certifications preparation which covers 20 days road map plan to be Azure Certified.
Primarily, Microsoft Azure certifications are based on Job Roles. It has specially designed levels for each certification exam denoted by the exam code. To understand this properly and make a decision about a particular exam you have to understand only two rules.
Rule Number 1 You should take certification based on your Job Role and Years of Experience in that Job role.
If you have less than 3 years of experience and working as an application developer then obviously you should not try for AZ-300 and AZ-301 exams. In spite of that, you should go with the AZ-204 exam.
Rule Number 2
Focus on the exam code number which indirectly shows the complexity of that exam like…
AZ-104 is the easiest exam to clear (Level 100)
AZ-204 is a bit more complex than Level 100 exams (Level 200)
AZ-400 will be even more complex and advanced
That’s the reason Microsoft has categorized certifications in three different categories as per this official link: Certification Overview
To understand this even a bit easier way, let’s take a look at the below table which shows a list of azure certifications based on Job roles.
Administrator AZ-104 AZ-120 Developer AZ-204 IoT Developer AZ-220 Solution Architect AZ-300 AZ-301 DevOps Engineer AZ-400 Data Engineer DP-200 DP-201 Security Engineer AZ-500 Business User AZ-900
The Importance of an Exam Badge
There are Exam Badges that you will get once you clear any of the above certifications. Moreover, getting a particular Badge is also an important factor. You can proudly showcase the badge you achieve with others.
So, for now, you can pick one from the above table that matches your Job role but do not hurry.
The world of IT is full of opportunities and that’s why you should choose your certification track wisely. As there may be chances that a few exams you consider to be a perfect match for you now can be a game-changer for you in the future. This means it can be perfect for your future designation.
Connected Exams
There are many exams that are connected like AZ-300 and AZ-301. To be more specific, first, you need to clear AZ-300, and once you clear it then only you can appear for AZ-301 (logically). Above all, on clearing both the certification you become eligible to get the certification badge with stars. And that particular badge entitles you as Microsoft Certified Azure Solutions Architect Expert
Note: You can get your badge from Acclaim which manages all of your badges and provides it to you when you earn it.
To understand the full certification path, you can go through the official link provided in each exam. You can then check if that is connected to any other exam or not. Apart from that, you can check which title and badge you will get through it.
Badges
As we discussed earlier in Certification Overview, there are different levels of certifications and it is categorized as follows.
And when once you clear the exam and get the badge from Acclaim. This is something it will be visible on your badge when you earn it. For example, here I am showing you here my two-star badge and three-start badge which I got last year after clearing the Azure architect and Azure Security exams.
Azure Certifications – Let’s Dive into it
Now, if you do not have any experience in technical things. And just a business user associated with cloud technologies then Microsoft has AZ-900 for you which is a very entry-level certification. I do not recommend this to any technical person, not even tech students.
For those people who have 0 to 3 years of experience in the IT field. If they are looking to explore cloud technologies or willing to make a career in azure technology. My best advice would be to start with fundamental azure certifications that are for you only like AZ-104, AZ-120, and AZ-204.
People having 4+ years of experience and have some exposure to Azure Cloud or other popular cloud technology like GCP and AWS. I highly recommend going for certification that is associated with AZ-104, AZ-204, and then continuing with AZ-300, AZ-400 & DP-200.
Finally, now if you have enough exposure in your field. And that we can count you as a subject matter expert for your work then it's better to opt for advanced level certification like DP-201, AZ-301, and AZ-500.
Important Piece from Azure Training Deciding certification exam is one thing and preparing for that certification exam in the right way is another thing.
“Making a Decision is the first step towards success”
Now, that you have decided on one exam code it is for sure that you are going to be azure certified very soon. Let me help you with some more useful information about the certification. This piece of information is usually shared with my corporate audience when I train them on a particular certification exam. Even after going through all the information mentioned here, you are finding it difficult. You can always reach out to me through any of the mediums mentioned in my profile section for any certification exam.
You will find many awesome azure tutorials on Mentor’s Tag website. Also, if you are interested in online training dedicated to Azure Certifications for your career. We take pride in saying that we are one of those few Azure training providers that guarantee ideal results in Azure Certification. BUT, if you decide that you want to prepare by yourself only in a self-learning mode then here I have a few useful tips for you.
Every azure certification exam page is having and skills document available in that.
Below every skill document, you will find a learning path that is connected with the official Microsoft Learn site maintained by Microsoft learning professionals.
If you have a question about where you can start preparing for these exams then you must start from the Azure Learning path. But I never advise that by only using the learning path you can clear the certification exam. So, if you are thinking that by following this learning path you will clear the exams then sorry to say that’s daydreaming. But I am sure you will get a clear understanding of all the useful topics and azure tutorials from this which will super interesting.
If you are planning for any advanced level certification remember your friend is just a message away.
[Happy Learning 🙂]Mentor's Tag