Can I hear myself? Yes, yes, I can. Okay, phone back in my pocket. (using iPhone voice notes to capture this)
So, here I am, running to work, just past the Mount Vernon car dealerships, and thinking about the madness of the past week. I went on a bit of a certification sprint—three exams in seven days.
I looked at my Microsoft certification transcript and realized something shocking: it has been 23 years since my last Microsoft exam! That hit me. Back then, I was a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer (MCSE), and my last exam was Designing and Deploying a Messaging Infrastructure with Microsoft Exchange 2000 Server in 2002.
Now, to be fair, I have done other exams since then—CCNA, CCNP, CCDP, CCIE (back in the 2000s), and in 2019, I tackled CISSP, TOGAF, and PRINCE2 Foundation. So, it’s not like I’ve been living in a certification void.
But now, seven days later, my transcript jumps from 2002 to 2025. That made me laugh.
Are Exams Important?
I don’t believe exams alone make someone capable. Experience is king. But at the same time, these certifications can open doors—even if I’m not particularly looking for new ones right now. I’ve already shared my thoughts on this in this blog post.
I’ve seen a lot of discussions about exams vs. real-world experience, and I sit somewhere in the middle. I wouldn’t have passed any of these exams without hands-on experience. Yes, I studied hard, did practice tests, and prepped using MeasureUp.com.
That said, I got caught out with AZ-400 when the last section turned out to be a real lab. MeasureUp did not have a real lab part! I had to log into a VM and ‘do stuff’—something I wasn’t expecting. Since my day-to-day work is focused on Infrastructure as Code (IaC) I don’t do much configuration in the portal and Azure DevOps Projects, it threw me off. Especially considering that Azure DevOps Engineers shouldn’t be spending their time in Azure DevOps Project—that’s more for Scrum Masters and Agile Delivery Managers. Right, Microsoft?
Just Book the Exam
One thing I’ve found: if you want to get certified, just book the exam. Give yourself a deadline. The pressure forces you to study and prepare.
Each certification I’ve done (except maybe AZ-204, which I booked on a whim) required structured effort. It wasn’t just about “winging it.” There’s a balance of studying, practice, and real-world application that makes the difference.
Now that DevOpsGuy has passed AZ-204, AZ-400 (DevOpsGuy can officially call himself an DevOps Expert now—😁 albeit prefixed with Azure) and with AI-900 are done, I find myself wondering: what’s next?
Do I go for something more technical? Maybe Terraform? Maybe Certified Kubernetes Administrator (CKA) and strive to become a Kubernetes astronaut
Maybe it’s time to push myself again.
Suggestions?
If anyone has recommendations on what certification to tackle next, let me know in the comments! Meanwhile, I’ll keep running—literally and figuratively.
Until next time—Carpe DevOps! 🚀
