How I Earned 4 Microsoft Certifications in 4 Weeks

On the 1st of June, 2021, I came across a tweet announcing a line up of Virtual Training Events on some of Microsoft’s bespoke Business Applications. A number of factors quickly inspired me to sign up.

First, Malaysia was going back on lockdown on the same day and so I wouldn’t have any need to commute to and from office. The lockdown was eventually extended to one month. With the time saved on all activities associated with preparing for and going to office, I gained at least 2 hours daily.

Second, there’s a bit of slow down in work. While we WFH (work from home), we had the opportunity to rearrange work schedule and time. Third and most important, I am a sucker for learning, and discovering new ideas for solving problems and getting generally future-smart is what keeps me alive. Besides, the digital skills to be learnt are exactly what I need to fully prepare for the delivery of our about-to-be lunched Ignite Venture Lab. So, I smiled and said to Microsoft, “bring it on”.

Aside my expectations for the training, the training events themselves turned out to be excellent grounds that I leveraged to widen my professional network and build relationships with people from across the world. Each course was passionately delivered by the best of Microsoft’s technical talents, from different parts of the world. All told, I was in those virtual trainings at least 10 hours a week.

Things got a whole lot more interesting when I learnt that for each business application course that we were taught, we could get certified by Microsoft if we were able to demonstrate mastery of the subject through practice and taking of relevant certification exams.

Best part, all trainees would get the certification exam fees waived. I would later learn that the Malaysian Ministry of Higher Education (MoHE) also pays for any lecturer interested in taking the certification exam. This is quite a commendable investment by the government preparatory for IR4.0.

I didn’t even need to see the Microsoft’s promotional message that says that each certification moves you 40% up in career advancement, and that recruiters will be knocking at your doors once you get certified. Though all that is shaping up to be absolutely true, I didn’t need it nonetheless. I just wanted to learn, grow and be digitally smart.

So, each week after the two days 2hours training, I would quickly register for the certification exam with Pearson Education — Microsoft Partner on Certification Examinations. I would then go on to learn more: watch relevant YouTube videos, read all the given manuals and crawl through Microsoft Learn — a university of some sort where you get to learn everything about Microsoft’s products and services.

To practice what I was learning, I got a few of the SMEs that I consult for to sign up for free versions of the APIs, especially Microsoft Cloud Solutions — Azure. With that, I was able to provision workloads that helped those businesses run more efficiently.

Based on the business requirements of each, I configured Virtual Machines, Databases and even AI-powered Bot Services for a clinic that wanted that to handle customer inquiries. I also introduced those entrepreneurs to Microsoft Dataverse, Power Apps, Power Automate and Power BI.

With those APIs and no-code Apps, I was able to help the entrepreneurs create visibility for their supply chain, gain valuable insights into their customers’ behaviours and sell smarter, improve customer service delivery, manage common administrative tasks, track payments and manage finances, avoid waste and save costs, and make healthy profits. Watch out for another piece where I share the full transformative stories of these SMEs.

At the time, I was also lucky to be teaching an undergraduate class on New Venture Creation and Management, and so I got to teach all that I was learning and that way, I remembered them more.

At the end of every week, specifically on Saturdays, I would sit for the 90 minutes certification exam. Now, I am proud to tell you that I failed my first attempt at Microsoft Azure Fundamentals, scoring 650. The pass mark is 700 (out of 1000).

But with my @umk.edu.my email address, I claimed the MoHE’s certification fee payment offer and quickly registered to take another shot within 24hours. I did and passed the resit, earning my very first Microsoft Certification on the 8th of June.

With more practice and more teaching of what I was learning, subsequent certification exams were a lot easier and I passed them all in one sitting. All told, I earned four certifications within four weeks. And I am only just beginning.

Of the four certifications: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals, MS Azure AI, MS Azure Data and Microsoft Educator, I cherish the last one most. I have been learning and teaching with the 21st Century Learning Design for about 2 years now, but I have never gotten around to taking the certification exam. I finally did and passed.

Now that the lockdown is over, I am happy to be returning to office and class refreshed and armed with exciting new ideas. Best part, the certifications are not only endorsed by the Ministry — my employer, the Ministry pays all related fees for staff to get it.

By and large, if you are a young professional reading this, the smartest thing you could do right now, in this present world, is to literally tear up your academic qualifications, and take advantage of every opportunity to learn and grow practically. This is particularly true for those of us with so-called PhD.

I have realised that folks with this degree have this false notion of being knowledgeable. They tend to have this enlarged sense of arrival at the knowledge hills. And some of us are even delusional about how smart we are. The truth is, in the world that’s upon us, none of us knows anything.

To stay above water, especially those of us academics who are expected to facilitate knowledge acquisition, we need to stay above water in the quality and quantity of industry/digital knowledge that we possess. That’s why I tell new PhDs these days that, their learning is not only just beginning, they need to learn faster to make their new degree relevant.

The mentality that we are merely just beginning and that we are ‘foolish’ is required by the new world that we live in. Life-long learning is the way to go.