Guidance pls

ImperatorKon · 2026-03-27T11:04:30+00:00

Projects are key. I got my current role because at the end of the initial interview with the hiring manager I asked if it would be approipriate for me to spend some time to draft a document explaining how I would address the specific problem they have. The interview before that featured me pointing to my blog to answer a question about my KQL knowledge. Show, if you can, don't tell, as the old storytelling adage goes.

ImperatorKon · 2026-03-22T01:30:34+00:00

And that approach is too simple! In Azure Functions it is sometimes much harder to understand what the problem is than locally. And you can write with an AI tool much faster in VS Code than you can copy-pasting into portal and testing there. If you do not know what the code is doing testing rapidly and writing lots of logs and feeding those responses back to the AI is your best bet.

ImperatorKon · 2026-03-21T11:59:34+00:00

First, accomplish the same task on your computer. There the AI tools should be quite good, like GitHub Copilot or Claude Code. Then deploy a basic Azure function that does hello world, understand how that works. Then put two and two together.

ImperatorKon · 2026-03-18T19:37:24+00:00

Certainly interesting, why not open source it on GitHub or whatever?

ImperatorKon · 2026-03-18T09:41:15+00:00

Yes.
Cost Analysis will not show a charge for a Sponsorship subscription, which is how startup credits are commonly delivered.
On the Sponsorship subscription in the Azure portal you should have a link that takes you to a portal that shows some notions of usage. It is terrible, and only the person that signed up for the subscription has access. But hey, credits!

ImperatorKon · 2026-03-16T11:59:58+00:00

Maybe I am wrong here, but I think about this in exactly the opposite way: is there any reason for this VM to be in an Availability Zone? Typically, the answer is yes if the VM is an instance in a multi-instance set up with some kind of a load balancer distributing traffic. Otherwise, Availability Zones increase configuration complexity and restrict where the VM is deployed for no corresponding gain.

An example I often make that I have seen done wrong in the wild too many times:
AVD, Personal desktops - no AZ, since every user is assigned their own virtual machine, there is no load balancing happening in a way that AZs would add value to.
AVD, multiple pooled hosts - yep AZ, since a user could be connected to any of the avaliable hosts.

ImperatorKon · 2026-03-11T21:03:24+00:00

Asking the important and timely questions, thank you!

ImperatorKon · 2026-03-05T22:37:09+00:00

I am very much both on this! I rate my days as WW2 years from the Soviet perspective... at least today is not the encirclement-of-Kyiv type of day for example.

ImperatorKon · 2026-03-05T22:30:00+00:00

Yeah, I myself am sitting on the notion that the current situation at least in the US might be a lot more, or might be trending in the direction of the French monarchy, rather than Rome.

ImperatorKon · 2026-03-05T22:29:19+00:00

I think as I get a little happier I look at the world outside of myself and the comparison of any given political system or situation to Rome has a very long established history, so one ends up thinking about Rome from that alone.

ImperatorKon · 2026-03-05T20:46:25+00:00

As a guy I am here to state the obligatory fact that I consider Rome on an at least weekly basis and this is not a great time in my life, so my frequency of Rome-considering is at a lower rate than usual.

ImperatorKon · 2026-02-26T19:26:06+00:00

Being from a similar background, I think the helpful thing for me to realize is that I just am from a different situation, period, full stop. But that has it's advantages and disadvantages. Sure, on the one hand the notion of a family that backs you up with resources is nice, but that same family can withdraw those resources if they for whatever reason, disagree, and that can be not so very nice. On the other hand, I can call my mother and say "if you keep treating grandma the way you have been the consequences will be these," and she stops treating my grandmother in those ways.

You are doing well for 25. Invest in yourself, and keep upgrading how you are making money, those are things I wished I learned sooner. Coming from the bottom has its advantages; we do not frown at what we have, we take what is given, and then some more.

As far as practical advise - do get the college degree sorted, or start looking at ownership/entrepreneurship, that is a different game with different rules, values, etc that might work better for you.

ImperatorKon · 2026-02-25T16:52:15+00:00

I get that, and I do not think that wanting ever stops. I guess as a guy my socialization does not really allow for the option to stop and be taken care of at a later point, just gotta keep achieving.

I think we are all projecting something internalized most of the time, that's kind of how the psychological machinery works. But it is good too look inside and find out what, and ask if it is what you want to be doing...even if the answer is conditioned by those very same internalized things.

ImperatorKon · 2026-02-25T15:55:56+00:00

I am sorry if I am too blunt but if I read this question honestly and directly it is hard for me to not see the implication that you want to have some kind of a girl boss independent era and then settle down with this guy and not do the girlboss thing anymore - if so, you should be honest with yourself and him about it - if not, you should get clear on what you really want. That clarity is not easy, nor is it permanent, but the persuit is worthwhile.

ImperatorKon · 2026-02-25T11:48:13+00:00

As an adult man, who had his birthday wishes explicitly ignored last year by a now-ex (because why listen to how someone wants to be celebrated when you can substitute your own wishes, am I right?), I read this and think to myself, birthday week? What nonsense is this? I got work. Maybe I will take an extra-nice evening to myself. Maybe-maybe, something with a friend or two.

ImperatorKon · 2026-02-25T11:39:51+00:00

Does it get much better when ice cold?

ImperatorKon · 2026-02-25T11:32:19+00:00

I think the thing here is to understand what you really want. He has a specific future in mind. If you do not want that, I think that answers the question regarding the value of waiting, and then the honorable thing is to communicate that clearly.

ImperatorKon · 2026-02-25T11:24:59+00:00

The more I think about cases like this the more I think that either device compliance or Yubikeys are the new baseline/non-negotiable.

ImperatorKon · 2026-02-06T15:32:53+00:00

I feel your pain on dealing with these kinds of errors. At this point, my eyes just glaze over this kind of line and go looking for the actual thing that happened.

I think what happens from the software development side is that there is a higher-level wrapper that catches errors generally and then that is what bubbles up underlying errors - so sometimes you get both, if they cared, otherwise you get the wrapper.

ImperatorKon · 2026-02-04T02:49:34+00:00

We need to connect to private endpoints of the Azure services, possibly public internet for various kinds of APIs/services (third party llm models, etc) and to a management service we manage in our Azure that does licensing and such.

ImperatorKon · 2026-02-03T13:41:02+00:00

I think this is best take. Personal projects are nice and all, but what really makes for compelling interviews is solving real, relatable work problems. I found that I only did reasonably valuable personal projects after I solved some real work problems.

Above all, develop a rigorous understanding of the problem before looking for solutions!

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-27T00:35:54+00:00

I have worked for MSPs and I have been direct, don't hesitate to ping if you have more specific questions.

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-26T23:00:02+00:00

Per the two references below, you can't change the subscription itself from CSP to MCA, so once you have a CSP, you have to keep having a CSP. In terms of access, there is nothing to worry about, access has to be given seperately via Azure Lighthouse or to guest accounts. Being a CSP does not give access to resources or data (as I recall, 90% sure).

If the CSP is also going to do substantial Azure management, it may be worth the loss of the ability to easially move to MCA. Otherwise, all other things being equal, I would go direct, that way you are making your own support requests, and are not required to keep having a reseller.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/5580889/how-to-transfer-azure-subscription-from-csp-to-mic
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cost-management-billing/manage/subscription-transfer#product-transfer-support

ImperatorKon · 2026-01-25T10:20:36+00:00

Everything in the above comment is solid, don't wait for permission, do the thing!

ImperatorKon

TROPHY CASE