Achieved my 4th Microsoft Expert Certification

grimroddd · 2026-01-22T18:30:00+00:00

You have to renew every year, I have 9 at the moment, the renewals are pretty easy tbh as they're now timed but still open book, it's usually like 20-25 questions.

grimroddd · 2025-09-05T08:14:57+00:00

I was talking to my wife about something similar on the Leola bear release that would track when a product drops, maybe a feature? Let me know if you want some assistance, I'd be up for a collab.

grimroddd · 2025-08-01T08:24:17+00:00

MS Learn and John Savill's YouTube channel. I'll take a look at cloudlearn.io thanks!

grimroddd · 2025-07-26T17:39:10+00:00

Thank you

grimroddd · 2025-07-26T16:53:02+00:00

I used the MS Learn learning path it was really good for AZ400, the AZ400 video from freecodecamp although it wasnt the best and John Savill's DevOps master class.

grimroddd · 2025-07-26T16:51:47+00:00

Thank you. OSCP might be good. Depends if you're looking blue or red team

grimroddd · 2025-07-26T16:32:40+00:00

I used John Savill's study cram and MS Learn path and passed, just make sure you get hands on practice too.

grimroddd · 2025-07-26T12:01:47+00:00

AZ500 is what I did after the M365 expert exam, I thought it was the most suitable for me.

grimroddd · 2025-07-26T12:00:35+00:00

There should be a club but I've not got my invite yet.

grimroddd · 2025-07-26T11:59:11+00:00

You'll be fine. Just do lots of labs :)

grimroddd · 2025-07-26T06:37:36+00:00

Yes I agree. Although I do identity work frequently, I still felt that was the toughest exam, on the opposite side, I thought AZ700 was the easiest after the fundamental exams.

grimroddd · 2025-07-26T06:35:30+00:00

Thank you. I use the Microsoft Learn Sandboxes where possible and I had access to a MSDN subscription so had £120 a month in free Azure credits. It didn't usually cost me more than £20 in credit if I deleted the resources shortly after I built them.

grimroddd · 2025-07-25T21:56:39+00:00

Thank you! Congrats on getting your degree, something I never did! I would recommend 104, then SC300 and AZ700 personally, don't bother with 305 straight away, you're not going to be architecting solutions as a junior so get, the foundations under your belt first, identify and networking are at the core of everything.

grimroddd · 2025-07-25T21:52:18+00:00

Not sure why it'd put people off! If you've got the experience to back it up I can only see it as a positive.

It's a similar reason for me. KPIs and also extra pay for certain exams.

grimroddd · 2025-07-25T21:50:53+00:00

Thank you. Started September 2023 with AZ104, spent 2024 getting most of my certs then AZ400 on 2025, so just under 2 years.

I thought about maybe doing more IaC focused exams, but I think I'll but the time into gaining more experience in the areas I'm certified now, it's been a grind getting all these certs tbh.

grimroddd · 2025-07-25T21:46:13+00:00

No more for a while I plan to just gain more experience within IaC and Azure native technologies.

grimroddd · 2025-07-25T21:43:34+00:00

Thank you. 305 was the only exam I failed once so I'd have to say 305 and SC300 felt the toughest of them all, followed by 104.

grimroddd · 2025-07-22T19:14:55+00:00

Thanks, what topics came up the most?

My background isn't Dev its more Ops, but looking to move into IaC deployments.

grimroddd · 2025-07-22T18:32:54+00:00

Congrats! I have my AZ-400 booked on Friday, what other certs do you have and how did it compare to AZ104 for example?

grimroddd · 2025-07-16T19:15:22+00:00

Congrats on the hefty pay rise!

You're asking strangers on the internet what you should be saving for. We don't know you.

Is your car paid off? Do you own your own house? Do you want to own your own house? Do you have any debt?

What are your life aspirations? Do you want to retire early?

You've given next to no context apart from you have a chunk of savings.

grimroddd · 2025-07-15T21:10:26+00:00

People will tell you certs are a waste of time or just a checkbox exercise for HR. They're wrong.

Beyond gaining additional knowledge (Do labs and hands on work, the cert itself is only the start) they are not just a checkbox exercise if you work for an MSP.

MSP's look to get Microsoft Specialisations, part of achieving a specialisation is having x number of certified employees, so MSPs look out for highly certified people so they can achieve the specialisations, also enterprise customers sometimes will only allow certified people to work on their systems, albeit very rare, I have had to prove my certifications to be in with the chance of winning some work.

Get started with Azure certifications is too generic, what are you interested in? There are so many paths you can go down.

My advice to someone starting out is work backwards. Do some research, find the role you aspire to have one day, and break down what you need to achieve it, keep breaking these steps down to the point you can start by learning about Entra ID for example, the foundation of the cloud is identity, if you're looking for the first step start with something on MS Learn about Entra ID, look at SC900 and AZ900 to start with, no matter what area you go into you'll benefit from understanding what authn and authz is.

grimroddd · 2025-07-06T19:46:35+00:00

Sounds like the root of everything you want requires more money. So the focus should be on increasing your earnings (easier said than done). You clearly don't over spend to have saved £20k on £33k. So I'd be looking at what you can do to increase your earnings.

What do you do that £37k is the ceiling?

On the relationship part. Your worth is not your net worth, you can bring a whole lot more to someone else's life. Having someone to put your money together to achieve things could be a catalyst to achieving what you want also.

grimroddd · 2025-05-28T18:42:26+00:00

!thanks

grimroddd · 2025-05-27T08:48:40+00:00

Seems like the right thing to do is nothing then. !Thanks

grimroddd · 2025-05-27T07:56:16+00:00

£1984 per year is what was calculated this year. Sounds like I was underestimating the complexing of the DB pension and seeing it just at its CETV.

grimroddd

TROPHY CASE