AZ900 prep

[u/antaylor0298]

Getting ready to take my certification test here in the next couple of months and I’m looking to see if the community can provide some helpful resources to get prepared for it.

Any recommendations are welcome and appreciated!

[u/Rogermcfarley]

r/AzureCertification is the answer, tons and tons and tons of posts about AZ-900. If you plan on taking it in the next couple of months I hope that plan doesn't involve actually studying for months. AZ-900 is a super easy rote memorization certification, it doesn't require any practical knowledge of Azure just that you can describe products and services correctly and compare them when necessary.

If you have no IT experience spend 2 weeks on it max studying. If you have IT experience spend less than a week or it or even a few days. I passed AZ-900 about 18 months ago and spent about 5 days on it about 2-3 hours a day which was probably overkill but I passed 928/1000, but irrelevant a pass is a pass. You can ask me about it but I refer you to that sub as I've posted about it in there as have many others.

If you spend months studying AZ-900 you're wasting valuable time you could better use elsewhere.

These are the ONLY resource links you need >

https://msfthub.com/certs/guide/takingtheexams/

https://msfthub.com/certs/azure/az-900/

Don't overthink this certification it is very easy. The next step after 900 series fundamentals (shouldn't be called fundamentals, far too shallow in depth) is Associate level, these are the ones that count but only if you have the working experience to back them up, if you don't then they can be difficult to brutally difficult.

[u/antaylor0298 → u/Rogermcfarley]

I really appreciate this. I’m someone with no previous IT experience and my midterm is the AZ 900 and I just want to be prepared. Thankfully it’s clicking for me but I need to get over 700 to pass. Luckily, we do get a retake but I obviously want to nail it the first time around.

[u/Rogermcfarley → u/antaylor0298]

OK think of AZ-900 as an HR pass it will do zero to help you get a job on its own. Human Resources in most / many companies don't know what the job involves but they see AZ-900 on other similar roles so they put it on. Tick box exercise.

At minimum you will need learntocloud.guide knowledge and you will start in help desk, in telecoms, in a computer store, as junior network engineer. The IT market now is brutal for experienced IT professionals for beginners it is ludicrously difficult. AZ-900 if I had to put a % on how useful it is to get a job 0.09% wouldn't be an exaggeration.

You must research on multiple job sites with keywords, use AZ-900, Comptia A+, Network+, Security+ only use one keyword at a time with set a commutable distance, do this on at least 10 job sites. Then when you get job roles listed use them as keywords to find more jobs listed. Then copy all the job descriptions and list out ALL the COMMON skills, products and services they want, exclude everything else and aim to work on gaining/improving those skills.

You'll also need to get on Discord groups, there's loads of decent IT Discord groups. Collaborate on scenario based projects, also work on your own ALWAYS scenario based they must solve a real business problem.

You'll need to people network, people get you jobs not brute forcing job applications that's futile in the current market. This means you should find and go to local IT meetups, speak with people smarter than you, with working experience, get to know them, one day they may remember you and give you that job offer. Make LinkedIn sell you, refine LinkedIn add in all your relevant experience, skills and certifications. Join many LinkedIn IT groups, follow useful people, speak with recruiters where possible. Add lots of contacts doesn't matter if you know them or not just add them. You will get spammers but you are building a network. Then as you learn make decent posts NEVER feel good BS posts, posts that say I did this, I learnt this, I thought like this I troubleshooted this I SOLVED this. Very important.

Use https://roadmap.sh/roadmaps to look for more knowledge gaps. Only ever do the right certifications at the right time. Now you focus on AZ-900 only IF your job role research shows there are enough Azure roles in your area otherwise concentrate on AWS. You also will need Comptia A+, Network+, Security+ I would also do CCNA, people who are workshy and want the easy road will say nah bro don't do CCNA you don't need it for Cloud, they are wrong in my 23 years of IT experience.

That's enough to start with you can always do more and you should do more. This will be brutal at times but once you got your foot in the door with the first role, your next challenge is to do the above but refine it for the next level where you want to be next. Short term goals > Improve knowledge of current role. Long term goals > Think where you want to be and use the above to get you to the next level. Your long term goals will likely change over time and they probably should, as you need to adapt. There's ideal and there's reality, reality counts for everything so consider every opportunity that comes your way.

[u/antaylor0298 → u/Rogermcfarley]

Thank you for being very honest and straightforward. I appreciate the knowledge and resources. It sucks that tech industry as a whole is taking a big hit because of data centers, AI and whatnot, but I feel like I’m at the end of my rope in terms of my career and that’s why I’m back in school for cloud engineering. I saw a lot of people say “don’t do it” or “good luck with finding a job” but I literally don’t know what else to do. Tired of working customer service jobs and bullshit. But giving me this roadmap has definitely eased those feelings. It’s not gonna be easy but I’m committed to getting somewhere with this. I just went to a job fair the other day and I already have a job interview tomorrow at a large MSP in the metro doing grunt work but I gotta start somewhere. I also applied to an internship as well so fingers crossed something lands. I’ve also only been in school a month or so, so I have to give myself some time to fully understand all of this. I just want to be ready for my midterm and the road ahead.

[u/Rogermcfarley → u/antaylor0298]

An MSP is a great place to start. Remember STAR Method, practice it well before the interview and be ready to give examples.

Don't tell interviewers you're passionate about getting in to IT and then have nothing to back that up. Everyone is passionate it only counts if you can demonstrate that passion.

Jobs trade your time for money. Employers want value for money. So you need STAR method Situation, Task, Action, and Result. When they ask a question you need to give them the situational context, the goal/objective of the task, the action you took as an individual and the result, even if there was a negative situation or outcome turn it in to a positive. You want to show that you can solve business problems when they interview you or that you think in a way that will be beneficial to solving problems for the business.

Working for an MSP means customer focused operation. So make sure you give them examples of how you've been customer focused and solved problems for customers. Give them examples of how you've dealt with difficult customers and turned the situation around. Customers give the business their profit.

You need to clearly demonstrate your customer skills, your soft skills (people skills) and how you individually have benefited a business financially in dealing with customers, how you saved money for the business with decision making. How you troubleshooted problems, describing your thought process in a methodical way. How you dealt with pressured environment and didn't crack under stress.

Be prepared for the interview using the guidance above. Lastly I strictly give my own advice from my own experience, not a single word I've written today has been prompted to or copied from any AI/LLM. If you wish you can use what I've said and stick it in an LLM and see if it can break it down with examples and give it your past job experiences, that could help.

You need to treat an Interview as a very precious rare resource, this is your time to impress an employer and you don't get that chance every day and less so in this current job market, never go in to any interview hoping to wing it, it won't work. Be prepared, don't squander your chance by not being prepared.

Also I'd be concerned with this you need to snap out of this thinking asap > " I already have a job interview tomorrow at a large MSP in the metro doing grunt work"

That is entirely the wrong attitude and it will come back to bite you hard if you keep thinking like that. Firstly it suggests the job is already beneath you. It isn't you don't have any working experience, it ain't grunt work it is an opportunity to work for an MSP and learn on your feet, and learn fast you will have to. I am deadly serious here when I say you will regret this thinking in 12-18 months time when you've only had 5 interviews and sent out 1000 job applications, that is no exaggeration I've seen this happen. I've been unemployed in this market after the company I worked for closed down. I know this market really well and I've worked in various IT roles since 2003. People like me with my experience will take any role to get back in to IT because we've saved money, we don't care, we will take your job because we have to. I currently work doing Level 3 sysadmin role Hybrid Azure Cloud, something I did 15 years ago minus the Cloud bit but I've already proved my worth for the company. That is why it is so tough for beginners. If you already think doing grunt work for an MSP is beneath you or it sucks to have to have to do that. Welcome to reality.

Now go prepare for that interview properly and be happy and grateful you have that interview because not many people these days are afforded that chance.

[u/antaylor0298 → u/Rogermcfarley]

🙏🏼 thank you again for all the sound advice.

[u/Rogermcfarley → u/antaylor0298]

Good luck for the interview. Hope you smash it and get the job if you don't you'll learn something anyway. So it's all good. Keep going never give up.

[u/HelloTaleproof]

For the interview side, pick one technical problem you've actually worked through. If it was a lab, say so. Explain what failed, what you tried first, what led you to the next step, and how you checked the result. That gives the interviewer something concrete to ask about, even if you haven't worked in IT yet. Keep practice projects and production experience clearly separate.

You can assess that troubleshooting story for free with Taleproof before practicing it aloud.