Hey everyone! Im Baba and this is my first of hopefully many blog posts outlining my journeys through my IT career. These posts will be a bit more freeform, and are just a way for me to share what new things are going on in my career. Let’s get right into it!

My Backstory

I am currently a Cloud Support Engineer at the awesome RapidScale. We are a large, cloud-based MSP serving customers all around the world. I’ve been in my current position now just under a year, previously coming from a Tier 1 Helpdesk role working for a group of community banks here in South-Central Florida. Most of my professional experience is in Windows systems, and a lot of that also in Office 365 and Azure environments. The past few months I decided I was going to expand on that knowledge and get my next certification.

The AZ-104 Exam

On the quest to become a top tier IT professional I set my sights on the AZ-104 Azure Administrator certification. It is relevant to my day-to-day duties, and as a platform I think Microsoft is doing something really interesting with it. I love the idea of an a la carte approach to building out everything for a virtual environment. I went through both the Microsoft led course in their ESI program (which is a really awesome group of resources, check if your employer is set up with it and use it if so!), as well as the AZ-104 course posted on the freeCodeCamp Youtube (Link is Here) led by Andrew Brown from ExamPro. Both courses were a plethora of insight into the curriculum and I’m very grateful that I sat through them both.

I went through my test last week feeling like it was a sure-fire pass, and failed unfortunately. At first, I was pretty downtrodden. But once I started studying more on the pieces I struggled with the most, I got more wind under my wings.

Failure is going to teach me so much!

Part of where I struggled was with Kubernetes, some was with scripting and programming (ARM templates, YAML files, AKS), and some was with storage accounts. So, I made it a point to start learning more of these things, and what they do. And I found myself going down rabbit holes and learning so many other things that are also connected. I’m starting to understand more about Kubernetes, and containers as a whole. It inspired me to update my home lab and start learning how to make my own Docker containers, expand on my virtual machines (which will in turn help me in Azure as there’s lots to do with them in there). I’ve started taking programming more seriously, and not just focusing on PowerShell (what I primarily use at work).

I’m on my way to the “next level”

My failure was both humbling, but also reminded me of where I’m at now. I’m not on the helpdesk anymore, where I’m not expected to be an expert or have advanced knowledge. I have hit that phase where it stops being “easy”. And by easy, I mean where my job ends after I clock out. If I’m expected to be able to administer entire cloud environments and build them from the ground up, it is going to take LOTS of work. And where I get to prove that this is my passion, and what I’m meant to do. This test reminded me of that, and inspired me to take it to the max. I’m fully confident that when that retake comes, I’ll pass it and prove to both myself and the world that I’m capable.

Don’t be afraid of being wrong

Something that I’ve always strived to do is to be willing to admit I don’t know the answer. You can’t know literally everything, and you shouldn’t try to. It’s the quickest way to burn out, and the quickest way to make yourself feel worthless when you don’t. Let my failure be a lesson and a motivator for you, like it was for me. Because sometimes when you don’t know it all, you’ll end up learning more than you intended in the beginning. I can’t wait to share again with you all once I pass, and can share my thoughts on the entire experience!

Next post might be more on this, or might be something completely different, depends on what happens first. Feel free to leave a comment below to let me know what you think, and share with your friends if you know anyone that might be interested. Have you taken a certification exam before? If so: what one, and how did it go?

Stay curious! Baba out!