Understanding the New Microsoft Certifications | How to Get Started in IT

are you flustered by the changes they've made to the Microsoft certifications I'm Mike Roderick from IT Pro TV and in this episode of how to get started in IT we're going to cover those changes and see if we can't clear it up for you [Music] alright so the first thing we want to talk about is the changes they've made to the certification process or the I don't want to call it the categories Microsoft has always been about product based certifications you've got certified in Server 2012 or you got certified in server 2016 or Windows 7 or Windows 8 if anybody took those exams that's no longer the case Microsoft has switched over to a role based certification process that means rather than getting certified on a particular technology we're getting certified on a job role really independent of the underlying technology and this is a really good thing right I know a lot of people are confused about it and a lot of people are used to getting your MCSA in 2012 and you're MCSA in 2016 and you're wondering where that MCSA is in 2019 but the way things are nowadays with with operating systems as a service the way we're rolling out updates and changes to our operating systems the underlying operating system is no longer as important as the the processes right the technology that you're using to complete your job so rather than getting certified in a particular version of server you're getting certified in say as your Active Directory it doesn't really matter what the underlying operating system is going to be so that's the first big hurdle people are gonna have is - you have to get away from the mentality if I'm gonna get certified in a particular version of an operating system or a particular version of a product that's no longer the case you're gonna get certified and what it is that you want to do and this is really advantageous for you as well as the employers because they know what they need I need somebody that can handle office 365 right so you can get certified in Microsoft I say officer you see Microsoft Office 365 now you can prove to that employer that you know that technology because that's what they're implementing they're not implementing it based on the underlying technology you get certified in as your Active Directory again really doesn't matter what's going on underneath so get past that get over the whole I need to get certified in a particular version of a product you're gonna get certified in what it is you plan to do in the field the next thing we want to talk about is the naming convention because those have changed as well we used to have exams called mtas or Microsoft technology associates these were our entry level type exams those are still there but we now have some called fundamentals so you'll see like AZ 900 is Azure fundamentals or MS 900 which is your office 365 fundamentals right these are meant to be entry-level exams if you're new to IT or if you want to see if you want to move into a particular area these are great exams to start with because they're gonna first of all not assume any knowledge they're gonna be ground level bottom floor type exams testing you on basic knowledge so it gives you a chance to kind of get your feet wet I'm gonna take that AZ 900 exam and see what it sure is all about and if I like it maybe I move on into AZ 103 or 104 is it's going to be called coming up shortly so those are like entry level exams just like the old MTA's work now most of those fundamental exams are not going to get you anything as far as moving on to the next level you'll get your as your fundamentals certificate but that doesn't count towards say the AZ 104 or anything like that they're meant to just be standalone baseline knowledge and even if you're not in IT these can be really good exams for you you know if you have to support an IT department it's important that you understand the terminology and the technologies that your IT department is using so when they come to you and they say we need this particular resource or we need this particular subscription level or this particular support level in Azure you'll know what they're talking about and you can make an intelligent decision so those exams are again geared towards entry-level IT personnel or people that work with IT and just need that foundational knowledge the next level of exams or is the what we used to call the Microsoft Certified system administrator or MCSA for short those were the technology-based so you got your MCS a and Server 2012 or your MCS a interobserver 2016 those are now called associate roles so these are going to be your just above those entry level where we're proving that we understand a technology and I can now get a job in that field I can go to an employer and I can show them that hey I've got me my AZ 104 I've got my associate certification I knew this technology I can work with this technology and it would be good to hire me kind of thing right then we can move into the next level which used to be called the MC se or MC SD so if you still hold any of those certifications and you're looking to update those into more current certifications you would be looking at expert role certification types so these are the next level up these are the ones that go beyond the associate again they're called expert so again you're gonna have to prove more detailed knowledge these exams are gonna be much harder right because you're gonna have to go above and beyond the basic skills to work with if within that particular role all right so to recap with these new exams in this role based certification we've got the fundamental exams which are going to be considered entry-level no experience really required and this is going to help develop your skills really geared towards a broad audience again let's you test those waters see if that's something that you're interested in pursuing right when we get into the associate and the expert level certifications this is going to require technical knowledge you're gonna need to understand the technology be able to implement it design it manage it depending on if you're going for the associate or the expert so these exams the associate and the expert are really for somebody that's interested in or transitioning to a particular job role alright so the last thing I want to talk about is the exams that are available within these role-based certifications we talk about the fundamental exams we have to to pick from currently there's the azure fundamentals and then there's the Microsoft 365 fundamentals so pick the one that you're interested in or think you might be interested in starting once we move up to the associate and the expert level roles we have things like administer or AI engineer have data scientists developer security engineer DevOps engineer or Solutions Architect these are all different roles that you might currently be in or be interested in transitioning to and there are certifications available for those roles and they're adding more all the time so make sure you go back to Microsoft's page now take a look at Microsoft certifications and see what roles are available and start there all right so hopefully that helps clear up some of the confusion around this new role based certification model that Microsoft is deploying if you have any insights you'd like to add make sure you put them in the comments below and don't forget to subscribe to our YouTube channel I'm Mike Roderick and this has been another episode of how to get started in IT

Channel: ITProTV

Views: 55,984

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Keywords: microsoft certifications explained, it certifications 2020, new microsoft certifications 2020, top microsoft certifications 2020, microsoft certification 2020, role based certification microsoft, azure role based certification, microsoft certification path 2020, microsoft certified solutions associate, microsoft certified educator, microsoft certified azure fundamentals, microsoft certified azure administrator associate, mcse, microsoft role based certifications

Id: rr-Qms7q3Qc

Length: 7min 24sec (444 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 25 2020