MCT for 15 Years! WOW!!!

Today, 15 years ago I got accepted has a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT). It was a changing moment on my professional career. I started teaching more often, was able to use Microsoft Official curriculum materials and most important I got introduced to the MCT Community. A true global family! Being a global traveler, I always have the chance to meet my MCT sisters and brothers, share a drink a meal having great conversations!

I try my best to give back to the community and help other MCTs. I have been accepted has an MCT Regional Lead and provide feedback and help my local community, but the best award I got this past April when I receive an award voted by the MCT Community – The Enrique Lima award. It was a big emotional moment for me, for all that Enrique represents for the MCTs to get an award with his name. It’s in central display on my office! When working from the office I always start the day by looking at it, remember Enrique and try my best to help every individual to achieve more! I do this on my consulting role but also on when training others. We all have the power to change other professional lives.

I’m focus on Microsoft Azure both in training and consulting, but I started my teaching career with Microsoft SQL Server. Still remember the first MOC I taught. I think it was M2074: SQL Server 2000 or 7 Administration. It has been quite a ride from that to Microsoft Azure. If one thing working with Microsoft all these years taught me is that you need to constantly go out your comfort zone and adapt to the new realities. From teaching in-person only to teach virtual and hybrid classes, the need to use other tools, … Maybe this is a great topic for another post

What best way to celebrate my MCT anniversary than spend the day teach one of my favorite classes – AZ:104 – Azure Administrator. It’s a great class and I love to deliver my version of it!

It was time to order my 15-year gift! An amazing jacket. Looking forward to getting mine still on time for the winter!

To the next 15 and beyond!!!

Stay safe and hope to see you all in a nearby event / class!

New exam – AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions

 

There’s a new Microsoft Azure in the house!!! AZ-305: Designing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions is announced! AZ-305 will be available in November 2021.

Starting with AZ-305 you no longer need the AZ-303 + AZ-304 combo to get the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification. But this doesn’t mean that you only need AZ-305. You will be require to earn the Azure Administrator Associate certification as a pre-requisite. So, in resume you will need that Azure Admin cert + the AZ-305 exam.

This are awesome news if you’re already Azure admin certified and want to achieve the Azure Architect cert! AZ-303 and AZ-104 have a lot of content overlapping. This change will simplify the candidates that want to get both the Azure Administrator and Architect certs!

This means that exams:

  • AZ-303: Microsoft Azure Architect Technologies
  • AZ-304: Microsoft Azure Architect Design

Will retire. The official retirement date is March 31, 2022.

 

Getting the new exam in November and retiring the old exams in the end of March, we will have a “transition” period. During that we have several paths to get the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification:

 

You can also find out more about this at the official blog post – Reimagining the Azure Solutions Architect Expert certification – Microsoft Tech Community

What do you think about this change? Leave your comments here!

Re-awarded as Microsoft Azure MVP

This past Thursday I received the notice that I was re-awarded as Microsoft MVP. This will be my year #6 has a Microsoft Azure MVP. I still remember the exact place I was when 6 years ago on an April 1st I got my first email saying I got awarded! I was working at a customer site in Cyprus. I just had finished to the day and had packed my laptop in the backpack. Then I got an email notification on my phone and then the phone died on me. No more battery… I was like, I must be dreaming, I turn the computer on and stay blocked looking at the computer screen for more than 10 minutes! I was speechless! This is still the feeling I get every single time I got re-awarded. Still surprised and still with imposter syndrome.

I would say it because it’s what, I fell: It’s and huge honor to be among such great minds of the industry!

To all my fellow MVP – You All ROCK! You are amazing and do loads for the #Community! I will not tag or mention anyone, I will for sure forget someone important for me and then I will be feeling bad! You all know who you are!

It has been a crazy year and I hope everything will start becoming normal very soon and that we can start do some in-person events! I’m ready for that!!! I reviewed what I wrote 1 year ago, about some plans for this past year. I felt pretty good… From 8 objectives I got 7 done and one more kid in between. Sounds pretty good for me. I didn’t publish “loads of videos” on my YouTube channel. This is the year!

A special thanks to Cristina Gonzalez Herrero and Irene Pires. They do an amazing work managing the program at my region. Sometimes it’s not easy to manage these strong opinion MVPs, but they do it amazingly well!

I would just like to end with a big thanks to the community and all the other MVP and non-MVP that do the Microsoft Communities a great place to be, learn and network!

Speaking at Microsoft Build!

Microsoft Build (https://mybuild.microsoft.com/) takes place on May 25-27, 2021 in a digital format and this year I’m delivering 2 table talks! After speaking at Microsoft Ignite for 5 editions in-a-row it’s now time to speak at Microsoft Build. Super excited for this and more for having such great co-speakers with me. It’s free, you should register today and RSVP to my 2 sessions and have the chance to interact with all of us. We want to answer your questions live! Yes, it’s going to be live, no recordings here!!!

How to build cloud-native solutions

Cloud-native technologies are used to develop applications built with services packaged in containers, deployed as microservices, and managed on elastic infrastructure through agile processes. Join our Table Topic to learn how Azure helps organizations create cloud native solutions. Our community co-hosts will share samples from their experiences building applications and helping customers build innovative world applications. Unmute yourself, turn your camera on – No presentations here! Be prepared for chat and a fun interactive discussion!

📅 Wednesday, May 26
1:30 PM – 2:00 PM WET
🔗 https://mybuild.microsoft.com/sessions/7f39ca5d-eaa1-4271-b645-c3fae76e90f4?source=sessions

How the community and certifications can help you achieve more

There are lots of resources you can tap into to help you with your professional development. Connect with the community and our experts to explore resources available to you from content, to community to certifications. Unmute yourself, turn your camera on – No presentations here! Be prepared for chat and a fun interactive discussion!

📅 Tuesday, May 25
9:30 PM – 10:00 PM WET
🔗 https://mybuild.microsoft.com/sessions/9d3582b7-4169-4b80-84fa-367dccad3d41?source=sessions

Join us online, have fun and happy learning! We I really believe that next year’s event we can all be in-person toghether! I will be there!!! For now, I just leave here some memories of past Microsoft Conferences. I miss you all!!!

Microsoft Certifications – Microsoft Exam duration and question types

Several professionals interested in Microsoft Certifications reached out and question me about Microsoft Exams and Microsoft Certifications. I think it’s time to put this in written and in an organized way. I will start a series of articles and videos about Microsoft Certifications. How to get ready, tips, exam durations … Basically all that you need to know to get that certification! I will explain all what I have learn by taking more than 70 Microsoft exams.

In this article I will focus on exam duration and question types. When teaching a class, it’s normal to get questions like:

  • How many questions the exam X, Y or Z has?
  • What is the duration of the exam?
  • Are the exam questions only multiple-choice?
  • Does my exam have labs?

Duration of Microsoft exams

Exam type/level Duration (questions) Total Duration
Fundamentals 60 minutes 80 minutes
Associate 130 minutes 150 minutes
Expert 150 minutes 170 minutes
MOS (Office) 50 minutes 60 minutes

Note: Duration (questions) is the actual time you have the answer questions when “Total Duration” includes the time to read instruction and provide feedback about the exam.

Number of questions of an exam

Microsoft doesn’t release the exact number of questions each exam has, but they share that an exam has around 40-60 questions. But please pay attention that this can change!!! And to be totally honest, I personally would not care that much about the number of questions. The important piece of information is the duration of the exam. Microsoft Learning is doing exams for many years, they will allocate an unspecified number of questions that a regular exam candidate can answer during the allocated time. In short, I will not woories that much about the number of questions your exam would have.

Question types

Always a popular topic. What kind of questions there are on the exam! These are some sample questions your exame might (or not) get on your exam:

Active screen

Best answer

Build list

Case studies

Drag and drop

Hot area

Multiple choice

Repeated answer question

Short answer

Mark review

Review screen

Hope this was interesting. What more topics do you want to read on this series? If you have questions just drop a line. Happy to help.

#GetCertified