With the new year comes opportunity to learn and grow. Take these steps to learn new technical and professional skills with Microsoft Learn and more:
Get certifications, prove your skills
There are many reasons to earn a technical certification. Maybe you are a student looking for a job, or a beginner looking to understand all the moving parts of a new service. Or you are professional looking to show the world what you know. Regardless, you can find certifications that fit your needs. Here’s a list of useful tools to help you in the process:
- http://aka.ms/TrainCertPoster?WT.mc_id=academic-52688-chnoring - A poster with all certifications listed.
- https://docs.microsoft.com/learn/certifications/azure-fundamentals/?WT.mc_id=academic-52688-chnoring - A great certification to start with if you want to start learning Azure.
- https://aka.ms/learn?WT.mc_id=academic-52688-chnoring - No matter the certification you aim to complete, this free learning platform has everything you need, including modules that cover all aspects of a certification. You can start upskilling today. There are more than 2000 modules on topics from cloud, basic tech, and non-technical topics – all of them free of charge. By creating an account and logging in you get added benefits such as the use of a Sandbox that can use Azure without spending your Azure credits. You can also track your progress in your learning journey.
The future is now, and it can be low code
You might have heard about the low code/no code movement. Imagine being able to build apps and connect things like Excel, e-mail, databases, and Power BI-dashboards, all in the cloud. The best part is that you don’t have to be a highly technical developer to do all that, as these services are designed for “the citizen developer”. Instead of spending six months or more to greenfield a custom app, you can have a shippable product in days or weeks. Do you want to be part of the revolution? Start learning about https://docs.microsoft.com/learn/paths/power-plat-fundamentals/?WT.mc_id=academic-52688-chnoring
Less code, more API
The “API-first” trend continues! API, or Application Programming Interfaces that act as a handshake between services, are something you may need to create. Our users tell us that it should be easy to get started building APIs, but any API-building process still needs to include powerful features to support things like databases, security, and documentation. With a minimal API, you get all that with as few as four lines of code. Learn about https://docs.microsoft.com/learn/paths/aspnet-core-minimal-api/?WT.mc_id=academic-52688-chnoring
New year, new blog service
Most developers feel they should write a blog to showcase their skills and learnings. Inevitably, analysis paralysis sets in; what tool do you need? Should you write in Word, Markdown, or some other format? Most importantly, how do you attract readers to your work? Using Azure Static Apps, you have a great service that makes it easy to deploy your shiny new blog to the cloud. This service can also handle custom domains and more, all within GitHub, using GitHub Actions. What is this sorcery? Find out for yourself with these Learn modules on https://docs.microsoft.com/learn/paths/azure-static-web-apps/?WT.mc_id=academic-52688-chnoring.
Career development
Are you looking to break into tech, but don’t know where to start? Do you get the feeling that there’s so much to learn but remain unsure how to structure it all? Maybe some guidance could really help. Take a look at this https://docs.microsoft.com/learn/paths/start-career-in-tech/?WT.mc_id=academic-52688-chnoring that teaches you how to become an intern in tech and how to make it all the way to a full-time position.
If you are already working as a tech professional, you might sometimes feel your career is at a standstill. Perhaps you are really good at what you do but you wonder what’s next. What you need may not be more technical skills but rather professional skills—a way to work better with others, to adopt a growth mindset and more. There is a learning path just for that: https://docs.microsoft.com/learn/paths/tech-resilience/?WT.mc_id=academic-52688-chnoring
The New Year is a fresh chance to try out new tech. Technology is never boring; there’s always the latest new language or service to try out, or a new paradigm on which to experiment. We hope you enjoy exploring these Microsoft Learn opportunities to help you blast off in 2022!
