How much does real-world practice matter compared to certifications when building skills?

Certifications provide structure and credibility, especially early in a career, but real-world practice builds actual competence.

Prioritize hands-on experience first, and use certifications to validate and organize what you’re learning rather than replace practical work.

Hi!! carolineharper​  !!! certs help with direction and credibility, but hands-on is what really builds skill. You learn way more by breaking things, fixing them, and dealing with real scenarios. 

Good places to practice for me: Microsoft Learn labs + Applied Skills, Personal projects / cloud sandboxes / free tier, Real case studies, blogs, GitHub repos 

Use certifications as a roadmap... not the finish line.

hi carolineharper​ Great question, this is something many of us wrestle with.

In practice, real-world experience and certifications serve different but complementary purposes.

Hands-on work is where real skills are built. That’s where you learn how systems actually behave, how to troubleshoot when things don’t go as planned, how to make trade-offs, and how to operate under real constraints (time, budget, incomplete information). Those skills are hard to fully test in an exam, but they’re what really make someone effective on the job.

Certifications, on the other hand, are very useful for structure, breadth, and credibility. They force you to study areas you might not touch day-to-day, help build a solid mental model of a platform, and are often valuable for getting interviews or establishing baseline trust, especially early in a career or when switching domains.

Most experienced folks I know including myself see certifications as:

• A framework and validation, not a substitute for experience
• Helpful for career progression and signaling knowledge
• Most valuable when paired with hands-on labs, projects, or real incidents

For someone early in their learning journey, a good balance is:

• Start with hands-on practice early (labs, personal projects, sandboxes, real use cases).
• Use certifications as a guide for what to learn, not just what to memorize.
• After passing an exam, go back and apply those concepts in real scenarios to make them stick.

In short: certifications can open doors, but real-world practice is what keeps you effective once you’re inside. The strongest profiles usually have both and can clearly talk about how theory met reality in their work.

Other than exams, one thing I find my team find useful at work is using the applied skill assessments in Microsoft Learn. This was you learn ways to use the technology then through assessments (in a virtual lab) test out your skills by following along to real life scenarios. 

For example: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/credentials/browse/?credential_types=applied%20skills&terms=Copilot

Hello, I am a teacher with years of experience integrating technology into education, specifically in teaching foreign languages. I have found that hands-on activities are the most effective way to learn. I stay updated on technological advancements, try out new tools, and include the ones that work well in my teaching methods. I take all the free online courses available on Microsoft Learn, but I don't focus on paid certifications. As you mentioned, real-life problems are diverse, and certifications mainly teach you how to use the tool something you can learn through practice. So, keep exploring new apps, stay curious about how they work, and keep yourself updated. This approach will make technology more useful and less stressful than just passing an exam, and it's more rewarding because you'll be able to help your colleagues and students in a practical way.