2019 Year in Review...
About-Updates ·
After taking a couple of weeks off, I am back, refreshed, and ready for 2020. The past year for me had some very dramatic changes along with creating a tremendous amount of growth and opportunity. I hope that you find the following recap of some of the key professional developments in my life as a way to relate them to how, as a reader, you can also map out a continued growth plan for yourself in the coming year.
New year, New me</strong>. The 2019 year began with a heavy focus on developing my skills around Microsoft Azure. As I posted in the previous articles, http://captainhyperscaler.github.io/2019/11/05/my-microsoft-journey-part-i/ and http://captainhyperscaler.github.io/2019/11/16/my-microsoft-journey-part-ii/, this was a significant area of progress for me in 2019. I finished the year completing seven (7) new certifications and passing nine (9) total exams. In addition to these exams, I took four (4) beta exams in December that have not been scored at the date of this article.
More growth and new friends. My development within the Azure ecosystem and participating in study support sites led me to wanting to be more involved in the Microsoft community. I was accepted as a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT) in April. In the fall, I applied to become a MCT Regional Lead and was accepted for 2020-2021. I assisted Skylines Academy in the AZ-500 curriculum and blog, launched my own blog site (which has been included on the Top 50 Microsoft Azure Blogs and Websites To Follow in 2020), and contributed to the amazing Azure Advent Calendar project in December.
Change can be good. Included with all of the Azure activity, I started with a new company in the Spring after almost 13 years with my previous organization. In this situation, the change became a positive. I have been providing Azure training and growing the public hyper-scaler practice at my new company, enabling over a dozen individuals to become certified through the training and guidance that I have provided them.
If you are building and mapping out a plan for the new year, hopefully you can use some of my successes as a guide. The most important piece to take out of this article is that you should continue to look for ways that you can grow, stay in touch, and continue to be passionate about what you are doing professionally. There is no better way to do this than accomplishing a goal. The Microsoft community on social media is an amazing source for not only resources, but support. I previously mentioned the Top 50 Microsoft Azure Blogs and Websites to Follow. This is a great list of great contributors around the world. I have referenced many of them in previous posts and share their content on a daily basis.
Check out the list here: https://blog.feedspot.com/microsoft_azure_blogs/ and continue to grow in 2020. My next post will provide some insight into my plans in 2020 for continued growth. I welcome your comments to this post and on social media. Have a great day!