There is no doubt we live in unprecedented times right now. First and foremost, we hope you are all staying safe and healthy wherever you are. At Skylines Academy, we have been working from home the moment the crisis began and also immediately saw a rampant increase in student activity across our platforms. There was no doubt in the first few weeks that companies had targeted their employees to focus on getting training early on and make the most of any downtime they had. As the crisis has dragged on, we’ve seen additional data coming out of the markets: There is a lot of pain out there particular in hospitality and travel industries. In contrast, there have also been examples of growth in the tech sector as companies rush to complete digital transformation efforts. In particular, Jared Spataro, Microsoft Corporate VP for Microsoft 365 wrote an article “2 years of digital transformation in 2 months”. 

As I was talking with students in a recent live event on certification to help those trying to navigate all the different exam numbers, many students had questions about careers. Examples of these:  

• Which certification should I take?  

• Will that certification get me a job?  

• What type of job will it get me?  

Thinking through these questions, along with the acceleration we are seeing with training, we felt that is now a good time to revisit the Azure roles, certifications, and jobs you can expect to get.

Microsoft Azure Careers and Salaries 

The Microsoft Azure market remains strong. As companies ramp up their digital transformation efforts, this could mean avoiding capital expenditure in the short term, and a shift to moving applications to the cloud. In addition, enterprise customers are still, in many cases, at an early stage of Azure adoption.

While there are certainly headlines of companies who have moved a significant amount of their datacenter footprint to the public cloud, there are many that only have a few workloads running there, or are still getting started. One of the items we hear time and time again is the desire to “get the house in order" before moving additional applications. Many customers are also dealing with security issues and operational issues due to a slow IT transformation process as engineers adapt. A lot of this suggests a skills gap that still exists, and a lack of process to get cloud administration in order. All of this points to some clear roles that you can focus on in your career and all of them are important. 

Azure Architects are in demand to help design applications and infrastructure to run securely and effectively on Microsoft Azure. 

Azure Engineers are needed to help engineer and piece together all the components necessary for these modern architectures to be successful. 

Azure Administrators are essential for keeping the environment running and responding to all the day to day expectations. I’ll save the conversation on Cloud Centers of Excellence for another day but make sure to think about who gets the incident ticket late at night? Yes, things still go wrong in the cloud and you need to be in a position to support the business. 

Network and Security roles have to be adapted to blend with the roles above while also maintaining their specialties at scale. 

The above doesn’t even start to talk about the evolution of roles in Data, AI, DevOps and other practices. What is evidently clear though is that there are a number of key roles which are evolving as IT departments embrace cloud.  

How much can I earn in these Azure roles? 

Everyone wants to know this, right? How do I land a hot new tech role and earn the six-figure salaries. Are those salaries even true? 

The average salary range for cloud engineers is already in the $110,000 to $135,000 range in the United States (Source: https://www.salary.com/research/salary/listing/cloud-engineer-salary ). Architect salaries continue to go above that and many architects I’ve talked to believe $150,000 is now the low mark. This is further backed up in a recent article from Infoworld. The good thing here is that if you are successful, the money will follow. If you are brand new to IT and cloud, you are likely to be in the sub 100k range but don’t worry that you are missing out. Work hard and you will have the ability to quickly achieve your desired salary.

Experience is key to your Azure career... 

The one thing I think we need to remind everyone on though, is that there are no shortcuts.  

While cloud certification is certainly a way to measure and fill in gaps with your knowledge, plus prove it to the industry, it is no replacement for experience. Like many, my journey in IT grew from working at a small business, to enterprise Windows admin work. I worked with countless business units, completed many on-call shifts (I still think my sleep is affected by these…), and engineered multiple solutions. As I learned to work across the silos and embrace automation my career took off from there.

I would love to hear in the comments your experiences as you’ve progressed in your journey!

Should I get a certification or not?

The short answer is probably yes, but again, there are no shortcuts and it is important to have a rough road map of where you are now and where you want to go. Ask yourself where you want to be in 1 year, 3 years, 5 years (Yes that is a long time in IT), and even beyond if you are looking at CIO-type roles for your future. You may want to focus on support, and move into management, or perhaps you really love engineering solutions, with the goal of eventually becoming an architect.  

It’s important to also decide where you are in your journey today. Have you been in IT for a while and are now looking to move into management, or are you looking to focus in a specific area, say in security? Is it time to just reinvent yourself because you are bored in your current role?  

Here are a few examples to get you going and what a learning path might be: 

Example Journey: I’m brand new to Cloud and IT. I want to get started and land my first help desk job. 
Suggestion: Learn the fundamentals and become an administrator. 

Example Journey: I’ve been a VMware administrator for a while, but my company is moving to Microsoft Azure. How do I advance my skills and eventually become an Architect? 
Suggestion: Learn the fundamentals, expand your engineering skills and with experience, move up to Architect. 

Example Journey: I am passionate about security. I’ve been working on-premises network security for a while, but really want to help my company secure their evolving Azure infrastructure?
Suggestion: You already have a great background. Focusing on the security focused Azure certifications will help round out your knowledge and allow you to advance the conversation as your business moves to cloud. 

I would love to hear your examples in the comments below!

Certification can absolutely be a key component  

Thinking back to, “Should I get a certification”, I personally think of these as one element of your tool belt. The great thing about certification is that when you review the curriculum, it ensures you cover all the essential areas for the role you are looking to get to. Microsoft has done a fantastic job in aligning the certifications to the specific roles. The certifications prove you have trained in the specific areas related to the role, and while they are no substitute for experience, will help you in your job to talk in the right terminology. The certification will certainly help you through your interview process as well. Not just because you have the badge, but again, because you will be able to answer technical interview questions related to Microsoft Azure roles.  

Which Azure certification should I study for?  

Ok, you know it is going to be hard work, but how do you get started, and which certification should you go for? For one, this post focuses on Azure certifications. If you are looking more at AWS or Google, then there are equivalent roles in those respective cloud providers as well. If your company is in AWS, I would suggest you focus there, but if like many enterprises you are focused on Azure today, these certifications should be a great guide. 

Let’s start breaking them down the Azure certifications, their requirements and purposes? 

Certification: Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900) 

Summary: For anyone brand new to Cloud and Microsoft Azure, this is the starter certification. The 900 number for the exam may be confusing as this is really the new Azure beginners certification! Start here if you have never touched Azure and also want a background in cloud computing. 

Exam Details: AZ-900 
Exam Price: ~$99 

Areas of focus: 

• Cloud Concepts 

• Azure Core Services 

• Azure Security, Compliance, Privacy, and Trust 

• Azure Pricing and Support 

Skills Outline: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3VwUY
Preparation Guide: https://www.skylinesacademy.com/blog/2019/7/31/preparing-for-your-azure-fundamentals-certification-az-900
Training Course: Skylines Academy – Azure Fundamentals
Practice Test: Skylines Academy – AZ-900 Practice 

Who should take the AZ-900? Anyone starting their journey with the goal of taking other role based certifications. Sales, Management, Project Managers looking to understand more about cloud computing and ensure they have a sufficient background in Microsoft Azure when engaging with other IT roles. 

Career Prospects: The certification is certainly not going to guarantee you a job, but it is a clear stepping stone to other certifications below. This certification means you have the basic foundation to proceed in your journey and a willingness to learn. If you have an existing role at an enterprise, this certification will also help you navigate the different groups as your company adopts Azure. 

Pro Tip: Hammer through this certification quickly with our training course and studying hard, and immediately move on to more advanced topics. Some students tackle this entire certification in 1 week! Don’t stop.  

Certification: Microsoft Azure Administrator Associate (AZ-104) 

Summary: This is the core Azure certification that will give you the hands on experience you need to work in an Azure environment. If you already know the basics of Cloud and Azure, then you can skip AZ-900 and start here.  

Exam Details: AZ-104 
Exam Price:  ~$165 

Areas of focus: 

• Manage Azure identities and governance 

• Implement and manage storage 

• Deploy and manage Azure compute resources 

• Configure and manage virtual networking 

• Monitor and back up Azure resources 

Skills Outline: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3VwUF
Preparation Guide: https://www.skylinesacademy.com/blog/2020/3/17/preparing-for-your-azure-admin-cert-az-104
Training Course: https://courses.skylinesacademy.com/p/az-104
Practice Test: https://courses.skylinesacademy.com/p/az-104-practice 

Who should take the Azure Administrator Certification (AZ-104)? Whether you are coming from a VMware background, new to Cloud and want to fulfil any number of roles in Azure, this certification is the hands on background. Even as you progress up to architect level roles, this exam covers an immense amount of hands on tasks so you will know at a deep level how Azure works. If you are coming from AWS or GCP, this is also a great place to start. 

Career Prospects: This certification is great way to prove your Azure skills at the engineering and administrator level. Going into any interview you should have confidence in your ability to navigate questions around Azure and take on your first help desk role, or move into a position where you are responsible for more advanced engineering tasks. 

Pro Tip: Study hard and expect to get hands on when you train for this exam. In addition, learn PowerShell and the Azure CLI so you can differentiate yourself in your career with automation. 

Certification: Microsoft Azure Security Technologies (AZ-500) 

Summary: Security has become everyone’s responsibility when it comes to Cloud and Microsoft has brought out a fantastic curriculum aimed at arming with the essentials. This is a must have certification for security professionals, but I recommend it for everyone who touches Azure. 

Exam Details: AZ-500 
Exam Price: ~$165 

Areas of focus: 

• Manage identity and access (20-25%) 

• Implement platform protection (35-40%) 

• Manage security operations (15-20%) 

• Secure data and applications (30-35%) 

Skills Outline: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE3VC70
Preparation Guide: https://www.skylinesacademy.com/blog/2019/8/21/preparing-for-the-az-500
Training Course: https://courses.skylinesacademy.com/p/az-500 
Practice Test: https://courses.skylinesacademy.com/p/az-500-questions 

Who should take the AZ-500 exam? Azure Security Engineers work to implement security controls and threat protection, manage identity and access, and protect data, applications, and networks in cloud and hybrid environments as part of end-to-end infrastructure. As such, all security engineers should look to take this exam as this is definitely a curriculum that expects you to be hands on. 

Career Prospects: This is a great certification for security engineers and architects to combine with other industry wide security certifications such as CISSP. Combined with other Azure certifications this is a great way to help get you ahead as you start your Azure career, or are looking to advance further inside your organization. 

Pro Tip: Think about the responsibility you have as an IT professional as you take this certification. Remember all the breaches you’ve seen in the news and this will give you the motivation to want to make the most secure environment you can while also ensuring the flexibility of cloud is maintained. 

Certification: Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert 

Summary: The ultimate certification in the Azure space! The 2 exams will be challenging but you can earn this certification and feel extremely proud of the achievement. It will unlock doors and challenge you to learn a number of new skills you perhaps never had before in the Azure space. 

Exam Details: AZ-303 and AZ-304 

Note: The AZ-303/AZ-304 numbers replace the previous AZ-300/AZ-301 exam numbers respectively. The exams are expected to be available as of June 29 2020, with the previous AZ-300/301 exams being retired at the end of August 2020. The curriculums at Skylines Academy are all being updates to the new AZ-303/304 curriculum. 

Exam Price: ~$165 each

AZ-303 areas of focus: 

• Implement and monitor an Azure infrastructure (50-55%) 

• Implement management and security solutions (25-30%) 

• Implement solutions for apps (10-15%) 

• Implement and manage data platforms (10-15%) 

AZ-304 areas of focus:  

• Design monitoring (10-15%) 

• Design identity and security (25-30%) 

• Design data storage (15-20%) 

• Design business continuity (10-15%) 

• Design infrastructure (25-30%) 

Skills Outlines: 

AZ-303: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE4psD6 
AZ-304: https://query.prod.cms.rt.microsoft.com/cms/api/am/binary/RE4pCWz 

Preparation Guide: https://www.skylinesacademy.com/blog/2019/8/8/preparing-for-az-300-and-301 (Updating soon to reflect the new exam numbers) 

Training Course: https://courses.skylinesacademy.com/p/az-300-301 

Practice Tests:  

AZ-300: https://courses.skylinesacademy.com/p/az-300-practice1 
AZ-301: https://courses.skylinesacademy.com/p/az-301-practice 

Who should take the AZ-303/304 exam? The Microsoft Azure Solutions Architect Expert role based certification is aimed primarily at Architects and Full Stack Engineers. You will learn a tremendous amount of Azure skills as you work through the curriculum for these exams. I cannot stress enough that you will be challenged, but the reward and proof of knowledge you will attain here is absolutely fantastic. Did I mention the exams are tough? Be prepared for hands on labs, as well as a thorough understanding of design decisions. 

Career Prospects: This is the top Azure certification you can achieve. Simply going through the process and digging in deep into every topic will help you tremendously. Take that knowledge, make good notes, practice, and you will be able to command the room in your organization. If you are just starting out, going this deep, even if your first role is as an Azure administrator, you will quickly separate yourself out as a clear leader in the space. 

Pro Tip: Combine this with AZ-400 (Azure DevOps certification) and you will have everything you need to be a force in this industry. Round out the curriculum and learning by talking to industry professionals who have real world experience. With all this knowledge don’t forget to learn some soft skills as well and help others learn just like you have. 

Where do I go next? 

Hopefully this helps you to understand the certification landscape, but it doesn’t end year. There are also Data (DP-200/201), AI, Developer (AZ-204) and other certifications around which we will try to also cover in the future. 

The real question is where are you now and where do you want to go? If you can’t decide, take one of the free Skylines Academy intro courses and simply get going. See what you enjoy most and this will help guide you into other areas. Reach out to people on the FB study group and ask around. 

More importantly, as you succeed, share with others. Lots of people are looking to get started and do not know where to begin, I hope this is also 1 blog in your tool belt to get you started. 

Author Bio: