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Exams and certifications are a great way to learn and test yourself on standardized Information Technology terms. Even if one doesn't pass an exam, studying and taking exams demonstrates an individual's willingness to go the distance and learn more about their specialization. And even failing an exam is always an opportunity to learn from one's mistakes - sometimes the best learning. I recently started following another engaging Microsoft MVP after an M365 conference I attended and learned from him about practice exams and practice questions available on Microsoft's training. First -  Vlad Catrinescu | LinkedIn  is a fantastic Microsoft MVP. He is knowledgeable about the content he covers and distills it in a friendly, anecdotal way to make it engaging to a large audience - something helpful for all of us in IT to learn from. Second - almost immediately after following him, he posts this wonderful nugget of information to help me select and prepare for Microsoft exams.

One of the best ways to be a more successful Office 365 Administrator, Developer, or IT Ninja is to set up your own Microsoft 365 Developer Tenant. Within your tenant, you can perform many of the same activities that your Global Administrator or other specialized roles can perform at your company but from within your own private sandbox. Some of the many daily functions that are likely happening at your company in which you can gain real-world experience are: Using the admin portal Using the Azure portal Creating users and assigning licenses Managing guest access and tenant-to-tenant collaboration Administering Microsoft applications such as Outlook, SharePoint, Teams, the Power Platform, and more PowerShell Graph One of the common complaints I hear from junior IT staff is the need for access to advanced tools to know how to improve their skills. This is an excellent step to improving skills and understanding common terms amongst IT engineers, architects, and security professionals. An

I like to track activities . I have several workout apps and a Fitbit . Measuring things allows us to monitor our performance and journal our success. But not all activities have ready-made, easy to use apps - a problem measuring things that don’t fit into popular categories. Early in my IT career I was an IT procurement specialist for a large enterprise. Procurement specialists process 20-60 requisitions a day. It’s a lot of paperwork (even with a digital process.) I oversaw making it more digital and less paper based. I succeeded in reducing a typical requisition from 8 minutes to 2 minutes. The process allowed procurement to reduce person hours by almost a whole position. I’ve always said that computers allow us to do more and there was always more to do. Being able to measure that efficiency improvement is the impetus for having an easy-to-use timer. I have learned many times over the years that productivity is lost or gained in the moments between activities. I waste a lot