Hey,
As most of you probably know in meantime, I joined Microsoft as a full-time employee mid September this year, in the prestigious Azure Technical Trainer team - EMEA. This team is part of the WorldWide Learning (WWL) organization, and working on the Enterprise Skills Initiative (ESI) program.
As the name says, as Azure Technical Trainer, my role is to provide training to larger Microsoft Partners and customers in EMEA, helping them in being successful in using Azure, and mainly focusing on skilling up the IT teams (sysadmins, developers, solution architects). While the training starts from the Microsoft Official Courseware (MOC), we are not bound to only using that material. Which was a huge plus to me, knowing I built and delivered most of the workshops using my own content (or vendor content I was involved in building) before.
Another big part of the fun in my role, is the traveling. Having traveled around the globe to deliver workshops for the last 6 years, I found out it is a huge source of inspiration to me, seeing how Azure is being adopted differently, depending on where in the world I am. I had the joy to visit some cool places like Sofia, Wroclaw, Krakow, Johannesburg, Manchester, Cork, Cardiff… and so many more! (the job description said 75% travel, but I enjoyed the 93% :)) 14 different locations in as many weeks!
Next, given my +6 years focus on Azure, I love the fact my senior leads trust me in delivering all different Azure workshops right away. As I was familiar with most content already, this was OK for me. I’ve delivered several of these:
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AZ-900 (Azure Fundamentals),
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AZ-103 (Azure Administrator),
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AZ-203 (Developing Azure Solutions),
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AZ-300/301 (Architecting Azure Solutions).
Beginning of 2020, I will also start delivering
as demand for those more advanced courses is growing. Which to me means, the usage of Azure in the field is also growing, and becoming more mature.
Outside of the workshop delivery, which is the biggest part of my job, I’m also involved in a few virtual teams, working on content optimization for the AZ-103 material, and another one where we are brainstorming and working towards making content better for hybrid training delivery (both in-person and online at the same time).
So far, this job is a perfect match with my skills, my interest and overall what I have loved doing for the last 6 years. Hoping to continue expanding my skills by delivering other Azure workshops that are sometimes a bit out of my comfort zone, and probably going to try and take a step towards the Artificial Intelligence (AI) courses we have on offer as well. (Currently working on a license plate scanning tool, simulating a toll booth system, to have some cool demos during my workshops).
There is always something new in Azure, and it maps with my personal “keep on learning” mentality.
As I always loved sharing knowledge, I will try and continue doing this from here, providing you technical blog posts, among some short-snippet videos every now and then, on some Azure service or feature.
Wishing you all happy holidays, and stay tuned for more Azure news in 2020.
/Peter