Office 365 skills market?

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timmmay

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#2279453 19-Jul-2019 09:38

Just a note, if you want to do AWS you really need architect professional to even get considered for a role these days, other than maybe entry level roles. Even with that you need to have experience. If you're going on as a perm employee it may be easier, I'm speaking as someone who works for a vendor and has worked for a few large organisations in Wellington. There is demand, but even qualified, experienced people can take quite some time to find a role - so beginners may struggle.

My point is don't think that just doing a qualification will have people beating a path to your door. Qualifications are useful, experience is key, but the cloud market is still fairly tight IMHO. Lots of companies just train existing staff who already know their processes / infrastructure.

Kol12

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#2282980 24-Jul-2019 17:25

The Microsoft Azure Administrator AZ-103 course jumps right in at managing Azure subscriptions. It's supposed to beginner level but is nonsense to me. It seems to assume that you already have different types of VM's setup and know how to setup VM's which I don't. Looking ahead at the rest of the content it seems like I'm missing the fundamentals. I'm feeling despondent, I feel like I don't know where to start. Am I starting in the right place? 😕

https://app.pluralsight.com/paths/skills/microsoft-azure-administrator-az-103

Kol12

370 posts

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#2285719 30-Jul-2019 13:21

billgates:

Kol12:

Thanks billgates. I think that is my concern, not being trained or knowledgeable in the traditional on premises versions of these technologies. Is it going to hurt me that I do not already know Active Directory or Exchange? Do the cloud based versions of these certifications expect that you are already familiar with those technologies or can you learn the cloud versions with no prior experience?

Not knowing Exchange will not hurt you but not knowing AD will. AD is bread and butter in all companies. if you do Windows Server 2019 certifications, one of the exams will cover AD. If this is your first time in IT, expect to start in helpdesk role unless you get lucky and land a Field Engineer role but getting these certifications will certainly get you interviews. You can self study for Microsoft and Cisco (CCNA) certifications. VMware though however requires that the first certification can only be sat after going through a training provider for VCP which is around NZD $6000 + exam fees for 2 papers. The foundation exam can be sat with self study but the 2nd exam requires the mandatory training before they grant you VCP. Microsoft and VMware certifications do not expire. Cisco does every 2 years unless you upgrade your exam every 2 years. Generally once you land IT job at good companies, they will re-reimburse for your exam fees if you pass and some will even pay for VMware training :) but in your case you need to fork out for exam fees now before you land a job to be considered for an interview. Best of luck. Technology sector is only growing.

So would you say to be a Microsoft Azure administrator you really need to have a solid understanding of both Active Directory, Windows Server and Network Infrastructure? In an Azure environment would there be a separate Windows Server administrator or does the Azure admin do all the server/active directory administration plus the running of Azure, billing, logging etc? I'm trying to determine whether these are separate jobs? At this point I'm not sure whether I'm getting ahead of myself with the Azure training with no background in Server or Active Directory? If I did the MTA in Windows Server (fundamentals) would that be sufficient to understand Azure or am I going to need to understand Windows Server more deeply to avoid looking silly?

noeltj

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#2308404 30-Aug-2019 12:19

Its funny how you mentioned this. I went to couple of interviews and they all asked for office 365 certification.

It sounds really odd. How hard could it be!

Kol12

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#2308550 30-Aug-2019 16:53

noeltj:

Its funny how you mentioned this. I went to couple of interviews and they all asked for office 365 certification.

It sounds really odd. How hard could it be!

What were the jobs? Yeah I think Office 365 is quite a unique specialization. I recently missed out on two jobs which has been disappointing and killed my study momentum but looking to get back into it.

gbwelly

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#2308594 30-Aug-2019 18:18

noeltj:
Its funny how you mentioned this. I went to couple of interviews and they all asked for office 365 certification.

It sounds really odd. How hard could it be!

How hard could it be? So hard that you could specialise in just one area of it and make a career out of it.

Kol12

370 posts

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#2308600 30-Aug-2019 18:46

gbwelly:
noeltj:

Its funny how you mentioned this. I went to couple of interviews and they all asked for office 365 certification.

It sounds really odd. How hard could it be!

How hard could it be? So hard that you could specialise in just one area of it and make a career out of it.

If you don't already have an in depth background in or IT experience it can be a little more difficult which as I am finding. A lot of the 365 course material seems to assume you already have an in depth understanding of things like Active Directory, Server, on premise Exchange etc. I don't and that's where I am a bit stuck in the more advanced stuff.

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timmmay

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#2308614 30-Aug-2019 19:25

There are a few Office 365 architects around, not really sure what they do either. They know things like connectivity, ExpressRoute and similar. There's how data is stored, secured, partitioned, standard and government compliance, data categorisation. There's probably more to it as well. It's distinct from Azure as well.

lNomNoml

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#2316853 12-Sep-2019 22:32

Kol12:

gbwelly:
noeltj:

Its funny how you mentioned this. I went to couple of interviews and they all asked for office 365 certification.

It sounds really odd. How hard could it be!

How hard could it be? So hard that you could specialise in just one area of it and make a career out of it.

If you don't already have an in depth background in or IT experience it can be a little more difficult which as I am finding. A lot of the 365 course material seems to assume you already have an in depth understanding of things like Active Directory, Server, on premise Exchange etc. I don't and that's where I am a bit stuck in the more advanced stuff.

I'm in exactly the same boat as Kol12, I currently work as a remote engineer at a MSP in Auckland and I wish to train and study into Office 365, I use it everyday to setup user accounts and do email forwarding ect but I have not studied into Office 365, I only officially have A+ and N+, I'm mostly a hardware IT Technician but want to pursue a career in Office365. I have been looking at Pluralsight but honestly like Kol12 said, there is a knowledge gap where they seem to expect you know certain things while studying for Office365, what do we need to study before getting into Office365? any help please?

Sorry Kol12 if I am hijacking your thread, there is some good info in this thread and I seem to be in the same boat as you.

gbwelly

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#2317154 13-Sep-2019 13:53

lNomNoml:

I use it everyday to setup user accounts and do email forwarding ect but I have not studied into Office 365,

what do we need to study before getting into Office365? any help please?

That is actually quite a tricky one. I'd say get your head around Azure AD first (Cloud Only, AAD Connect, AAD Connect with ADFS, Pass-through authentication), and get comfortable with connecting to the various services using PowerShell.

You may struggle as going straight to Office 365 admin would be the equivalent of getting a promotion straight to Exchange, SharePoint, Security, Active Directory and Unified Communications admin role in one jump in an on-premises scenario. Personally I came from an Active Directory/Exchange background, so it's like working on an Exchange server, just the server is in Melbourne.

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