Looking Forward in 2025…
At the tailend of 2024, I was asked to put together an "engineer development plan" for my employer. In that plan I had put down a path of certifications to pursue in 2025. Originally, it was AWS AI Practitioner (optional), AWS Developer Associate, and AWS Solution Architect Associate. All of that between January 2025 and December 2025.
At the time in January 2025, I was toying to get the Azure AI Fundamentals, the AWS AI Practitioner, the AWS Developer Associate, and then the AWS Solutions Architect Associate certifications in that order. I picked up the Azure AI Fundamentals certification. It was easy enough with having to find drivers for the microphone on the laptop I was using and the very loud conference call that kicked off next door. The lesson to be learned here is to do the exams later in the evening when the bulk of people have gone home.
I got the Azure AI Fundamentals certification on January 8th and then my manager mentioned to me that I should plug a "perceived skill gap" between my current skillsets and where my employer is apparently wanting to go. Apparently, there is some work coming in the future around machine learning. Microsoft's certification that covers machine learning is Azure Data Scientist Associate. It's weird that it's not an "Expert" level certification because the exam for that is DP-100. The Cybersecurity Architect Expert is SC-100 and that's an Expert level certification.
I'm going to call an audible and go after the Azure Data Scientist certification and then after that get back on the AWS plan I outlined towards the beginning of this blog. Let's talk timing on when I'll get this certification. I think (given the current conditions at work which are subject to change), that it is reasonable to expect to pick up this certification sometime between February 1, 2025 and February 15, 2025. If I feel that I'm ready for it before then, I won't have a problem taking it earlier. If I get the certification earlier, that'll be lagniappe.
...and here we go!