Vlad Catrinescu's Blog, page 3

Limited Offer: 50% Off Microsoft Data & Fabric Certifications (Ends Aug 31)

Microsoft is giving away 15,000 vouchers for 50% off data certifications like PL‑300, DP‑600, DP‑700, and DP‑900. Submit the form in the Fabric Community by August 31, 2025. Vouchers expire 60 days after issue — so get ready now!

Get your voucher over here

Watch my 100+ courses on Pluralsight

Video Summary50% Off Data Certifications: To celebrate Power BI’s 10th anniversary, Microsoft is offering half-price vouchers for popular data certifications like PL-300, DP-600, DP-700, and DP-900. Perfect timing if you’re planning to get certified this summer!Easy 3-Step Voucher Claim: Just join the Microsoft Fabric Community, fill out a short form with your location, exam choice, and prep plan, and hit submit. That’s it!15,000 Vouchers Available: Microsoft is giving away 15,000 vouchers, but they’re limited—so don’t wait. You must submit your form by August 31, 2025.Act Fast Once You Get It: Once your voucher arrives (via private message in the Fabric Community), you’ll have 60 days to schedule and pass your exam. Microsoft sends vouchers twice a month—on the 2nd and 4th Friday (Pacific Time).Stay in the Loop: Drop a comment with the cert you’re aiming for, and don’t forget to like, share, and subscribe so you never miss out on certification news or updates on Microsoft Fabric and Power Platform.

For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!

Transcript

Power BI just turned 10, and if your goal is to get certified in data this summer, there’s even more reason to celebrate. Microsoft is offering 50% off vouchers for some of their most in-demand data certifications. This includes popular exams like the PL-300 Power BI Data Analyst, DP-600 Fabric Analytics Engineer, DP-700 Fabric Data Engineer, and for those just starting out, the DP-900 Azure Data Fundamentals—a fantastic entry point into the world of data.

Claiming your voucher is simple and involves just three steps. Instead of showing slides, let me walk you through it. First, head over to the page linked in the description below. The first thing you need to do is join the Microsoft Fabric Community. Most data professionals are already members, but if you’re not, it’s worth joining—not just for the voucher, but for the wealth of valuable content available there. Once you’re a member, you’ll see a form on the right-hand side. Select your country or location, choose the exam you’re interested in, and answer two quick questions: why you want to earn the certification and how you plan to prepare for the exam. Agree to the terms and conditions, then click submit. That’s all it takes!

Now, here are a few key things to keep in mind. Microsoft is giving away 15,000 vouchers, which is a generous amount, but still limited. You must submit the form by August 31, 2025. Once you receive your voucher, you’ll have 60 days to schedule and pass your exam, so make sure you’re ready to go even before the voucher arrives. Vouchers will be delivered via private message inside the Fabric Community, and Microsoft will send them out twice a month—on the second and fourth Friday (Pacific Time). So don’t forget to check your messages there.

That’s it for this quick video! Let me know in the comments which certification you plan to use the 50% discount on. If you found this video helpful, please like it, share it with your friends, and most importantly, subscribe to the channel so you don’t miss any updates on Microsoft certifications. And if you’re looking for more content, check out the videos on your screen now—they cover Microsoft Fabric, Power Platform, and other certification news you won’t want to miss. Hope to see you in the next one!

Unlock SharePoint’s Hidden Power: Filter by Metadata with Content Query

Tired of keyword searches that don’t get you what you need in SharePoint? Content Query is your new best friend. In this episode, I’m joined by Microsoft MVP Drew Madelung to show how you can filter document libraries by specific metadata fields—without building custom search pages or touching the search schema.

You’ll learn:
What Content Query is and how it works
How to filter by custom columns like dates, people, taxonomy, and more
Why this feature is built-in (but still hidden from most users)
Real tips for adoption, performance, and training your users

Whether you’re building content AI pipelines or just trying to improve findability for your team, this episode will help you make search smarter in SharePoint.

Video SummaryContent Query lets you filter by metadata, not just keywords—so you can find exactly what you need using fields like date, owner, or content type, right inside your document library.No need to mess with the search schema anymore—just interact with your columns (sort, group, modify views), and SharePoint will index them automatically for filtering.It’s free once you enable Microsoft 365’s pay-as-you-go setup—no extra cost, no custom web parts, and no workflows required. Just use what’s already built in.Filtering is per library, but super powerful—you can combine multiple filters (like owner + date + content type) to narrow down results fast, even in massive libraries.Train your users! Since this feature lives quietly in the search box, it’s easy to miss. Build awareness and training into your SharePoint adoption strategy to help teams maximize its benefits.

For more information, read the transcript blog below, or watch the video above!

Transcript

Do you have a ton of content in SharePoint but still struggle to find what matters most? With Content Query, part of the SharePoint Content AI functionality, you can enable easy-to-use filters in your document libraries. In this video, I’m joined by Microsoft MVP Drew Madelung, who will teach us everything we need to know about this functionality.

Drew, thank you so much for joining me.
Thank you, Vlad. My name is Drew Madelung, and I’ll be talking today all about the Content Query functionality as part of SharePoint’s Content AI solutions. What we’re going to be going through is: what is Content Query, how does it work, and some tips about working with Content Query for the information that you already have. For those of you who have been following the series, we’re at part 13 of the amazing SharePoint Content AI functionalities. And for those of you that are new to the series, welcome in, and make sure you check out the other videos so you know how to make the most out of SharePoint.

Let’s get started on Content Query. I’m excited. Thank you, Vlad.
Starting, what is Content Query? Content Query, as part of SharePoint Content AI, enables us to do fast, precise searching directly within our document libraries. If you’ve watched previous videos on document processing or autofill to extract metadata, we’re talking about findability and discoverability. I want to pull metadata out, extract that information, and now I want to find that information. Content Query allows me to look for specific metadata column values instead of relying on keyword searches. I can open up a library where I’ve extracted a bunch of metadata—say, invoice information. Instead of just typing “invoice for Vlad” at the top, I can start filtering based on the metadata I’ve extracted or created.

This is part of SharePoint search, so it’s native inside the search box at the top. You don’t have to add anything to your library or a web part—it’s built-in. What you’ll see is a small icon with three bars (not a full ellipsis) at the top of the document library. You won’t see it until you click into “Search this library.” Then, you’ll be able to click that icon, and it will pull up a filter pane for you to work with and filter your information.

This does require Microsoft 365 Pay-As-You-Go services to be set up. We have a video earlier in the series that goes deep into the configuration and setup for Pay-As-You-Go, but this feature relies on that service being available.
It requires Pay-As-You-Go, but it doesn’t cost anything, right?
Correct. Similar to other Content AI functionality, this is not a consumption-based solution. It’s simply available to you once you’ve enabled Pay-As-You-Go, with no cost to you.
Awesome. So that’s even better—it’s free. I love it.

What you need to know as you’re working with this is that the SharePoint columns you work with—those you’ve created in a library—need to be queryable. Not every column fits that type. Not everything will work. Columns need to be queryable. If you’re familiar with SharePoint’s history, these are searchable columns, mapped properties, crawl properties—they exist and will happen for you, but they need to be working in your setup and tenant.

The columns that work for this are your main column types: text, note (multi-line text), date, people, and choice columns. These are the internal names of the column types you’ll be working with. When you add a column, these are the ones you’ll get to work with. A really nice one to have is the managed metadata or taxonomy fields—you can use Content Query for those as well.

When working with Content Query in your libraries, you might not see anything right away. This is all based on search. Let’s say I’ve done some invoice extraction and pulled out five different columns. It will take time for those to appear, and you need to have an action occur in those libraries. You need to interact with those columns—make them queryable—and that happens by working with the columns themselves. You can modify the view, make sure the columns are visible, group them, sort them—do something to ensure the columns have action and work with the files. Then, it could take up to five days for the columns to show in the filter pane.

So, big thing to note: it might take time. You need to work with the content. If you’ve just done a big migration and added a large extraction but never worked with it, you need to go work with that content to make it active.

I just want to double-check something. We come from the old-school SharePoint world, where we spent too much time in the search schema. If I understand correctly, I don’t need to go into the actual search schema.
Exactly. If you’re familiar with the search schema, this is not something where you need to map crawl properties or work with them. They can be list columns or site columns. All that has to happen is that you have to interact with them. You don’t need to map anything. The workflow happens automatically. It will automatically index those columns, and once that happens and the data has been indexed, Content Query will render those columns available to you.

So, new libraries work by default. Existing libraries—first time a user clicks it, they’re not lucky. They won’t be lucky. But by the time you get to their support ticket, it will work.
It’ll definitely take some time when you’re testing this. So, if you’re following this video and checking your own library, click on it, modify the view a little, work with the columns and data, and then come back later—up to five days. I’ve seen it take a couple of hours to a day, depending on the size of your tenant and how much indexing is happening.

Awesome. But I still love that I don’t have to go to the search schema. I don’t want to say it’s my nightmare, but it’s not a fun place in the admin center.
Absolutely not. That one could still use some refreshing these days.

When you use Content Query, regardless of indexing, there are default columns available. That setup will occur primarily for custom fields you’ve added. But document libraries have default columns like file name, modified date, and a big one—content type. If you’ve worked with content types (as you should), you can have multiple content types in a library and filter by them—like invoice or contract—by default, without any configuration changes.

When you add custom columns (site or list columns), you’ll get an “Add more options” section. These custom columns won’t appear in the default filter pane. You’ll need to click “Add more options” to add them to your filter pane.

Let’s see it in action. I’m going into a document library called “Formulation Working Documents.” You’ll see a collection of metadata: document name, status, author, owner, and date. These were extracted through different Content AI solutions across multiple file types—Word, PowerPoint, etc.

Let’s say I want to find content from a specific date. A couple of weeks ago, I created some ingredient files and want to find them. I could search for “report,” and it would do a keyword search. But that’s not what I want. Content Query empowers this functionality. These three lines here are something people should know more about. When you click them, you get a filter pane with keywords, file name, people, modified date, and file type.

You’ll also see a section called “Add more options.” Let’s say I want to find a file with a specific document date—April 11th. I go into “Document Date,” select “Equals,” and pick the date using a date picker. This is a date column. I filter based on custom dates and instantly narrow down my files using that metadata field extracted with Content Query.

As I move through different libraries, you’ll see different information available. All the custom columns I pulled out will be included. Regardless of the site or library, the functionality works across all of them. Depending on the column types, you’ll have different functionality. For example, the “Document Owner” column uses the people picker—not just basic text. I can select “Cable,” click search, and it will find the file. Imagine a library with 100,000 documents—keyword searching is hard. This lets you filter quickly.

You can even add multiple filters. I’ll add “Document Date equals April 11th.” Now I’ve filtered down to a single file. Multiple filtering options together using Content Query help you find specific files—all natively inside your document library. No custom workflows, no search schema management. Just create your columns, work with them, and find information using the search box.

I love it. Even with Copilot improving search, this filtering gives me certainty. I know I’m filtering by the metadata I’ve invested time in. I’ve built custom solutions like this for clients before, so having it built-in is amazing.

Normally, we’d build search experiences on top of this. The limiting factor is that Content Query is per document library. If I have invoices in multiple sites or libraries, the feature only filters within the current library. For cross-library searches, you’ll still use the broader search experience. But metadata is still king. That’s why we’re doing this series—to help more people take advantage of metadata in SharePoint.

In this series, we’ve covered many ways to get metadata—content extraction with models, autofill columns, image tagging, and OCR. Now that you have it, here’s how to make even more use of it. You can make refined decisions based on metadata. It makes your data more powerful.

A huge thing for me is awareness. This feature is native and built-in, but people don’t know the timing—it might take time to appear. So, training and education for this feature are more necessary than for other Content AI functionality. Because it’s part of the search box, users might not know how to use it. It should have a one-pager or training as part of your SharePoint 365 adoption.

When working with content extraction or custom columns, don’t always use text. You can get stuck with “contains” filtering. If you’re working with numerical values or integers, set up number columns, people columns, and taxonomy fields. Don’t default to text—Content Query is more powerful with non-textual values.

Be patient. Columns might not show up right away, but they will eventually. This won’t replace your search web parts—they still play a big role. Content Query lives only in your library. You can select multiple filters—content type, date, owner—and combine them.

As mentioned, this uses Pay-As-You-Go licensing, but there’s no cost after setup.
I love it. Drew, thank you so much for this amazing video. The fact that it’s free and we already have the metadata to make the most of it is just amazing.

For everyone watching, I really hope you enjoyed it. Make sure to check out all the other videos in this SharePoint Content AI deep dive series. You’ll see the playlist appear on your screen right now. And if you want to connect with Drew or check out his other amazing content, make sure to check all the links in the description below.

Speaking at the Power Platform Community Conference 2024

I’m excited to announce that I will be presenting at the upcoming Power Platform Community Conference happening in Las Vegas this September 18-20, 2024. I will be presenting both a workshop and a session, more on that in a second, but I wanted to let you know you can use the discount code VLAD100 if you want to save 100$ off your registration!

You can find the details on my sessions below or on my speaker page!

Power Automate Cloud Flows Hands-on Workshop

Microsoft Power Automate cloud flows are the most popular type of flow in Power Automate and one of the most important tools to automate your business processes in 2024! In this hands-on workshop, you will learn how to automate business processes by creating cloud flows in a hands-on approach!

We will start by learning the fundamental concepts of Power Automate, and then we will learn how to create flows starting from a template. We will then create our own flows, based on real world examples! Throughout the workshop, each flow will take it one level further and we will learn how to create approvals, conditions, how to use expressions and loops, as well as how to integrate our flows with Microsoft Teams, and handle errors in our cloud flows! We will also cover Copilot and how to infuse AI into your cloud flows!

This is your chance to learn how to automate your own business processes with Power Automate cloud flows and understand all the different controls available in cloud flows!

Session: Power Automate & Power Apps Copilot: The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly!

By now, you have already seen different Microsoft Copilots throughout videos, Microsoft Keynotes, and many marketing pitches. But, what can Copilot for Power Automate and Copilot for Power Apps actually do in the real world?Join this session where you will learn what tasks Copilot can do to save you hours of work, the tasks where it might need some help, and the situations in which you should just build your solution by hand!

I hope to see you at the 2024 Power Platform Community Conference, and if you have any questions about Vegas in general, or about the conference, let me know in the comments below! If you want a step by step on how to use the VLAD100 discount code check out my Microsoft Power Platform Conference 2024 Discount Code page!

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Open Book Microsoft Certification Exams | Interview with Microsoft’s Liberty Munson

The open book Microsoft certification exams announcement was too big to tackle alone! I asked Liberty Munson, Director of Psychometrics at Microsoft, to join me so we could better understand what to expect and why, from the source!

A BIG thank you to Liberty for taking the time to join me for this video! Follow Liberty on Twitter for more on Microsoft Certifications: @LibertyMunson

Microsoft Blog: Introducing a new resource for all role-based Microsoft Certification exams – Microsoft Community Hub

Open Book Microsoft Certification Exams SummaryMicrosoft Learning has introduced various features in the last year, including free practice tests and an exam sandbox.Most Microsoft exams will now generally be open book.Special guest: Liberty Munson, Director of Psychometrics at Microsoft.Liberty’s role involves ensuring the validity and reliability of skill evaluation tools and processes.Her background in industrial-organizational psychology led her to work on testing and assessments.The interview discusses the open book initiative for Microsoft certification exams.The open book feature is designed for Advanced role-based exams (associate, expert, specialty), not fundamentals.Microsoft Learn platform provides learning resources, and the “Microsoft learn” button is added to the exam interface.Users can open multiple tabs for reference and even split the screen between the exam and learning resources.There’s no specific limit to the number of tabs, and the experience is customizable.Accessibility considerations have been factored into the design.Access to external sites is blocked, and attempts to access other sites are tracked.The interface also includes a slider for adjusting the split between the exam and learning resources.The open book feature is not available in the exam sandbox.The feature originated from a need to strike a balance between those who would look up information and the need to assess skills.Liberty emphasizes that the open book approach aligns with real-world scenarios where looking up information is common.The goal is not to enable looking up every question, but to provide resources for specific instances.The feature is also in line with Microsoft’s efforts to make exams more relevant to actual job roles.There are no plans to extend extra time for open book exams.Fundamental exams focus on knowledge, while advanced exams emphasize application and experience.The open book feature is not intended for labs, as they already provide access to help within the environment.Users can zoom in and out for comfortable viewing.Liberty encouraging users to explore the feature and provide feedback for improvement.The interview discusses the impact of AI in certification exams, particularly in terms of accessing resources during exams.I highlights the opportunities AI brings in redefining how AI is used in job roles and certification exams.The concept of “open book” exams is explored, where learners have access to resources during exams.The extension of this concept to generative AI solutions like Copilot is mentioned as a potential direction for exams.Liberty and her team has been working on this initiative for 4-5 years.Experience plays a role in answering questions, but some details are often looked up, like PowerShell parameters.The goal is to strike a balance between using resources and relying on memorization.If there’s a concern about the perception that open book exams might decrease the value of Microsoft certifications is discussed.I clarify that the exam is not fully open book like traditional exams, but a resource for specific needs.Existing question types and distribution will not change with this feature.The goal isn’t to reduce reliance on exam dumps and cheating by making the exam more relevant but it could be a positive benefit. I believe the way people study won’t drastically change, but some skills like memorizing commands might shift.Microsoft is focusing on making the exam experience more delightful, with potential UI updates.The interview concludes with thanks to the guest for sharing insights and encouraging feedback from viewers.

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NEW Employee Experience Platform Specialist Role

Video Highlights

The post NEW Employee Experience Platform Specialist Role appeared first on Vlad Talks Tech.

A Power Platform Poem featuring the Microsoft Community

I asked AI to generate a Power Platform poem and the community to deliver it! What do you think? Would Shakespeare be proud?

A Power Platform Poem

In a realm of digital might, where possibilities align

there’s a platform that empowers, a force so refined

Microsoft’s creation, with applications vast

Behold the Power Platform, a future unpassed.

With Power Apps as its cornerstone, creativity takes flight,

building apps with ease, your ideas brought to the light.

Flowing alongside, Power Automate takes the lead,

automating tasks and processes, at remarkable speed.

Power BI then steps forth, its visual powers revealed,

data transformed into insights, like secrets unconcealed.

But behold, Power Virtual Agents now appear,

conversational guides, bringing answers near.

Lastly, Power Pages graces this poetic tale,

web portals crafted, stories to unveil.

But the true magic emerges when these power unite,

the power, the potential, shinning ever so bright.

The Power Platform intertwines, like a symphony’s embrace,

creating solutions profound, with elegance and grace.

From businesses large to ventures yet small,

the power platform answers the calling, fulfilling the call.

With your vision empowered, you can change the world anew,

where dreams turn into reality, and innovation comes through.

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Microsoft Executes Order 66 on Microsoft Certifications Exams

May the 4th be with the fallen Microsoft Certifications! It is a period at the end of the fiscal year. In secret, the Galactic Empire has tasked their learning team to clean up its portfolio.

Not one exam that has proved challenging, nor a group. Without any real predicted rhythm, many will not see the light of July. From Fundamental Padawans to Expert Jedi, the Certifications could not prepare for what came next. The coming battle would be cemented in the history of the galaxy.

From the slaying of many Certification exams to the many Exam Takers forced to scurry to the closest Certification that provided a sense of familiarity, No one was safe!

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Say Goodbye to 3 Azure Certification Exams

The latest Microsoft certification news is that they are cutting another 3 exams, which are all Azure! Find out which certifications are getting cut and more!

Find out if you should close practice exam questions you’ve been using to study, in my latest video!

Video Highlights

– Microsoft Learn is in the process of doing its spring cleanup in its certification portfolio. We’re losing one associate-level certification and two different specialty-level certifications. If you’re looking at getting Microsoft 365 certified, make sure you watch that video as well.

– Microsoft has retired all its troubleshooting exams. Instead of taking the troubleshooting connectivity exam, Microsoft recommends that you focus on the associate-level exam called Azure Network Engineer Associate. This will also be available for renewal until January 31, 2024.

– Microsoft Certified Azure IoT Developer Specialty Certification. You can still take the exam until July 31, 2023. Even if the certification retires, it will still remain in your transcript. Azure is still the biggest and strongest certification portfolio by Microsoft Learn.

– What do you think about Microsoft retiring those three Azure certifications? Are they certifications you wanted to pass, or were you thinking, like, those serve no purpose? They should get canceled. Please let me know in the comments.

Video Transcript

In this video, we will learn to say goodbye to three Microsoft Azure certifications exams. Microsoft Learn is in the process of doing its spring cleanup in its certification portfolio.

And it’s not only about Azure. Two weeks ago, I did a video on how Microsoft cut half of the certification exams in their Modern Workplace portfolio. So if you’re looking at getting Microsoft 365 certified, make sure you watch that video as well at the end.

But today we are going to talk about what we’re losing in the Azure side. We’re actually losing one associate-level certification and two different specialty-level certifications. Let’s start talking about the exams.

The first exam we have to say goodbye to, and the first certification of course as well is the Microsoft Certify Azure Stack Hub Operator Associate. Their certification that we got after passing Exam AZ-600 exam. This certification exam and this certification will retire on July 31, 2023.

You can still take the exam before then, so it’s still available today and valid for another twelve months. Microsoft recommends that instead of trying to go for the AZ-600 instead, you will get those skills from the Azure Administrator Associate Certification exam. So the AZ-104 or the Microsoft certified Windows Server hybrid Admin associate certification path, which, of course, includes two different exams.

Remember that if you are a current certification holder, you will still have it, and you can still renew it. And in fact, the renewal window will stay open until January 31, 2024. So you can renew a certification six months before it expires.

So we will still see people have the certification until maybe even the end of 2024. The second certification that we have to say goodbye to is the Azure Support Engineer for Connectivity. This was a specialty-level certification, and it will retire on July 31, 2023, along with its associated exam, the Microsoft AZ-720 exam.

Many of you who have listened to my previous videos about the Modern Workplace exam retirements probably expected this one to be retired as well because Microsoft did completely retire the team’s troubleshooting and exchanged troubleshooting exams. This was the other troubleshooting exam in the certification portfolio by Microsoft. So the Azure one will bite the dust as well.

But you are more than welcome to take the exam anytime until July 31, 2023. And this one will also be valid for twelve months. Instead of taking the troubleshooting connectivity exam, Microsoft recommends that you focus on the associate-level exam called Azure Network Engineer Associate.

So the reason why Microsoft said they are retiring the troubleshooting exams is because so much more things are covered in how to configure tools rather than how to troubleshoot them. And in theory, if you understand how to configure and manage something, you should also be able to troubleshoot them. So that’s Microsoft’s reasoning behind retiring all their troubleshooting portfolio across different technologies similar to the previous exam.

This will also be available for renewal until January 31, 2024. So you could go take the exam today, renew it in January. Remember, you can do it six months before and have the certification still for an almost full two years or so.

You still have the opportunity to take it today. Last but not least, another specialty certification that I was not necessarily expecting. The Microsoft Certified Azure IoT Developer specialty Certification.

IoT stands for Internet of Things. Honestly, I really wasn’t expecting this certification to go away because the Internet of Things devices are still taking over the world, and using Azure as a back-end platform is a great skilling challenge for developers. So Microsoft, the way they explained it is that working with IoT is done by multiple roles.

You rarely have a dedicated role that only does IoT on top of Azure. Instead, both architects should know about IoT. Every developer should know about IoT.

So they found that the dedicated specialty certification exam did not have its place anymore. You can still take the exam until July 31, 2023. Again, it will be valid for twelve months.

And if you pass the certification before them or you have it today, you can still renew it until January 31, 2024. And after that it will remain on your transcript, but will just show up as retired. So if you’re thinking about getting those certifications, you’re probably asking yourself, what should you do? The first thing I want to talk about is remembering that at the end of the day, the skills you have, the demo projects, and the actual projects matter way more than a certification.

My tip for you, my recommendation, would be, if you’re already studying for the certification, you’re maybe halfway through 75% the way through. Don’t give up now. Finish your studies, go get certified.

And remember, even if the certification retires, it will still remain in your transcript, still something you’ll be able to talk about to potential employers, that you did that certification, that you have the skills to do those different tasks. Also, if you don’t want to go for that specific certification, remember you can focus on some of the recommended alternate certifications that we talked about. So instead of, for example, the troubleshooting networking in Azure, go for the configuring networking in Azure, and so on.

Even with those retirements, Azure is still the biggest and strongest certification portfolio by Microsoft Learn. I mean after retirements, for all of those, Azure will have 18 certifications. Dynamics 365 will have eleven.

Because they’re also losing a few certifications, Microsoft 365 or Modern Workplace is losing a lot of them. They will only have six. So Microsoft 365 will be the one with the lowest number of certifications.

And finally, both Security and Power Platform will have seven certifications each. So, as you can see, Azure is still the biggest by far. Now, everything I talked about here is also in an official announcement that Microsoft put out recently, the title of the blog is called Announcing Updates to Azure and Support Engineer Training and Certification Portfolios, and you will find it on the Microsoft Learn blog on the tech community.

You have a link here on the slides, and you will also have a link in the description of the video below. Now this is it for this short video. I wanted to keep it short and sweet.

I really hope you enjoyed and please let me know in the comments. What do you think about Microsoft retiring those three Azure certifications? Is it certifications you wanted to pass or certifications that maybe you were thinking, like, hey, those serve no purpose, they should get canceled, and you’re happy to see this? So make sure you let me know in the comments.

And remember, if you want to get the latest Microsoft certification news, click that subscribe button. This way, you’ll get notified as soon as there’s anything new and exciting in the Microsoft certification world. Thank you very much again for listening to this video and for making it this far.

I really hope you enjoyed it.

Interested in software development? Want to learn the backbone of all Microsoft 365 Online technology? Awesome! If you’re looking for a little help passing the AZ-900, take a look at my AZ-900 study guide.

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NEW Employee Experience Platform Specialist Role

Video Highlights

– Microsoft Learning announced a brand new role called Employee Experience platform specialist. In the past few weeks, we’ve only had bad news about the modern Workplace. This video has some good news. But there is a catch.

– Microsoft is creating the EX Platform Specialist role. The new role will only be provided as a course. There is no certification exam or assessment planned for this role. This course should be available on April 27, 2023.

– This is a one-day instructor-led training. It was only in English at the time of recording this video. It might be available in multiple languages later. You will learn to bring people together to create an optimal employee experience. This enables your organization to improve productivity.

– I think this is a step in the right direction. There is a need for training material right now. I would love to see two different certifications. What’s your take on this course? Do you think it’s a valid role?

Video Transcript

Welcome to this YouTube video, where we have some good news for all of you working with Microsoft 365 and with the Modern Workplace in general. Microsoft Learning announced a brand new role called Employee Experience platform specialist.

I am super excited about this role. Why? Because in the past few weeks, we’ve only had bad news about the modern Workplace and associated exams and courses. If you haven’t seen my previous video, make sure you watch it right after.

Basically, Microsoft announced that they’re going to retire half of the current Modern Workplace portfolio. So that was really sad for all the Microsoft 365 professionals out there that want to get certified. So I’m really happy to make this video that has some good news.

But there is a catch. So make sure you stick around right after the intro so we can talk about this new worldwide learning Microsoft role. As we have already said, the name of the role is the Employee Experience Platform Specialist role.

So what is the definition? And this is directly from Microsoft. Microsoft Employee Experience Platform Specialists assess, plan, strategize, design, and manage digital employee experiences. They use Microsoft Viva, microsoft teams, SharePoint power platform, and more.

Employee Experience Platform Specialists empower organizations to improve productivity, nurture empathetic leadership, and transform how employees feel about their work by developing a culture of trust, collaboration, well-being, and active listening. They continuously improve employee experience based on data-driven insights and feedback. Employee experience.

Platform specialists collaborate with senior executive leadership, HR It professionals, employee engagement teams, change management teams as well as learning and organizational development teams. They help to identify requirements for experiences such as employee onboarding career and skill development, rewards and recognition, compensation as well as benefits, employee well-being and employee retention. They design a solution that meets requirements, then work with Microsoft 365 Admins, SharePoint, Admins Teams, Admins, Data Scientists, and Security Teams, of course, to implement the solution.

Employee Experience Platform Specialists have a foundational understanding of Microsoft technologies, including Microsoft 365 Teams SharePoint, and a deep understanding of Microsoft Viva features and capabilities. They have experience in one or more of the following disciplines HR, People Development, Change Management, Information Technology, or Culture Development. So, I don’t know about you, but reading this makes me excited.

Especially that I always thought that this Employee Experience Platform Specialist was a role that we had in organizations around the globe. And now that we have Microsoft Viva, which lives in part in the It department, but also half of it is with the HR and Change Management Teams, with the Learning Development team. And now that we have so many modules, I feel like every department that manages people is involved with Microsoft Viva.

But remember when I said it’s all really good news? However, there is a small catch. So what’s the catch? Well, this new role will only be provided as a course. There is no certification exam or assessment planned, at least as of now, for this role.

So it will be simply a role that Microsoft recognizes. There will be official courseware for it. However, there will not be an exam associated with it. So that’s a bit of the sad part.

If we take a look a bit more in detail, this will be an instructor-led training course, or ILT, that you will be able to either do at a Microsoft learning partner with the help of a Microsoft-certified trainer such as me. Maybe that will be able to teach the course, guide you through the different labs and things like that, and answer any questions that you might have. Or you can follow the content yourself on Microsoft Learn.

If you’re not aware of the change, there are no more Microsoft official courses with dedicated labs and things like that. Like back in the days now, all the instructor-led training with Microsoft Official Content, the actual student handbook that we had before is now the Microsoft Learn Pad. So everything is available for you to study yourself.

This will be a one-day course without any lab offerings. However, there are some self-paced projects you will be able to do. The course number is Ms 80 T.

And by the way, you will notice that all of the Microsoft roles that are not associated with a certification, are under 100. So if you see, for example, Ms 100 T zero, that’s usually certification related. But if it’s Ms 40 or 80, that’s usually an official course, but it’s not related to a certification.

This course should be available on April 27, 2023. So pretty soon, this course page is actually live right away. So let’s go and check it out.

Okay, so I’m on Microsoft Learn on the Ms 80 t page. I’ll put a link here in the description so you can easily reach it. But all of this is public at the time of recording this video.

So what do we have here? First of all, we see that this is a one-day instructor-led training. It was only in English at the time of recording this video. It might be available in multiple languages later.

As this course becomes more popular, we do have a bit of an introduction to the course, so we can see, for example, what you will learn. You will learn to bring people together to create an optimal employee experience that enables your organization to improve productivity. So we have that, we have the audience profile, and we also have the targeted job role, which is a business analyst, business owner, or business user.

From a prerequisite point of view, you can see that it requires a general understanding of Microsoft 365, Microsoft Viva, Microsoft Teams, and SharePoint, as well as familiarity with employee experience, concepts, and methodologies. Of course, as the course is not fully out yet, you do not have the Learnpath or anything like that, but you’ll be able to quickly find it on Microsoft Learn, and I might do a quick video or at least post on social media once the course is fully out. But really, this is it for now.

I won’t read it all just because you’re able to do that yourself. But instead, let me actually go here and let’s talk a little bit about what are some of my talks around this new role. So, first of all, I think this is a step in the right direction.

Why? Because this role definitely exists in organizations. I do believe that most large organizations, and by that, I mean the ones that actually pay a license for Microsoft Viva, do have somebody filling this role. And there is a need for training material right now; I find that for Microsoft Viva especially, there’s a lot more marketing material than training material.

So we end up with so much sales stuff. And here are some numbers. Here’s why you should buy it, but when you come into implementing it, you don’t have that much documentation.

When I worked on my Pluralsight course on getting started with Microsoft Viva, it was, and it is still available today, a course for administrators on how to deploy Viva. I found so much of the documentation to be lacking for some products. So I definitely think there is a need for training material.

I wish there was a certification associated with this course because having a course is cool, right? And training is one of the most important parts of the whole certification program, in my opinion. However, I do wish there was still a way for people to showcase this expertise to potential clients or employers. What I would love to see now is that this is what we have today, and I said it’s a step in the right direction.

What would be the right direction? According to Vlad, this is a bit of my wish list for Christmas, and I know we’re still a bit far from Christmas, but I would love to see two different certifications. I’d love to see something like the Ms 310 employee experience platform specialist. So a certification associated with this specific role and a new certification, ms 320 employee Experience administrator.

So for the administrator of all those tools, so SharePoint Admin, OneDrive Admin, and Viva Admin together, especially since now yammer is Viva Engage, that would be included as well. So really, the person that’s in charge of managing and administering everything that the employee experience platform specialist works with. So this is my early Christmas wish list from Worldwide Learning.

Those are two certifications that, if we had the training and the certification for it, I would be a super happy guy. But right now, there are no plans or any news for those certifications. But now, what’s your take on it? Please let me know in the comments.

What’s your take on this course? Do you think it’s a valid role? Do you think it’s a role that actually exists in organizations? Do you think this is a good investment by Microsoft, or should they have put their time and money into creating this content elsewhere? Do you wish there was a certification associated with it like I do, or do you think it’s a bit useless and a waste of time? Do you think there should be any third-party training for this topic as well that goes more in-depth than just one day of training? 

So, for example, would you want me to do a plural side course on the topics covered in this course, or do you already find that there’s enough information out there, and maybe it’s just me that five, six is not enough, but do you think there is already enough content that you wouldn’t watch another course on it? Please let me know in the comments. I really want to hear your opinions on this, and I do read every single comment out there, so please do let me know what you think on this.

I want to keep this video a bit shorter, so thank you so much for making it to the end of this video. I hope you’re excited, as I am for worldwide Learning and Microsoft to give us some new stuff in the modern workplace portfolio, especially after we lost half of our certification exams in the year 2023. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube, and feel free to follow me or connect with me on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, or almost any social media I’m there.

It would be my pleasure to connect with you, and stay tuned. There are a lot more videos coming around. Microsoft certifications and training materials, practice exams, and things like that, so make sure you subscribe to the YouTube channel so you’ll be the first one to know.

Thank you very much again for listening to this video.

The post NEW Employee Experience Platform Specialist Role appeared first on Vlad Talks Tech.

15+ FREE Microsoft Certification Practice Tests

Did you know Microsoft has 15+ FREE practice exams? Some of them may be hidden, but I’m here to tell you where and what they are!

Video Highlights

– For Microsoft certification takers, Microsoft now offers over 15 free practice tests for Microsoft certification exams. How well Microsoft handles the updates of those practice tests now remains to be seen.

– Microsoft has over 15 practice tests that are available for free. Not only for fundamental level exams, we also have them for associate level exams. Some of them are not even linked on the exam page. How do we find that list? There is a dedicated page on Microsoft Learn.

Find them here: Practice Assessments for Microsoft Certifications | Microsoft Learn

– Microsoft has the practice assessments for Microsoft certification. These assessments provide you with an overview of the style, wording and difficulty of the questions. For many exams it’s not there yet on the exam page. Make sure you take note of that page.

– Microsoft has free practice test. It’s a great way to validate your knowledge and also to build confidence before an exam. I just wish they were not the same price as the exam. Practice assessments should be the final step in your learning journey.

– I really hope you love the practice test that Microsoft is doing. Let me know in the comments if you’ve done any of them. Make sure you subscribe to the channel on YouTube so you’ll be the first to know about the latest Microsoft certification changes.

Video Transcript

welcome to this video where we will talk about some good news. For every Microsoft certification taker, microsoft now offers over 15 free practice tests for Microsoft certification exams.

This is actually not a completely new topic. Th two months ago, I did a video on the launch of the first one, the SC 900, and you all loved it. It was one of the most popular videos on my channel, so thank you for that.

However, one of the comments that you all talked about was that vlad, this is really amazing, but I wish we had it for more than just one exam, which was the SC 900 when I recorded that video. Well, good news. We now have them for 16 exams, actually, to be exact, at the time of recording this video.

But there is a small catch. Not all of them are visible on the exam page, but there is a secret page that shows all of them to you. And of course, I’ll share that with you right after the intro of you that missed my initial video.

Let’s do a quick recap. What’s this whole thing about Microsoft and free practice tests if we take a step back? For the past few years, Microsoft had a partnership with Measure Up. Measure up is a certification practice exam provider.

And as you can see on the screenshot on the left side of your screen, under each exam where you would go to schedule it, you would have the Measure Up practice test. However, they were quite expensive. And even one of the comments on my previous video was like, I don’t mind paying for practice test, but I don’t want them to be as expensive as the exam.

It makes no sense. So don’t get me wrong, measure up had amazing quality exams. Many fellow Microsoft certified trainers that I know worked with Measure Up to give to create questions.

They had amazing explanations and everything. However, those practice tests were quite expensive and even the $109 version would only give you access for a few months. Then, in early 2022, Microsoft started offering their own sample questions.

So they were not in a test interface, they were simply a PDF document with 20 questions at the top and then at the bottom, you had all of the answers for the 20 questions above. This was an amazing start, right? Especially for people that just want to get started. They just want to see if, hey, how far am I from being able to take this exam? Did I do 20 out of 20 or am I out of at five out of 20 and I need to practice a bit more? But this was really a good start.

And then in early 2023, Microsoft launched their first practice assessment. When I did the previous video that I talked about earlier, and it was only for the SC 900. If we recap, what do we get with Microsoft practice assessments, they are free.

First of all, you can take them as many times as you want and you have 50 randomized questions per assessment and it’s best answer type questions only, so you will not have selected three that apply. You will always have one question, four answer choices, and you have to select the best answer. Also, something that is cool is that for each question they actually provide you with the reasoning why that is the correct answer, as well as a link to Microsoft learn where you can go and see the documentation or see the larger explanation about that piece of the exam.

Something else I don’t have here in the slides, which I’m not able to, of course, vouch for. But the theory as well is that they will be a lot more up to date. Because before when it was working with Measure Up, microsoft would decide to update an exam.

Then they would have to really work on it, publish the changes, and then Measure Up would start working on the questions. Now, because this is all Microsoft owned, the theory is it should be more up to date with the exam. But that of course remains to be seen.

How well Microsoft handles the updates of those practice tests now. Works New so this is everything that we’ve already covered in the past video Works New why am I doing this video today? Today Microsoft has over 15 practice tests that are available for free. And it’s not only 900.

So fundamental levels exams, we even have some associate level exams in there. For example, the AZ 104, the Azure Administrator, or the AZ 204, even the Ms 700 managing Microsoft team. So it’s not only for fundamental level exams, we also have them for associate level exams.

That’s something that I was honestly not sure Microsoft is going to do. I thought they would really keep it to the fundamentals, but they really took it above my expectations and they have it for associate as well. So I’m really, really happy about that.

Something I’m a bit more confused or less excited about is why some of them are not even linked on the exam page. So if we take a look at an example here the AV 400. If you look in the screenshot on the left under schedule the exam, you will see it’s still linking to the Measure Up practice test.

However, we do have a free Microsoft Practice assessment available. Same thing for the Ms 700. It only links to the Measure Up Practice test, not to the free one by Microsoft.

Now, I don’t know why that is. Is it just a miscommunication between teams and they didn’t get around to updating it yet? Or maybe it’s a previous deal they had with a Measure app that they need to keep that exclusively there for an amount of time. I have no idea why, but if you’re watching this video, you’re lucky, you will know how to find all of them.

But I do wish that Microsoft Learn put it on the exam page for everybody, even people that haven’t watched this video yet. So how do we actually find that list? Well, there is a dedicated page on Microsoft Learn. We’ll take a look at it in just a few seconds.

And you will also have it inside the description of this video. So don’t worry, you won’t have to copy it or pause the video, you’ll just be able to click on it on the bottom of the video. So actually, let me put this on the screen now.

So once you go to this page, you’ll see we have the practice assessments for Microsoft certification. We have the overview of what they do and something that’s really interesting here at the top. This assessments provide you with an overview of the style, wording and difficulty of the questions you’re likely to experience on the exam.

So that is quite cool. And you will see all 16 of them. And Microsoft has been pretty good at keeping this specific page up to date, even if, for example, let me go to the Ms 700 page here and I’m taking the Ms 700.

I just finished the last course of that pat on pluralsight. So by the way, if you’re studying for the Ms 700, check out pluralsight. There’s going to be a link in the description as well, over 20 hours of content so you can study for that exam.

But if I scroll down here to the scheduling exam, you will notice we only have the measure up practice test. Even here we have only the exam sandbox and the study guide. No mention at all of the free practice test.

But now that you know this page that we have here, you’re able to go on it. We have Ms 700 managing Microsoft teams and we are able to really do the practice test for free. Again, it’s amazing that we have 50 practice questions that we can do for free.

No labs, nothing like that. But they do match the difficulty and the wording on the exam. So they are really a good way to test your knowledge against what you will be evaluated on on the exam.

So really make sure that you take note of that page because for many exams it’s not there yet on the exam page. So if you take an exam and it doesn’t have the practice test linked on the exam page yet, make sure you go to the page in the description or here on the slides to see if it’s there yet and maybe not updated or not before we finish this video. A bit of talks and conclusion.

Again, I’m not sure if you’ve seen it, but I love the idea that we now have free practice test. It’s a great way to validate your knowledge and also to build confidence before an exam. I’m really happy that Microsoft provides those for free.

Again, I loved the quality of stuff on Measure Up. I have nothing to say for the quality of Measure Up. They always provided good quality, good variety of questions.

I personally know many people that are working on those questions, so they’re good quality questions, but I just wish they were not the same price as the exam. And remember, practice assessments should be the final step in your learning journey. So make sure you have some real life experience.

Make sure you study for the exam using either Microsoft Learn or a third party resource such as Pluralsight, or maybe in person training. And at the end do the practice test. This way you can validate.

You have all the needed knowledge. This is it for this video, keeping it short and sweet. I really hope you enjoyed it.

I really hope you love the practice test that Microsoft is doing. Please let me know in the comments if you’ve done any of them. Do you think they’re good quality? Do you think Microsoft should keep investing in them? And again, make sure you check me out on Plural site.

Lots of training for many of those exams that you can use. So you ace your practice test and the real exam. Connect with me on LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, all of the social media.

And if you enjoyed this video and want to keep up to date with the latest Microsoft certification changes, make sure you subscribe to the channel on YouTube so you’ll be the first to know. Even when Microsoft releases cool stuff like this, but hikes them on a page instead of putting them on the exam page. If you follow this channel, you’ll be able to know this stuff beforehand, which can really make the difference when studying for an exam.

So thank you very much again for watching this video.

The post 15+ FREE Microsoft Certification Practice Tests appeared first on Vlad Talks Tech.