Last week I attended the Microsoft Tech Summit in Chicago. It was a fantastic event that offered tons of free training sessions, free exam preparation, and free Azure exams. On top of all that free stuff, the whole event was free. All I really had to pay for was transportation, hotel, and dinner (since I was coming from St. Louis). I can’t recommend strongly enough that you should go to one of these events if you’re an IT professional and one is anywhere near you. Check out the details here: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/techsummit
Luckily I studied my butt off, went to the extremely helpful exam prep sessions, and passed both 70-533 and 70-534 over the two days. Those two exams netted me MCSE: Cloud Platform and Infrastructure, MCSA: Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Specialist: Implementing Microsoft Azure Infrastructure Solutions, and Microsoft Specialist: Architecting Microsoft Azure Solutions. That’s right, I snagged 4 certs by taking 2 completely free exams. Winning.
Nowadays you get these fancy little badges too!
Seriously, if you’re near one of these events, go to it. At minimum you will learn things that prove useful. If you bite into the prep work, you can walk away with some free certifications. Not to mention the schwag and friends you’ll make.