1 · The Gate
Security+
Gets you through the door
A hard requirement for a lot of government and enterprise IT work. It's vendor-neutral, so it travels with you to any cloud.
Start Learning
Everything I wish I had at month zero.
Free guides, cert roadmaps, and hands-on labs. The teaching is never locked behind a paywall.
Free Resource
The whole AZ-900. Two pages.
I studied for the AZ-900 with a dozen tabs open and notes spread across two notebooks I kept losing. Nobody handed me the whole exam on two pages, so I made it.
- All three exam domains, and what each one is actually worth
- Every core service in plain English
- The shared responsibility table, filled in
- Six traps that catch people, side by side
Pick Your Starting Point
Where are you right now?
Everyone starts somewhere different. Here's where I'd begin from each spot.
Starting From Zero
No tech background
Learn the vocabulary first with Azure Fundamentals, then aim for a help desk seat, ideally government help desk. Start a small home lab early. It compounds.
Watch my roadmap
Already in IT
Help desk or support
Bank the reps. Get comfortable with Active Directory and PowerShell, add Security+, then go for AZ-104 and prove it with a lab.
See the cert path
Changing Careers
Coming from another field
Don't pay for tuition before you have a plan. Start free with Microsoft Learn and the cheat sheet, then decide which role you're aiming for.
Get the cheat sheetThe Cert Roadmap
The only 3 certs I'd get if I started over.
A cert by itself doesn't get you hired. A cert that proves something an employer needs does. Each one below has a job.
2 · The Proof
AZ-104
Proves you can run it
Identity, storage, networking, and keeping an environment running day to day. On AWS, the equivalent is SysOps Administrator.
3 · The Differentiator
AZ-400
Gets you picked
Infrastructure as code, CI/CD, and automation. It's the closest cert to what got me my role. On AWS, it's DevOps Engineer Professional.
Brand new? AZ-900 is a fine on-ramp for learning the vocabulary. Just don't stop there.
Watch
Start with these videos.
New videos every Tuesday.
Barista to Government Cloud Lead
The full roadmap, including the debt, the burnout, and the sequence that actually worked.
Welcome to Titan Cloud Education
What this channel is, who it's for, and what's coming next.
Best Cloud Engineer Certs
The only 3 certs I'd get if I started over, and why the others didn't get me hired.
On the way
- CareerWhat Recruiters Actually Look For On Your Resume
- Hands-OnLearn Everything About Azure in Under 1 Hour
- Cert GuideAZ-900: The Questions That Actually Trip People Up