Certification advice by situation
The exam guides explain what each exam covers. These pages start from the other end: your situation. Each one answers a single question for a single audience, recommends exams from this site, and is realistic about time, prior knowledge and the fact that the exams here are taken in English or a short list of other languages.
Scenarios on these pages are illustrative planning examples built from the official exam outlines. They are not reviews, and no result is promised.
- Which IT certification for a career changerA decision rule for career changers choosing a first IT certification: Azure, networking, security, AI or tax, with study hours and exam facts.
- Study for IT certifications with a full-time jobHow to fit IT certification study around a full-time job: weekly hours implied by each study plan, a decision rule for the exam, and a worked time budget.
- IT certifications with no IT experienceWhich IT certifications you can sit with no IT experience: AZ-900, SC-900 and AIF-C01 assume least. Self-checks, time budgets and exams to leave for later.
- Help desk to networking or security certificationHelp desk technician choosing between Network+ and Security+: a decision rule, domain weights, renewal and retake rules, and a worked planning example.
- Sysadmin to cloud: Azure and AWS certificationsWhich certifications take a system administrator into cloud work: AZ-104 and AZ-802 on Azure, what the AWS exams here cover, and a worked planning budget.
- Enrolled Agent for accountants and tax preparersShould an accountant or tax preparer become an Enrolled Agent? A decision rule, how SEE Parts 1, 2 and 3 fit together, costs, windows and a plan.
- Data analyst moving to Fabric or DatabricksWhich certifications suit an analyst moving to Microsoft Fabric or Databricks: PL-300, DP-600, Databricks Data Analyst Associate, and when to go further.
- Certifications a student can earn pre-graduationWhich IT certifications a student can earn before graduating: AZ-900, SC-900, AI-901, AIF-C01, Network+ and Security+, with study time and booking.
- AI certifications for non-technical rolesWhich AI certification suits a non-technical role: AB-730 for Copilot users, AB-731 for leaders, AIF-C01 for AWS-minded teams, and which exams to skip.
- Retaking a certification exam after failingWhat to do after failing a certification exam: retake waits and fees for Microsoft, Databricks, AWS, CompTIA, Cisco and ISACA, and how to fix the gaps.
- Taking IT exams in English as a second languageHow to take English-language IT certification exams as a non-native speaker: which exams offer other languages, extra-time requests and how to prepare.
- Which security certification to take firstSecurity+, SC-900 or SC-200 first? A decision rule for starting a security career, with exam length, weights, study time, renewal and retake rules.