Ciao!

My name is Valeria, I work as FIXER's HR and linguistic mediator.

Before I joined FIXER, my professional background revolved around foreign languages and international customer service. At FIXER, I was hired as a manager's assistant and linguistic mediator, before moving to the HR division as a recruiter. I am surely no engineer!

Let's be honest, joining a tech company as a non-tech professional has been, and still is, quite a challenge! But it has also given me unexpected and thrilling opportunities to get out of my comfort zone, challenge myself, and learn some new valuable skills.

For example, I recently decided to try my hand at passing Microsoft's official certifications, and this is what happened.

During last month's lockdown, looking for something new to study and willing to build a more solid knowledge of Azure, I decided to test myself with the AZ-900 exam. This exam evaluates the knowledge of Microsoft Azure fundamentals, as well as general knowledge of cloud systems, and it is the gateway for everyone who wishes to get started with the cloud.

So, after a moment of hesitation, I pumped up my study motivation (and bought some extra sweets to keep it high.. hehe), and

Ready, Set, Go!

The first thing I did was to take part in an official 2-day workshop provided by Microsoft Japan, to get a grasp on the information. The workshop was really helpful to gain a first insight of the exam contents and to understand the big picture. Even though the workshop was in Japanese, as I had planned to take the exam in English, I decided to keep the workshop's contents as a starting point for further self-study, and I moved on.

Next, I started digging into each topic of the exam, first by reading the official Microsoft learning path, then by following different e-courses, and lastly by practicing with mock tests. Finally, when I felt ready enough, I chose a date, a time and a place, and scheduled my exam.

... Aaand? (*drum roll*)

Achievement unlocked!

I did it!! When I saw my score on the computer screen with the message I had passed, I felt so happy and proud of myself. In just a few weeks I got all the way to earning a Microsoft certification; all the way from 0 to (AZ) 900. But, of course, the final achievement wasn't the only reward: preparing for AZ-900 really helped me gain a better understanding of Azure, as well as of the technical side of FIXER.

This accomplishment is just one example of all the fantastic self-development opportunities FIXER offers every day, and I believe that with the right environment and some good amount of motivation, even a fully non-tech person, like the old me, can aim to become an IT professional. You just need to be open and accept the challenge!

So, on to the next one!