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Microsoft is without a doubt dropping the ball on so many things due to their tunnel vision on AI – broken update after broken update after broken update – but I have to admit, they’re doing ONE thing really well:

Training.

Although I truly received the crash course in IT the first year of my time at this job (sysadmin left after my second week, leaving me alone with 200+ users in my first IT job)….I still have so much to learn! I may have grown comfortable in this role, but sometimes a person has to go looking for things to learn.

I’ve done my Linux, PowerShell, and Power Automate projects, and I’m working on Sharepoint stuff now…but there’s always more to learn! That’s what drew me to IT in the first place, and Microsoft, to their credit, has built a really good platform with Microsoft Learn.

Gamifying it with XP and levels, setting out different career paths, tying them into certifications, and also providing a transcript…gotta admit, that’s a really good move on their part.

Achievements as well?? hahaha

They’ve pulled that straight out the XBox playbook…and you know what? Fair play. Nicely done.

Cisco has done this a bit as well with their Networking Academy, but not as well as Microsoft (unless something’s changed in the last year or so). Credit where credit is due! They’ve done it!

I actually am kind of enjoying myself looking through all the offerings and doing a little bit of training while on PTO…it’s kind of motivating me to get back on that horse with Microsoft and keep pro-actively pushing! That 3+ hours of training does seem awfully little, to be honest, and I feel like Microsoft should be counting the time I’m spending reading all their documentation – especially their spotty Microsoft Graph documentation …. oh, well!

Well played, Microsoft. Well played. You’ve definitely built a platform that scratches that itch in my brain when it starts getting restless!