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An Update on My Journey | September 2020


 It is time for another update on my Power BI journey.

In my last journey update, I thanked quite a few people who have been giving me the support and encouragement to continue on this journey.  I want to say thank you to all of them again as they never fail to provide the praise, encouragement, and help whenever I need it most.

Okay, so here is the update.  I have passed another certification!!!! A few weeks ago I took the PL-900 exam also referred to as the Power Platform Exam.  If anyone reading this blog now is thinking about taking this exam and wants to gain insight into the resources I used--- then keep reading.  In addition to passing another exam, I am now a fully-fledged official Microsoft Certified Trainer.  I just received the email this week from Microsoft and I am super excited to have reached this accomplishment within the first 6 months of beginning here at Pragmatic Works.

Most of my days are now filled with training sessions that have been developed and tailored intentionally for Humana employees.  It has been a blast teaching the employees at Humana how to make a Power App and how to analyze their data using Power BI.  As a teacher, I am always aware of the better connection you can make to a student the easier it is to learn.  My fellow trainers know this as well which is why they decided to make sure the training we delivered to Humana was personalized.  So the data we use in the training is actual Humana type data rather than just random sales data that you usually see in blogs or YouTube videos.  

On the days when I am not teaching, I am always trying to learn more.  My next project is to do a deep dive into Power BI data flows so I can record an On-Demand Class for others who are ready to continue their Power BI learning.

One of the things I was the most hesitant about switching careers is missing the interaction with my middle school students.  I knew that I thrived and fed off the energy of the students and loved it when I could see the light bulb turn on.  Luckily, I found that wonderful feeling again with the adults I train now.  I didn’t know that I could get the same gratification as I had previously in the past 16 years, but it turns out it feels just as good coming from adults.

If you made it this far in the blog, I want to share some of the resources I used to prepare for the PL-900 exam.  Fortunately for me, I have a leg up on most when it comes to learning the material needed for any of my certification exams.  That leg up is the on-demand training we record at pragmaticworks.  This is always the first place I go to start learning the basics and then advanced materials.  The PL-900 exam covers Power BI, Power Automate, Power Apps, and Power Virtual Agent.  Luckily we have over 20 courses devoted to those programs.  Once I felt I had mastered the lessons from our On-Demand Learning I then scoured YouTube for some channels that had great material covering the Power Platform.  I recommend the following YouTube channels and playlist for a start. 

 BrianKnight’s Power Apps Playlist 

PowerVirtual Agent Crash Course 

GuyIn A Cube 

Reza Dorrani's Channel

As always, thanks for following me on my journey from Algebra Teacher to Power BI trainer. I can't wait to see what happens next. 

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