Prefer another language? Prefere receber em português? ¿Prefieres recibirlo en español? Choose here / Escolha aqui / Elige aquí: language form

I have been taking technical certification exams since 2002. Today, that is a little more than 24 years of experience with certifications.

I don't say this to impress you. I say it because a certification can be a trap for your career, and many people have no idea how real this problem can be. That is what I want to discuss today: the real benefit of a certification, and also what can go wrong.

I am not saying these things will happen to you. I am saying they are possible. I have lived some of them, and I have seen others in practice: blocked technical discussions with a person who has the certification, and even negative marks in a job interview. I will explain each one.

The title of this post comes from a post I wrote on LinkedIn at the end of 2024. Two of my Microsoft certifications were about to expire, and I decided not to renew them. Instead, I would study and take the exam from zero, as if it were my first time.

It was an interesting experience, with some challenges that I will explain below. For me, it became a lesson about the advantages and disadvantages of both ways:

That is the question for today.

When I decided not to renew, it was because the renewal process is very simple. It still is. According to Microsoft, it is a free online assessment on Microsoft Learn, about 45 minutes long, and it opens six months before the certification expires. It has far fewer questions than the full exam, probably less than a third. And you take it from the comfort of your home. In my experience, nobody is watching you.

Now think about AI. You could copy the questions into your favorite AI tool and get the answers. Let's say 15 minutes, and your certification is renewed. I am not saying you should do this. I am saying it is possible, and that is exactly the problem.

Three hours later, someone asks you about the same topic you just answered. You may not know. You were on autopilot. You did not really study for it. You may have the knowledge, but it will probably stay superficial, unless you work with that topic every day. If you do, the renewal is fine, and it can even be a smart choice. So I am not saying what is right or wrong. I am only showing the pros and cons of each option.

Cost matters too. The renewal is free. Not one cent. The full exam you have to pay for again. For people who pay for their own exams, this is a very important factor, and we can't ignore it.

I did not renew my DP-300 (Azure Database Administrator Associate), and I stayed some months without the certification. To be honest, in my role at Microsoft, a certification had almost no benefit last year. For more than ten years, certifications were not part of our yearly study goals. The market values them a lot to know who is qualified, but inside Microsoft that was not the case for a long time. Then last year, Microsoft started asking employees again to pass commercial certification exams.

So I had to take the DP-300 exam again. I started to study. I thought it would not be hard to pass, and I took my time to book it. I booked the real exam one week before the deadline. I know this is not a good example. Don't postpone something that is mandatory. I almost regretted it.

And guess what? I did not pass. I was a few points short.

That was a surprise, because I was almost sure I would pass. I went home, studied more, and reviewed the points where I had doubts. Three days later, I took the exam again, and this time I passed. But you have to be careful here. If you fail the same exam several times, you may wait a long time before you can book it again. The system itself enforces this. In my second attempt, I made sure I knew what was missing in my knowledge, and I passed without problems.

See how interesting this is. If I had done the renewal, I would not have gone through any of this: no rush, no studying, no stress. But it would not have been real. I would have done the renewal in such a superficial way that I would not have tested myself. The real exam did exactly that. The first time, it said: no, you did not pass. The second time, I did.

Reading the five most recommended leadership books cover to cover takes most people a year. With Shortform, it takes a week.

Start with:

Each guide gives you the key ideas, real examples, and how to apply them at work.

Start learning!

There is another way to see this. Taking the full exam is not only about having the certification. It is also the experience: how you prepare, how you organize your study, how you really get to know the subject. And it goes further. This experience creates stories you can tell later.

I already told one of these stories in my other newsletter, DBA: From Accidental to Pro. It is about my first exam, in 2002: I Never Planned to Be a DBA. Here's How It Happened. Here I will tell you two more. One of them is funny. After that, I will come back to the traps I mentioned at the start.

Around 2009, I took the SQL Server 2008 exam. At that time I was working with SQL Server every day, and I felt very comfortable. I studied a little and went to the exam.

As I answered the questions, I became more and more sure that I was getting them right. Before I clicked the final button, the one that means "I finished, show me the result", I was already thinking: I scored more than 900.

A quick note for those who don't know. The usual passing score is 700. Microsoft reports a scaled score, so you can't just count how many answers were right. More than 900 means you did very well.

I was so confident that I clicked the button. A few seconds later, the result appeared on the screen, and I got a real shock. I had passed, but with around 740 points. Yes, 740. Seconds before, I was absolutely sure about 900.

Now imagine this in real work. Sometimes we are so confident about what we think we know that we speak, we say something, and we don't take care to be sure that it is based on how the product really works. We need hands-on tests. Reading a book or a document and believing we know is not enough. We can get into trouble thinking we know when we don't.

This exam showed me that. I can't say I did not know the product, because I knew it very well. But the way I answered shows an exaggerated self-confidence, maybe even some arrogance: "I know this." I did not read carefully. And in the end, it was not true. After that day, I never took another exam so fast and so sure of myself.

In 2012, I was working at IBM in Brazil. One of my activities was helping my colleagues with database training and certifications. At that time, I did not have the SQL Server 2012 certification yet.

A person on the team made a joke with me, in an email to the whole team. It was a long time ago and I don't remember the exact words, but it went more or less like this: "Alex is going on vacation and still doesn't have the SQL Server 2012 certification. The person who leads us on certifications doesn't keep his own up to date." I want to say again: it was not an attack. It was a joke, and I liked it.

The email said "vacation" because it was true. I was about to leave for 30 days, starting the following week. I answered the email, more or less like this: "I agree, this is something I need to do. But let me make you a challenge. Let's see who passes the SQL Server 2012 exam first. Whoever passes last, or never takes the exam, pays a happy hour for the whole team." A happy hour is when the team goes out after work for drinks and snacks. A few hours later, that person accepted the challenge.

Now comes the funny part. Right after that, I went to my team leader. My leader was on that same email list, so they knew about the joke. I said: "I know my vacation starts next week, but I need this Friday off." My team leader looked at me and said something like: "You are malandro, aren't you? You are going to take the Microsoft exam and try to pass." (Malandro is a Brazilian word for someone clever and a little sly, said in a friendly way.) I smiled and said: exactly. The person who challenged me did not imagine I would do it so fast. If I passed, I would win. If I did not pass, I would think about it after the vacation.

I booked the exam for the next day. I took it, and I passed. My last email before the vacation said: "I passed. When I'm back, let's go to the happy hour. You are paying."

These are the stories you get when you go through the full process. A certification can be good. But its value can also be questioned, and it can even work against you, depending on how you get it. Now let's talk about the possible negative effects. The examples below come from people I work with and people I interviewed. There can be many more.

It is almost impossible to have enough time to study well for one certification, then two, then three in the same year. A person who collects many certifications in a row makes me question how they are studying, and how they are taking the exam. As we all know, there are websites that sell the answers of the exams. This is a big mistake that many people make. They use the shortcut, they get the certification, and in the end they don't get the knowledge.

What is the main problem for you, if you do this? It happened to me when I was interviewing people. I receive a resume to analyze before an interview. If the person lists several certifications, especially interesting ones, I ask: "Tell me about the certification you got. How did you get it?"

What I am looking for is how the person studied, and what process they used. Many times the answers are empty. The person can't even say how they studied for the exam. That is a huge alert for me. The answer can also be too superficial. A complex certification with such a simple method does not make sense. Of course, the person may have huge experience with that product, and that can be true. So I ask some technical questions. If the answers are not at the level they should be, the alert gets bigger. I start to think: did this person lie about how they got the certification? And if they lie about this, what else can they lie about? Many people don't see that this can happen to them. But it can.

The last example. You study, you pass, and you may have studied the right way. There is no 100 percent correct way, but let's say you really studied, you really practiced, and you earned the certification. The problem is that the certification has almost no relation to what you do in your work. You got it because the market was talking about it, and you thought it might be important. It can really help you. But if you can't find a way to put it into practice in your job, you only spent time, and maybe money, and you will not see the result.

Time was always limited. We all have exactly the same time. What matters is what we do with it. You could be improving at what you really do, instead of expanding your certifications in an unnecessary way. And when this certification expires, maybe you decide not to renew it, because it was not worth it.

Or you renew with the simple method that validates almost nothing of your knowledge. Then you carry a certification you never used, with your name on it. Someone looks at it, thinks it is great, and invites you to talk about it. And you can't. Now you are marked as a person who was not good, and the opinion is not only about that topic: "This person is not good at this topic, but maybe they are good at the others." That is how you can burn an opportunity for nothing. So be careful with the certifications you get.

Before you decide, know the rules. This is what Microsoft Learn says today:

This is not a rule for everyone. It is how I think about it.

A renewal is enough when:

Even then, don't answer on autopilot. A simple test: three hours later, could you explain your last answer to a colleague?

The full exam is worth it when:

And before you earn a new certification, ask yourself one question: will I use this in my work? If the answer is no, think again about where to put your time.

Reply to this email and tell me: do you renew, or do you take the full exam again? And what was the strangest thing that happened to you in an exam? I read every reply.

That is all for today. I hope you liked it. Thank you, and see you next time.

Prefer to listen? Two AI hosts debate this post, one for it and one skeptic, on our podcast, We The People, in Tech or Not: The Debate: listen here

How I write: every post starts from my own notes and experience. I use AI tools to help draft and edit, and I review every word before it goes out.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Microsoft. The author is a Microsoft employee. All technical details and product behaviors described are based on publicly available Microsoft documentation as of November 2026 and are intended to provide a high-level overview for educational and architectural planning purposes.