It's been a couple of months since I started the .NET Foundation series, but situations had me take a step back for a little bit... Here's an update at what has been going on...

Back in July I started working on a blog series called the .NET Fundamentals and I have been enjoying working on these articles. But a few situations had begun to arise and I needed to step back for a little bit. So I wanted to give an update of what has been going on in my life an my development journey.

It starts with working towards the conclusion of a major step in my career. I have always been interested in cloud technologies and cloud development, none more so than Microsoft Azure. I had been learning the fundamentals of cloud services and Azure for the past few months and had made a decision. It was time to begin looking at Microsoft's certification for Azure Fundamentals. In August I had made a big push to begin studying to take the AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals Exam. Things have been going so well that I pulled the trigger and on Friday, September 5th, I'll be taking my exam. This is the 2nd Microsoft certification that I'll be attempting, the first was the C# Fundamentals exam administered through freeCodeCamp.org through a partnership with Microsoft. This, however, will be my first proctored exam.  I've been really nervous for this one but I had found that Microsoft gives you tons of tools to prep you for the exam. First, there is their learning platform, Microsoft Learn, which can guide you through everything Microsoft. On their platform they include courses to prep you with the knowledge to pass the exam, as well as tips to help you succeed and even practice exams to be able to experience what the exam would be like. This has been an amazing resource and I highly recommend that all developers, new or otherwise, take full advantage of this resource. There are also many other resources out there to help you prepare. My favorite has been Udemy. Many instructors out there create courses to help you learn anything, just be sure to audit the course before you buy to make sure it is the right fit for you. After Friday, I will have an update on what the outcome of the exam was, since you get the results at the end of the exam.

In July I had also taken some time off to recharge. This is something that is vitally important to all developers. Every now and then you need to relax and recharge before taking your next challenge. Physical and mental health are extremely important so you must prioritize this. This goes for any career choice. My wife and I took a vacation to Orlando to recharge (however, I don't think I did that right to often since I would turn to projects I have been working on every now and then). This got me thinking of traveling and developing on the go and I'll share my thoughts on that in another post.

Finally, I've been making some big moves for my future in my career. I don't have an update that I am able to share on this yet, but I anticipate this will happen soon so keep your eyes out for a later post with that specific update.

Starting on Friday, my goal is at least every other Friday to release a new post on a new topic. I am working on two articles currently, a new .NET Fundamentals article and an update on Friday's exam results. I hope that you will keep following along on my journey as a .NET developer. And I'd like some suggestions from you as well. Let me know in the comments about any topics you would like to see an article on. Thank you for checking the pulse and happy coding!