06 Jan 2023
As a Microsoft Certified: Power BI Data Analyst Associate, I recently received a notification that it was time to renew my certification. I knew that I had to act fast as the renewal process must be completed before my certification expires – the first notification is sent 90 days before the expiration date, but you can start the process up to 6 months before it expires.
I work with Power BI on a daily basis, so I didn’t feel like I needed any extra preparation. However, for those who are not as familiar with Power BI, I recommend going through the “Prepare for the renewal assessment” course on Microsoft Learn. It consists of 7 modules that will help refresh your knowledge and prepare you for the renewal assessment.
The renewal assessment is a short, unproctored assessment that tests your current skills in your job role. It consists of 25 questions and took me about 45 minutes to complete. I was happy to see that I passed the assessment on my first try and received a notification that my certification had been extended for another year.
The assessment is available online on the Microsoft Learn platform...
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31 Dec 2022
Hello and welcome to my blog!
Today, I want to share with you my top 10 books that I listened to this year. These books are not directly related to my work, but rather are for personal development and enjoyment. I’m an avid reader and love to listen to books while I’m doing routine work. Listening to books helps me make the most of my time and keeps my mind engaged. I usually listen to about 15 hours of books per month, which allows me to get through 2-3 books. I use the Audible app for all my book listening and have been really happy with the selection and service they provide.
The opening for me of this year was “A Man Called Ove” by Fredrik Backman, and I am thankful to Mykola Dzhus for recommending this author. In this year-end summary, I wanted to share my top 10 books of the year, along with some thoughts and quotes from each one, in order of my personal preference for them:
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“Mossad: The Greatest Missions of the Israeli Secret Service” by Michael Bar-Zohar and Nissim Mishal: “The Mossad is constantly at the forefront of...
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24 Oct 2022
Big Data & Analytics Competence Development Team at SoftServe always aims to deliver the best solutions and opportunities. The Big Data Power BI Marathon was not an exception. What intended to be a Power BI Marathon for Ukrainians who fled the war turned into the Marathon with both international speakers and audience. The Marathon was a perfect combination of expertise, knowledge, practice, and drive. What made it so special?
Easy. Firstly, the pool of speakers was full of A-list Power BI experts. Namely:
Developer, DBA, and Microsoft Certified Trainer
Co-founder of FrameStory SoftWare
Senior BI Engineer at SoftServe
22 Jun 2022
My name is Taras Kloba, and I am a Big Data Competence Manager at SoftServe. Our recruiters regularly review the lists of newly certified professionals to find new potential candidates. There is no doubt that other large companies also use this approach. Thus, I have decided to prepare a list of in-demand certifications for 2022 that may help you get a job in the field of Data Engineering.
Let's consider the main advantages of hiring certified specialists from the perspective of service companies:
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In most cases, customers of service companies do not require additional interviews when dealing with certified engineers as they trust professional certification.
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IT companies that hire a certain number of certified employees have the opportunity to form a partnership with such giants as GCP, Microsoft Azure, and AWS.
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A certified specialist who has a reasonable theoretical basis in combination with an appropriate working environment will be able to implement a project by applying best practices and market standards.
However, it is essential to remember that professional certification is not a "silver bullet" that guarantees being hired as soon as you have received the appropriate training and a certificate. It...
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18 Feb 2022
My name is Taras Kloba, and I am a Microsoft Certified Trainer with over 12 years of experience working with data. Recently, I’ve passed the DA-100: Analyzing Data with Microsoft Power BI exam and received a certificate confirming the title of Microsoft Data Analyst Associate. This certificate proves a certain level of competence of a data analysis specialist. Namely, a specialist of this level should understand data warehousing, data processing, visualization, preparation and transformation, design and construction of data models. After I shared the news about the certification on social media, many people started asking about the best approaches to exam preparation and the purpose of this certificate. That’s why I decided to share my experience.
WHY DID I DECIDE TO GET CERTIFIED?
There is an impressive report from Nigel Frank’s Career and Hiring Guide, according to which 48% of respondents say that their salary increased by an average of 19% after they received Microsoft Azure certification. Clearly, this can be a significant motivating factor for certification. What’s more, 55% of respondents say that this certification allowed them to test their skills in working with Azure products, and 49% of respondents add that the certificates became...
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