Free - Microsoft & LinkedIn 9 Career Essentials courses w/ Professional Certificate inc Generative AI Course

AWS Skillbuilder. to start with. The Cloud Practitioner level is FREE. Make sure you also do Cloud Quest Cloud Practitioner as this gives you practical tests based on helping companies within a city, and also look at the AWS Ramp Up guides.

When you have done Cloud Practitioner and got the cert then study Solutions Architect Associate as it shares much information with other AWS Certs.

Beyond Cloud Practitioner so SAA and beyond I would recommend using

1. Stephane Maarek or Neal Davis courses on Udemy
2. Adrian Cantrill to fill in the gaps and give you real world knowledge
3. Tutorials Dojo - Exam practice tests ONLY, the other stuff they do videos etc don't bother. The practice tests are excellent though and very cheap.

and this is how you study AWS and pass the certs.

Everything I have put in bold is what you should be looking at.

AWS Skillbuilder (Cloud Practitioner level is free to learn and is the only cert you can learn for free on Skillbuilder properly, also has Official Practice Question Sets you can use)
skillbuilder.aws/

AWS Ramp Up Guides (Designed to guide you based on which learning path you want to go down, if you're not sure, then do Cloud Practitioner cert first then come back and look again at a later date)
aws.amazon.com/tra…es/

AWS Cloud Quest >
aws.amazon.com/tra…st/

Stephane Maarek (designed to only pass certificates, has some exam practice)
udemy.com/use…ek/

Neal Davis (courses designed to only pass certificates, has some exam practice)
udemy.com/use…26/

Adrian Cantrill (the God of AWS training, he only teaches SAA level and above, so no Cloud Practitioner. You will be real world ready with his training and projects)
learn.cantrill.io/p/home

Tutorials Dojo (the go to place for exam practice. ONLY buy the exam practice material, don't buy Videos or any other extras as they are in my opinion crap)
tutorialsdojo.com/ (edited)

Yes, they’re all free. I’ve done four of them in the last month

Complete all content to take the final exam and earn your professional certificate

(edited)

You have three opportunities to pass the exams. I’ve been doing them over the last few weeks. As long as you pay attention to the course content, they’re pretty straight forward to pass

You are unlikely to be hired for any of these so the value of doing them is simply for the sake of learning, which itself can worthwhile if you apply that knowledge.

These would be good for someone in say, a management role, to get a better understanding of technical roles and concepts that they are delegating.

I too concur with your sentiments, and I don't use LinkedIn precisely for the reason you cite, particularly as one has no option other than to post their true personal details (unlike on social media platforms).

Furthermore, LinkedIn's owner, Microsoft, last month were embarrassed once again with their lousy security in detailing that email accounts of Microsoft's executives, senior leadership team, as well as employees in cybersecurity, legal and other groups were hacked.

Considering Microsoft markets itself, amongst other things, as a cybersecurity business, a major breach in their Exchange Server does not bode well for any Microsoft product.

Source:
msrc.microsoft.com/blo…rd/

microsoft.com/en-…ck/

People say "people won't hire you because of them" but they do look for them, I've had many people approach me because of random little certifications I have and now work in IT because of it without any degree. Good luck, hope you find something!

Unlocked courses are available for free through 2025

should just be able to access via normal linkedin account

thanks

Don't worry about the exam at all. Just use it to gauge how well you understood the subject. Certifications are absolutely no guarantee of a job.

There are two main things you need to improve your employability chances in IT.

1. A relevant degree - computer science etc
2. Demonstrating your knowledge practically.

If you don't have a degree then you're on the backfoot against the people that do, many people don't want to hear it but that's the truth. But it isn't game over it means you need to demonstrate your knowledge so certificates can help, but you need the right ones as a beginner. So if you're doing AWS you need Cloud Practitioner or Solutions Architect Associate or better SysOps associate (as this is more practical). BUT you also need a personal website that shows your projects and your thought process.

Doing certificates without putting in a huge amount of time and effort to work on personal projects will almost certainly get you nowhere. The job market now is very difficult.

Also if you can't afford a degree and are willing to work in your spare time (everyone should as that's the only way forward) then you can do an Open Source Computer Degree for free. I would recommend this path if you're younger and have time on your side. github.com/oss…nce

If time isn't on your side and also you can't fund a degree then work like crazy, learn as much as you can and document what you're doing in blogs, personal websites, GitHub. This isn't optional! Choose the right certificates but they aren't your safety blanket in fact they can give you a totally false sense of security. The IT market is tough right now and the competition is fierce you need maximum motivation and effort to be better than the rest. Remember the time you invest in yourself is time spent well. Invest heavily in yourself. It's only going to get tougher.

Summary :

Degree is very beneficial, it automatically opens doors that would be ordinarily closed. With a degree you should have done Capstone project so can demonstrate your knowledge.
If you don't have a degree then you're going to need personal portfolio website, lots of projects, blogs, go the extra mile you will need to this, as I said not optional.
Just doing certificates is false security, certificates without proof of additional effort are in my opinion worthless.

Hopefully there's some value in what I said above, no point skirting round the issue. What gets you the job is the time you invest in yourself being curious, experimenting, working things out, documenting this. If only you want to do is a certificate and call it a day, sorry the doors remain closed. Good luck you will need to work diligently.

Care to share?

if you log into an existing linkedin account, then you can access (nothing to do with a 1 month trial)

What software? Usually, there is nothing required. (edited)

It’s dependant on the job, you normally start at the bottom (helpdesk role or junior sysadmin) then work your way up - the former is more common and the path I took.

Particularly with IT, you’re potentially working on equipment that can take a business offline if something is incorrectly done - companies taking people on have to be picky.