Some journeys take a lot longer than you originally expected. I started my journey in pursuit of a Microsoft Certified Master’s SharePoint certification when I attended rotation 8 in May, 2011. If you are wondering what it was like I can’t do a better job of describing the experience than was done by my friend, fellow MVP, (and now fellow MCM) Wictor Wilén does here. Wictor and I were in the same rotation, but where he passed all his qualifications at the end of the rotation, I took an additional two years. After passing everything but the qual lab during the rotation I took a second try at the qual lab about 6 weeks later in July. I made a silly mistake on that one that cost me about 2 hours of troubleshooting time. I knew by the end of the lab that I had failed. After that life just got too busy with billable work, and then a change of employers. It wasn’t until this spring that I decided I couldn’t give up and had to take my last shot at the qual lab. So I spent five days at the beginning of May reviewing all the old material and on Wednesday May 8th I had my chance. At the end of 8 1/2 grueling hours I had a good feeling about the results. On Friday I got confirmation that I had indeed passed. After starting over 2 years ago I am finally a SharePoint 2010 MCM and it’s a great feeling.
I’ve also want to extend a big Thank You to my former company ShareSquared and to my current company Blue Chip Consulting for giving me time away from billable work to attend the training and prepare for my re-take of the Qual Lab. Without their support I would never have made it.
Now on to planning for MCSM SharePoint 2013!
