So, You Want a Career in Dynamics 365? (Part 2 of 3)
In Part 1 of my Dynamics 365 career blog series, I discussed how you can build your qualifications in order to get a headstart in your Dynamics 365 career.
In this post, I will provide three more valuable tips if you want to build a Dynamics 365 career, and the first would be…
Read Dynamics 365 White Papers.
Microsoft, over the years, published a range of white papers around Dynamics 365 and Dynamics CRM. I would expect that you read them all. Not just one or two, but I would expect that you’ve read them all.
White Paper Links
docs.com/nz365guy (list of White Papers I have collected over the years)
You're developing your skill set and you're wanting to demonstrate that you have a thorough understanding of this technology space, but you don't have the experience yet. Therefore, I'm looking for application—that you've applied yourself to learning these areas in depth.
Another thing as part of an interview process. I'm going to ask, what's your experience with Dynamics 365. You're not going to be able to show a lot of projects at this stage, but I would expect that you'd be able to say “hey, I know how to turn on a Dynamics 365 trial, I know how to configure that environment” because you a have your own test environment setup.
Everybody can sign up for a 30-day trial of Dynamics 365. Get in there and understand it. So when you're watching those videos, you're learning, you're applying what you learn.
Know what's in the Dynamics 365 SDK. Know it inside out. Read the content. Reread the content so that you're totally familiar with it—applying any of the sample codes that you want to develop deeper knowledge on. The things that you don't understand, you need to mark them and drill into them until you understand them.
I never ever look at a candidate without running a query through LinkedIn and taking a look at one's LinkedIn profile. And if your LinkedIn profile isn't world class, if it isn't showing a completion level, like an All-Star level, you need to work on it.You need to put content in it. You need to think about it. Don't just think that a LinkedIn profile is done once and you never look at it. You should be reviewing your profile every three months and updating it (connect to me on LinkedIn if you want me to see your skills sooner rather than later).
I've employed a lot of people just based on their LinkedIn profile. I look at their CV, I’ll skim their CV, then I'll go to LinkedIn. I'll click around on some links, and I'm going to see who you are connected to. I want to see where your project experiences are showing up on LinkedIn, so it's really important that your LinkedIn profile is world class. Because no matter what your CV says, I'm going to look at LinkedIn.
Quick Tip: Is your personal blog showing on LinkedIn?
Also, you want to get recommendations showing on your LinkedIn profile. You can't have too many of these, just make sure they are quality.
The Real Value of a LinkedIn Profile
CVs are an old form of communicating your skill-set for your career. Nowadays, when someone says they want my CV, I go straight to LinkedIn and I export the whole LinkedIn profile as a PDF document. There is my CV. Because I keep my LinkedIn profile up-to-date, it allows we to showcase my experience in real time.
So, hey, that's where I’ll start with. Those are three more things if you’re wanting to start out a Dynamics 365 career.
Have I missed anything that you think should be added to this list? If so, please comment below.