🚀 Executive Summary
TL;DR: While the AZ-104 certification provides foundational Azure knowledge, it often fails to equip engineers with the practical, hands-on skills required for real-world jobs. To become truly hireable, individuals must master Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using tools like Bicep or Terraform, implement robust CI/CD pipelines for automated deployments, and develop a deep understanding of advanced networking and security concepts.
🎯 Key Takeaways
- Mastering Infrastructure as Code (IaC) with Bicep or Terraform is a non-negotiable baseline skill for modern cloud roles, ensuring repeatable, auditable, and scalable deployments.
- Embracing CI/CD with Azure DevOps Pipelines or GitHub Actions is crucial for safely automating IaC deployments, incorporating steps like linting, validation, planning, and applying changes with necessary approval gates.
- Deepening knowledge in advanced networking (Hub-and-Spoke, Azure Firewall, UDRs, Private Endpoints) and security (Azure AD, Managed Identities, RBAC) differentiates senior engineers capable of designing resilient, enterprise-grade Azure systems.
Passing the AZ-104 is a great start, but real-world Azure skills in Infrastructure as Code (IaC), CI/CD, and advanced networking are what truly get you hired. Here’s a breakdown of the skills that matter from someone who’s seen it all.
So You Passed AZ-104. Now What? An Architect’s Guide to Getting Hired.
I remember this one junior engineer we hired a couple of years back. Sharp kid, had the AZ-104, AZ-305… the works. On paper, he was an Azure rockstar. First week on the job, I asked him to stand up a simple VNet with a couple of subnets and an NSG using our existing Terraform repo. He just stared at me. He could describe a VNet perfectly, knew the max CIDR block size by heart, and could list every SKU for Application Gateway. But he’d never actually written a line of declarative code to build it. He was a “paper tiger” – certified, but not equipped for a modern cloud team. We got him up to speed, of course, but it highlighted a massive gap I see every single day: the disconnect between passing an exam and being a valuable, hireable engineer.
Why Your Certification Isn’t Enough
Look, I’m not knocking the AZ-104. It’s a fantastic achievement that proves you have a broad understanding of the Azure ecosystem. But here’s the hard truth: certifications test your knowledge of the *what*, while the job requires you to master the *how* and *why*. The exam ensures you know that Azure Key Vault stores secrets. My interview will ask you *how* you grant a production App Service’s Managed Identity access to a specific secret via Bicep, and *why* that’s infinitely more secure than pasting a connection string into an app setting. That’s the gap we need to close.
The Azure portal is a fantastic learning tool, but in a professional environment, it’s a “break-glass” emergency measure or a place to investigate. We don’t build things by clicking buttons. We build things with code. It’s repeatable, auditable, and scalable. Your career depends on making this mental shift.
| Certification Focus (The ‘What’) | On-the-Job Reality (The ‘How’ & ‘Why’) |
| Knowing you can create a VM. | Deploying a VMSS with a custom image, attaching it to a specific subnet, and bootstrapping it with user data, all via a Terraform module. |
| Knowing what a Network Security Group (NSG) is. | Designing NSG rules that only allow traffic from a specific Application Security Group (ASG) on port 443, and blocking all outbound internet traffic. |
| Knowing that Azure DevOps has pipelines. | Writing a multi-stage YAML pipeline that lints, validates, plans, and applies your IaC changes, with a manual approval gate before deploying to `prod-db-01`. |
Skill #1: Master Infrastructure as Code (IaC) – This is Non-Negotiable
If you take one thing away from this post, let it be this: you must learn IaC. This isn’t a “nice to have” anymore; it’s the absolute baseline for any serious cloud role. Clicking “Create” in the portal doesn’t scale, leaves no audit trail, and leads to configuration drift that will inevitably cause an outage.
Your two main choices in the Azure world are Bicep (Microsoft’s own language) and Terraform (the industry standard). My advice? Learn the fundamentals of both.
The Quick Fix: Start with Bicep
Bicep is easier to pick up. It’s cleaner than ARM templates and has fantastic tooling in VS Code. Go find a resource you created in the portal for your AZ-104 studies, click on “Export template,” and try to rewrite that JSON mess into a clean Bicep file. This is your first step.
Here’s a simple, real-world example of a Bicep module for a storage account. It’s not just creating the resource; it’s parameterized and configured for a production environment.
@description('The name of the storage account. Must be globally unique.')
param storageAccountName string
@description('The location for the resources.')
param location string = resourceGroup().location
@description('The SKU for the storage account.')
param skuName string = 'Standard_LRS'
resource stg 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts@2021-09-01' = {
name: storageAccountName
location: location
sku: {
name: skuName
}
kind: 'StorageV2'
properties: {
accessTier: 'Hot'
supportsHttpsTrafficOnly: true
allowBlobPublicAccess: false
minimumTlsVersion: 'TLS1_2'
}
}
output storageAccountId string = stg.id
Skill #2: Embrace CI/CD – The Automation Force Multiplier
Okay, so you’ve written some beautiful IaC. Now what? You’re not going to run `terraform apply` from your laptop and hope for the best. That’s how you accidentally delete `prod-web-app-01`. Your code is useless without a safe, automated way to deploy it. This is where CI/CD (Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment) comes in.
You need to learn how to build pipelines using either Azure DevOps Pipelines or GitHub Actions. This is the machinery that takes your code from a git commit to a running piece of infrastructure.
The Practical Application: A Basic Deployment Pipeline
A typical IaC pipeline does a few key things:
- Trigger: Runs automatically when you merge a change to your `main` branch.
- Setup: Installs the necessary tools (like Terraform or the Azure CLI).
- Lint/Validate: Checks your code for syntax errors and best practices.
- Plan/Preview: Shows you exactly what changes will be made to your infrastructure. This is your safety net!
- Apply: Executes the changes. In a real environment, this step would have a manual approval gate in front of it.
Here’s what a very simple Azure DevOps pipeline might look like for a Terraform deployment:
trigger:
- main
pool:
vmImage: 'ubuntu-latest'
steps:
- task: ms-devlabs.custom-terraform-tasks.terraform-installer.TerraformInstaller@0
displayName: 'Install Terraform'
inputs:
terraformVersion: '1.2.5'
- task: TerraformTaskV2@2
displayName: 'Terraform: init'
inputs:
provider: 'azurerm'
command: 'init'
backendServiceArm: 'Your-Azure-Service-Connection'
backendAzureRmResourceGroupName: 'rg-tfstate-core-prod'
backendAzureRmStorageAccountName: 'sttfstatecoreprod'
backendAzureRmContainerName: 'tfstate'
backendAzureRmKey: 'prod.terraform.tfstate'
- task: TerraformTaskV2@2
displayName: 'Terraform: plan'
inputs:
provider: 'azurerm'
command: 'plan'
environmentServiceNameAzureRM: 'Your-Azure-Service-Connection'
# NOTE: In a real pipeline, the 'apply' step would be in a separate 'Deployment' stage
# with an approval gate. This is a simplified example.
- task: TerraformTaskV2@2
displayName: 'Terraform: apply'
inputs:
provider: 'azurerm'
command: 'apply'
environmentServiceNameAzureRM: 'Your-Azure-Service-Connection'
Skill #3: Go Deep on Networking & Security – The Path to Senior
Anyone can follow a tutorial to deploy a web app. What separates the administrators from the architects is a deep understanding of how to connect and secure everything. This is where you earn your paycheck and build resilient, enterprise-grade systems.
Passing the AZ-104 means you know what a VNet and an NSG are. Being hireable means you can design a secure network from scratch.
The ‘Architect’ Option: What to Study Next
Stop thinking about individual resources and start thinking about systems. Your next learning path should include:
- Hub-and-Spoke Topology: How do you manage networking for an entire organization, not just one project? How does VNet peering work?
- Azure Firewall & UDRs: How do you control all outbound traffic from your subnets and force it through a central security appliance for inspection?
- Private Endpoints & Private Link: How does your App Service talk to `prod-db-01` over a private, secure connection on the Azure backbone instead of the public internet?
- Identity as the Perimeter: Moving beyond just network rules. Learn Azure AD, Managed Identities, Conditional Access, and Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) in depth. Who can do what, and from where?
Darian’s Pro Tip: Don’t just learn what these services do. Build them. Create a hub VNet and two spoke VNets. Peer them. Deploy an Azure Firewall in the hub and create a User-Defined Route (UDR) on a spoke subnet that forces all internet-bound traffic (0.0.0.0/0) through the firewall. Then, try to access a storage account from a VM in that subnet and watch the firewall logs. This hands-on experience is more valuable than any certification question you’ll ever answer.
The AZ-104 is your ticket to the interview. But these practical, hands-on skills in IaC, CI/CD, and advanced networking are what will get you the job. Now stop reading and go build something.
🤖 Frequently Asked Questions
âť“ Why isn’t the AZ-104 certification sufficient for getting hired in Azure roles?
The AZ-104 primarily tests knowledge of ‘what’ Azure services are available, but real-world jobs demand mastery of ‘how’ to implement them with code (IaC) and ‘why’ specific architectural choices are made, a gap the certification doesn’t fully address.
âť“ How do Bicep and Terraform compare for Azure Infrastructure as Code?
Bicep is Microsoft’s native, cleaner language for Azure, offering excellent tooling and ease of adoption. Terraform is an industry-standard, multi-cloud IaC tool, providing broader applicability across different cloud providers, making both valuable for hireable skills.
âť“ What is a common implementation pitfall when deploying IaC, and how can CI/CD help prevent it?
A common pitfall is manually running `terraform apply` from a local machine, risking accidental deletions or configuration drift. CI/CD pipelines prevent this by automating deployments through controlled stages (lint, validate, plan, apply) with approval gates, ensuring safe, auditable, and consistent infrastructure changes.
Leave a Reply