Learning something from scratch can seem like a daunting task, especially for those who don't know where to start.
That is the mindset I had back in April when speaking with a friend of mine about how I would like to level up my skill set.
I had just obtained the MCSA: Windows 10 certification. I took me a time span of 2 weeks to accomplish, all together for both tests it actually took me 10 days to pass both exams if you exclude the 4 day break I took between exams. With this shiny new certificate that was supposed to validate my knowledge and skill set, I was left wondering "Now What?"
Speaking with my friend, Devon, I told him that I wish I could code and how I would love to learn C#/.Net. Luckily for me, Devon has years of programming knowledge and experience under his belt on top of his extensive background as a Microsoft Engineer. My friend offered to teach me C# as long as I took it serious and listened to his instruction, bright eyed and hopeful, I quickly accepted. Beginning my apprenticeship with Devon.
After a couple of months of learning cool concepts in C# and building some pretty neat beginner applications, things began to change in my role at work. I started out as a Deskside Support Technician, walking around changing printer ink, rebooting PC's, and connecting the occasional share drive. An entry level position for sure, but I couldn't be more grateful to have the experience for those 2 years.
Since obtaining my certification, I started to create a Golden Windows image for use at work. Something my Microsoft Engineer had previously expressed an interest in. I spent months refining this golden image and my deployment method to near perfection.
We had been using a Windows Debloater script that my MS Engineer had found on Reddit and copied off of GitHub, a script written in PowerShell. One day in October I decided I wanted to rewrite that debloater script to automate most of, if not all of, the tasks for creating my golden image as sort of a Nuke/Upgrade tool for non-compliant images... with zero PowerShell experience under my belt.
Two months later I have a small library of PS Functions I have written into my $Profile.AllUsersAllHosts,
I have written a script to automate the configuration of the HPBios tool for remote Bios management, My first script into production changed a password in a remote agent on each desktop in an 80+ client environment, and now I am building a new golden image of Windows for the 1903 release. Using WSUS to update current PCs, the 1903 golden image for new deployments, I am rewriting the debloater script to completely automate all of our windows maintenance tasks all while removing bloatware, speeding up the OS, and standardizing the user desktop. Easy as Pie.