• Microsoft certifications can help demonstrate your skills for jobs like IT or software engineering.
• Microsoft offers a variety of certifications in its products like Azure, Windows, or Microsoft 365.
• Microsoft offers free, self-paced training, and you can pay to take an exam and become certified.

Microsoft certifications are recognized industry-wide, and are a way for professionals to tangibly demonstrate that they have expertise in a given subject area.

Microsoft certifications are geared towards those entering tech-related fields like IT, software development, data science, and more. The certifications focus on a variety of Microsoft products like Azure, Dynamics, Microsoft 365, and more.

Tech jobs — whether it's an IT role at a mid-sized business or a job at Microsoft itself — are known for being highly competitive. Given the prevalence of Microsoft products in the business world, these certifications shouldn't be overlooked as a way to both show your knowledge and demonstrate your proficiency with Microsoft products.

How Microsoft certifications work

If you're interested in a Microsoft certification, you have a few routes you can take to learn the material: you can pay for instructor-led training from Microsoft itself or from a Microsoft-partnered training organization, or you can take free, self-paced training provided by Microsoft.

To actually become certified, you'll need to pay to take an exam. Most of the exams are online proctored exams that you can do from your own home and computer, but you also have the option to schedule your exam at a test center if you wish.

If you're doing the online version, know that you'll be assigned a proctor to monitor you during the exam, and you'll have to submit photos of your ID and the room you're taking the exam in.

With some exceptions, most Microsoft certifications are good for 12 months, after which they must be renewed. The good news is that renewals are free and just require you to pass an online assessment that is shorter than the original exam. The assessments are also un-proctored and open book. But be warned: you have only six months to complete this or you'll have to retake the original exam.

How much do Microsoft certifications cost?

Exam and training costs can vary significantly depending on the Microsoft certification, and depending on where you're located. Instructor-led courses typically cost the most — some courses in the US can total thousands of dollars — but you have the benefit of a human instructor who can answer your questions and offer tips on the material and exam.

If you go the self-paced training route through Microsoft, your only cost is the exam, which typically costs between $99 and $165, depending on the certification and your location.

What are the most valuable Microsoft certifications?

What Microsoft certifications you should get boils down to your personal interests, and what certifications are most in demand and correlate with high-earning jobs. This can fluctuate over time.

With the prevalence of cloud computing these days, Azure-based certifications are in high demand and jobs like network engineer pay quite well. And amid the ongoing AI arms race that has taken the tech world by storm, a certification in machine learning or generative AI solutions could give you a competitive edge in the job market.

Cybersecurity skills are also in high demand, and Microsoft offers a certification for cybersecurity solutions using Microsoft technologies.

Microsoft's website allows you to browse credentials and filter the various Microsoft certifications based on what type of role you're seeking, such as DevOps engineer or database administrator, or what type of product you want to specialize in, like Microsoft Fabric, Windows, Power BI, or Copilot.

Microsoft certifications for beginners

While intermediate and senior certifications generally correlate with the highest annual salaries, the material is complex and advanced, and they're not necessarily the first certifications you should look for if you're new to the IT field, cloud computing, or to Microsoft technology.

Microsoft certifications are categorized into levels, and labeled as beginner, intermediate, or advanced. You can always start with beginner certifications like Microsoft Certified: Azure Fundamentals (also known as AZ-900) that teaches you the fundamentals of Azure.

Even if you don't take the fundamentals exam and are aiming for a higher-level certification, it can still be worth going through the free self-paced training documentation for the fundamentals courses to help bring yourself up to speed. Everyone starts with different knowledge baselines.

• Microsoft has had three CEOs since its founding in 1975.
• Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, and Satya Nadella have steered the company through its 50-year history.
• Read about the CEOs who oversaw Microsoft's successes, failures, launches, acquisitions, and more.

Satya Nadella has been Microsoft's CEO since February 4, 2014, and its executive chairman since June 2021. He is the company's third CEO since its incorporation in 1975.

Let's break down the company's chief executives and their tenures:

Bill Gates (1975-2000)

The Microsoft Corporation was co-founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, shortly after the pair dropped out of Harvard University. Gates said he dropped out of Harvard to found Microsoft because he feared missing out on being a pioneer of the personal computing revolution.

As the company's first chief executive, Gates steered the company through its formative years and set forth Microsoft's original mission of "a computer on every desk and in every home." A pivotal moment came in 1980 when Microsoft secured a deal to supply the operating system for IBM's first personal computer. To accomplish this, Microsoft purchased an existing operating system, modified it, and renamed it MS-DOS — short for Microsoft Disk Operating System — which became the foundation for the company's early success.

In 1985, the company launched Windows 1.0, introducing the Graphical User Interface that made computing more accessible to the masses. Subsequent releases like Windows 3.0 in 1990 and the highly successful Windows 95 in 1995 built upon this innovation, with each release solidifying Microsoft's operating system market dominance, which Microsoft enjoys to this day — in part due to the success of these earlier operating systems. Under Gates' leadership, the company also developed the Microsoft Office suite, which became the industry standard for business productivity software.

The company's rapid growth led to its Initial Public Offering (IPO) in 1986, making Gates a billionaire by the age of 31 and, at one point, the world's richest man. Throughout the 1990s, Microsoft's influence expanded globally, but it also faced significant legal challenges. In 1998, the US Department of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Microsoft, accusing the corporate giant of monopolistic practices by bundling Internet Explorer with the Windows operating system. The prolonged legal battle brought scrutiny, but ultimately, the two parties reached a settlement in 2001 that imposed certain restrictions on Microsoft's business practices.

Despite these challenges, Gates continued to drive innovation, investing heavily in research and development. Microsoft expanded into various areas, including enterprise software, internet services, and gaming, laying the groundwork for future ventures like the Xbox. Gates' leadership emphasized not only technological advancement but also strategic business moves that kept Microsoft at the forefront of the industry.

After leading the company for its first 25 years, Gates resigned in 2000 to focus on his philanthropic efforts, founding the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that same year. His tenure left a significant mark on the industry, with Microsoft's software becoming integral to personal and professional computing worldwide. Gates continued on as Microsoft's chief software architect until 2006 and as company chairman until 2014, when Satya Nadella took over the role. Gates remained on the board as a technical advisor before stepping down entirely in 2020.

Steve Ballmer (2000-2014)

Steve Ballmer, who joined Microsoft in 1980 as the company's first business manager, played a pivotal role in shaping its early business strategies. Ballmer succeeded Bill Gates as president and CEO of the company after the founder stepped down in 2000. Recognizing the need for agility in a rapidly evolving tech industry, he initiated extensive internal restructuring that favored speed and fewer bureaucratic hurdles.

With Ballmer at the helm, Microsoft faced significant successes, but also its fair share of challenges. In 2001, the company launched the Xbox, marking its entry into the gaming console market. The Xbox and its successors would come to rival and challenge the market dominance of the Sony PlayStation and Nintendo. The success seen by the Xbox and its successors helped cement Microsoft as a serious player in the entertainment sector.

Ballmer's tenure also saw the release of Windows XP, an operating system so successful that it took until 2016 for another iteration of Windows to actually surpass Windows XP in terms of user base. The following year, it was still the third most popular operating system in the world, despite Windows XP's retirement in April 2014.

However, not all initiatives fared so well. The release of Windows Vista in 2007 was met with widespread criticism due to performance issues and compatibility problems, tarnishing the reputation of Microsoft's flagship operating system. Additionally, Microsoft's efforts in the smartphone arena with Windows Mobile struggled to gain traction. Combined with the introduction of the Apple iPhone in 2007 and the rapid advancement of Google's Android platform, this led to Microsoft ceding significant ground in the burgeoning mobile market that it never recovered. Microsoft tried again with the Windows Phone mobile operating system in October 2010 before throwing in the towel in 2017 and prioritizing iOS and Android development in 2018.

In an effort to bolster services, Microsoft acquired Skype, the video calling service, in 2011 for $8.5 billion. The Skype acquisition helped Microsoft gain valuable ground in both consumer and enterprise communication sectors that was not usurped until 2021 when Microsoft voluntarily replaced it in the business context with Microsoft Teams.

Despite the challenges that Microsoft confronted during Ballmer's tenure as CEO, Microsoft experienced significant financial growth under his leadership. By the time Ballmer announced his retirement in 2013 and officially stepped down in February 2014, the company's annual revenue had tripled. This growth reflected the company's product portfolio expansion and its increased global market reach. Ballmer's tenure was marked by his efforts to diversify Microsoft's offerings and navigate the company through a transformative era in the technology industry, contending with fierce competition and headwinds while building on the company's foundations.

Satya Nadella (2014-present)

Following Steve Ballmer's resignation in February 2014, Satya Nadella took on the role of chief executive and chairman of the board.

Under Nadella's leadership, the company has undergone a significant transformation from a traditional software provider to a leader in cloud computing and subscription services. Recognizing the shifting tech landscape, Nadella prioritized investment in cloud infrastructure, expanding Microsoft Azure into one of the world's foremost cloud platforms. In fact, in 2020 Azure surpassed Microsoft's Windows business. This monumental strategic pivot also involved embracing mobile technologies and shifting key products to subscription-based models, exemplified by the launch of Microsoft 365 (formerly Office 365) in June 2011. By 2015, the number of monthly Microsoft 365 users exceeded 50 million.

Nadella's tenure has been marked by several high-profile acquisitions aimed at diversifying Microsoft's portfolio and strengthening its position across various markets. In 2014, Microsoft acquired Mojang, the creator of the immensely popular video game Minecraft, for $2.5 billion. This was followed by the purchase of the professional networking site LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2 billion and GitHub in 2018, the leading platform for software development collaboration, for $7.6 billion. These acquisitions broadened Microsoft's offerings and integrated valuable communities and services into its ecosystem.

In more recent years, Nadella has steered Microsoft toward becoming a key player in artificial intelligence. The company has invested heavily in AI research and development, most notably through Microsoft's partnership with OpenAI, after overcoming initial skepticism. As of 2024, Microsoft has invested $13 billion into its OpenAI partnership, plans to obtain 1.8 million AI chips by year-end, and invest $100 billion through 2027 in GPUs and expanding its AI data centers.

• The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a charitable organization with a $75.2-billion endowment.
• The nonprofit was created by Microsoft founder Bill Gates and his now ex-wife, Melinda French Gates.
• The foundation supports causes related to global health issues, poverty, and inequity.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a nonprofit charitable organization founded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates and his then-wife, Melinda French Gates. The foundation has donated tens of billions of dollars to issues like global health, gender equality, water sanitation programs, nutrition education and support, and more.

The Gates Foundation, which is a 501(c)(3) organization, partners with groups that can do impactful work on specific issues in specific areas — medical researchers studying mosquito-borne illness in Tanzania, for example — and helps ensure there is proper funding for the work.

The Gates Foundation is one of the largest such organizations, second only to Denmark's medical research-focused Novo Nordisk Foundation. Its size and scope noted, there is still much people wonder about the BMGF, so let's take a closer look at who it supports, who runs it, and just how much money we're talking about here.

The history, ownership, and wealth of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was formed in 2000 as an offshoot of the William H. Gates Foundation, which the Microsoft founder created six years earlier. Bill Gates stepped down as Microsoft CEO in 2008 to devote more of his time to the foundation.

Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates divorced in August of 2021, and she resigned from her position as co-chair and trustee of the foundation in the spring of 2024. However, despite the couple's divorce, the Gates Foundation is still very active and is even growing the scope of its operations and its endowment. The foundation has about 2,000 employees, and has offices all over the world, including several in Africa, Europe, and Asia.

The former power couple aren't actually the owners of the organization. The Gates Foundation is owned by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Trust.

The Gates Foundation is best known for funding efforts to eradicate diseases like polio and malaria worldwide and addressing global poverty and malnutrition. It works closely with global health organizations like the World Health Organization and UNICEF. The foundation has backed efforts like developing and delivering vaccines to poverty-stricken countries, supporting agriculture and reducing food insecurity in developing nations, and committed more than $2 billion to fight the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, the foundation has also received criticism from global health and development experts, who have accused the organization of lacking transparency and accountability. Despite being a private, unelected entity, the foundation has had major effects and implications on public policy around the world, and its critics say it makes decisions based on the whims of its billionaire trustees rather than voters.

For instance, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into agricultural development in Africa over the years via a "green revolution" emphasizing technological innovations in farming. Instead, multiple organizations have called the efforts a failure and urged the foundation to instead listen to the needs of African farmers.

Bill and Melinda Gates have also acknowledged shortcomings in the foundation's strategies. For instance, despite spending billions on improving the US education system, with the goal of boosting high school graduation rates, the couple acknowledged that the foundation's efforts to improve American public schools were "still falling short" and said the foundation hadn't accomplished as much as they would like.

How much money does the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have?

The foundation is well-endowed, largely thanks to donations directly from the Gates themselves and billionaire Warren Buffett. BMGF has also made some excellent investments over the years.

According to its website, the foundation has an endowment of $75.2 billion. Bill and Melinda Gates have given $59.5 billion to the foundation since its inception, and Buffet has given $39.3 billion since 2006.

The foundation has billions of dollars of Microsoft stock, which is little surprise given that the software company is the provenance of Bill Gates' wealth. Bill Gates' net worth fluctuates with the stock market, but it is well over $100 billion — and that's after subtracting the $76 billion Melinda Gates gained when the couple separated.

Notably, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation does not give money to individuals, its website states, nor does it donate to "projects addressing health problems in developed countries," "political campaigns and legislative lobbying efforts," "building or capital campaigns," or "projects that exclusively serve religious purposes."

• Microsoft holds quarterly earnings calls to discuss the company's financial performance.
• In 2024, earnings calls touched on topics like the Activision Blizzard acquisition, AI, and layoffs.
• Here's what to know about Microsoft's revenues, profits, and more.

Information about Microsoft's earnings is released publicly at the end of each quarter of the fiscal year. For Microsoft, this is done during an earnings call usually hosted by CEO Satya Nadella.

An earnings call consists of company executives laying out the current state of the company's financial situation and explaining how the company performed over the course of the closing quarter. It also involves projections about upcoming fiscal performance. These calls are closely watched by investors, economists, and regulators.

In 2024, some of the major themes on these earnings calls were the advancement of AI tools like Copilot, which was first launched in late 2023, and layoffs at Microsoft, largely in the company's gaming division.

Microsoft Q1 earnings 2025

Things were going well for Microsoft as of the October 2024 earnings call which covered the first quarter of the 2025 fiscal year calendar. Revenues were just over $65.6 billion, a 16% increase year-over-year.

Among the specifics discussed were a 10% increase in revenue for LinkedIn and a 61% increase in revenues for Xbox "content and services."

The company reportedly returned $9 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and stock buybacks. On October 30, Microsoft's stock price was trading at around $432 per share.

Microsoft Q4 earnings 2024

The July 2024 earnings call was mostly filled with good news. Amy Hood, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Microsoft reported that the quarterly revenue was $64.7 billion, which was up 15% over the previous quarter.

Hood also reported that share prices were up $2.95 over the previous quarter. (On July 30, 2024, Microsoft share prices were at $4.22.92 per share at the close of the market.) Q4 was the best quarter of the fiscal year for Microsoft.

Not all the news was good, though: revenues for Xbox video game console hardware fell by 42%, and this drop surely helped account for large round of layoffs in Microsoft's gaming division.

Microsoft Q3 earnings 2024

Microsoft's revenues for the third quarter of the 2024 fiscal year were almost as strong as those of the fourth quarter. In April 2024, the company reported overall revenues of $61.9 billion for the months of January, February, and March of that year, a 17% year-over-year increase.

Revenues increased for platforms like LinkedIn and software suites like Office 365, but decreased for some physical device sales. Share prices increased by $2.94 on average. And Xbox "content and services revenue" increased by 62%, this increase coming only a few months after Microsoft's acquisition of the gaming company Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft Q2 earnings 2024

In the months of October, November, and December of 2023, the second quarter of the 2024 fiscal year, revenue was almost the same as the following Q3. Q2 revenues were $62 billion, a 18% YOY increase.

The massive acquisition of Activision Blizzard concluded during the early days of this quarter, with the software company laying out $69 billion to acquire the gaming company. And artificial intelligence was top-of-mind for Nadella, who said in the earnings call that "we've moved from talking about AI to applying AI at scale. By infusing AI across every layer of our tech stack, we're winning new customers and helping drive new benefits and productivity gains across every sector."

Microsoft earnings history

Like most major tech companies, Microsoft spent 2024 adjusting to the post-pandemic slump in what some are calling a tech industry recession.

At the same time, a fiercely competitive AI arms race has proven challenging, even with Microsoft's 2023 launch of Copilot.

In 2020, the peak year of the COVID-19 pandemic, Microsoft's annual revenues were $143 billion. 2021 saw an increase to $168 billion, while 2022 saw another jump to $198 billion in revenues. In 2023, Microsoft revenues were $211 billion, and when you add all those quarters of FY24 up, you'll see its 2024 fiscal year revenues were a healthy $245 billion.

• Microsoft employs some 228,000 workers globally.
• Like other large tech companies, Microsoft has implemented mass layoffs in the past.
• Microsoft's post-pandemic layoffs have primarily hit Xbox, Activision Blizzard, and Azure.

A company doesn't reach the half-century mark without a few rounds of layoffs now and then. Microsoft, founded in 1975, is gigantic in terms of revenues and employees and has been known to fire huge numbers of workers en masse from time to time.

In the 2020s, as the pandemic-prompted tech boom started to fade, many companies began doing mass layoffs.

Microsoft's job cuts have been frequent and often unexpected and severe. However, this follows a historical pattern of layoffs at the company going back many years, so perhaps we shouldn't be surprised.

Has Microsoft engaged in layoffs in the past?

Very much so. In early 2009, as the Great Recession roiled markets and economies all around the globe, Microsoft slashed 1,400 workers on a single January day, simultaneously announcing it would be letting go an additional 3,600 employees over the subsequent 18 months. But that series of layoffs was nothing compared to what would come a half decade later.

In 2014, Microsoft culled 14% of its workforce

Shortly after taking the reins as Microsoft's CEO in February 2014, Satya Nadella initiated a truly seismic round of firings. That year, the company committed to laying off 18,000 employees, both full-time and contract workers, which amounted to a 14% reduction of its global workforce, ending the coveted Microsoft careers of a staggering number of people.

2023 was a tough year for Microsoft employees

In 2023, Microsoft cut hundreds of employees from its own Xbox brand. But that was nothing compared to what would happen around the company. All told, it fired an estimated 10,000 people across myriad divisions, which was about 5% of its total workforce.

2024 saw more layoffs, especially in gaming divisions

Mere months after completing its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft dismissed nearly 2,000 employees of the gaming division in January 2024. Then, in the summer, the company announced plans to cut around 1,500 more employees, largely from its Azure cloud computing division, though ultimately only about 1,000 people were let go.

In mid-September 2024, Microsoft laid off 650 workers from Xbox, pushing the number of employees let go from its gaming arms to nearly 3,000 people for the year.

Microsoft currently employs some 228,000 people worldwide, across all divisions.

Why do companies engage in layoffs?

In the simplest terms possible, layoffs are a cost-cutting measure taken by a company's leadership to save money.

They may result from a broad economic turndown affecting the entire economy or from the failure or termination of a single project or product within the company. They may also result from a change of corporate leadership or a merger or acquisition.

Being laid off is different than being fired for poor work performance (or abuses such as fraud, embezzlement, or stealing corporate secrets) and is not a reflection on the talent or work ethic of those terminated, but it's still a jarring change for those who find themselves out of a job.