I can explain the path I took through IT. I wouldn't recommend copying every certification decision in the same order and expecting the same result.
My route through network support, security software, and identity involved responsibilities and opportunities that shaped what was useful to learn.
Your starting point may be different. Keep the principles—relevant knowledge, practical evidence, and a clear next role—while deciding which credentials actually serve your own move.
Ask what problem each certification solved at the time
The same exam can be useful in one situation and unnecessary in another.
It might provide:
- Structure for learning an unfamiliar field.
- A qualification explicitly required for an opportunity.
- A way to communicate an existing foundation.
- An assessment that supports a defined learning plan.
It might also repeat material you already know while a more important practical gap remains untouched.
That context disappears when a career story becomes only a list of badges. Before following the sequence, ask what each step helped the person do and whether you face the same problem.
Don't assume the credential caused every later outcome. Experience, applications, role selection, and opportunities also belong in the story. A useful roadmap explains decisions you can adapt, not a sequence you must obey.
Your existing experience should change the plan
A person with years of Windows administration may need a different IAM starting point from someone with application-development experience.
One may need to understand cloud identity and application flows. Another may need stronger directory, lifecycle, or governance fundamentals.
Neither needs to pretend they are beginning from zero, and neither should assume the familiar background covers everything.
Map the target responsibilities against examples you can already explain. The missing pieces should influence the study order more than the chronology of my career.
Current requirements deserve a fresh look
Certifications, exam objectives, product features, and employer needs can change.
Use current official credential information and suitable job postings when making a decision now. A path that made sense at another time is historical context, not automatically current guidance.
Avoid buying an exam simply because it appeared in a successful person's early career.
The relevant question is whether the learning and credential support the role you want under the conditions you face today.
Keep the principles and change the implementation
The principles I would retain are straightforward: learn useful foundations, choose a direction, build practical capability, and use the evidence in real career actions.
The exact course, exam, lab, or job title can differ.
Use a method for adapting someone else's roadmap to turn inspiration into a plan that fits your own circumstances.
This is more useful than either copying the sequence blindly or dismissing every career story because no two paths are identical. You can learn from the reasoning without repeating every step.
Include work opportunities and applications in the plan
A career path is not made only of exams.
Relevant responsibilities, approved projects, interviews, and job changes can affect what you learn and which opportunities become realistic. A credential may support those moves without being the sole reason they happened.
If you study indefinitely while avoiding applications or practical work, you may reproduce the visible badges while missing the activities that made the path useful.
Give each learning step an output and a career action, not just another item to complete before you feel ready.
Build your own short explanation of the next step
Write down the role you are targeting, the gap you are addressing, and the evidence you intend to produce.
Then decide whether a certification belongs in that plan now, later, or not at all.
You should be able to explain the choice without relying on “it worked for someone else.” That is the point at which a borrowed idea becomes your own decision.
The Six-Figure IAM Career Playbook is built to help with that process. The $9 guide connects existing IT experience, identity lanes, practical labs, and a 90-day plan rather than prescribing my exact history as your future.
Use my career as context. Use your target role and actual gaps to decide what comes next.