# Back to the roots

26 years ago, I graduated with my Electrical Engineering HTS diploma (HTS = Higher Technical School, equivalent to Bachelor's level in NL) at TH Rijswijk (is now: de Haagse Hogeschool).

Specialization: Telecommunications / network management.

But I found software development more fun so I went that route.
Now I'm back to the roots 😅

I'm currently going full speed on Microsoft certifications:
Up next is AZ-305 → my 7th cert since last year.

I started thinking about the bigger picture because of the exams and then got two realizations:

1. Because of all the ops work lately, I wasn't only developing software anymore, a better job description for me is: DevOps engineer
2. During AZ-104, I realized the connection between my original diploma (Telecommunications: network management) and Azure networking

Now with AZ-305 (Azure Solutions Architect), I'm finally combining:

- My HTS network background (finally picking it up again!)
- My software development experience (C#/.NET, React)
- My Azure/DevOps expertise (AKS, Service Bus, AZ-400, AI-102)

That network knowledge had faded a bit after 26 years...
but the beautiful thing is: DevOps is exactly the bridge between network management AND software development.

Career is not a linear path, it's an evolution!

![My Azure Certifications Journey infographic](https://images.koorevaar.com/linkedin-import/back-to-the-roots-devops-networking.jpg)

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*Co-authored with Claude.*

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