John Craddock Identity Masterclass Student feedback

If you work in the identity industry and you’re somewhat aligned to Microsoft Azure, do yourself a favour and get yourself on this course! Gavin A, Service Owner, UK

John Craddock’s Microsoft Identity Masterclass in Oxford, UK in May 2018 got 100% 5-star feedback from students. Hear what they, and John Craddock, had to say about the course in a short video.

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Detailed comments from individual students

Gavin, Service Owner, UK

If you’re considering coming onto the Masterclass, I’d say stop considering it, just sign up! Even if you’ve been developing applications or managing identity there’ll be aspects of this course that will be new to you and you’ll find interesting.
I attended John Craddock’s Identity Masterclass because I need to ramp up a capability to on-board applications into Azure AD. I’ve been working in identity for 15 or so years but always from a joiners/movers/leavers/security aspect.
Federation, web applications, terms like SAML, open ID … I was aware of, but it was always a bit opaque, mysterious. This course has demystified all of that. So I now feel capable and fluent in it to be able to have those conversations.
We’ve got the tools we need to go and troubleshoot issues, and the information we need to go and influence and inform projects and delivery. It’s provided exactly what I needed but it’s not just applicable to Azure or the Microsoft platform, it’s also looking at standards.
John’s been in the industry since the early days of identity so he knows his stuff. He delivers an incredible amount of detail but it’s not dry. He gives context which makes it very easy to consume or get embedded in the back of your brain.
I haven’t had a ‘penny-drop’ moment – it’s more like someone dropping a bucket of £50 notes on your head! Constant pieces of information which you think ‘Ah! I’ve been thinking about that for years and didn’t really know what that was’. So yes, I’m very impressed.
Normally a course in terms of time is X long and there’s only certain moments when you think ‘Ah yes, this is why I came’. But this Masterclass – it’s the whole thing, it’s just been ‘yes!’
What I’ve learned on the Masterclass is going to be a massive piece of what that my job’s going to entail for the foreseeable future. The Azure application space is rapidly developing, the capabilities are expanding, so having this grounding means I have good solid foundation to move with Microsoft as they develop its capabilities. So it’s critical for me to get this level of knowledge now before the future happens.

Farhan, Network Administrator, UK

I am a network administrator and my job is to control the traffic flow on our enterprise network. People – especially developers – come and ask me questions about authentication and identity protocols, with me not clearly understanding what they are actually used for and why I need to let this type of traffic into my network.
So in order to understand that, I looked around quite a lot to understand the protocols and see who is teaching what. But this was the only course I found which covered how protocols work in general and in detail, and how things hang together. This opens up and completes the picture for network admins like me.
I am not an expert on these things, this is not what I do, and I only knew 2 or 3 terms before I came on this course. But John explains everything so well that even a person like me who does not work in identity management is still able to understand what he is saying.
His handbook goes into such detail that it is going on top of my network analysis book – it is my prized possession now!
John goes out of his way to help and to make sure you are understanding what you are doing – rather than just clicking “next”, “next” and “finish” when you have no idea after completion what you have actually done! He tells you the tips and tricks about how to extract information and make it work for you.
John is such a brilliant teacher that, whether or not you work in identity management, if you work with authentication protocols or with identity management developers, this is a “must do” course.

Henry, Master Consultant, Germany

I’ve seen John at different conferences and I always wanted to join this Masterclass. Now I’m here, and I’m very happy to be here.
John is one of the best teachers I have ever had. He’s great at explaining difficult things – it was worth coming here. For me the best thing is to learn how to troubleshoot federation stuff; to see how the communication works between the parts, the browser and the application.
Doing this course will definitely help in my work, because I am involved in such projects and when something goes wrong, now I know how I can help and what to look for, and that’s great.
John is great but also the team I met here – nice guys, all on the same level, and we have exchanged experiences. So I’ve learnt not only from John but from my colleagues here, and that’s great. A great experience to be here.

Richard, Identity Architect, Switzerland

The only thing better than being in a top class training session with a fantastic coach is being in that session with top class attendees.
The Masterclass is very detailed and at a very high technical level. The knowledge of everyone – John especially – is also at a very high level.
John is very charismatic, very interesting, and he has a great ability to explain and understand scenarios presented to him and to give advice.
[Question: Have there been any “light bulb moments”?] Yes, all the time!
Basically this course has been translating what I’ve been doing over the past year or so by myself and enlightening me on many of those subjects.
Most of what we have been looking at here are things we are looking to implement in the short term – as in next week – or over the next year. So almost everything I’ve learned will absolutely be useful.
[Question: What would you say to people thinking about doing the Masterclass?] Definitely go!

Fabrice, System Architect, Switzerland

John Craddock’s Identity Masterclass is a wonderful course, and there were lots of light bulb moments. I’ve already done OCG’s MIM Advanced course and MIM Expert course and they were both of a very high quality too.
I already knew that John was technically very skilled from his presentations at international conferences such as Ignite and TechEd. But now I know that he is also a very good teacher. He explains things very well and, as he also does consulting, he can draw on real world information and examples – so the Masterclass is a perfect mix.
In addition to the course, the class discussions were also very valuable and it was great to share experience with lots of people from different companies.
I think that the Masterclass is absolutely essential for people working with cloud and identities, but also for a wider audience including developers.