Thank you. I was afraid someone would end up saying employers don't give a damn about personal projects. I've came across this settlement before as employer only care what you did in your day job.

As for stack, I can definitely see demand for Python/node.js for early startup companies where I prefer to be in as of now and move away from enterprise.

On the certification side, my genuine reason is to have structured approach to learn some topic. What is your opinion on picking up Azure and learning the "admin" side of it, like managing group policies or enabling rbac? I might be impatient but this part of azure solution architect perquisites really makes me loose interest in cloud route. Like the fun stuff comes later.

On certification, I can also try to pursue machine learning route by Deeplearning ai or Google.

MLOps does sound something exciting to do since I enjoy tinkering with Linux and deployment.

I'll be honest, I don't want to get myself more onto .net framework. .net core is still fine but what I've seen, there is way more demand for Python/node.js