I am a new employee and don't have my credentials yet, is there anyway I can get access to the Trailhead playground to learn a bit more? Thanks!

Hello @Matthew de Castro it seems you have access in fact :)

You can have a trailhead account created outside of your company Salesforce username (that is my case for example) and then linked after to your internal Salesforce username (hands-on org menu in your trailblazer profile : click on your avatar on the top right corner of the trailblazer / trailhead page when connected, and then associate your Salesforce company internal username). Eric