Posted by Over the past three years, I’ve begun on an extraordinary career journey, transitioning from a sales role with no IT background to Solutions Architect. AWS Courses and Certification proved particularly helpful with my transition, offering resources such as AWS Training and Certification that aided in this transition process. In this blog post, I will provide details about this experience including specific tools/activities I utilized and offer tips for IT leaders looking to empower their teams members similarly.
joining AWS in 2020
As Amazon businesses rely on data for success, I quickly became acquainted with various AWS services like Simple Storage Service for storing sensitive information; Redshift for querying business-critical data sets; and QuickSight – a serverless BI tool used to monitor team performance – thus prompting my decision to apply for the Territory Manager position at AWS Courses.
Before applying
I studied for and attained AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner certification, giving me a much firmer grasp on AWS Cloud concepts, security and compliance practices within AWS, as well as knowledge of AWS services. Though AWS Cloud Quest wasn’t yet released when I began, we now offer this interactive role-playing game as an aid when studying for this certification exam.
For additional help when studying for these credentials I also encourage you to check out these tips to prepare for AWS Certified Solutions Architect or AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exams!
Have You Experienced the “Light Bulbs Moment in Your Career?”
Have you experienced that “light bulb moment” where suddenly, there was an intense desire to move in one direction? For me personally, this occurred shortly after joining AWS in June 2020. As someone new to IT world and looking to better serve my customers, I decided to pursue AWS Certified Solutions Architect. Associate certification, which goes deeper than AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner in terms of teaching how to design solutions with AWS services integrated, taking a more hands-on approach while building solutions on AWS services incorporating AWS services.
My passion for cloud computing and IT as a whole was overwhelming. Who would have thought that the Internet is connected through thousands of undersea cables connecting continents across oceans? Or that there are multiple forms of encryption?
As my understanding grew deeper of how some of the world’s biggest companies – from Nasdaq to Netflix – use technical structures to serve their customers, such as Nasdaq or Netflix, I became more committed to switching into technical roles later in my career.
Building my Knowledge Base
In order to advance into a technical role, with help from mentors, managers and others in my network – I realized I would need: Continue honing my AWS Cloud skills by earning increasingly difficult AWS Certifications; and gain more hands-on experience using AWS products, services and implementations.
As I progressed with AWS Certifications, I used the momentum from previous certifications to tackle two remaining Associate certifications. With all three Associate certifications under my belt and confidence growing as I completed each exam, I then pursued AWS certified solutions architect. Professional and AWS Certified DevOps Engineer Professional certifications. For every AWS Certification and Azure Fundamental Certification exam exam that you study for, I recommend using the Official AWS Practice Exam found on AWS Skill Builder; here is an example link for Official Cloud Practitioner Practice Exam: here
Technical Switch
With both theoretical and practical skills acquired during my learning journey, as well as an increased sense of confidence, I decided to apply for a Solutions Architect role in London. The interview process put many things I had learned during my studies into practice.
Such as designing applications according to AWS Well-Architected pillars; as well as challenging my hands-on abilities when building an example three-tier web application on AWS while discussing my design decisions.
Now a year into my AWS Solutions Architect role, each day is filled with new learning opportunities. Daily, I offer advice to UK-based AWS customers on how to build applications and workloads in the cloud, providing great satisfaction when projects come to fruition and delight their own customers. After earning nine AWS Certifications so far, my next goal is to complete all 12 and complete this set.