Pick the right cloud role: A beginners guide!

00:52:56
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0haz6mymxY

摘要

TLDRThis video is the first in a series aimed at helping individuals navigate the wide array of roles in the cloud industry, especially within the context of AWS. Hosted by Andrew Brown's Cloud Project AWS Bootcamp, it aims to clarify misconceptions around cloud jobs and certifications, emphasizing that the 'cloud' is not a single job but a vast field with diverse roles. The video guides viewers in exploring these roles to find one that suits their skills and interests, while building an effective learning plan. The video addresses common mistakes such as focusing too narrowly on certifications or trying to learn everything at once. It highlights the inconsistency in job roles across companies, suggesting that individuals should focus on job descriptions rather than titles to align their learning and job search efforts effectively. The presentation categorizes cloud roles into four main types: support, manager/analyst, engineer, and architect, and provides a framework for selecting and prioritizing skills needed for each. It also offers practical advice on gaining experience through projects and freelancing, reinforcing the concept that professional growth is non-linear and adaptable. The session aims to empower viewers to make informed decisions about their career path, urging them to engage with the job market early to refine their skills based on actual demand.

心得

  • 🏢 Cloud is a vast industry with diverse roles.
  • 📝 Certifications alone don't guarantee jobs.
  • 🔍 Focus on job descriptions, not just titles.
  • 🗂️ Roles are categorized as support, manager/analyst, engineer, and architect.
  • 🔄 Importance of adaptability in career paths.
  • 📚 Build a learning plan based on industry needs.
  • 👥 Engage in projects for practical experience.
  • 🚫 Avoid learning all skills at once. Prioritize.
  • 🤝 Consider teamwork and communication skills.
  • 🔁 Engage with job market early for feedback.

时间轴

  • 00:00:00 - 00:05:00

    Welcome to the session about career paths in the cloud industry. The focus is on exploring various roles and creating a learning plan tailored to individual career goals. Not all roles will be covered in detail in this session.

  • 00:05:00 - 00:10:00

    The cloud industry offers a wide range of roles. Instead of providing an exhaustive list, a reference is available at openupthecloud.com/system. This session aligns with Andrew Brown's AWS Bootcamp.

  • 00:10:00 - 00:15:00

    A survey was conducted to gather participant questions. The session will cover topics like entry-level roles, certification relevance, common mistakes, and choosing between cloud providers.

  • 00:15:00 - 00:20:00

    Understanding that cloud roles vary across companies and regions is crucial. Consistency in job titles like cloud engineer might not exist, making it important to focus on role specifics.

  • 00:20:00 - 00:25:00

    An analysis of 2,000 cloud job roles showed no conclusive skill sets for titles. The session will focus on framework and strategies instead of listing roles exhaustively.

  • 00:25:00 - 00:30:00

    Designing a career roadmap involves questions about role, skill set, and personal alignment to the job. Cohesiveness of skills is crucial to avoid diverging efforts.

  • 00:30:00 - 00:35:00

    Projects and freelancing are practical ways to gain experience and demonstrate skills, overcoming the experience barrier in the job market. Working in teams also illustrates valuable collaboration skills.

  • 00:35:00 - 00:40:00

    Job hunting should start early in the career path to integrate learning and feedback. Avoid being misled by inconsistent role titles or trying to learn everything at once.

  • 00:40:00 - 00:45:00

    Evaluate skills based on cohesion, alignment with job goals, and duplication to avoid redundant learning efforts. Vendor lock-in and technology standards should also be considered.

  • 00:45:00 - 00:52:56

    Identifying roles begins with understanding different role categories: support, manager/analyst, engineer, and architect. Each path requires different skills and personalities.

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思维导图

视频问答

  • What is the main theme of the video?

    The video is about understanding cloud roles, finding a suitable career path, and building a learning plan.

  • Is the cloud considered a single job?

    No, the cloud is not a single job. It comprises many roles and titles.

  • Where can I find a list of cloud roles?

    A list of common cloud roles can be found at openupthecloud.com/system.

  • What is a common misconception about cloud certifications?

    A common misconception is that certifications guarantee a job.

  • What approach should you take when looking at cloud job descriptions?

    Focus on the skills and requirements, not just the job titles.

  • What are the four categories of cloud roles mentioned in the video?

    The four categories are support, manager/analyst, engineer, and architect.

  • What is the 'duck test' analogy used for in the video?

    The 'duck test' suggests focusing on job descriptions over titles, as job titles can be misleading.

  • What should you consider when choosing skills to learn for a cloud career?

    Consider if the skills are cohesive, align with your goals, and if they're not duplicates.

  • How does the video recommend gaining practical experience if you lack a job?

    Engage in projects, freelancing, or teamwork to build credible, practical experience.

  • What's the recommended way to use certifications according to the video?

    Use certifications as part of a broader plan to build skills and credibility, not as the sole path to a job.

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  • 00:00:00
    hello and welcome to this session for
  • 00:00:01
    the Andrew Brown's Cloud project AWS
  • 00:00:03
    bootcamp the session we'll be doing
  • 00:00:05
    today is called the cloud is not a job
  • 00:00:07
    or more specifically we'll be talking
  • 00:00:09
    about the roles in the cloud industry
  • 00:00:10
    and helping you find and build a
  • 00:00:12
    learning plan and the perfect role for
  • 00:00:15
    you now this is the first video in a
  • 00:00:17
    series that I'll be doing so I won't
  • 00:00:19
    answer every single question about every
  • 00:00:21
    different Cloud role in this session
  • 00:00:22
    today but we'll just be starting off and
  • 00:00:25
    starting to look at some of the
  • 00:00:26
    different roles that exist in the cloud
  • 00:00:27
    industry and some things to think about
  • 00:00:29
    when you're doing your job hunt and
  • 00:00:31
    you're looking at different roles in the
  • 00:00:33
    cloud now title of the talk is the cloud
  • 00:00:35
    is not a job because the cloud industry
  • 00:00:37
    is huge and there's so many different
  • 00:00:39
    jobs so many different titles and we'll
  • 00:00:41
    go through quite a few of those today
  • 00:00:42
    and yeah the subtitle is find a career
  • 00:00:45
    path build a learning plan and not get
  • 00:00:47
    completely lost in the process because
  • 00:00:49
    it's very easy indeed to get lost when
  • 00:00:52
    you're getting your foundations and your
  • 00:00:54
    first steps in the cloud industry but
  • 00:00:55
    let's go ahead let's jump straight into
  • 00:00:56
    it and let's get on with the session
  • 00:00:58
    today
  • 00:00:59
    now some of you will be coming to the
  • 00:01:01
    session hoping for a big old list and a
  • 00:01:03
    run-through of all the different roles
  • 00:01:04
    in the cloud industry now that's not
  • 00:01:05
    exactly what I'll be doing today and for
  • 00:01:07
    reasons I will explain a little bit
  • 00:01:09
    later I've tried to do that in the past
  • 00:01:10
    and for reasons that I'll explain in
  • 00:01:14
    just a second I don't think that that's
  • 00:01:15
    super efficient however if you want that
  • 00:01:17
    if you want a list of a whole bunch of
  • 00:01:19
    different roles in the cloud to research
  • 00:01:21
    you can find them here at open
  • 00:01:22
    upthecloud.com forward slash system I've
  • 00:01:25
    created a whole list of some of the most
  • 00:01:26
    common roles in the cloud industry it's
  • 00:01:28
    not exhaustive it doesn't include in
  • 00:01:30
    absolutely everything but it's got a
  • 00:01:32
    good starting point for you so you can
  • 00:01:34
    go and do some research into a variance
  • 00:01:36
    of different roles not just the main
  • 00:01:37
    ones you'll hear about a lot but some
  • 00:01:39
    other non-technical or less technical
  • 00:01:41
    roles some more entry-level appropriate
  • 00:01:42
    roles and I've added in there whether
  • 00:01:44
    they are highly technical or require any
  • 00:01:46
    existing technology experience that
  • 00:01:48
    might help you might not but there you
  • 00:01:50
    go there's a reference if that's what
  • 00:01:51
    you're looking for from this session
  • 00:01:54
    and like I say this is part of the free
  • 00:01:56
    AWS Cloud project bootcamp now if you're
  • 00:01:58
    not part of that boot camp that's
  • 00:01:59
    absolutely fine you could be watching
  • 00:02:01
    this years after the boot camp has
  • 00:02:02
    finished but that's okay a lot of the
  • 00:02:04
    content if not all of the content is
  • 00:02:05
    generic and doesn't require you to be
  • 00:02:07
    going through the boot camp if you are I
  • 00:02:09
    hope you're enjoying the boot camp hope
  • 00:02:10
    you're keeping up and I hope that uh
  • 00:02:12
    yeah you're still optimistic about
  • 00:02:13
    getting all those Cloud skills and
  • 00:02:15
    you're here now to talk about Cloud
  • 00:02:17
    careers with me
  • 00:02:18
    now before this session I sent out a
  • 00:02:20
    survey asking you for some questions
  • 00:02:22
    that we will answer in this session
  • 00:02:23
    today now how to get an entry level role
  • 00:02:26
    such as support so we'll touch on this a
  • 00:02:28
    little bit throughout the session today
  • 00:02:29
    can an AWS Cloud practitioner
  • 00:02:32
    certification get you a job
  • 00:02:33
    certifications is something we will talk
  • 00:02:35
    about and we'll also talk about some of
  • 00:02:37
    the common mistakes that I see people
  • 00:02:38
    making when getting into the cloud
  • 00:02:40
    industry should we pick one cloud
  • 00:02:42
    provider or keep an eye on a more AWS
  • 00:02:45
    gcp Azure this is the thing we'll be
  • 00:02:47
    talking about as well how do you pick
  • 00:02:48
    skills that align to the jobs that you
  • 00:02:50
    want definitely something we are going
  • 00:02:52
    to talk about now as I say there are
  • 00:02:54
    actually four sessions that I will do at
  • 00:02:56
    least as part of this boot camp so I
  • 00:02:58
    won't cover everything here today and if
  • 00:02:59
    you want to submit questions for a
  • 00:03:01
    subsequent session you absolutely can
  • 00:03:03
    you can do that open up thecloud.com
  • 00:03:05
    forward slash bootcamp survey submit
  • 00:03:07
    that as many times as you want I think
  • 00:03:09
    some people have already submitted
  • 00:03:10
    multiple questions that's absolutely
  • 00:03:11
    fine that's great go ahead and stick
  • 00:03:13
    your questions in there and I'll try and
  • 00:03:15
    cover them in these sessions and if not
  • 00:03:16
    I'll put on some q a and you can also
  • 00:03:18
    find me on social media drop comments
  • 00:03:20
    down below and I'll do my best to get
  • 00:03:22
    back to you and try and answer all of
  • 00:03:23
    your different questions
  • 00:03:25
    now let's start and jump straight in now
  • 00:03:28
    I'm going to start with a slightly a
  • 00:03:30
    word of caution which is that cloud
  • 00:03:32
    roles in the industry are a bit of a
  • 00:03:34
    dumpster fire now I don't mean this to
  • 00:03:36
    be cynical I say this because lots of
  • 00:03:38
    people that I speak to who are trying to
  • 00:03:39
    get into the industry think that cloud
  • 00:03:41
    roles are consistent across companies
  • 00:03:43
    across countries and they think that
  • 00:03:45
    everyone's definition of a cloud
  • 00:03:47
    architect or a cloud engineer is exactly
  • 00:03:49
    the same but this isn't entirely true at
  • 00:03:51
    all and we'll talk about this today but
  • 00:03:53
    this is an important point I want to
  • 00:03:54
    drive home before we even get into any
  • 00:03:56
    of the content and that is cloud roles
  • 00:03:58
    differ across countries across companies
  • 00:04:00
    and across the roles themselves are just
  • 00:04:04
    not very consistent so what I want to
  • 00:04:05
    take you I want you to take away from
  • 00:04:07
    that is please don't waste time looking
  • 00:04:09
    for consistency I get so many people
  • 00:04:11
    come to me and say hey you know I've
  • 00:04:13
    been looking at becoming a devops
  • 00:04:15
    engineer but I went and looked at this
  • 00:04:16
    job description and that has different
  • 00:04:18
    skills you know I'm really confused what
  • 00:04:20
    does a devops engineer actually do and I
  • 00:04:22
    would say that generally speaking this
  • 00:04:24
    sort of line of thought about trying to
  • 00:04:26
    find some sort of consistency about
  • 00:04:27
    roles is a little bit of a fruitless
  • 00:04:30
    task but don't worry because we'll talk
  • 00:04:32
    about how to solve for that today
  • 00:04:34
    how do I know this I know this because
  • 00:04:37
    I've spent the last few years speaking
  • 00:04:39
    to and helping hundreds of thousands of
  • 00:04:40
    different people get into the cloud
  • 00:04:42
    industry and last summer I even went and
  • 00:04:44
    extracted data from 2 000 different job
  • 00:04:46
    roles in the cloud and some of the main
  • 00:04:48
    ones like Cloud engineer and platform
  • 00:04:50
    engineer and you know what I found out
  • 00:04:53
    that it was just not conclusive in terms
  • 00:04:55
    of this skill sets a lot of the skill
  • 00:04:57
    sets looked very similar and it was very
  • 00:04:59
    hard to come up with a consensus and say
  • 00:05:01
    with conviction this is exactly the
  • 00:05:03
    skills for this person there is some
  • 00:05:05
    interesting insights from that though if
  • 00:05:06
    you want to go check out that video you
  • 00:05:08
    absolutely can and you'll learn a bit
  • 00:05:09
    more but that means today we won't go
  • 00:05:11
    through and run through every different
  • 00:05:13
    role and try to explain them instead I'm
  • 00:05:15
    going to give you some Frameworks some
  • 00:05:17
    things ways to approach actually
  • 00:05:19
    figuring out which role to do and how to
  • 00:05:21
    build skills for it and how to just
  • 00:05:23
    navigate building your own roadmap and
  • 00:05:25
    the questions within that because it's a
  • 00:05:27
    question you know how to build roadmap
  • 00:05:29
    is the kind of stuff that I get asked
  • 00:05:30
    all the time
  • 00:05:32
    now of course if you came here looking
  • 00:05:33
    for more of a systematic run through of
  • 00:05:35
    roles I did actually do something quite
  • 00:05:36
    similar for the AWS User Group in duala
  • 00:05:39
    and you can find that video online as
  • 00:05:41
    well it's called making sense of the
  • 00:05:42
    cloud and all the roles within so if you
  • 00:05:44
    want to go and find that video after
  • 00:05:45
    I'll put a link also in the description
  • 00:05:47
    box down below
  • 00:05:49
    however all is not lost like I say
  • 00:05:52
    because I will go through some ways for
  • 00:05:54
    you to navigate the industry despite not
  • 00:05:56
    having this total consistency the tech
  • 00:05:58
    industry is new a lot of these roles are
  • 00:06:00
    quite new let's say if you're a older
  • 00:06:02
    company that's modernizing and moving
  • 00:06:04
    into the cloud these companies when
  • 00:06:06
    they're looking for folks to help them
  • 00:06:07
    out on their Cloud Journey they are
  • 00:06:08
    early on their Cloud Journey too which
  • 00:06:10
    leads to some of the discrepancies that
  • 00:06:12
    we see and some of the inconsistencies
  • 00:06:14
    and the tech industry is evolving
  • 00:06:16
    constantly so much change so many things
  • 00:06:18
    are changing so it's not entirely
  • 00:06:21
    consistent but that's okay we're going
  • 00:06:22
    to figure out how to deal and how to
  • 00:06:24
    work through that today
  • 00:06:26
    now how are we going to do that now I'm
  • 00:06:28
    going to give you a couple of templates
  • 00:06:29
    one will be some golden rules to think
  • 00:06:31
    about when you're adding skills to your
  • 00:06:33
    own roadmap and some questions to ask
  • 00:06:35
    yourself when you're looking at
  • 00:06:37
    different Cloud roles now this is the
  • 00:06:38
    same templates and the same
  • 00:06:40
    conversations I've had with hundreds of
  • 00:06:42
    different people getting into the cloud
  • 00:06:43
    industry and you can take these tools
  • 00:06:45
    apply them to yourself and hopefully get
  • 00:06:47
    some more clarity about your own
  • 00:06:49
    Direction in the cloud
  • 00:06:51
    now in terms of today we're going to
  • 00:06:53
    break things up into three different
  • 00:06:54
    areas so we're going to go through some
  • 00:06:56
    deadly sins these are traps mistakes
  • 00:06:58
    that I see people commonly making and
  • 00:07:00
    maybe some sort of path that you might
  • 00:07:02
    be thinking of going down and some sins
  • 00:07:05
    that you might be committing but we're
  • 00:07:06
    going to talk about that a little bit
  • 00:07:08
    before we get into the roles but then
  • 00:07:09
    we'll go through the roles themselves
  • 00:07:10
    I'll give you four different categories
  • 00:07:12
    uh groupings of different roles so you
  • 00:07:15
    can start to think which category do you
  • 00:07:16
    fit into which roles might be the right
  • 00:07:18
    one for you think about your own
  • 00:07:20
    personality traits your past experience
  • 00:07:22
    and those types of things and then the
  • 00:07:24
    third area we'll get into is building
  • 00:07:25
    that roadmap and that will be your
  • 00:07:26
    homework today from the session if
  • 00:07:28
    you're doing the project boot camp if
  • 00:07:29
    you're not doing the project boot camp
  • 00:07:30
    you can still do the homework
  • 00:07:32
    you can fill out the templates that I'll
  • 00:07:33
    give you here today and it should still
  • 00:07:35
    help you out as well
  • 00:07:37
    now before we jump in let me just tell
  • 00:07:39
    you a brief thing about myself my name
  • 00:07:41
    is Lou and I've been working writing
  • 00:07:43
    code in the tech industry for over a
  • 00:07:45
    decade now and over the last few years
  • 00:07:47
    I've really been digging into the career
  • 00:07:49
    space within the cloud industry it's
  • 00:07:51
    where I work it's the industry in which
  • 00:07:52
    I work full-time as well but I now work
  • 00:07:55
    in product I start off as a software
  • 00:07:57
    engineer front engineer back end in for
  • 00:07:59
    a platform eventually ended up in
  • 00:08:01
    developer experience and Dev tooling and
  • 00:08:03
    that's where I work today so I've seen a
  • 00:08:05
    lot of different things worked in many
  • 00:08:06
    different companies seen lots of
  • 00:08:08
    different roles and spoke to a lot of
  • 00:08:09
    different people as well so that really
  • 00:08:11
    helps me when it comes to helping other
  • 00:08:13
    people navigate their own career because
  • 00:08:15
    I've had such a winding path also myself
  • 00:08:19
    and then yes so I run this thing called
  • 00:08:21
    open up the cloud uh you're probably
  • 00:08:23
    watching this on my YouTube channel I
  • 00:08:25
    was passed in the past a big blogger
  • 00:08:27
    wrote a lot of stuff online and even to
  • 00:08:29
    this day thousands of people still read
  • 00:08:30
    those articles but I run open up the
  • 00:08:32
    cloud as what I call a social Enterprise
  • 00:08:34
    so that is community over profit so
  • 00:08:37
    that's the work that I do I try and
  • 00:08:39
    really support the community as best as
  • 00:08:40
    I can and any profits that open up the
  • 00:08:42
    cloud does make
  • 00:08:43
    um actually every penny so far has been
  • 00:08:45
    reinvested in the community I'm really
  • 00:08:47
    proud of that because we've been able to
  • 00:08:48
    give away certifications and help people
  • 00:08:50
    out and run sessions like this that I
  • 00:08:52
    hope are helpful for you and help you
  • 00:08:53
    get into the cloud industry and help
  • 00:08:55
    demystify some things that maybe for me
  • 00:08:57
    uh when I was getting into the industry
  • 00:08:59
    were not that clear at all
  • 00:09:02
    and lastly this strap line I've kind of
  • 00:09:04
    adopted is I looking forward to sharing
  • 00:09:06
    your class your I got the job post I say
  • 00:09:09
    this because I want you to get into them
  • 00:09:11
    the mindset that you are absolutely
  • 00:09:13
    going to land that job keep hustling
  • 00:09:15
    keep grinding keep doing the work keep
  • 00:09:16
    pushing and then eventually you'll get
  • 00:09:18
    that moment where you can share online
  • 00:09:20
    and say hey guys I did it I got the job
  • 00:09:22
    and then I'll be there to be able to
  • 00:09:24
    share that and then celebrate that
  • 00:09:25
    moment and we're all here as a community
  • 00:09:28
    um you know looking out for you as well
  • 00:09:30
    and I think that's just really great and
  • 00:09:31
    that's the thing I want you to get into
  • 00:09:32
    your mind is that day will come the the
  • 00:09:35
    day that you get to share that post that
  • 00:09:37
    you got the job will come for you
  • 00:09:39
    it's happened to me before you know I've
  • 00:09:40
    sent people messages here to Alex you
  • 00:09:42
    know I said that I was here over ready
  • 00:09:44
    to share your I got the job post and
  • 00:09:46
    then lo and behold a couple of months
  • 00:09:47
    later there it was success for Alex
  • 00:09:49
    Landing his job in the cloud and then I
  • 00:09:51
    get messages like this and this is
  • 00:09:52
    really what drives me is people you know
  • 00:09:54
    Landing in this case close to a six
  • 00:09:56
    figure salary in the tech industry and I
  • 00:09:59
    get messages from people that I've
  • 00:10:00
    helped and this is really why why I do
  • 00:10:02
    what I do helping people in the cloud
  • 00:10:04
    industry
  • 00:10:05
    but enough about me let's get on to the
  • 00:10:07
    stuff that we're here today to talk
  • 00:10:09
    about which is cloud roles but actually
  • 00:10:10
    we're going to start first with these
  • 00:10:11
    deadly sins that I see lots of people
  • 00:10:13
    making first one sin number one is the
  • 00:10:16
    badge collecting now what do I mean by
  • 00:10:18
    badge collecting I don't know if you've
  • 00:10:20
    been a Cub Scout but they get these
  • 00:10:22
    badges for the different skills that you
  • 00:10:23
    get in the industry you probably know
  • 00:10:25
    what I'm alluding to here yes I'm
  • 00:10:27
    talking about certifications now this
  • 00:10:30
    particular side of the certification
  • 00:10:31
    industry drives me absolutely bonkers
  • 00:10:35
    what I mean is when I see content like
  • 00:10:37
    this about highest paying Cloud
  • 00:10:38
    certifications this drives me bonkers
  • 00:10:40
    because there is not a correlation
  • 00:10:42
    between certifications and job roles and
  • 00:10:44
    titles it's a massive misconception that
  • 00:10:46
    happens a lot
  • 00:10:47
    now certifications are great and can be
  • 00:10:50
    ways that you can produce evidence as
  • 00:10:51
    part of the job hunt but it isn't the
  • 00:10:53
    only way that you can create evidence
  • 00:10:55
    for your skills and if you get
  • 00:10:56
    certifications it is not a guarantee of
  • 00:10:59
    a job whatsoever so when I see content
  • 00:11:01
    like this highest paying jobs by
  • 00:11:04
    certification this doesn't make any
  • 00:11:05
    sense those people didn't land those
  • 00:11:07
    jobs no salaries because of the
  • 00:11:09
    certifications they just happen to be
  • 00:11:11
    the type of people that like educating
  • 00:11:13
    themselves you know that they educate
  • 00:11:15
    themselves they get certifications they
  • 00:11:16
    also have high paying jobs but just
  • 00:11:18
    getting those certifications is not
  • 00:11:20
    enough and we'll talk about this a
  • 00:11:22
    little bit more but this is one big myth
  • 00:11:24
    that I see quite a lot
  • 00:11:26
    and the reason that comes is also we're
  • 00:11:28
    all in the AWS ecosystem if you're doing
  • 00:11:30
    the boot camp you're learning about
  • 00:11:32
    Amazon web services now if you go and
  • 00:11:34
    look at the certifications they are
  • 00:11:36
    actually named after what looks like job
  • 00:11:38
    roles or job titles now this can be
  • 00:11:40
    super misleading especially if you're
  • 00:11:42
    coming into the industry now a lot of
  • 00:11:43
    people I know will even recommend the
  • 00:11:45
    solutions architect associate as a
  • 00:11:47
    beginner or entry level exam into the
  • 00:11:49
    cloud industry now when people recommend
  • 00:11:51
    that certification to you they'll
  • 00:11:53
    recommend that you take the
  • 00:11:54
    certification because it's a broad
  • 00:11:56
    generally applicable certification that
  • 00:11:58
    covers a lot of Topics in Amazon web
  • 00:12:00
    services what they are not saying is
  • 00:12:02
    that you necessarily should become a
  • 00:12:04
    Solutions architect after that so
  • 00:12:06
    there's something that I see people
  • 00:12:08
    making that mistake every time they go
  • 00:12:10
    and take one of these entry-level
  • 00:12:11
    certifications and they think naturally
  • 00:12:13
    okay I've done the developer associate I
  • 00:12:15
    should become a developer or I did
  • 00:12:17
    Solutions architect I should become a
  • 00:12:18
    Solutions architect but as we'll see
  • 00:12:20
    today there are many different roles in
  • 00:12:21
    the cloud and those certifications are
  • 00:12:23
    just roughly classified to sort of you
  • 00:12:26
    know groupings of skills within the
  • 00:12:28
    Amazon ecosystem but it doesn't mean
  • 00:12:29
    that you have to go and do that specific
  • 00:12:31
    job very common misconception and it can
  • 00:12:34
    be a bit of a trap if I'm honest because
  • 00:12:35
    then you end up thinking that the only
  • 00:12:37
    jobs that exist are devops engineer
  • 00:12:39
    developer Solutions architect which
  • 00:12:40
    isn't true at all
  • 00:12:43
    now as we go through today I'll read
  • 00:12:44
    through some of the questions that you
  • 00:12:46
    submitted so let's go ahead and take
  • 00:12:47
    this first one here question is what's
  • 00:12:49
    the impact of formal certification
  • 00:12:51
    nowadays should I certify to motivate
  • 00:12:53
    myself to gain knowledge or should the
  • 00:12:55
    certification be considered the creme de
  • 00:12:57
    La Creme of skill ladders
  • 00:12:59
    now I imagine from the instruction you
  • 00:13:01
    might have an idea of what I'm going to
  • 00:13:02
    say here
  • 00:13:04
    now when I'm mentoring and talking to
  • 00:13:05
    people about certifications I'm not
  • 00:13:07
    going to strictly answer that question
  • 00:13:09
    directly what I'm going to give you is a
  • 00:13:10
    framework and what I want you to think
  • 00:13:12
    about is when you're getting into the
  • 00:13:13
    industry you want to think about
  • 00:13:14
    credibility how credible are you for the
  • 00:13:17
    job that you are applying to do
  • 00:13:19
    and with that you also want to build
  • 00:13:21
    evidence concrete evidence that you are
  • 00:13:23
    credible of that job certifications
  • 00:13:25
    naturally seem like a good way of
  • 00:13:26
    building evidence of credibility right
  • 00:13:28
    we have to think across two different
  • 00:13:31
    dimensions here that is barrier to entry
  • 00:13:33
    how difficult is that evidence how
  • 00:13:36
    difficult is it to build that
  • 00:13:37
    credibility and then also think about
  • 00:13:39
    the depth of that evidence so let's take
  • 00:13:41
    a couple of examples and take the
  • 00:13:42
    certification
  • 00:13:44
    now a certification is particularly low
  • 00:13:46
    barrier to entry most of the time now I
  • 00:13:48
    say that because some certifications in
  • 00:13:50
    the Amazon ecosystem all you need is a
  • 00:13:52
    bit of cash 75 pounds or 100 US dollars
  • 00:13:55
    to pass the Amazon initial entry-level
  • 00:13:57
    exams so the barrier to entry is
  • 00:13:59
    basically saving up a little bit paying
  • 00:14:01
    that money and you can get that
  • 00:14:02
    certification most beginners will do the
  • 00:14:05
    uh some of the associate exams in maybe
  • 00:14:07
    a month or even two months so the
  • 00:14:09
    barrier to entry is quite low and a lot
  • 00:14:11
    of people industry have some of those
  • 00:14:13
    associate level certifications
  • 00:14:15
    so you want to think about that how
  • 00:14:16
    difficult is it to land that particular
  • 00:14:18
    certification
  • 00:14:19
    and then you want to think about depth
  • 00:14:21
    now if you're doing a multiple choice
  • 00:14:23
    certification the depth of evidence that
  • 00:14:26
    you'll be creating there that you'll be
  • 00:14:27
    showcasing to an employer is potentially
  • 00:14:29
    low it's maybe not as much depth as the
  • 00:14:31
    employer wants to see from you from a
  • 00:14:33
    certification now it depends different
  • 00:14:35
    certifications are different if you
  • 00:14:37
    stack multiple certifications that might
  • 00:14:39
    show more evidence depth than just
  • 00:14:41
    having a single certification if you get
  • 00:14:43
    the process they're more difficult than
  • 00:14:45
    the associate in the Amazon ecosystem
  • 00:14:46
    and some other certifications like the
  • 00:14:49
    kubernetes ones are particularly
  • 00:14:50
    difficult so the barrier to entry might
  • 00:14:52
    be quite low but the depth of evidence
  • 00:14:53
    that you get from completing one of the
  • 00:14:55
    kubernetes certifications is actually
  • 00:14:56
    quite High
  • 00:14:58
    taking another example like open source
  • 00:15:01
    now a lot of Open Source projects
  • 00:15:03
    contributing they can have quite a high
  • 00:15:05
    barrier to entry you have to have a
  • 00:15:06
    certain level of a standard to raise
  • 00:15:08
    let's say a pull request or a code
  • 00:15:09
    change into an open source or a popular
  • 00:15:11
    project now if you create your own
  • 00:15:13
    project well that's low barrier to entry
  • 00:15:15
    because you're just creating it but if
  • 00:15:17
    you manage to make that open source
  • 00:15:19
    project popular in the community and
  • 00:15:20
    lots of people adopt it well that's also
  • 00:15:22
    more difficult and slightly more higher
  • 00:15:24
    barity entry
  • 00:15:26
    and then again professional
  • 00:15:27
    certification higher barrier to entry to
  • 00:15:30
    London job as a professional person in
  • 00:15:32
    the cloud and also it shows a depth of
  • 00:15:34
    experience because you've engaged with
  • 00:15:35
    that job for as long as you've held that
  • 00:15:37
    position now it's not all about
  • 00:15:39
    professional experience necessarily but
  • 00:15:41
    what I want to do is for you to think
  • 00:15:43
    about certifications on these two axes
  • 00:15:45
    so the certifications that you've got
  • 00:15:47
    ask yourself the question how difficult
  • 00:15:49
    is it to get that certification is it
  • 00:15:51
    just a case of money or is it
  • 00:15:52
    particularly difficult to get those
  • 00:15:54
    certifications do you need a real sense
  • 00:15:56
    of experience and how deep is that
  • 00:15:58
    experience as well so look at your
  • 00:16:00
    experience as a whole when it comes to
  • 00:16:02
    certifications and think about these two
  • 00:16:03
    dimensions
  • 00:16:05
    someone asked Canada best cloud
  • 00:16:06
    practitioner certification get a job so
  • 00:16:09
    let's go ahead and plot that as well on
  • 00:16:10
    the different chart that we had barrier
  • 00:16:12
    to entry of the cloud certification is
  • 00:16:14
    pretty low because like I say you can
  • 00:16:16
    just buy that AWS CCP exam for about 75
  • 00:16:19
    pounds or about a hundred dollars and
  • 00:16:22
    the depth of evidence is quite low a
  • 00:16:23
    beginner can pass that certification in
  • 00:16:25
    about a month so I would say that's
  • 00:16:26
    quite low barrier to entry and quite low
  • 00:16:28
    in terms of evidence depth so have a
  • 00:16:31
    think about different ways you can start
  • 00:16:32
    to build better depth of evidence maybe
  • 00:16:34
    through the projects that you're
  • 00:16:35
    building in this boot camp showcasing
  • 00:16:37
    evidence and then also start to think
  • 00:16:39
    about how you can increase the barrier
  • 00:16:40
    to entry of your experience
  • 00:16:43
    and ultimately what this comes down to
  • 00:16:45
    is you need to have a direction you'd
  • 00:16:47
    have a direction that you're going
  • 00:16:48
    towards and that's what we're going to
  • 00:16:49
    do today we're going to talk about Job
  • 00:16:50
    roles titles things like that and that
  • 00:16:52
    will help you build your own Direction
  • 00:16:54
    in the cloud about where you're going
  • 00:16:56
    and once you have that direction
  • 00:16:57
    everything else becomes a lot easier but
  • 00:16:59
    you'll be surprised how many people
  • 00:17:00
    don't have the true Clarity that they
  • 00:17:02
    need when it comes to Landing a job in
  • 00:17:04
    the cloud that's why I titled the
  • 00:17:06
    session the cloud is not a job if you're
  • 00:17:08
    interested in Cloud that's great but now
  • 00:17:09
    we need to start to narrow that down
  • 00:17:10
    which job specifically do you want which
  • 00:17:12
    companies specifically do you want to
  • 00:17:14
    work for
  • 00:17:16
    now when I'm trying to create this
  • 00:17:17
    character with people that I've been
  • 00:17:18
    coaching in the past I've used four
  • 00:17:20
    simple questions deceptively simple
  • 00:17:22
    though now what I mean by that is these
  • 00:17:25
    are actually difficult to answer if you
  • 00:17:26
    haven't thought deeply you've done your
  • 00:17:27
    research this will actually take you
  • 00:17:29
    quite a while to fill out this template
  • 00:17:30
    but if you have a new research then
  • 00:17:32
    it'll be quite a quick task for you now
  • 00:17:34
    there's four questions that I typically
  • 00:17:36
    ask people
  • 00:17:37
    those are first one is what do you want
  • 00:17:39
    to be I'm going to become a what that
  • 00:17:42
    could be a cloud engineer data analyst
  • 00:17:44
    platform engineer it could be any
  • 00:17:46
    different type of role in the industry
  • 00:17:48
    and that can also be company specific as
  • 00:17:50
    well lots of people want to Target some
  • 00:17:52
    of the
  • 00:17:53
    some of the large companies as well and
  • 00:17:55
    that's absolutely fine it doesn't have
  • 00:17:56
    to just be a job title that you're
  • 00:17:58
    looking for
  • 00:18:00
    question that I ask and now this one is
  • 00:18:02
    deceptively difficult for a lot of
  • 00:18:03
    people is why do you think that you're a
  • 00:18:05
    good fit for that job now a lot of
  • 00:18:06
    people actually struggle with this
  • 00:18:07
    because they answer not why they're a
  • 00:18:10
    good fit in terms of their experience
  • 00:18:11
    their personality their character traits
  • 00:18:13
    they say why they want it in terms of
  • 00:18:15
    the things that they will get from the
  • 00:18:16
    job which is not not entirely what I'm
  • 00:18:18
    asking here at all
  • 00:18:20
    you know if you say I want to be an
  • 00:18:21
    architect you say why well because
  • 00:18:23
    Architects get paid lots of money I'd
  • 00:18:25
    say that's a pretty poor answer because
  • 00:18:27
    that doesn't show that you can be
  • 00:18:28
    successful doing that that shows that
  • 00:18:30
    you have the desire to earn a lot of
  • 00:18:32
    money in the industry that's not going
  • 00:18:33
    to help you when it comes to Landing
  • 00:18:35
    that job think about your past
  • 00:18:37
    experience you know what about your
  • 00:18:39
    history means that you are a good fit
  • 00:18:41
    for that particular role if you've let's
  • 00:18:43
    say worked in it in the back in you've
  • 00:18:45
    worked in it in the past then maybe a
  • 00:18:48
    cloud engineer might be a good fit for
  • 00:18:49
    you if you've worked in sales maybe
  • 00:18:51
    sales engineer might be a good fit for
  • 00:18:52
    you think about the things that you've
  • 00:18:54
    done in the past and how those skills
  • 00:18:56
    will transfer over into the jobs that
  • 00:18:58
    you want to get in the cloud
  • 00:19:00
    then what I'll ask people to do is to
  • 00:19:02
    pick five skills now just five because
  • 00:19:05
    it's so easy to go overboard picking a
  • 00:19:08
    whole bunch of different skills thinking
  • 00:19:09
    about all these things that you want to
  • 00:19:10
    learn and then what I often get people
  • 00:19:12
    to do is write down all the things that
  • 00:19:14
    you're excited about learning but that
  • 00:19:16
    you're not going to learn are not going
  • 00:19:17
    to look into the reason I do that is
  • 00:19:19
    because that allows you to not get
  • 00:19:20
    distracted if you come across I don't
  • 00:19:22
    know you're learning things and you
  • 00:19:24
    could discover kubernetes or you
  • 00:19:26
    discover I don't know serverless
  • 00:19:27
    developments and those aren't in line
  • 00:19:29
    with the job that you want then you can
  • 00:19:31
    stick those on your not to-do list and
  • 00:19:33
    then aggressively focus on the things
  • 00:19:34
    that you can leave behind you can forget
  • 00:19:36
    about and you can buy yourself so much
  • 00:19:39
    more headspace by keeping those things
  • 00:19:41
    that you don't need to learn off
  • 00:19:43
    um off of the plates and out of your
  • 00:19:45
    consideration so those are four
  • 00:19:47
    questions that you'll want to answer
  • 00:19:48
    we'll talk a bit later about how this
  • 00:19:50
    applies to our homework as well but
  • 00:19:52
    start to think about that start to think
  • 00:19:53
    about the role you want why you're a
  • 00:19:55
    good fit the skills that you might want
  • 00:19:56
    to build and we'll talk about how to
  • 00:19:58
    pick skills in a second
  • 00:20:01
    so let's take another question there's a
  • 00:20:03
    big gap between theoretical knowledge of
  • 00:20:05
    the technology and practical experience
  • 00:20:07
    Hands-On knowledge however acquiring the
  • 00:20:09
    second requires working with the tech
  • 00:20:11
    which is often not feasible without
  • 00:20:12
    active job position how to approach this
  • 00:20:15
    issue
  • 00:20:17
    now a lot of you will be familiar with
  • 00:20:18
    this type of question because you'll be
  • 00:20:19
    thinking yourself and this is the
  • 00:20:21
    chicken or egg problem right of job
  • 00:20:22
    searching you can't get a job because
  • 00:20:24
    you don't have experience and you can't
  • 00:20:25
    get experience because no one will give
  • 00:20:26
    you a job ah it's incredibly frustrating
  • 00:20:29
    but there are ways that you can break
  • 00:20:31
    the cycle
  • 00:20:33
    and the way I like to talk about it is
  • 00:20:35
    the thing is that our employers out
  • 00:20:36
    there there are many employers out there
  • 00:20:38
    who need you to be doing the job for
  • 00:20:40
    them they have jobs for you to do and
  • 00:20:42
    they have those listed up on the
  • 00:20:43
    internet and they're just waiting for
  • 00:20:44
    you to step in and have the right skills
  • 00:20:46
    that meet them where they're at and
  • 00:20:48
    that's the problem there's a lot of
  • 00:20:50
    people out there in the industry
  • 00:20:51
    building skills but those skills aren't
  • 00:20:53
    necessarily meeting the demands of the
  • 00:20:55
    employer and this is a vitally important
  • 00:20:57
    thing that I want you to take away from
  • 00:20:59
    today is that you want to start looking
  • 00:21:00
    at the job market looking at the roles
  • 00:21:02
    exist looking at the skills that the
  • 00:21:04
    market is demanding and building a
  • 00:21:06
    learning plan that meets employers where
  • 00:21:08
    they're at meets them with the skills
  • 00:21:10
    that they are looking for and provides
  • 00:21:11
    evidence that you can do the job that
  • 00:21:13
    you are competent in the way that you
  • 00:21:15
    say you are but the problem is the
  • 00:21:17
    difference between your potential skills
  • 00:21:18
    today and the skills that the employer
  • 00:21:20
    needs there is a gap there is a gap
  • 00:21:22
    between the skills you have and what
  • 00:21:24
    they need so we want to start looking at
  • 00:21:26
    filling those
  • 00:21:28
    now one great way is doing something
  • 00:21:30
    like the AWS Cloud project bootcamp that
  • 00:21:32
    you're doing now products are a great
  • 00:21:34
    way of building evidence that showcases
  • 00:21:36
    to employers that you can do the job
  • 00:21:38
    that you say you can do if you don't
  • 00:21:40
    have experience projects are a great way
  • 00:21:42
    of plugging the Gap rather than just
  • 00:21:43
    saying to an employer that you know
  • 00:21:45
    something you've done a course on it or
  • 00:21:47
    you've learned a bit or built something
  • 00:21:48
    in your spare time show them bring
  • 00:21:50
    evidence make a project build it to
  • 00:21:52
    sufficient depth add complexity in it so
  • 00:21:55
    when you go to that job interview and
  • 00:21:57
    they ask you hey do you know python you
  • 00:21:59
    can say hold on just one second let me
  • 00:22:01
    show you this project I built let me
  • 00:22:02
    show you that I built over the course of
  • 00:22:04
    couple of months I committed many times
  • 00:22:05
    into this project I built all these
  • 00:22:07
    different things you know and you have
  • 00:22:10
    all of those stories to tell as part of
  • 00:22:12
    the interview about the projects that
  • 00:22:13
    you built so that's one way you can
  • 00:22:15
    start to plug the gap
  • 00:22:17
    another way is through freelancing now I
  • 00:22:19
    know a lot of people watching this will
  • 00:22:21
    be like whoa freelancing I can't do that
  • 00:22:23
    because I don't have experience how can
  • 00:22:25
    I possibly do freelance work now this is
  • 00:22:28
    a very common way I think that you can
  • 00:22:29
    get around some of the Gatekeepers that
  • 00:22:31
    might exist to uh when you're getting a
  • 00:22:33
    job which is you know passing that
  • 00:22:34
    interview getting past the hiring
  • 00:22:36
    managers ultimately getting a contract
  • 00:22:38
    and signing it and joining a company
  • 00:22:40
    now one thing that you can do is reach
  • 00:22:42
    out to your network your family your
  • 00:22:43
    friends do you have a family or a
  • 00:22:46
    relative that runs some sort of business
  • 00:22:47
    that you can automate some aspect of
  • 00:22:49
    their business you could use them as a
  • 00:22:51
    stakeholder say hey can I speak to you
  • 00:22:53
    can I interview can I gather
  • 00:22:54
    requirements from you and build you a
  • 00:22:56
    proof of concept or a system in a sort
  • 00:22:59
    of freelance type capacity now you take
  • 00:23:01
    that you write that up you document all
  • 00:23:03
    of those conversations you put that
  • 00:23:04
    online as part of a project and there
  • 00:23:06
    you have it you have freelance
  • 00:23:07
    experience you have professional
  • 00:23:09
    experience provided that you treat that
  • 00:23:11
    experience as professional it doesn't
  • 00:23:13
    matter too much if cash has actually
  • 00:23:14
    exchanged hands or if you actually do
  • 00:23:16
    that work for money but then start to
  • 00:23:18
    think ways of that you can build that
  • 00:23:20
    experience by you know reaching to your
  • 00:23:22
    network and building small projects for
  • 00:23:23
    them but do it with a stakeholder that
  • 00:23:26
    way it becomes sort of freelance
  • 00:23:27
    experience as well
  • 00:23:29
    and the last thing that you can also
  • 00:23:31
    think about here is also teamwork very
  • 00:23:33
    commonly forgot if you have experience
  • 00:23:35
    in existing Industries I.T you come from
  • 00:23:38
    sales Consulting maybe you're a teacher
  • 00:23:40
    or something like that then you'll have
  • 00:23:42
    a lot of the existing ticks in the boxes
  • 00:23:44
    such as teamwork communication you
  • 00:23:46
    probably have examples of times that
  • 00:23:48
    you've shown leadership now companies
  • 00:23:50
    really want to see that if you're coming
  • 00:23:52
    as like a student with not a lot of
  • 00:23:53
    professional experience think about
  • 00:23:55
    building some of these projects as a
  • 00:23:57
    team you know link up with some other
  • 00:23:59
    people work together on the project that
  • 00:24:00
    will help you tick that box around
  • 00:24:02
    Teamwork because that's another thing
  • 00:24:04
    big thing that employers are looking for
  • 00:24:05
    do you have the hard skills do you have
  • 00:24:07
    the technical skills to do the job
  • 00:24:08
    you're applying for but can you work as
  • 00:24:10
    a team can you communicate can you work
  • 00:24:12
    as a in a team player software Cloud
  • 00:24:14
    building things is often a team sport
  • 00:24:16
    and very rarely are you working entirely
  • 00:24:19
    on your own so you want to show that you
  • 00:24:20
    can work in a team capacity
  • 00:24:23
    now we'll be doing some more sessions
  • 00:24:25
    later I think it is in two months time
  • 00:24:27
    talking about resumes but I'm going to
  • 00:24:29
    spoil a little bit of that session just
  • 00:24:31
    now and talk about how you can represent
  • 00:24:33
    on your resume work experience and
  • 00:24:35
    projects as well
  • 00:24:36
    because this common question I get well
  • 00:24:38
    how do I represent my resume if I don't
  • 00:24:40
    have a lot of experience now what I
  • 00:24:41
    often say to people is start to think
  • 00:24:43
    about your projects as experience and
  • 00:24:45
    represent them on your resume as actual
  • 00:24:47
    experience rather than having two
  • 00:24:49
    separate categories
  • 00:24:52
    you might have those two categories
  • 00:24:53
    where you say here's my work experience
  • 00:24:55
    and it's this thin little box or maybe
  • 00:24:56
    it doesn't exist because you haven't
  • 00:24:58
    worked in the industry and then you have
  • 00:24:59
    these projects where you're essentially
  • 00:25:01
    saying hey look I'm a beginner you know
  • 00:25:03
    I've built all these small projects in
  • 00:25:04
    my free time instead what you should do
  • 00:25:06
    instead is take that make the category
  • 00:25:09
    experience and then within that have
  • 00:25:10
    sort of labels where you say hey here's
  • 00:25:12
    my freelance work here's some open
  • 00:25:14
    source project work that I did here's
  • 00:25:16
    some project bootcamp work that I did
  • 00:25:17
    try and give you know some of that
  • 00:25:19
    experience the real sort of respect that
  • 00:25:21
    it deserves it is real true experience
  • 00:25:23
    so Representatives search and don't
  • 00:25:25
    downplay yourself
  • 00:25:28
    the second sin that I see people making
  • 00:25:30
    is what I call the Hide and Seek
  • 00:25:31
    Champion people that spend all their
  • 00:25:33
    time learning in their comfort zone and
  • 00:25:35
    don't actually go out and test
  • 00:25:36
    themselves against the job market
  • 00:25:39
    typically looks like this across the
  • 00:25:40
    course of time they will spend a vast
  • 00:25:42
    amount of time learning and they've
  • 00:25:44
    always got another reason for another
  • 00:25:46
    certification or another thing that they
  • 00:25:48
    need to learn before they go out and
  • 00:25:49
    start their job hunt now what I'd
  • 00:25:51
    actually suggest to you is don't treat
  • 00:25:53
    the job hunt like it happens at the end
  • 00:25:55
    of the process start it from the
  • 00:25:56
    beginning expose yourself to the
  • 00:25:58
    feedback loop of the job market that
  • 00:26:00
    will help refine your learning plan and
  • 00:26:02
    refine the direction that you're trying
  • 00:26:04
    to head in don't just get your head down
  • 00:26:06
    and start doing lots of learning you're
  • 00:26:07
    following this session now so we're
  • 00:26:09
    talking about careers that's great
  • 00:26:10
    that's going to help build that
  • 00:26:12
    direction which will help then get
  • 00:26:14
    feedback which will also refine their
  • 00:26:15
    direction as well
  • 00:26:18
    now one big challenge people often get
  • 00:26:20
    as they start to build that learning
  • 00:26:21
    plan and pick which job to go for in the
  • 00:26:23
    cloud is they start listening to any and
  • 00:26:25
    all feedback that they get they go on
  • 00:26:27
    social media and someone says hey you
  • 00:26:29
    should learn this or you should do this
  • 00:26:30
    and then before you know it they're
  • 00:26:32
    scattering off in a whole bunch of
  • 00:26:34
    different directions the thing is you
  • 00:26:36
    don't have to take all of the feedback
  • 00:26:37
    that you get from different people
  • 00:26:39
    whether that's feedback you get from the
  • 00:26:41
    job interviews that you do or that's
  • 00:26:43
    feedback that you find online or
  • 00:26:44
    speaking to people in communities take
  • 00:26:46
    that feedback say thank you be grateful
  • 00:26:48
    for that feedback but you don't have to
  • 00:26:50
    take on board all of it if that feedback
  • 00:26:52
    pushes you towards the direction you're
  • 00:26:53
    going perfect maybe you want to take
  • 00:26:55
    that on board and acknowledge that
  • 00:26:57
    feedback if not then maybe you can
  • 00:26:59
    discard it because if you're not careful
  • 00:27:00
    before you know it you're getting pushed
  • 00:27:02
    in many different directions and you
  • 00:27:04
    might be pushed into directions that you
  • 00:27:05
    don't want to go they're not in line
  • 00:27:07
    with your direction where you want to
  • 00:27:08
    take your career
  • 00:27:11
    so as I say don't become the hide and
  • 00:27:13
    seek Champion start to think about
  • 00:27:15
    interviewing early in the process you
  • 00:27:17
    know when you start out do quite a lot
  • 00:27:18
    of learning but then start to build your
  • 00:27:20
    resume start to apply for jobs start to
  • 00:27:22
    interview because that's going to create
  • 00:27:23
    a feedback loop that will help you
  • 00:27:25
    refine your learning plan and make you
  • 00:27:27
    figure out am I learning the right
  • 00:27:28
    things or do I need to Pivot or change
  • 00:27:30
    or adjust my plan
  • 00:27:33
    now the last sin that I see is the Ash
  • 00:27:34
    Ketchum it's the Pokemon it's the gotta
  • 00:27:36
    catch em all of all of the different
  • 00:27:37
    skills in the cloud industry people
  • 00:27:40
    typically will go out and find a roadmap
  • 00:27:42
    like this one here which is a a devops
  • 00:27:44
    engineer roadmap and they get incredibly
  • 00:27:46
    overwhelmed because it's got all of
  • 00:27:47
    these different things that they need to
  • 00:27:49
    see now what I would say to you rather
  • 00:27:51
    than doing that is pick selective skills
  • 00:27:53
    that align with the job that you're
  • 00:27:54
    trying to apply for rather than looking
  • 00:27:56
    at all of these different skills you
  • 00:27:58
    know this is like a menu in a restaurant
  • 00:27:59
    you want to select carefully the things
  • 00:28:01
    that you actually want you don't want to
  • 00:28:03
    order one of every different thing off
  • 00:28:04
    the menu because it just doesn't make
  • 00:28:06
    sense
  • 00:28:08
    so don't be like Pokemon trying to catch
  • 00:28:10
    all of the skills pick skills align with
  • 00:28:12
    the job that you want to do and the
  • 00:28:13
    direction you're heading
  • 00:28:15
    let's take another question so vendor
  • 00:28:17
    locked in versus technology standards as
  • 00:28:19
    companies tend to choose multi-cloud
  • 00:28:21
    should we pick one cloud provider and
  • 00:28:23
    direct education to one vendor or try to
  • 00:28:25
    keep an open eye on at least one more
  • 00:28:27
    competition AWS gcp or Azure ultimately
  • 00:28:30
    should you choose one or more Cloud
  • 00:28:32
    providers this is a good question
  • 00:28:34
    so when it comes to actually picking
  • 00:28:36
    different skills for your resume things
  • 00:28:38
    like should you choose AWS gcp or Azure
  • 00:28:40
    what I often talk to people about is
  • 00:28:42
    these three different tests these are
  • 00:28:44
    the golden rules that I should apply or
  • 00:28:46
    you should apply to your different
  • 00:28:47
    skills for your roadmap that you're
  • 00:28:49
    building those are are those skills
  • 00:28:51
    cohesive what I mean by that is do those
  • 00:28:53
    skills complement each other or do they
  • 00:28:55
    pull each other in different directions
  • 00:28:57
    you know if you're a builder do you need
  • 00:28:59
    to learn to become an electrician maybe
  • 00:29:00
    not do you need to learn to become a
  • 00:29:02
    plumber maybe not the skills that you
  • 00:29:03
    might learn as a plumber might not be
  • 00:29:05
    related to being a builder so that's
  • 00:29:07
    kind of the same sort of analogy for
  • 00:29:09
    cloud as well don't go off and learn a
  • 00:29:10
    whole bunch of data skills if you're
  • 00:29:11
    trying to become an architect or don't
  • 00:29:13
    go and learn a bunch of web development
  • 00:29:15
    if you're trying to be a cloud engineer
  • 00:29:16
    so try to think about the skills that
  • 00:29:18
    you're learning are they cohesive do
  • 00:29:20
    they play well together do they build a
  • 00:29:22
    nice set of skills that align to the job
  • 00:29:24
    that you want to do and that's question
  • 00:29:26
    number two do those skills align with
  • 00:29:28
    your goal when you've picked a role when
  • 00:29:30
    you've picked a title when you've picked
  • 00:29:31
    those skills that you're going to learn
  • 00:29:32
    just adding additional skills do they
  • 00:29:34
    support your goal do they bring you
  • 00:29:36
    closer towards it or are they aligned
  • 00:29:38
    with a different goal so an important
  • 00:29:40
    question to ask yourself and then the
  • 00:29:42
    last question is are they duplicates
  • 00:29:44
    you'll find a lot of Technologies within
  • 00:29:45
    the cloud industry are similar to each
  • 00:29:47
    other so for instance in the context of
  • 00:29:49
    AWS or Azure those are very similar
  • 00:29:51
    because they're both Cloud providers so
  • 00:29:53
    if you're a beginner you might want to
  • 00:29:54
    pick one double down on it and then you
  • 00:29:56
    can come back and learn the others maybe
  • 00:29:57
    later in your career or at a later stage
  • 00:30:01
    one thing that people don't realize is a
  • 00:30:03
    lot of companies are quite flexible in
  • 00:30:04
    terms of skills so it took me the best
  • 00:30:06
    part of two minutes to find you a job
  • 00:30:09
    description that basically showcases
  • 00:30:10
    exactly what I mean taking this example
  • 00:30:13
    this particular job description just
  • 00:30:15
    said that they want experience with any
  • 00:30:17
    web programming language so in that
  • 00:30:19
    sense you can just then apply for that
  • 00:30:21
    job having known one of the different
  • 00:30:23
    languages that they list but they're not
  • 00:30:25
    necessarily picky about the specifics so
  • 00:30:27
    they say JavaScript python Ruby or Java
  • 00:30:29
    will be accepted but they prefer
  • 00:30:31
    csharp.net now in that case you don't
  • 00:30:33
    need to learn all of those different
  • 00:30:35
    software you don't need to learn all of
  • 00:30:37
    those different programming languages
  • 00:30:39
    you can learn just one and then still
  • 00:30:40
    apply for those jobs lots of people
  • 00:30:42
    don't realize that so you want to try
  • 00:30:43
    and eliminate duplicates there's no
  • 00:30:45
    reason to learn multiple skills that do
  • 00:30:47
    essentially the same thing especially if
  • 00:30:49
    you're tight on time and you don't have
  • 00:30:50
    a lot of time to be learning every
  • 00:30:52
    different skill
  • 00:30:54
    so let's take a couple examples let's
  • 00:30:56
    say you're a cloud engineer that's your
  • 00:30:57
    goal that's your direction in the cloud
  • 00:30:59
    industry you've already learned Amazon
  • 00:31:01
    web services and you're thinking about
  • 00:31:02
    adding Azure to your stack and learning
  • 00:31:05
    that as well so I'd ask you the question
  • 00:31:06
    are these cohesive do they work well
  • 00:31:08
    together
  • 00:31:09
    well for a cloud engineer they kind of
  • 00:31:10
    do because they're Cloud providers but
  • 00:31:12
    at the same time they kind of pull you
  • 00:31:13
    in different directions because there
  • 00:31:15
    are different ecosystems so I would
  • 00:31:16
    actually argue in some ways that those
  • 00:31:18
    are not necessarily cohesive skills so
  • 00:31:20
    you might want to pause and think about
  • 00:31:22
    that
  • 00:31:23
    do they align with the goal of a cloud
  • 00:31:24
    engineer yeah I would say that they do
  • 00:31:26
    cloud cloud providers makes a lot of
  • 00:31:28
    sense but are they duplicates I would
  • 00:31:30
    say yeah they kind of are you know
  • 00:31:31
    Amazon web services and Azure they do
  • 00:31:33
    similar things now of course some
  • 00:31:35
    companies are multi-cloud but as a
  • 00:31:37
    beginner don't worry about that you want
  • 00:31:38
    to think about building depth of
  • 00:31:40
    experience in a few different specific
  • 00:31:42
    areas and not spreading yourself too
  • 00:31:43
    thin so that you don't actually know
  • 00:31:45
    anything about anything in particular
  • 00:31:46
    and you couldn't actually execute on
  • 00:31:48
    that in a working environment
  • 00:31:51
    so I've gone ahead and ticked those
  • 00:31:53
    there so if you're a cloud engineer
  • 00:31:55
    looking to learn Azure when you already
  • 00:31:56
    know AWS now would be a little bit
  • 00:31:58
    hesitant to suggest that
  • 00:32:00
    let's say you're a software engineer and
  • 00:32:02
    you're looking at these different
  • 00:32:03
    infrastructure as code tools like
  • 00:32:04
    terraform and cloudformation let's ask
  • 00:32:06
    ourselves the same question are these
  • 00:32:08
    skills cohesive yeah the kind of archers
  • 00:32:11
    are both infrastructure as code tools
  • 00:32:12
    they do align with each other do they
  • 00:32:14
    align with the goal though of a software
  • 00:32:15
    engineer maybe not lots of software
  • 00:32:18
    Engineers don't actually touch
  • 00:32:19
    infrastructure some do more like Cloud
  • 00:32:21
    software Engineers but typically if
  • 00:32:23
    you're going for a purist sort of
  • 00:32:24
    software engineering role I wouldn't
  • 00:32:26
    suggest necessarily learning an
  • 00:32:27
    infrastructure as code tool or it won't
  • 00:32:29
    be very top of my list put it that way
  • 00:32:32
    and are they duplicates yep they
  • 00:32:34
    actually are now terraform is an open
  • 00:32:36
    source alternative cloud formation is
  • 00:32:37
    specific to Amazon web services but they
  • 00:32:39
    both provision infrastructure in the
  • 00:32:41
    cloud so what I would probably suggest
  • 00:32:43
    to you instead is just learn one and
  • 00:32:44
    then a lot of those skills will apply
  • 00:32:46
    over and you'll see in the job
  • 00:32:47
    descriptions like before that a lot of
  • 00:32:49
    employers will accept you know if you
  • 00:32:51
    know terraform they'll just say we want
  • 00:32:52
    you to know infrastructure as code they
  • 00:32:54
    won't necessarily specify exactly which
  • 00:32:56
    tool that you need to know so would I
  • 00:32:58
    learn cloudformation if I already knew
  • 00:33:00
    terraform as a software engineer again
  • 00:33:02
    probably not
  • 00:33:03
    now what about python let's say you're a
  • 00:33:05
    cloud engineer who knows terraform
  • 00:33:07
    should You Learn Python well I would say
  • 00:33:09
    that these are cohesive skills python is
  • 00:33:11
    very common in the cloud engineer in the
  • 00:33:13
    cloud engineering space so it's actually
  • 00:33:15
    quite a good tool or a technology to
  • 00:33:16
    learn it's a programming language
  • 00:33:18
    and does it align with a goal yep I
  • 00:33:21
    would say that it definitely does and is
  • 00:33:23
    it duplicate well it's definitely not
  • 00:33:24
    duplicate with terraform depends what
  • 00:33:26
    else you're learning if you haven't
  • 00:33:27
    learned a programming language already
  • 00:33:28
    no it doesn't sound like a duplicate so
  • 00:33:30
    in that case I would say yep perfect add
  • 00:33:32
    that skill to your stack seems like a
  • 00:33:34
    good choice because it is cohesive with
  • 00:33:36
    the skills you've got it aligns with the
  • 00:33:38
    goal the role that you want in the
  • 00:33:40
    industry and it's not necessarily a
  • 00:33:41
    duplicate skill
  • 00:33:43
    so think about that think about the
  • 00:33:44
    different golden rules are your skills
  • 00:33:46
    cohesive do they align with a goal and
  • 00:33:48
    are they duplicates
  • 00:33:49
    let's go ahead and take another question
  • 00:33:51
    so this person asked since the cncf
  • 00:33:54
    landscape is huge how do you propose
  • 00:33:55
    approaching skill elevation when there
  • 00:33:57
    are numerous Technologies to learn
  • 00:33:58
    grasshopper approach a bit of everything
  • 00:34:00
    choose three and study thoroughly or
  • 00:34:03
    stick to the dictionary EG know enough
  • 00:34:06
    to understand what others are talking
  • 00:34:07
    about
  • 00:34:08
    now from everything that I've said so
  • 00:34:10
    far you should probably think that
  • 00:34:11
    actually the answer is in the middle so
  • 00:34:12
    I would say choose three choose a small
  • 00:34:14
    select amount of areas to focus in I
  • 00:34:17
    would say definitely don't learn
  • 00:34:18
    everything that is going to lead to
  • 00:34:20
    Total misery you're not going to be able
  • 00:34:22
    to do it it's you know I absolutely
  • 00:34:24
    would avoid what this person is called
  • 00:34:26
    the grasshopper approach and the
  • 00:34:28
    dictionary approach also doesn't really
  • 00:34:29
    make a lot of sense either yes it makes
  • 00:34:31
    sense to know about different
  • 00:34:32
    Technologies and maybe just read the
  • 00:34:34
    sort of the instructory pages or the the
  • 00:34:36
    hello world examples but don't waste too
  • 00:34:38
    much time trying to learn every
  • 00:34:40
    different thing that exists in the
  • 00:34:41
    industry pick skills align with their
  • 00:34:43
    job and then go from there
  • 00:34:46
    and if you haven't seen the cncf
  • 00:34:48
    landscape this is what it looks like
  • 00:34:49
    very overwhelming like I say more like a
  • 00:34:52
    restaurant menu than an actual learning
  • 00:34:54
    plan you definitely don't need to learn
  • 00:34:55
    all of these
  • 00:34:57
    so yeah once you set that direction once
  • 00:35:00
    you've picked those different skills
  • 00:35:01
    then you can start to accept and reject
  • 00:35:03
    different bits of feedback you can start
  • 00:35:04
    to make sense of it so when you ask
  • 00:35:06
    questions like should I learn Azure or
  • 00:35:07
    AWS it's easy to work out if you want to
  • 00:35:10
    be a cloud engineer focusing on the
  • 00:35:11
    Amazon ecosystem well then you probably
  • 00:35:13
    shouldn't learn Azure because it's going
  • 00:35:14
    to take you further away from your goal
  • 00:35:16
    and it's going to be a distraction for
  • 00:35:18
    you
  • 00:35:20
    and what I commonly suggest to people is
  • 00:35:21
    working births so once you've got your
  • 00:35:24
    skills start to think about how you can
  • 00:35:25
    work across small periods of time I've
  • 00:35:27
    put two months here as an example but
  • 00:35:29
    for you that could be let's say two
  • 00:35:30
    weeks and what you're going to do is
  • 00:35:32
    you're going to get your head down
  • 00:35:33
    you're going to focus you're going to
  • 00:35:34
    build out your skills and really build
  • 00:35:36
    some depth and at the end of that then
  • 00:35:37
    you can seek feedback maybe you might
  • 00:35:39
    that might be through applying to jobs
  • 00:35:41
    it might be by talking to people in the
  • 00:35:43
    community or doing some practice
  • 00:35:45
    interview questions but then you're
  • 00:35:46
    going to get that feedback and then
  • 00:35:47
    you're going to again go back into the
  • 00:35:49
    learning mode and then go through
  • 00:35:51
    another sort of Sprint of learning
  • 00:35:54
    just important that you don't constantly
  • 00:35:56
    double second guess yourself you're
  • 00:35:57
    looking over your shoulder you know
  • 00:35:59
    you're seeing other things come in and
  • 00:36:00
    you're getting distracted that's what
  • 00:36:02
    you want to avoid
  • 00:36:04
    now lastly if I was to summarize all of
  • 00:36:06
    this into a single analogy you would
  • 00:36:08
    think about like this sports players
  • 00:36:10
    don't win by doing drills in isolation
  • 00:36:12
    like certifications of udemy courses
  • 00:36:14
    it's a trap it's very comforting to sit
  • 00:36:16
    there in your bedroom going through a
  • 00:36:18
    new udemy course or taking another
  • 00:36:20
    certification rather than exposing
  • 00:36:22
    yourself to the job market if there's
  • 00:36:24
    one thing that I want you to take away
  • 00:36:25
    from the session is this that you should
  • 00:36:26
    work out what you're up against which is
  • 00:36:28
    the job market and work out strategies
  • 00:36:30
    that take into account gaps that exist
  • 00:36:33
    in the market and opportunities that you
  • 00:36:35
    can exploit so what do the employers
  • 00:36:37
    actually need what are the roles that
  • 00:36:38
    they want what are the skills that they
  • 00:36:39
    need and then you're going to go forward
  • 00:36:41
    from there don't just build up a whole
  • 00:36:44
    bunch of skills and hope that those
  • 00:36:45
    match to a different job in the industry
  • 00:36:47
    it's just not going to work
  • 00:36:50
    okay so on to the cloud roll part that
  • 00:36:53
    most of you will be here for to start to
  • 00:36:55
    think about the different roles and
  • 00:36:56
    directions you can go in
  • 00:36:58
    like I said at the start if you want a
  • 00:37:00
    reference you can find that at open
  • 00:37:01
    upthecloud.com forward slash system I'll
  • 00:37:03
    put that in the description below but
  • 00:37:05
    here's a nice reference for some of the
  • 00:37:07
    different roles that you might want to
  • 00:37:08
    research after this video
  • 00:37:10
    now whilst I've been in the industry
  • 00:37:12
    I've seen people try and categorize
  • 00:37:14
    roles in so many different ways there's
  • 00:37:16
    so many different ways to slice and dice
  • 00:37:17
    and try to categorize the different jobs
  • 00:37:19
    that exist and some of the different job
  • 00:37:21
    titles within the cloud industry in fact
  • 00:37:23
    even this one on the bottom left here is
  • 00:37:24
    created by Andrew to try and show the
  • 00:37:26
    difference between some of these other
  • 00:37:28
    roles like systems engineer and admin
  • 00:37:30
    developer and how those maps to some of
  • 00:37:32
    these other roles but ultimately what it
  • 00:37:34
    comes down to is there is no perfect way
  • 00:37:36
    to group these Cloud roles that said
  • 00:37:38
    what I'm going to do today is actually
  • 00:37:40
    break these down into four groups for
  • 00:37:41
    you and that's how I think about it and
  • 00:37:44
    I will categorize some of these jobs for
  • 00:37:46
    you
  • 00:37:47
    okay so let's jump into that and look at
  • 00:37:49
    the first one so support support is a
  • 00:37:51
    very common uh category of job that
  • 00:37:53
    people like to go into when they're
  • 00:37:54
    going into the cloud industry because it
  • 00:37:56
    is not as technical as let's say an
  • 00:37:58
    engineer type role or an architectural
  • 00:38:00
    it's more people oriented you know
  • 00:38:01
    transferable skills from other
  • 00:38:03
    Industries can apply and usually the
  • 00:38:05
    barrier to entry is a little bit lower
  • 00:38:07
    and a couple of different roles that are
  • 00:38:09
    similar to support help desk support of
  • 00:38:12
    course customer success we've got manual
  • 00:38:14
    QA here in account management manual QA
  • 00:38:17
    is quality assurance which is testing
  • 00:38:19
    products now when you do that manually
  • 00:38:21
    that can be done with a fairly low
  • 00:38:22
    amount of skill but it still requires
  • 00:38:24
    you to understand technology
  • 00:38:26
    it starts to build your experience in
  • 00:38:28
    the industry which then can allow you to
  • 00:38:30
    Pivot into a more technical role
  • 00:38:31
    potentially into an automated quality
  • 00:38:33
    assurance role so I've added that in
  • 00:38:34
    here as part of the support category so
  • 00:38:37
    those are some jobs that you might want
  • 00:38:38
    to take a look at
  • 00:38:40
    second category is manager or analyst
  • 00:38:42
    this is more of the people-oriented type
  • 00:38:44
    roles more people facing business skills
  • 00:38:46
    you know facilitation communication
  • 00:38:48
    working with stakeholders and this can
  • 00:38:50
    be a good opportunity if you're coming
  • 00:38:51
    from a different industry where you've
  • 00:38:53
    built out some of these skills already
  • 00:38:54
    let's say you've got lots of
  • 00:38:56
    communication skills but you're still
  • 00:38:57
    building out Tech skills maybe a role
  • 00:38:59
    That's Heavy on the communication and
  • 00:39:01
    business side and less so on the tech
  • 00:39:02
    side might be a good opportunity for you
  • 00:39:04
    given your past experience
  • 00:39:06
    couple of different titles we've got
  • 00:39:08
    here different types of analysts
  • 00:39:09
    business data and security analyst you
  • 00:39:12
    know accountants sales Executives but
  • 00:39:13
    then we also have different types of
  • 00:39:15
    managers products and project managers
  • 00:39:16
    even engineering managers as well and
  • 00:39:19
    then Solutions Architects but
  • 00:39:20
    client-facing ones now there's often two
  • 00:39:22
    types of people two types of solutions
  • 00:39:24
    Architects one that is client facing
  • 00:39:26
    which is often more pre-sales that
  • 00:39:28
    happens in the sales cycle and happens
  • 00:39:30
    often before a product is sold to a
  • 00:39:33
    customer and then we have the sort of
  • 00:39:34
    internal implementation Builder type
  • 00:39:36
    architect that I think most people
  • 00:39:38
    commonly associate with the architect
  • 00:39:39
    role so I've put in here the client face
  • 00:39:41
    and solutions architect because some big
  • 00:39:44
    cloud providers hire for more
  • 00:39:46
    entry-level type of solutions architect
  • 00:39:48
    roles but they're a little bit different
  • 00:39:49
    than your sort of traditional Solutions
  • 00:39:51
    architect
  • 00:39:53
    third category I would say is engineer
  • 00:39:55
    highly technical you know your coding
  • 00:39:57
    building implementing if you're less
  • 00:39:58
    sort of interested in people more sort
  • 00:40:00
    of introverted and want to kind of work
  • 00:40:02
    as an IC or someone that's doing sort of
  • 00:40:04
    you know sat in front of your computer
  • 00:40:05
    kind of solving jigsaw puzzles that
  • 00:40:07
    maybe the engineer track is right for
  • 00:40:09
    you doesn't mean that it's easy and
  • 00:40:11
    doesn't mean that it involves no
  • 00:40:12
    communication at all that's not true
  • 00:40:15
    um most most if not all roles are team
  • 00:40:18
    playing roles like we mentioned at the
  • 00:40:19
    start so either way engineer might be
  • 00:40:22
    the right path for you and again some
  • 00:40:24
    different engineering titles software
  • 00:40:26
    devops site reliability cloud data
  • 00:40:29
    security QA sales now I said that I
  • 00:40:32
    wouldn't go into and discuss all of
  • 00:40:33
    these in depth you can certainly go and
  • 00:40:35
    do some research but of course these are
  • 00:40:37
    some different categories they all have
  • 00:40:38
    different Specialties and work in
  • 00:40:40
    slightly different ways inside the cloud
  • 00:40:42
    and software and Industry
  • 00:40:45
    and then the last category is the
  • 00:40:47
    architect so Architects are typically
  • 00:40:49
    more Visionary they're high level very
  • 00:40:51
    sort of business facing and also
  • 00:40:52
    technical at the same time lots of
  • 00:40:54
    talking to stakeholders and interacting
  • 00:40:56
    persuasion that kind of thing speaking
  • 00:40:58
    to Executives and Leadership and making
  • 00:41:00
    high level decisions about your overall
  • 00:41:02
    architecture and strategy now
  • 00:41:04
    architecture is usually a good role if
  • 00:41:06
    you're coming into the cloud industry
  • 00:41:07
    with experience already from a let's say
  • 00:41:09
    a Consulting role or a sales or
  • 00:41:11
    something like that doesn't mean that
  • 00:41:13
    you can't land it straight off the bat
  • 00:41:14
    as an entry level but I said like before
  • 00:41:16
    maybe that is in more of a pre-sales
  • 00:41:18
    capacity your technical Architects tend
  • 00:41:20
    to be people that have been in the
  • 00:41:22
    industry for quite a while however that
  • 00:41:24
    said I have seen people come into the
  • 00:41:26
    cloud from different Industries who've
  • 00:41:27
    landed jobs as an architect so can be an
  • 00:41:29
    option but worth considering as well
  • 00:41:33
    typical roles obviously have architects
  • 00:41:35
    in the title Cloud architect Network
  • 00:41:37
    Solutions architect again different
  • 00:41:38
    flavors of the architect title
  • 00:41:42
    about it which one of those categories
  • 00:41:44
    has an affinity to you when I've talked
  • 00:41:46
    through those potentially one of those
  • 00:41:47
    has kind of stood out for you and made
  • 00:41:49
    more sense for your particular situation
  • 00:41:51
    and your past experience but have a
  • 00:41:53
    think which category you fall in and
  • 00:41:55
    I've shared some titles with you there
  • 00:41:57
    as well that you can now go and have a
  • 00:41:58
    look and research and see if those make
  • 00:42:00
    sense for you as your first role
  • 00:42:03
    you know start to think about different
  • 00:42:04
    things are you visual are you do you
  • 00:42:06
    like working with data Maybe the data
  • 00:42:08
    side of software and cloud makes sense
  • 00:42:10
    do you want to work with people do you
  • 00:42:12
    like breaking things maybe security
  • 00:42:13
    maybe site reliability engineering maybe
  • 00:42:15
    quality assurance makes sense for you do
  • 00:42:18
    you want to be client facing or internal
  • 00:42:20
    are you do you want to be working with
  • 00:42:21
    customers do you want to be in a more
  • 00:42:23
    sales or a customer facing capacity or
  • 00:42:25
    do you want to be on a team where you
  • 00:42:26
    work day to day within a company you're
  • 00:42:28
    working towards some goal or building
  • 00:42:30
    something implementing something within
  • 00:42:32
    a company or organization
  • 00:42:34
    do you like investigations are you
  • 00:42:36
    Visionary or are you detail-oriented
  • 00:42:38
    these are all questions you want to ask
  • 00:42:39
    yourself as you try to imagine yourself
  • 00:42:41
    in some of those different categories or
  • 00:42:43
    job roles
  • 00:42:45
    now let's actually go through and have a
  • 00:42:47
    look at some different roles and start
  • 00:42:49
    to build some example learning plans but
  • 00:42:51
    like I said at the start roles are not
  • 00:42:53
    exactly well defined so we need a
  • 00:42:56
    different type of strategy we need a
  • 00:42:57
    different approach we can't just build a
  • 00:42:59
    generic learning plan for let's say for
  • 00:43:01
    a cloud engineer because lots of
  • 00:43:03
    companies have different types of cloud
  • 00:43:04
    Engineers that do slightly different
  • 00:43:05
    things so what should we do how do we
  • 00:43:07
    build a learning plan let's have a look
  • 00:43:10
    what I'm going to introduce you to here
  • 00:43:11
    is basically what I've called the duck
  • 00:43:13
    test now if you there's actually a
  • 00:43:15
    well-known
  • 00:43:16
    um idea that you can stick into Google
  • 00:43:18
    and basically means this if it walks
  • 00:43:20
    like a duck if it quacks like a duck
  • 00:43:22
    then it's a duck and that's the duck
  • 00:43:24
    test now we can apply that to jobs
  • 00:43:26
    because lots of times companies will
  • 00:43:28
    list a job let's say as a cloud engineer
  • 00:43:30
    when actually the job description
  • 00:43:31
    describes more of a software engineer or
  • 00:43:34
    maybe they ask for an architect when it
  • 00:43:35
    looks more like a cloud engineer
  • 00:43:36
    ultimately what this comes down to is it
  • 00:43:39
    doesn't make sense to focus too much on
  • 00:43:41
    the job description sorry too much on
  • 00:43:43
    the job title and more on the actual
  • 00:43:45
    description of the title so once you've
  • 00:43:47
    got your direction you've got those
  • 00:43:48
    skills you've filled out that template
  • 00:43:50
    that I shared from you before what you
  • 00:43:52
    can start to do is look at different job
  • 00:43:53
    descriptions disregard the title because
  • 00:43:56
    oftentimes employers don't 100 know
  • 00:43:58
    exactly what they're looking for and the
  • 00:44:00
    skills within can often be related to
  • 00:44:03
    the job that you're trying to get now as
  • 00:44:05
    GPS mentioned she said the same thing on
  • 00:44:07
    Twitter when applying care more about
  • 00:44:09
    the description plan plenty of roles
  • 00:44:10
    will give you Cloud exposure without
  • 00:44:12
    having cloud in the title that's exactly
  • 00:44:14
    correct so when it comes to the job hunt
  • 00:44:16
    if you're targeting let's say a devops
  • 00:44:18
    engineer don't be afraid to look at
  • 00:44:20
    software engineer Cloud engineer or some
  • 00:44:22
    of these other similar titles because
  • 00:44:23
    you'll find that the skill sets are
  • 00:44:25
    actually quite similar because there
  • 00:44:27
    isn't that sort of sense of consistency
  • 00:44:29
    across the industry
  • 00:44:31
    now if you're doing the boot camp then
  • 00:44:33
    you have homework which I'm going to go
  • 00:44:35
    through today and I'm actually going to
  • 00:44:36
    do some here with you so that you know
  • 00:44:38
    how to do it but if you're not part of
  • 00:44:39
    the boot camp you can still complete
  • 00:44:40
    this absolutely fine you can still
  • 00:44:43
    follow the steps here
  • 00:44:45
    now what I want you to do is take those
  • 00:44:47
    three things we've just discussed take
  • 00:44:49
    those four different areas those four
  • 00:44:50
    categories and look at some different
  • 00:44:52
    job descriptions start to apply the
  • 00:44:54
    mindset and think well which category is
  • 00:44:56
    this is this more of an architect more
  • 00:44:58
    of an engineer more of like a support
  • 00:45:00
    role which you know bucket does this fit
  • 00:45:02
    into that's one thing you want to start
  • 00:45:04
    to think about then start to think about
  • 00:45:06
    highlighting different skills and start
  • 00:45:08
    to build like an example learning plan
  • 00:45:09
    based on some of those different job
  • 00:45:11
    descriptions as you look at more and
  • 00:45:13
    more job descriptions you'll get a more
  • 00:45:14
    solid idea of what that particular role
  • 00:45:17
    does and then you can start to build
  • 00:45:18
    your own learning plan start to fill out
  • 00:45:20
    the different skills that you want to
  • 00:45:22
    learn based on some of the job
  • 00:45:23
    descriptions that you started to look at
  • 00:45:25
    again start to focus your learning plan
  • 00:45:27
    against the market look at the local
  • 00:45:29
    jobs available to you and then start to
  • 00:45:31
    build skills that make sense based on
  • 00:45:33
    the market that you want to enter
  • 00:45:36
    okay so let's take an example I've
  • 00:45:39
    actually filled in this template here
  • 00:45:41
    um with an example of similar how you
  • 00:45:44
    might do it so in this case this person
  • 00:45:46
    said I'm going to become a cloud
  • 00:45:47
    engineer and why do they think that
  • 00:45:50
    cloud engineer is right for them because
  • 00:45:51
    they have a background in it which is
  • 00:45:54
    great
  • 00:45:54
    and they said that they will focus on
  • 00:45:56
    AWS python terraform and GitHub actions
  • 00:45:58
    and they've listed out a few things as
  • 00:46:00
    well that they are not going to get
  • 00:46:01
    distracted by like kubernetes or
  • 00:46:03
    learning different Cloud providers so
  • 00:46:05
    let's go ahead and take a look at some
  • 00:46:07
    different job descriptions we're going
  • 00:46:08
    to highlight some of the key skills and
  • 00:46:10
    we're going to figure out is this
  • 00:46:11
    learning plan a good fit for those job
  • 00:46:13
    descriptions and should you apply
  • 00:46:15
    let's go ahead and have a look at the
  • 00:46:17
    first one
  • 00:46:19
    like I said a couple of job descriptions
  • 00:46:21
    so here we go I've extracted this from a
  • 00:46:23
    real job description that I found a
  • 00:46:25
    couple of days ago so it says here
  • 00:46:27
    hands-on experience with one or more
  • 00:46:28
    languages Java python go JavaScript
  • 00:46:31
    c-sharp Etc or I experience working with
  • 00:46:34
    Cloud technology hands-on experience
  • 00:46:36
    with continuous integration and
  • 00:46:38
    continuous delivery slash deployment
  • 00:46:40
    Okay so
  • 00:46:42
    what I'm going to do here is I'm going
  • 00:46:43
    to highlight the skills that jump out to
  • 00:46:45
    me and I'm going to go into as well
  • 00:46:47
    assign to those some different
  • 00:46:49
    technologies that I think would tick the
  • 00:46:50
    box for this type of company but have a
  • 00:46:52
    look at that job description and see
  • 00:46:54
    what sticks out for you
  • 00:46:56
    here's what stuck out to me
  • 00:46:58
    fact that they're asking for one or more
  • 00:46:59
    language so if you have a language we've
  • 00:47:01
    ticked that box asking for a cloud
  • 00:47:03
    technology and then they're asking for
  • 00:47:04
    continuous integration so let's go ahead
  • 00:47:06
    and assign Technologies to each of those
  • 00:47:08
    different categories let's say if you
  • 00:47:09
    learned python AWS and GitHub actions
  • 00:47:12
    you'd pretty much tick all the boxes for
  • 00:47:14
    this particular employer so for our
  • 00:47:17
    particular learning plan we said we're
  • 00:47:19
    going to learn AWS Python and terraform
  • 00:47:21
    perfect that makes sense for this
  • 00:47:23
    particular job description
  • 00:47:24
    let's take another
  • 00:47:26
    now this person asks for this job asks
  • 00:47:28
    for experience with cloud-based software
  • 00:47:30
    development again they're asking for AWS
  • 00:47:32
    Google and Azure or one of those using
  • 00:47:35
    infrastructure as code patterns again
  • 00:47:36
    they don't mention which specific tool
  • 00:47:38
    here they just say infrastructure as
  • 00:47:40
    code experience with any web programming
  • 00:47:42
    language JavaScript python or Ruby and
  • 00:47:45
    c-sharp.net is preferred now they go on
  • 00:47:47
    to explain a few of the things so if you
  • 00:47:49
    want pause the video have a think what
  • 00:47:51
    would you highlight what skills would
  • 00:47:52
    you build in order to land this
  • 00:47:54
    particular job and then I'm going to go
  • 00:47:56
    ahead and tell you what I would put
  • 00:47:59
    so here are the parts I would be
  • 00:48:01
    focusing on so they've mentioned Cloud
  • 00:48:03
    infrastructures code programming
  • 00:48:05
    language and they've also mentioned down
  • 00:48:07
    at the bottom some databases and
  • 00:48:08
    continuous integration so again let's go
  • 00:48:10
    ahead and put some logos some tools
  • 00:48:13
    against those for the cloud we've got
  • 00:48:15
    AWS terraform for infrastructure as code
  • 00:48:17
    maybe python as a programming language
  • 00:48:19
    and then for the different databases
  • 00:48:21
    down here mongodb postgres mongodb is a
  • 00:48:25
    nosql database and postgres is a SQL one
  • 00:48:28
    and then GitHub actions so the learning
  • 00:48:31
    plan that we put together just now had
  • 00:48:32
    all of that except from some of the
  • 00:48:34
    database Concepts I would still go and
  • 00:48:36
    apply for this job description if I was
  • 00:48:38
    building that certain learning plan
  • 00:48:40
    however you might want to consider
  • 00:48:41
    adding some database into there as well
  • 00:48:43
    because that might help you once you've
  • 00:48:45
    gone through and learned in a very solid
  • 00:48:47
    way those initial skills that you were
  • 00:48:48
    building
  • 00:48:50
    so if I was if this was my learning plan
  • 00:48:52
    for sure that also fits to that job
  • 00:48:54
    description
  • 00:48:56
    now lastly let's take a final one now
  • 00:48:58
    this one's quite long so if you want you
  • 00:49:00
    can pause the video and again I'm going
  • 00:49:02
    to highlight some of the key points on
  • 00:49:04
    here different skills that I would focus
  • 00:49:06
    on if I was looking at this as a job
  • 00:49:09
    so we've got Cloud platform we've got
  • 00:49:11
    infrastructures code with terraform
  • 00:49:12
    Docker CI CD Pipeline and an object
  • 00:49:15
    oriented programming language so again
  • 00:49:17
    some of those similar skills from last
  • 00:49:19
    time but in this case maybe Google cloud
  • 00:49:21
    makes sense but they do say similar
  • 00:49:22
    terraform Docker GitHub actions python
  • 00:49:26
    so again it's quite a close fit it's
  • 00:49:28
    quite a close fit to the learning plan
  • 00:49:29
    that we had before includes some of the
  • 00:49:31
    same skills so what I want you to do is
  • 00:49:34
    for your homework is start to go through
  • 00:49:35
    go through some of these different job
  • 00:49:37
    descriptions and start to build your own
  • 00:49:38
    learning plan look at what employers are
  • 00:49:40
    asking for try to spot Trends which
  • 00:49:42
    different skills are they asking for
  • 00:49:44
    that work together and start to build
  • 00:49:46
    your own learning plan
  • 00:49:49
    so that's your homework fill in the
  • 00:49:50
    journey to Cloud template which job do
  • 00:49:52
    you want in Cloud what are the skills
  • 00:49:54
    that you're going to learn think about
  • 00:49:55
    those different four categories which is
  • 00:49:57
    the category that stands out to you the
  • 00:49:59
    most and have a look at those roles that
  • 00:50:01
    I talked about earlier on have a think
  • 00:50:02
    about which are the ones that fit right
  • 00:50:04
    for you here's a reference from open
  • 00:50:06
    upthecloud.com forward slash system that
  • 00:50:09
    you can have a go through and then once
  • 00:50:11
    you build that direction then you can
  • 00:50:12
    start to field some of this different
  • 00:50:14
    bits of feedback that might come through
  • 00:50:16
    and you can start to make sure that you
  • 00:50:18
    only take on board feedback that's
  • 00:50:19
    aligned with your goal rather than
  • 00:50:21
    getting pushed around in different
  • 00:50:22
    directions
  • 00:50:24
    to fill out the template add in what you
  • 00:50:26
    want to do and then start to think about
  • 00:50:28
    how you can plug that Gap how you can
  • 00:50:30
    bring your own skills towards the market
  • 00:50:32
    how you can find out what employers are
  • 00:50:34
    actually after by looking at job
  • 00:50:35
    descriptions and then filling in those
  • 00:50:37
    skills that you're going to learn
  • 00:50:39
    think about the golden rules we talked
  • 00:50:41
    about make sure your skills are cohesive
  • 00:50:43
    try and avoid duplicates and trying to
  • 00:50:45
    make those skills align with that job
  • 00:50:47
    that you're trying to do
  • 00:50:48
    and remember lastly the journey is not a
  • 00:50:52
    direct linear process there might be
  • 00:50:53
    steps back it might mean that you want
  • 00:50:55
    to take a support role before you go on
  • 00:50:57
    to take a different role maybe you
  • 00:50:58
    become a cloud engineer and then devops
  • 00:51:00
    maybe architecture is the job role that
  • 00:51:02
    you really want but it makes sense to
  • 00:51:04
    start off maybe as a software engineer
  • 00:51:05
    or Cloud engineer that's absolutely fine
  • 00:51:07
    everyone's journey is completely
  • 00:51:09
    different so don't worry it can be a bit
  • 00:51:11
    of a whining journey and your journey
  • 00:51:13
    might be different to other people but
  • 00:51:14
    don't worry just take your time do
  • 00:51:16
    everything you need to do work hard and
  • 00:51:18
    then everything will come together in
  • 00:51:20
    time
  • 00:51:20
    and remember where you start is not
  • 00:51:22
    where you end up you know you can start
  • 00:51:24
    with one different role and then change
  • 00:51:26
    a lot of people get very caught up
  • 00:51:28
    trying to chase after one specific job
  • 00:51:30
    role or one specific goal in the cloud
  • 00:51:32
    industry but it doesn't really matter
  • 00:51:33
    sometimes you can start off sometimes an
  • 00:51:36
    opportunity comes your way and then you
  • 00:51:37
    take it and just like some monkey bars
  • 00:51:39
    you're swinging your way through your
  • 00:51:41
    career sometimes it's not as simple as a
  • 00:51:43
    basic ladder or Landing that job that
  • 00:51:45
    you wanted straight away sometimes you
  • 00:51:47
    have to take other jobs as a stepping
  • 00:51:49
    stone to work your way through
  • 00:51:52
    and lastly again I just look forward to
  • 00:51:54
    sharing your job post oh I got the job
  • 00:51:56
    post so when you land that job I'm here
  • 00:51:58
    to share it the community is here to
  • 00:51:59
    celebrate with you ask us questions and
  • 00:52:01
    we'll do our best to support you like I
  • 00:52:04
    say if you have more questions for the
  • 00:52:05
    answers in the rest of the sessions that
  • 00:52:07
    I'll be doing next month and the
  • 00:52:09
    following months after go ahead and put
  • 00:52:11
    that open up thecloud.com forward slash
  • 00:52:13
    bootcamp survey I'll leave a link down
  • 00:52:15
    below as well so you can access that
  • 00:52:17
    and also there you go if you want to ask
  • 00:52:20
    questions in the comment box down below
  • 00:52:21
    I'm more than happy to answer questions
  • 00:52:22
    if you have them about specific roles or
  • 00:52:25
    something like that and also you can
  • 00:52:26
    find me on social media I tend to be go
  • 00:52:28
    by Lou JB on almost all platforms
  • 00:52:31
    Twitter LinkedIn and that kind of thing
  • 00:52:33
    and then you can find open up the cloud
  • 00:52:34
    here on YouTube on Twitter on Instagram
  • 00:52:36
    all under open up the cloud handle as
  • 00:52:39
    well so thank you very much good luck
  • 00:52:41
    with the boot camp and I will see you in
  • 00:52:43
    the next session and possibly we'll also
  • 00:52:45
    do some q a and some chatting on social
  • 00:52:47
    or you can find me in the Discord
  • 00:52:48
    channel for the cloud project as well
  • 00:52:51
    okay thank you very much and I'll speak
  • 00:52:53
    to you soon ciao
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