I’ve been working in the cloud for as long as the cloud existed – and I’ve been sharing my experience in the cloud world regularly with you for the past year or so on this channel – But it hit me recently that I’ve never really shared with you how I was able to land my job as a Sr Solutions Architect at AWS, the biggest cloud provider in the world.

Although life is chaotic and you can’t control much, I like to plan ahead, So getting into AWS back in 2019 wasn’t a stroke of luck, it was a goal I started working towards 4 years earlier – I still remember when I purchased the classic “Cracking the coding interview”

It wasn’t all sunshine and rainbows, I had my fair share of failures along the way.

But today I will share the process I followed, and the step-by-step system I used and YOU can use it as well to land your dream job at Amazon, Microsoft, Google, or any other company.

And since this is a learning process for me as well, I will go about some things I would approach differently if I had to start over

Chapter 1: Want It
This might as well be the most important point in this article.
If you’re unsure if you want to get into cloud computing, it is actually very easy to get demotivated.

But if you are positive this is the career path for you, that will keep you motivated even through some of the challenges you might encounter as a beginner.

Speaking of motivation, I wouldn’t rely on motivation if I had to start over: Motivation is… “not efficient” at best. it fluctuates a lot depending on how good you slept the day before, and whether you had your breakfast or not… Not efficient; I would replace it with Discipline, I would’ve created a schedule for studying and stuck to it. But I digress.

More people are pursuing professions in tech more than ever, but when it comes to cloud computing, there’s still a lot more demand than supply.

So it’s still an industry with a promising career outlook, as businesses are in a race to adapt and improve on their technologies: I actually have made a video about the top 5 careers in the cloud of 2022. I left a link in the video description so you can watch it after you finish this video

Your career goals as a beginner in this industry should be specific but also enable you to pivot if necessary because getting to your goal is never going to be straightforward: many of my colleagues have pursued careers in non-tech domains for years before pivoting.

It’s never too early or too late to begin planning your career aspirations. I cannot emphasize how important it is !! But Accountability is a key component in achieving goals: being responsible for one’s own actions goes a long way. I still write my objectives, and I found that putting them down on paper helps me have clarity about what I want to accomplish because it’s easy to get stuck in the vague “I want to be successful” mindset, but you gotta know what does “be successful” or “be happy” or “be rich” mean for you specifically? For example, being rich for me means being able to afford to travel first class without ever thinking about it – I tried it once and it blew my mind, anyway! My point is, you gotta know your goals exactly: is it joining a FAANG company in whatever capacity? Or is it becoming a manager in the company of your dreams… you gotta know what you’re working towards, otherwise, it’s like going to the gym with the goal of “I wanna be bigger”, bigger, or slimmer means different things to different people, so you gotta put a number on it.

Without that number, it’s hard to build an efficient strategy.

I’m not gonna tell you to wake up at 4 am every day and to stop procrastination… we all struggle with that shit. The bottom line is you gotta know exactly what you want.

Chapter 2: Go The Extra Mile
Do what people aren’t willing to do.

Write that documentation when no one is willing to.

Find time to read that book when no one has time to. I actually rarely read these days, I consume my books as audiobooks.

Write your unit tests when everyone cries there is no time to do it, take a few extra minutes to prepare for that upcoming meeting when everyone just shows up empty-handed –

And also follow up on those action plans when everyone else completely forgets about them after the meeting is done

Your track record will always speak for itself and help you advance much faster, and you unlock doors you didn’t know existed by becoming more valuable.

Let me tell you something as someone who interviewed hundreds of people: employers are searching for more than simply technical or “hard” skills.

Over the last several years, discussions on leadership have been more focused on the soft skills required to thrive in the workplace – those attributes that come easily to some but need more effort for others, but in reality, all it takes is a little effort.

So don’t forget, go the extra mile, your future self will thank you later

Chapter 3: Build A Brand
I didn’t apply for the job at AWS, I was actually contacted by a recruiter –

But How?

Whether you’re new to cloud computing or already have a presence in the market, there is a lot to learn about building a brand –

And I remember watching a video on Youtube about how to build a brand for your business and I tried to apply its concepts to myself as if I was a business:
I redid my Linkedin profile,
spent a couple of hours rewriting my description, chose the groups I join carefully,
The hashtags to target
and other stuff I might get into in a future episode,

The bottom line is: that you don’t have to be on Social Media sharing every instant of your life and commenting on every instant of someone else’s, but your business, in this case: the “Professional you” must be on social media.

A strong online presence is essential and can be used to establish credibility and continue to build your brand long after working for other clients. I get this question a lot “What type of portfolio should I have” well, your brand is your business identity. And it’s one of the most important ways to build a portfolio. It might sound complicated, but it doesn’t have to be.

Here are three tips for building your brand:
Increasing visibility: When you’re actively establishing a personal brand, you share material and ideas on a regular basis, whether it’s a quick status update or a comprehensive blog piece. Regular content sharing will raise your exposure in your selected networks over time.
Make a lasting impression: A personal brand will not only help you stand out, but it will also help you leave a lasting impression. Because of your personal brand, you’ll come to mind the next time someone needs a Cloud specialist or a security analyst.
Make yourself stand out from the crowd: Anyone can publish content and have an online presence, but only you have your own personal brand. No one can match that, and your personal brand is your chance to stand out— It’s how you’ll connect with the people you want to interact with and get recognized by them. This leads me to my next point.

Chapter 4: Become an expert
Like many of you, I grew up watching fictional Hollywood movies and I’ve always been fascinated by those scenes where the earth is facing a threat, and POTUS will sends a helicopter to the house of an expert in geology, space, linguistics or whatever because they’re the best in their field, so they get a military escort to the white house to join a task force working day & night to deliver us from evil aliens or Godzilla…

Joking aside, it is important to continuously look for methods to grow professionally in order to be competitive in today’s job market and achieve your career goals –

Those who reinvest in their personal and professional growth typically reap additional prospects for progress, higher wages, and more job satisfaction.

Earning industry certification or Joining a professional organization can help you learn new technology in your field, and improve your career prospects.

Back in 2018, I enrolled in a $2500 course at York University in Toronto, I took a few days off and travelled more than 500km away, I booked an Air B&B near the university and stayed there for over 4 days, attending an accelerated course about HyperLedger Fabric, IBM’s proprietary Blockchain technology used by Wallmart, Honeywell and others. And by the end of the course, I took the exam to become a Certified Fabric Developer (CFD).

The whole trip cost me around $4k, but you know what, those were $4000 well spent because that knowledge & certification allowed me to negotiate a $20k salary increase with a company I joined afterwards to work on their blockchain solution.

Not bragging, I promised I’ll share what I did, so I’m fulfiling my promise.

So here’s my advice for you, I want you to pick up something and become an expert in it, doesn’t matter what it is: can be sales if you have a talent for it, can be mobile applications security, can be repairing computers, can be as specific as fixing the dials of Seiko watches –
Because guess what, when you become an expert in your niche, that’s when good things happen, that’s when you have all leverage you need to negotiate your salary and that’s when POTUS sends a motorcade to escort you back to the white house-

If you’re just another React developer – and I have nothing against React, I in fact am happy that finally, the JS community seems to have settled on one framework – I just picked a common technology to say that you won’t have any leverage over millions of other React developers out there and thus, you become… easily replaceable.

If I could go back in time, I might even decide to skip that 2nd master’s degree in favour of a more focused degree – But, as you know, captain hindsight is always right…

So just, keep the following in mind: Pick something, make it your Kung Fu, and become the expert in it.

Chapter 5: Rewrite Your Resume
How can you ensure that your resume has the most impact?

You want your resume to reflect you properly at a glance if you’re searching for a tech job.

Consider writing your CV for a tech job as if you were looking for a new book in the library-

You head straight to the “best seller” section because you’re looking for an exciting thriller, A few titles pique your curiosity, so you pick one up and glare at the synopsis to see whether any of the books are worth purchasing,

but you quit reading the first summary halfway through because nothing grabs your attention: Now what you may not have understood was that the last sentence included a huge plot twist that would have compelled you to buy the book right away.

A Resume is essentially the same! A recruiter may overlook your relevant abilities, or work experience if you don’t put them in the right places.