00:00Before I started working at AWS I honestly didn't really know what the cloud was.
00:04I remember during the days leading up to my AWS interviews I was frantically trying to watch
00:09YouTube videos and read articles just to make sure I could understand the basic definition
00:13of cloud computing and how AWS fits into the picture. Thankfully the role I applied for was
00:18an internship in a non-technical team so the emphasis wasn't on how much I knew about the
00:22cloud and all the technical concepts that came along with it. I had a lot of fun during that
00:27internship. I met tons of cool people and I worked on some interesting projects and since then I've
00:32converted my internship into a full-time graduate role as an associate solutions architect and I've
00:38been in this role for just over a year now. In this time I've gotten five AWS certifications and I
00:43also
00:44started this YouTube channel to share what it's like working at AWS. As an associate solutions
00:48architect I spend a lot of time these days engaging with customers and helping them on their cloud
00:53journey by providing technical guidance. So knowing what I know now how would I learn AWS if I were to
00:58start over? I joined AWS not really knowing much about cloud computing and I really had to put in a
01:03lot of time and effort into my learning. I've definitely made a few mistakes throughout my
01:07learning process and so in this video I wanted to share a three-step roadmap that you can use to
01:12gain a solid understanding of AWS and make sure you watch until the end of this video because I'll be
01:17sharing some tips and tricks to make sure you don't burn out or give up throughout this whole journey.
01:21All the resources I mentioned will be linked in the description below and if you find this video
01:26helpful in any way please make sure to give it a like. Alright so before you dive straight into
01:31studying for AWS certifications I would recommend first getting a basic understanding of what cloud
01:36computing is and also fill in any initial gaps you may have in your knowledge. You can start off by
01:41watching this three minute video on the AWS official YouTube channel that defines what cloud computing is.
01:46If there's anything that sounds unfamiliar to you, for example you're not too sure what a physical data center is
01:51or what networking is, you can fill in these gaps by doing your research online. If you're already
01:55familiar with what cloud computing is, feel free to head straight to step two. Step number two is where
02:01the hard work actually begins because instead of reading blogs and also watching videos just to get a
02:06basic understanding of the cloud, this step is all about working towards getting an AWS certification.
02:12The first one I recommend taking is the AWS cloud practitioner certification. Getting this certification shows
02:17employers you have a foundational understanding of AWS. It also provides a structured learning
02:22pathway for you because there are specific topics they will test you on. If you're interested in getting
02:27this certification I recommend checking out this video I made about how I was able to pass the AWS
02:32cloud practitioner exam in three weeks which was actually my first ever YouTube video. The exam is one
02:38and a half hours long and to prepare for it I followed video courses and did practice exams. I'll link
02:43all the
02:43resources I used to study for AWS certifications in the description below so make sure you take a look
02:48if you're interested. Now if I were to go back and redo this step I would also use this free
02:53six hour
02:53cloud practitioner essentials course offered by AWS. I've heard really great things about this course so if
02:59you don't want to use any paid resources this could be a really good one to start with. Once you
03:03get your
03:04AWS cloud practitioner cert instead of moving straight to step three what I recommend is also getting your
03:09AWS solutions architect associate cert. This one requires a deeper knowledge of AWS and focuses more on
03:15architectural patterns as well as how to identify the best AWS services for a given technical
03:20requirement. Now step three is a part where a lot of people tend to stumble on and tend to try
03:25and
03:26avoid and I was guilty of that as well for a while so at the end of the day the
03:31AWS solutions architect
03:32associate exam and other certification exams they're all multiple choice exams and to really build your
03:37skills in AWS you have to be hands-on. This means doing a lot of AWS self-paced labs, having
03:43a look at
03:44the online workshops available and trying to build something that you're able to showcase. There's
03:48actually heaps of resources out there to help with this. So the first resource I recommend is
03:52workshops.aws. This is an AWS site where you can find self-paced workshops ranging from all levels of
03:59difficulties so you can see there's level 300, level 200, level 100 as well and there's a lot of workshops
04:07you
04:07can choose from so for example this AWS networking workshop. You can see that it covers the full
04:12spectrum of AWS networking all the way from the basics of a VPC and subnets to the more advanced
04:18configurations. The next resource is AWS ramp-up guides and I've actually recommended this to my
04:24customers before especially customers who are quite new to the cloud. So you can see that you can choose
04:30ramp-up guides by role, by solution or by industry and for example just clicking on one of the ramp
04:36-up
04:36guides you can see that they've actually centralized a lot of the useful materials for example white
04:42papers and self-paced labs. The third resource I'd like to recommend is actually Udemy courses. There's
04:47actually a few Udemy courses that actually offer a lot of hands-on experience. For example this one is
04:52all about building a serverless web app with AWS Lambda and you can see there's seven and a half hours
04:57of
04:58on-demand video. So if you prefer learning through video demos and having someone walk through the steps
05:03one by one it might be more engaging for you and easier to follow along. Okay now let's talk about
05:08some tips and tricks to make sure you don't give up halfway through your learning. I've written some
05:12notes here and there's a few key things I wanted to mention. The first one is that you don't have
05:17to
05:17follow a super linear approach when you know approaching your cloud journey. When it comes to
05:21AWS certifications there's nothing forcing you to sit through a whole 50-hour video course before you
05:26start doing practice questions and before you start trying out some of the AWS workshops. In fact it's actually better
05:31if you
05:32don't do that. Don't go through the whole video course end to end and then do the practice exams.
05:37It's much better if you focus on the different topics that the AWS certification covers and then
05:42validate that knowledge through practice questions and then following that up with hands-on exercises
05:47where you're able to see what it actually looks like in the AWS console and how these services work
05:53and link together. My second tip is to always remember your why. So why did you decide to embark on
05:59this
05:59challenging journey in the first place? I think for a lot of you it might be to land a job
06:03in tech
06:04more specifically in cloud computing and so getting an AWS certification learning the foundations of AWS
06:10can really help you stand out in the application process. If you set that as your end goal you can
06:15work
06:15backwards from that and set small achievable milestones that you have to complete at the end of
06:20each month. So for example in by the end of the first month you can be like I want to
06:25get my
06:25AWS certified cloud practitioner exam done and by setting milestones and celebrating after every
06:30milestone it would really help you stay motivated and consistent throughout the whole journey. My third
06:35tip is to just be kind to yourself because everyone learns things differently and at a different pace
06:41as well and everyone comes from different technical backgrounds. Some people might not know anything
06:47about IT whereas some people might be working in tech for a couple years but don't really understand cloud
06:52concepts yet so I would recommend never comparing your progress with other people and just focus on
06:57what you want to achieve. Alright so this brings us to the very end of this video hope you enjoyed
07:01it
07:01if you did please give it a like and if you have any questions comments suggestions leave it down in
07:06the
07:06comments below and in the meantime before I upload my next video feel free to check out any of these
07:12videos to learn more about what it's like working at AWS.
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