Don't Apply To A Cloud Tech Job Until You Watch This

If you want to break into the cloud industry, don’t apply to any jobs until you watch this video.

What we’re going to talk about today might be a bit controversial, but I feel it’s important for you to know if you really want to land that first cloud job.

Today we are going to talk about why some cloud beginners get hired and why others get ghosted by recruiters.

I will also give you a quick quiz you can take to find out if you’re ready to get your first cloud job.

This episode is packed with value and will give you a better chance of getting hired so make sure you watch till the end.

We talk to a lot of beginners like you who want to break into the cloud industry and noticed that there’s one big difference between cloud beginners who fail to secure a job and those who go on to receive multiple job offers.

What's this difference I hear you ask?

To answer that question, let me tell you a quick story about a cloud beginner called Eric.

Eric works as an accountant and decides that he needs a career change.

After doing some research, Eric decides that he really wants to get a job in tech, specifically, the cloud industry.

To achieve this goal he begins following some tech influencers on Youtube and Tiktok to get insights into what he needs to do to secure that job offer.

Every tech influencer Eric follows, tells him that all he needs to do is complete the cloud practitioner certification and the AWS Solution Architect Certification.

Once he gets those certs he will easily land that sweet sweet cloud job earning 6 figures working remotely and sipping margaritas on the beach.

And so he does what they say, he gets his two certifications and begins applying for jobs.

He’s optimistic because he is ready to begin his new career in an exciting new field. 

And then good news! He starts receiving responses from his applications.

But as soon as he opens the emails he realises that these are rejection letters.

The rejection letters start to pile up and all of a sudden, it dawns on Eric that this industry might be a bit tougher to break into than the tech influencers made him believe.

Here at Cloud Career Mentor we’ve spoken to a lot of cloud beginners who’ve had very similar experiences to Eric.

It’s normal to receive a lot of rejection letters when you’re trying to break into a new industry, hell, it’s normal to receive rejection letters even if you do have experience in that industry.

At the start of this video I promised to tell you the difference between cloud beginners who only receive rejection letters, and those who actually get job offers.

The answer is quite simple really, the difference is that those who end up being successful have the right mindset and attitude.

We’ve noticed that if you’re a cloud beginner who faces rejection and after rejection you can react in one of two ways.

The first way you can react is with what we call the Disenfranchised Mindset.

We’ve noticed that people with a disenfranchised mindset will complain that there are no entry level cloud jobs, they complain that employers aren’t willing to take a chance on beginners. 

They do a lot of complaining about the cloud industry but when we talk to them and ask them about what tech projects they’ve done, we quickly realise that they are not nearly as skilled as they think they are, and have not actually developed the skills that employers are looking for. 

This of course explains why they receive so many rejection letters. 

It’s called the disenfranchised mindset because the people who have this mindset feel like everything is out of their control, that there is nothing they can do to improve themselves and their circumstances, which means that the only option they have is to complain.

Now let’s compare the Disenfranchised mindset to the second way you can react after getting rejected by recruiters. 

If like Eric you’ve been receiving a lot of rejection letters, you can react with what we call the Empowered Mindset.

People who have this mindset are more likely to take a proactive approach to their life and their career. 

For example, after getting multiple rejection emails, they will begin looking more closely at the job descriptions to find out what skills and technologies employers are actually looking for. 

Once they understand what employers want, they will begin putting in the work to learn these technologies at a deeper level. 

By doing this, they begin to  improve themselves by learning the right technical skills and building high quality projects which help them to stand out from all the other candidates.

This causes them to be more attractive to employers until they begin receiving interview calls and eventually they’re able to secure job offers.

Now, the good news is that if you find yourself complaining about a lack of entry level roles or the fact that employers aren't taking a chance on beginners, we’ve designed a simple quiz you can take to see if you have the skills that employers are looking for. 

There are basically 6 main technologies you need to learn to stand a chance of receiving a job offer.

I’m going to list out all the technologies, but what I want you to do is to rate yourself out of ten for each of these technologies in the comment section. With one being that you have absolutely no experience with that technology and ten being that you feel confident with the technology and have completed multiple high quality projects with it.

I want you to be completely honest with yourself and if you're listening to an audio podcast I want you to go to YouTube and drop your comment there, I'm really excited to read your responses!

Ok you ready? let's begin:

The first skill employers are looking for is your ability to navigate the Linux command line. 

What would you rate yourself out of ten? 

One being that you've never written a command in the Linux terminal and ten being that you're a complete Linux wizard.

The second technology is AWS or Azure. 

How confident do you feel deploying complex infrastructure with AWS? 

Do you understand how networking works? security? 

Rate yourself based on your confidence using the AWS console to deploy infrastructure. 

With one being that you've never actually created anything in the AWS console and ten being you feel very confident deploying infrastructure in the AWS console and can complete any task you’re given. 

For bonus points please give examples of the projects you've done in the comments.

The third technology employers are looking for is experience with Infrastructure as code tools like Terraform. 

How would you rate yourself out of ten with this technology, with one being you've heard of it but you haven't actually used it, and ten being you've completed multiple high projects with it.

The fourth technology I want you to rate yourself out of ten is CICD, one being you've heard of it but never used it, and ten being you can create complex CICD pipelines across multiple environments.

The fifth technology you should rate yourself on is a programming language like Python, One being you haven't touched python before and ten being you feel comfortable building complex applications with it on your own.

The final technology I want you to rate yourself on is Docker, with one being you haven't done anything at all with docker and ten being you're a docker pro.

Please remember to post your ratings in the comments below because I’m really curious to find out what your experience level is. 

Feel free to rewind to catch all the technologies I mentioned.

By doing this exercise it will allow you to see where your weak points are so you know what you need to focus on to improve your chances of standing out to cloud recruiters.

Listen, the next point I’m about to make is really important so I need you to pay close attention.

One of the reasons the disenfranchised mindset we talked about earlier is so dangerous is that it’s a really selfish mindset.

It’s all about what you can get rather than what you can give. 

In 1961, John F Kennedy was sworn in as the 35th president of the United States. 

In his Inaugural Speech there was a powerful line he delivered that I think applies to you as a beginner trying to break into the cloud industry, and it goes like this:

"ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country."

This is a powerful line because it can be applied to your mindset and approach to breaking into tech.

So here’s how I would adapt it for cloud beginners:

"ask not what Cloud employers can do for you — ask what you can do for cloud employers."

Those who have the disenfranchised mindset are always asking what cloud employers can do for them. 

Can employers give them 6 figure jobs? 

Can employers let them work remotely? 

Can employers take a chance on them even though they have minimal skills?

They never ask what skills or value they bring to employers.

This is why I like those of you with the Empowered mindset, because rather than asking what employers can do for you, you ask meaningful questions like:

What skills are employers looking for?

How can you get those skills?

How can you make yourself so good that employers have no choice but to hire you?

How can you be the best?

You understand that by prioritising your skills and building high quality projects, you’ll become a more attractive candidate to recruiters and therefore become more likely to get that job offer.

So if you find yourself complaining and acting with a disenfranchised mindset, I want you to switch to a more empowered mindset and understand that you can build up the skills that employers are looking for which will make you a more valuable candidate.

This way an employer won't need to "take a chance on you", because you’ll become the sort of candidate they would be clambering over each other to hire because you’re simply the best candidate.

If you have an empowered mindset and want to get access to the high quality projects that will help you stand out from the candidates that have a disenfranchised mindset, then check out our program at cloudcareermentor.com, link is in the description below.

With this program you not only get access to 20+ high quality cloud projects, but you also get access to a supportive private community that will help answer any questions if you get stuck.

You also get regular access to a mentor on a one-to-one basis.

This program has been designed to give you all the tools you need to be successful, to find out more, simply go to cloudcareermentor.com