If I Were Looking For A Cloud Job In 2024 I'd Do This

I know you’ve been struggling to break into the cloud industry for a while.

You hear it’s really high paying and that there are lots of opportunities for remote work, but you just can’t seem to be able to land that first cloud job and begin the life you’ve always dreamed of.

What if I told you there was a simple process you could follow that would increase your chances of getting that first cloud job significantly.

My name is Fayomi, I’m a senior solution architect with years of experience in the cloud industry. I’ve worked in different roles across the industry, from Cloud Engineer, to Devops Engineer and now I'm a Senior Solution Architect working with the AWS cloud.

I also have experience hiring Cloud engineers, so I have a good understanding of what employers are looking for.

With my deep expertise in the industry, I have created a 6 month plan of how I would land my first Cloud job if I was to start my career all over again.

Today, I’m going to share what I would do, from month one to month 6 because I believe that if you follow it, you’ll have recruiters banging on your door and employers throwing offer letters at you.

I know this process works because people who I mentor have followed this exact process and gotten jobs through it, with some of them getting multiple job offers.

If you are excited to learn this plan, then please hit that like button so I know you find this content valuable.

Alright let’s dive right into it.

In month one, the first thing I would learn is the Linux command line. 

This is because over 90% of all cloud workloads run on Linux and so if you don’t learn how to navigate the linux command line then you might as well give up now, because you won’t be able to get a cloud job without it.

Once I feel comfortable with the Linux command line, I would then set up an AWS account and spin up simple resources like EC2, S3 and RDS, just to get familiar with working in the cloud console.

A simple project I would do is set up a Web Server on an EC2 instance in AWS. This will not only get me familiar with cloud services, but it will also allow me to utilise my Linux command line skills

A more advanced version of this project would be to deploy a wordpress server in AWS using EC2 and RDS. This is a great project to really get your hands dirty with the cloud.

Moving into month two, I’d want to begin learning scripting and automation tools. A big part of working in the cloud is all about automating processes.

This is a great way to stand out from other job applicants because most beginners don’t take the time to learn these scripting and automation tools.

The first technology I would learn is Terraform. This is an infrastructure as code tool that helps you automate the creation and maintenance of cloud resources. 

For example, in month one when I created my EC2 instance or RDS, I would have spun these up using the AWS console. However, in month two, I would learn how to script the creation of these resources using Terraform.

Employers love Terraform because it allows them to create and re-create cloud resources quicker and easier. For example, if for some reason your account gets hacked and all your resources get deleted, you can simply re-run the terraform script and it will automatically recreate all the resources you lost quickly and easily.

It also allows teams to scale their infrastructure to different regions quickly and with minimal errors.

For example, Imagine you’re an ecommerce business primarily based in the US, but then you find out that you’re getting a lot of customers from Europe. You initially created all your AWS resources in an American region but you realise that to improve the user experience for the European users you need to replicate all the American AWS resources in Europe.

If you had deployed all those resources manually then it could take a lot of time to map out all the resources that exist, and recreate them. There is also a high chance of human error happening where you forget to deploy certain resources, or you fail to update certain permissions to allow the services to talk to each other.

But, if you have all those resources terraformed, then all you need to do is update some parameters and all your resources will be deployed in the new region quickly, easily and with minimal mistakes.

This is why infrastructure as code tools like Terraform are important.

Once I’ve gotten some Terraform projects under my belt I would then move on to learning Git and CICD. 

CICD is important to employers because it makes the deployment of application and infrastructure resources more automated. 

Back in the old days, if you wanted to update an application on a server, you would have to S.S.H to the server and manually change the different code files. 

This process was very time consuming and was also prone to error, for example if you have to update 20 files on 20 servers, it would be easy to accidentally change the wrong file which could lead to issues.

With CICD, you now have access to a streamlined deployment process and less opportunities for human error that comes with manual deployment.

It also leads to faster deployment cycles, as development teams can test application changes in test environments that reflect what production looks like earlier in the development process

And finally, it leads to improved security, as applications can be scanned and tested before being deployed to the production workload.

If you can demonstrate to potential employers that you’re comfortable creating and managing CICD pipelines you will definitely be at an advantage over all the other candidates who haven't developed these skills. 

I know this sounds like a lot but trust me you can do it.

Are you still with me?

Let’s move on to month three.

In month three, my one and only priority is to learn the Python programming language.

Now, I know a lot of you are nervous about programming and want to avoid it at all cost. But what if I told you there was a way to not only learn programming easily, but to actually enjoy programming and be excited to master it.

It’s really important to learn programming for 2 reasons.

The first, is that employers really value programming as a skill because your ability to write scripts can really help improve systems and processes.

The second reason you need to learn programming is because a lot of beginners don’t take the time to learn it. 

This means that if you’re one of the few applicants for a job who knows how to program, your resume will shoot up to the top of the list and you’ll be more likely to secure interviews and achieve your goal of getting that dream cloud job.

Before we move on to month four, I just want to take a minute to acknowledge the progress you can make in just three months if you follow my plan.

Think about it. 

By the end of month three you would have mastered the Llinux command line, gotten a lot of high quality cloud projects under your belt, you'll feel comfortable scripting cloud infrastructure using Terraform, and creating complex CICD pipelines. You’ll also have overcome your fear of programming and become really good at Python.

In short, you will be an employer's dream candidate. 

But your work is not done yet, let's move on to month four.

In month four, my focus will be on updating my resume with all the projects I’ve done and begin applying for jobs.

A mistake I see a lot of people make when applying for jobs is that they don’t have a sense of urgency.

Now what do I mean by this?

I mean that they usually apply to one or two jobs a week and because of this they don’t get any results.

When I apply for jobs, I usually apply to between 10 and 20 job postings a day.

I believe the big secret of getting a Cloud job is that it’s a numbers game. The more jobs you apply for the higher your chances of securing that job offer.

Think of it this way, if you apply to 10 jobs a day 5 days a week. In a month you will be averaging about 200 jobs a month, out of this, assuming that your resume shows your technical skills well, I’d expect you to get 2 to 3 interviews and out of those you can get 1 job offer

Compare that to someone who only applies for 2 jobs a week where in a month you’d only have applied to 8 jobs.

I’m not saying you can’t get a job with this more laissez faire approach, but what I would say is that statistics and probability are not in your favour if you don’t get aggressive with your job applications.

Now even though my priority in month four is job applications, that doesn't mean that my learning stops.

This is a good time to begin learning all about Docker and building your skills with that technology.

Remember, continually improving your technical skills is one of the most important things you can do to get hired.

Now let’s talk about month five.

By month five I expect to begin getting calls for interviews.

Here, my focus will be on interview prep. This means researching the most common questions likely to come up in an interview and preparing my responses to them.

This also means researching the company that I’m interviewing with and tailoring my responses to them.

I’ve created a video on how I would prepare for cloud interviews to guarantee success, so feel free to give that video a watch after this to make sure you are as ready as possible for when you get that interview.

While all of this is happening, I’m revisiting all the technologies and projects I worked on in months one to four to make sure they are fresh in my mind so I can talk about them in my interviews.

By Month six, all of these activities will have resulted in receiving a job offer and I expect to begin my new career in the Cloud industry.

Now, I know I’ve highlighted a lot of technologies you need to learn and it can seem overwhelming. 

If I’m being honest, building the right cloud skills takes a lot of work and effort. This is one of the reasons the industry pays so well, because candidates who can do the job properly are rare and highly valued. 

It's a basic supply and demand problem, there is a huge demand from employers for candidates who have the skills we’ve talked about today, and there is a low supply of candidates with those skills, and so for those candidates who actually have these rare skills, you can get paid a higher salary. It’s not magic, it’s just economics.

As I mentioned earlier, learning all those skills can be difficult and confusing. But what if I told you that there was a program you could follow to learn these skills quickly and easily. 

What if you could follow a structured process that teaches you all these skills and provides you with the high quality projects you need to practise and improve.

What if I told you that you could also get access to a small private community where you could ask questions if you got stuck and needed help troubleshooting.

Well the good news is that such a program exists! It’s called the Cloud Career Acceleration program.

This is a program I created because it’s something that I wish existed when I was a beginner. 

I remember wasting so much time following low quality tutorials, not having a community to support me and generally doing everything inefficiently.

This program has been created to help you shortcut your learning so you can achieve that high paying job as quickly as possible by building the skills that employers are actually looking for.

If you’re interested then go to cloudcareermentor.com and sign up today.