Becoming a cloud engineer without acquiring a traditional degree is very common in the tech industry. One of the major benefits of acquiring a certification is if you want to land yourself an IT role and enter the working well quickly. An entry-level certification will build up the most relevant skills to maximize the chances of landing the role.
I would strongly recommend purchasing this book from Amazon as CompTIA Cloud + covers the fundamentals of cloud computing as well as being neutral in many cases. I would get your hands on it right now and learn the basics/fundamentals to get your career going.
Becoming A Cloud Engineer without a degree?
With the ever-changing nature of technology, the ability to work in technology is much easier than you think. A degree is not needed as aggressively as it was before. I will be able to discuss much more strategic ways that you can land a cloud role without having a degree.
It is a bonus if you already have a degree within a computer science discipline but this is not required. However, looking at the qualifications of cloud engineers today, it is common that not many of them have degrees, Rather, they have certifications or to some degree have studied them enough to do the job.
To become a cloud engineer, it would useful to pursue cloud computing certifications. It is well known that the three main cloud certifications that are leading across the
I have written an article on what you should learn to become a cloud engineer. Furthermore, there are a variety of cloud paths to take and our recommendation is to choose one path. The most common paths that people take are: AWS, Azure, and M365 based certification are much more likely for you to go that much further in your career than other areas in life.
1. Understanding which cloud path you plan to take
One of the most crucial decisions that you’ll make as a current engineer or someone who is planning to land their first role in IT is choosing which cloud path they would take. I will briefly discuss some of these below.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
If you are brand new to the cloud then it would be normal to start with the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner. This is certification is designed to make you comfortable with the AWS platform. It is also one of the most simple and universal certifications that focuses on the fundamentals of AWS cloud.
In this case, the AWS certified cloud practitioner certification is just the starting point in starting your cloud journey. Once you have completed this certification then you can start tackling the associate level or specialty certifications to really dig in and learn all about the services much more and best practices. These types of certifications will mirror the infrastructure that companies are actively using.
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft certification has role-based certifications for different types of cloud technical roles. This is why many organizations are making their IT professions take Azure certifications due to cloud offerings.
- Developer
- Responsbile for designing, building and maintaining cloud solutions
- Administrator
- Administers and maintains cloud infrastructure
- Solutions Architect
- Resonsible for architecting and designing solutions for compute, networkm storaage and security.
- Data Engineer
- Data engineers usually manage and maintin the monitoring , security and privary of data by leveraging full stack of data.
- Data Scientist
- Known for applying machine learning strategies by traning and deploying models that solve complex business issues
- AI Engineer
- Ability to leverage cognitive services, machine learning and able to architect Microsoft AI solutions.
- DevOps Engineer
- Combination of people, processes and technologyes to consistently deliver high quality services to meet business objetives whilst increasing the productivity of end users.
- Security Engineer
- Security engineers are the backbone of all things security. Security controls and threat protection as well as protection of data and applications.
Since we have established a few career roles within cloud computing, it should now be a good starting point to find out which path that you would like to take and research a little bit more.
2. Study a certification to gain the knowledge
One of the most important assets for an IT engineer is the consistency of studying certifications and increasing their knowledge on a daily basis.
When it comes to cloud computing, technology is always changing and you’ll constantly need to keep yourself updated with what has changed. The best way to keep yourself regularly updated with new technology is by following the tech blogs and following social media channels.
Three steps to always stay updated
- Read regularly – you can use O’Reilly to keep update to date as this is a learning platform that offers E-books and online courses and trusted in the industry.
- Lab it up – Always helpful to set up your own enviroment so you can test out new releases and anything that has changed so you can replicate what you did in your production enviroment.
- Social media – If you tech savy then I presume you can keep up to date with social media news with regard to cloud vendors that you’ve chosen, this is where all news and updates will be released in real time.
- Courses – courses are by far the best way to keep up to date in a structured manner and learn all of the best practices. You can use either Pluralsight and Coursera which are both really good because they’re usually the first IT course provider that release up to date information or update the existing courses.
As you’re already aware that cloud computing is where everything is heading and more IT professionals are needed in this industry. Gaining more skills in the cloud space will serve you well. it imperative that you get prepared for the future and bulletproof your career in IT.
3. Enroll in a course to maximise your knowledge
I cannot stress enough how important it is to invest in courses and your own learning if you’re not in IT or even if you are. The most important thing you can do for yourself starts with the basics such as CompTIA A+ which gives you the ability to understand software/hardware, networking and prepares you to troubleshoot and problem solves a wide range of potential issues. I’ve written various posts on this topic alone but you can check out which jobs you can get with CompTIA A+.
By enrolling yourself in courses will help you set the foundations you need, improve productivity and understand best practices within the industry. This would mean that the ability to do the work will be of high value and ensuring that the organization can keep moving forwards by keeping up with the times.
4. Set up a lab environment to get hands-on experience
Staying up to date with new technology is one thing and the other is actually setting up the environment you need. Sometimes it can be difficult setting a lab environment on your local pc or mac because it takes up so much CPU, Memory, and hard drive.
You can start leveraging third-party companies to set up your lab environment such as Practice labs or learn on-demand systems that are priced in bundles. This would mean that you’re using their equipment and you just simply log in and start playing.
When it comes to cloud computing it requires more than theory and reading books, rather, hands-on experience will help you much more.
5. Stay up to date with trends and cloud news
As previously stated, keeping up to date with cloud technologies is important and it is a requirement to keep your career in check and be on top of your work. Below is a compiled list of blogs and youtube channels that provide up-to-date information when it comes to cloud computers.
- Timothy Warner – deep dives in Azure certifications and provides regular updates
- Geer baeke – All things around cloud and mainly focuses on Azure and Kubernetes
- John Savil – John covers on Azure, DevOps and Powershell and goes all in on Microsoft
- CNCF – this a youtube channel that provide information around cloud native computing regularly
6. Connecting with your peers
One of the best things you can do when trying to learn bout technology or looking to move into a specific role is connecting with people that are already in those fields. If you have LinkedIn then this will become 10 times easier for you. For example, if you want to get into technical support then connect with someone from a specific company with that title and find out what they do day to day and if they can show you anything remotely.
This is by far one of the best strategies that will provide results that you won’t even imagine. People who use this method either get all of the information required to get a good level of understanding and others even get job opportunities through it.
7. Speak to Hiring managers and recruiters
Speaking with recruiters and hiring managers through various means such as LinkedIn will help provide the working conditions. For example, since cloud engineers are not required to be in the office and can do 100% of their roles remotely, it is equally important to see whether other companies want all their staff on-site because of this.
This information is helpful so you can decide what would be best for you and to get an insight into the industry that your trying to get into.
