Hello, Cloud Newbies! Welcome “Hello, Cloud Newbies!” a blog interviewing Cloud Professionals from all around the world doing cool things to see what kinds of careers are available when you work with or in Cloud Computing!
Today, we talked to Rishab Kumar, who is a “Cloud Operations Specialist” at an Energy Startup, and works Ontario, Canada!
If you’re considering a career in the Cloud, or looking for a place to study for certifications, talk to fellow cloud-nerds, and help Cloud Newbies get started in the Cloud, please come join us at Cloud Newbies Society! We’re a Cloud Platform Agnostic, which means everyone’s welcome, no matter what type of Cloud Computing platform they’re interested in! ☁️
Now, without further ado…. Let’s hear Rishab‘s story!
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How I was introduced to Cloud?
I graduated from St. Lawrence College back in 2018 as an International student with a Diploma in Computer Networking. After graduating, I landed my first internship with one of the Software companies here in Kingston, Ontario. I was fortunate enough to get a job at the same company as a Technical Support Specialist after 2 months.
During my time there, I was introduced to AWS, the company used it frequently. We had a SAAS solution for customers and hosted around 600 of them in AWS. It was fascinating to me. Given my curiosity, I was able to convince my manager for a test/practice account to play around. I started launching some Linux instances in the Dev environment.
Little did I know how interesting this journey was going to get. During this time, I discovered FreeCodeCamp. So, I started learning web-development during my leisure time.
Landing my Cloud Job
My company had an opening for a position in CloudOps (Cloud Operations team). Even though I lacked confidence, I gave it a shot. My interest and willingness to learn AWS convinced the team that I would be a good fit for the position. freeCodeCamp played a huge role. From the web-development that I learned, I was able to create my first portfolio site and hosted it on AWS. With some basic knowledge of AWS and a few projects, I was able to secure this position. I was so happy that day, but it was only the beginning.
Discovered the #AWSCertified Challenge
I came across the #AWSCertified challenge while learning web-development on freeCodeCamp.
I was completely thrilled to get started with it. My first goal was to get the AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Certificate. I also wanted to gain some experience for Solutions Architect and Dev Associate. So in November 2019, I was able to secure the Cloud Practitioner Certificate. And after that somehow I lost the motivation to go ahead with other certs. But since my job was to work in AWS every day, I wasn’t missing out on Cloud!
My AWS Journey
I gained valuable experience in AWS and became familiar with the company’s environment. I also learned how we leveraged various AWS services for our product.
In March 2020, due to the pandemic, we started working from home. This led to more spare time and I decided to go back to the #AWSCertfied challenge. This time I went for the Solutions Architect Associate. I decided to post about it on Reddit and joined the Discord group for #AWSCertified. Again, thanks to freeCodeCamp and Andrew Brown for his free course.
After achieving the Solutions Architect Associate, I discovered that Oracle Cloud Certifications were free for a limited time due to COVID, So I decided to get the OCI Foundations Certified Associate (what could be wrong with a free cert!). So I was able to get 2 certs under my belt within two weeks, and this was great motivation for me to keep going.
After some further preparation, I achieved the AWS Developer Associate on June 1.
The #AWSCertified challenge not only helped me stay motivated but I also got to know folks like Andrew Brown and Johan Rin. It can make a big difference when you know people who are on a similar journey as yours.
Comes in Azure
With the cloud getting so popular and me being active on Twitter, I saw how Azure was also a good skill to have. So with Microsoft’s free voucher program during their Virtual Training, I sat for the AZ-900 and was able to achieve it in June itself!
When I look back and see, I feel proud, that I was able to get:
April:
- AWS Solutions Architect
- OCI Foundations Associate
May:
- Started Preparing for AWS Certified Developer Associate
- Got the 4 Week Streak Badge on dev.to
- Published my notes for all the cloud exams that I passed or am preparing for : https://rishabkumar7.github.io/CloudNotes/
June:
- AWS Certified Developer Associate
- Azure Fundamentals
- Got the 8 Week Streak Badge on dev.to
What’s next
I am preparing for the Certified Jenkins Engineer now. I also plan to come back to AWS for the Certified SysOps Administrator – Associate. I am contributing to the #100DaysOfCloud project as a core-team member, which is still under development. It’s a great community for people who are starting out their cloud journey! My first Open-source contribution was for this very particular project, where I implemented the CI/CD pipeline for the 100daysofcloud.com website. Please feel free to check it out here.
It has been a great journey so far, I am loving the Cloud community. We have a lot of Cloud Journeyers trying to get various certifications. Feel free to join the community and let’s get those certs 💪
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You can find Rishab on Twitter, or on his website!
Interested in doing an interview with us to talk about your Cloud Job? Please e-mail us at cloudnewbies@24villages.com!
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