24 in 24: My Exciting Cloud Journey

Updated: Oct 2021

24 certs in 24 months!?What will you do in your next 24 hours?

Never too late to start!

21 months, 21 certs

Time flies.?In February 2019, I only needed one AWS cert to fulfill an AWS APN requirement for my former employer. I sat and cleared the exam, but I never planned to continue this cloud certification journey after that day.

Studying for a certification exam was hard.?With a demanding full-time 24/7 on-call job and other obligations, I was tired. But I asked, "What if I continue to learn in the next 24 hours, next 24 days, next 24 months? What would happen?"

Last month, on the last day of the month (Jan 31, 2021), I cleared my 24th professional cert, and I reached a new checkpoint of "24 certs in 24 months."

Am I a cloud expert now??Nope, not even close.?The more I studied, the more I know I don't know.

There is so much about AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud I need to learn. There are Kubernetes, Serverless, and other technologies that I do not even know their existence.?I can only say, "I am well equipped today and know more than the same me 24 months ago." I am confident and can apply the knowledge to my projects and help my clients succeed.

If I don't know any particular technology, my track record of being a fast learner, I will learn it quickly to continue to deliver business results.

People wanted to learn from my experience and asked me to share my tips. Here you are:

Know the "Why" before you ask the "How."

"How do I clear the XXXX cert?" is the wrong question in my book.

I will ask: Why are you doing this? Why do you want a cert? Why are you giving up your time/money/energy for this XXXX cert?

If you don't know the "Why," or your reason is a weak one (or wrong motive) like "I want to make more money." I am afraid you cannot go far in your cloud journey.

For me: my primary "Why" is to bring value to others (never focus on myself). My secondary "Why" is I am excited about what I am learning (regardless of any financial reward or not.)

Set your goal and research available training resources

Before you start learning a cloud, any cloud, ask yourself, what are your short term and long term goals that also satisfy your "Why." Check all resources available to you. Validate your resources to ensure they are trustworthy.

Don't be lazy, and Google is your friend. Once you work full-time as a cloud professional, you will use Google a lot. Your research skills and ability to filter out fake/junk/inaccurate content will be worth more than the number of cloud certs you have.

Remember, not all training resources are worth your time and money. Some course vendors want to make money from you and sell your useless or overpriced content.

Based on my experience, trustworthy courses are A Cloud Guru, Udemy, Coursera. There are other great and free courses, and you need to do your own research to find them.

Failure is part of your journey; embrace it.

Anyone who studies the pro-level exam courses knows those courses are long and tough.?You invest your time, money, and energy in your training. After that, you are facing those dreaded exams. Worse yet, it is not guaranteed you will pass the exam.

When you failed an exam (which happened to me many times), don't give up too soon. It is part of your learning journey.

Look past the current pain, imagine your future moments.

Does it worth the effort to learn cloud? Absolutely.?But the learning process is painful. How do you overcome those dreadful exam preparations?

I look past the current pain and imagine my future joyful moments:

• I cleared the exam.
• I got a job, or I helped someone land a job.
• I finished a new complex cloud project that I have never done before.
• I helped my client to migrate their legacy system to the cloud on schedule.
• I am happy I learned something new.
• I am excited about this cloud journey!

Those moments will be our positive energy. They keep us excited and give us hope.

When we are excited, we can endure any pain. We have the "extra power." We become joyful, and we can face those hard challenges today.?

Which cert/cloud provider should I try first

Any. Remember the cert should fit your "Why" and do your research about your training courses.

Still, you have no idea? Okay, start with the AWS cloud partitioner exam and use A Cloud Guru course on Udemy ($9.99 on sale) as your starting point.

"But I am already an IT professional. Should I try another cert or provider?"

I repeat. If you have to ask, start with the AWS cloud practitioner and use A Cloud Guru on the Udemy course as your starting point.

Trust me: I have 20+ years of IT experience before I sat my first cloud exam. If I had to do it again, I would start with the AWS cloud practitioner as my first cloud exam.

If you want to go far, drop your ego, please. I didn't drop my ego, and I paid the price to go straight AWS SAA as my first cloud exam (see below)

Which cert is the most challenging one?

The first one. Then the next one :-)

When I sat on my first AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam, it almost made me cry. I was so frustrated and wanted to walk out of the testing center after 30 minutes into the exam. However, my "Why" calmed me down, and I endured the exam. Thankfully I cleared the exam and got a pretty good score too.

Suggested path to be fully certified on AWS

Cloud practitioner => Solutions Architect Associate => Developer => SysOps =>

Security => Database => Data Analytics => Machine Learning => Advanced networking =>

DevOps Pro => Solutions Architect Pro => Alexa (retiring on March 23, 2021)

Suggested path to be fully certified on Azure

AZ900 > AZ104 > AZ500 > AZ204 > AZ400 > AZ303 > AZ304 > AI900 > DP900 > DP300 > DP100 > DP200 > DP 201

A partial path on GCP (work in progress)

ACE => PCA => PDE

My training prep tips

Skim all the training content with 3 to 4x video speed for your first pass. Use Chrome extension add-on for playback speed control (Video Speed Controller for Chrome or Chrome video speed manager).

Set Speed change steps to 0.25, preferred Speed to 1, check the Remember playback speed.

Take a practice exam before you go thru the training content (to identify your gaps). Don't worry about the score, and don't check the answers and explanations if you can.

If you already get 80+% on the practice exam. You may skip the second pass on that training course.

Second pass: Watch video training using various speeds. Start with a playback speed you are comfortable with—hit "s" to slow down and "d" to speed up. Hit "g" to reset playback speed to 1.0 when needed.

I typically run video playback at 2.5 X or whatever speed I can understand and comprehend the audio. Watch the sub-title if it is available.

I watch the video between 6x and 8x and just read the subtitle and their powerpoints on some easy training courses. I also used this playback speed for a quick review.

Use multiple training courses if you can

I use at least two training courses for each exam; sometimes, I used 4 different courses if I am not feeling confident. Using multiple courses helped me to learn from different instructors and ensured I would learn all key concepts at least twice. Also, I can pick up additional materials if one instructor skipped.

The whitepaper, KBs, and online documents are boring, but you need them.

If the instructors recommend some readings, I will at least skim those documents once. You can never pick the right answer if you never read the documents. If you skimmed them at least once, you could try to recall the information from your memory. Poor memory of what you read is still better than zero memory. So prepare to read a lot of documents and whitepapers.

I will try to add more tips. Stay tuned.

Good luck with your cloud journey!