How to get a job as an AWS Solutions Architect

AWS Solutions Architect jobs are in high demand. Today, businesses are using cloud technologies thanks to the effectiveness, security and a plethora of other benefits that come with them. Both big and small organizations have realized the need for cloud expertise.

A recent report shows that 90% of IT decision-makers say that there are shortages of cloud skills in their workforce. This means that professionals with cloud architecture expertise are highly sought after. Choosing this career path means you’ll find great opportunities for AWS solutions architect jobs.

Without a doubt, AWS provides tons of lucrative opportunities. However, there are several things you need to?become an AWS Solutions Architect?and land a good job. These include:

Certification

Getting certified is one of the most important things you need to land a job as an AWS solutions architect. This is the foundation of this amazing career and one that cannot be overlooked. Even though there are a number of cloud architect certifications available, the?AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate Certification?is undoubtedly the most popular in the industry. This AWS certification validates your ability to create and deploy well-architected solutions on AWS technologies to meet unique client needs.

Passing your certification exam should be one of your first goals to accomplish. So study hard and make use of the available?practice materials. Even though there are no tricks that guarantee success, below are some useful tips that can help you pass the certification exam with ease:

• Enroll in a?high-quality training course?online:?On-demand training courses can be taken from home and on your own schedule. Do your due diligence and choose a course that will give you all the knowledge and skills you need to successfully pass the test.
• Don’t just memorize facts to pass the certification exam:?Instead, make sure you understand all the AWS services and their features. With a solid understanding of AWS concepts, passing your exam will be easier than you ever imagined.
• Practice, practice, practice:?The key to learning technology is to get hands-on experience. So have fun and play with it. Even if you haven’t worked with AWS before, you can use the Amazon free tier, which allows you to use various AWS services free of charge. Also, find exam-difficulty?practice questions?and use them to prepare for the actual test.
• Read and study hard:?You can get a lot of information on the AWS website, but you can also depend on?training notes / cheat sheets?from digital cloud training. Study the AWS?whitepapers?to gain the necessary skills and knowledge. Always check the date when the material you want to read was published because things move fast in the AWS world, and relying on outdated information can have adverse effects on your AWS certification path.

Industry Technical Credentials

Apart from certification, you need a few industry technical credentials to stand a chance of landing AWS solutions architect jobs. These skills act as the foundation for cloud architecture planning and management. They include modern architecture application skills, networking and security skills, continuous integration and continuous deployment (CI/CD), software development, basic programming and more. Many of these skills are not 100% relevant for every role, but they can give you an edge over other candidates. Therefore, when you get some extra time between your exam preparation, it doesn’t hurt to get an extra skill that will spice up your resume.

Time Management Skills

As an AWS solutions architect, you will have to juggle between multiple tasks every day. Your days will be varied and may include customer meetings, designing architectural frameworks, migrating existing frameworks to the cloud, meeting sales teams, keeping up with new features, writing scripts, troubleshooting and more. In this career, there is no typical routine. Therefore, cloud architects should show the ability to plan their days, prioritize time on tasks and maximize assigned time.

Business Acumen

To get a job as an AWS solutions architect, you need to display skills, technical knowledge and personality that are aligned to business imperatives. To develop strong business acumen, ensure you equip yourself with business and financial knowledge required to make informed decisions that positively impact the company’s profits. This is the knowledge you can easily gain through self-training and research. It is also a good idea to take advantage of business simulations and apply the knowledge learned from these simulations to make real decisions in a work environment.

Once you land a job as an AWS solutions architect, follow these steps to demonstrate strong business acumen in the workplace:

• Learn from your mistakes and apply the learning to make better decisions going forward.
• Show confidence in every decision you make. This will ensure you gain trust and support from the rest of the organization.
• Make sound decisions at all times based on calculated risks.
• Pay attention to how the organization operates and how your competitors function so that you can identify issues and come up with practical solutions.
• Demonstrate strong communication skills.

Along the cloud journey, there are many participants and stakeholders from customers, security teams, sales teams, and technical experts to those helping in decision-making. More often than not, most cloud solutions architects also secure a place at the organization’s decision-making table. They should, therefore, be prepared to air their views and communicate their designs to different stakeholders. If you want to make a career as an AWS solutions architect, it is imperative to develop strong interpersonal skills that allow you to communicate effectively to all stakeholders and make your voice heard.

Decisiveness

Often, cloud architects are the experts who stakeholders rely on for solutions to varied challenges they are facing. To become successful in this career, you need to show the ability to provide a firm and clear perspective to every problem. Professionals who show decisiveness reassure the organizations they work for that their operations are in good hands, and the cloud solutions they recommend are resilient, cost-efficient, secure and managed with excellence. Show some level of decisiveness in your CV and during an interview, and you will, without a doubt, stand out from the other candidates.

Experience

As they say, experience is the best teacher. This saying holds true in most professions, and AWS is not an exception. If you have some experience in AWS and are a certified AWS solutions architect, there are manifold opportunities for getting highly paid AWS solutions architect jobs. Showcasing practical applications of your skills in your job applications proves your competence and ensures you are ahead in today’s competitive job market.

In AWS, work experience is not limited to the time spent working in a company. As a novice, you can get it by taking up AWS solutions architect projects through internships, or even freelancing in different reputable job boards such as Fivver and Upwork.

The career outlook for an AWS solutions architect is exceptional. In addition to the high demand for AWS solutions architects, experts in this niche get countless opportunities to move to higher positions within an organization or move to other organizations to realize their career development dreams. Get started today, develop the skills outlined above, and you will become a highly sought-after professional in no time.

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This article by Neal Davis originally appeared on the Digital Cloud Training Blog: "How to get a job as an AWS Solutions Architect?"