Scott’s Insights for Cloud Beginners

For many just starting out in the industry, the Cloud can feel both exciting and daunting. But at Cloud Elemental we believe in diving right in, which is exactly the approach our Elemental Academy takes. In this article, Scott, one of our senior consultants and mentors to new graduate Elementals, shares his insights on what it takes to grow your career. From learning by doing to embracing mistakes, here’s Scott’s advice for anyone ready to launch their Cloud career.

Turning a Hobby into a Career

Discovering the cloud as a pathway to a future-proof career.

My mum once pointed out that I did really well at Computer Science in school, but I had never considered it as a job – even though it has always been my favourite hobby.

In my previous IT jobs, I had never worked with the Cloud, and doing so feels a lot more future-proof for my career in general. The Cloud is also just really fun – you’re able to make anything and it’ll just exist in the Cloud!

Learning by Doing (and Failing!)

Hands-on projects help our grads learn faster, even if mistakes happen along the way.

When you’re straight out of university, nobody actually knows how to do anything practical. So, we give our Graduate Elementals hands-on projects to do and nudge them in the right direction. In fact, we encourage them to get it wrong the first time!

If your options are to do something wrong 55 times or spend six months reading documentation about it, you're bound to learn a lot more by breaking and fixing something 55 times. It’s all about chucking people in the deep end, whilst being available enough to help with any questions.

Just Start Building

Getting into DevOps is easier when you dive in and experiment.

My best advice on how to get into DevOps is to just work on something! Everyone feels that you need to know a certain amount or to be a certain level to be able to start working in DevOps.

However, anyone today can practice their skills in any way they want by creating a free account on any of the big Cloud platforms and just making something for a laugh! You learn much more by actually doing stuff than reading blogs and articles about the best ways to get into the industry.

Starting a career in Cloud is about taking that first step, making things, breaking things, and learning along the way. Scott’s advice reminds us that the best growth happens hands-on.

If you’re interested in a career with endless learning potential, check out our Elemental Academy here - https://cloudelemental.com/elemental-academy/ - to learn how you can become part of the Cloud Elemental team.