Inside the Cloud Resume Challenge Guidebook
Table of Contents
The following table of contents is taken from the AWS edition of the Cloud Resume Challenge Guidebook. Azure and Google Cloud editions may have slight variations. Click on links to read a sample of the text.
How to use this book (Don’t skip this part) 12
Prologue: The Greatest Resume I’ve Ever Seen 17
Part 1: Cracking the Cloud Resume Challenge 25
The challenge itself 26
Why does the Cloud Resume Challenge work? 32
Breaking down the challenge 37
Community resources 41
The Cloud Resume Challenge Discord Server 42
The Cloud Resume Challenge GitHub Repository 42
The Cloud Resume Challenge Video Tutorials 42
The Challenge in Spanish 43
More AWS Challenges 43
Part 2: Challenge walkthrough 46
Setup and safety (before you begin) 47
Access and credentials 47
The original way (if you must) 48
The professional way (my recommendation) 50
Billing 53
Cloud hygiene 54
Chunk 0: Certification prep 56
How to approach this chunk 56
Helpful resources 60
Free Resources 60
Recommended Certifications for This Challenge 60
What’s the AWS Roadmap? 61
Role Based Roadmaps 62
DevOps 62
Developer 63
Cloud Security Engineer 63
Solutions Architect 63
Data Engineer 63
AI Engineer 64
Mods 64
DevOps Mod: If you have several years of existing IT experience 64
Security Mod: If you want a cloud security job 65
Developer Mod: If you want to become a cloud developer 65
Developer Mod: If you are about to graduate from college with a computer science-y degree 66
Solutions Architect Mod: If you’re focused on design and big-picture thinking 66
Data Engineer Mod: If you want to design data pipelines 67
AI Engineer Mod: If you’re aiming for AI/ML roles in the cloud 67
Stacy’s Story: From IT Service Desk Manager to Cloud Operations Engineer 68
Pause to reflect 70
Chunk 1: Building the front end 72
How to approach this chunk 73
Helpful resources 76
HTML / CSS 76
Static website tutorials 77
DNS and CDNs 77
Actual CRC sites 77
Jerry’s Story: From respiratory therapist to Associate Solutions Architect at AWS 78
Mods 80
Developer Mod: Frame Job 80
DevOps Mod: Automation Nation 81
Security Mod: Spoof Troop 83
Solutions Architect Mod: S3 vs Amplify Tradeoffs 83
Data Engineer Mod: Visitor Logs as Data 86
AI Engineer Mod: LLM Resume Summarizer 87
Pause to reflect 88
Chunk 2: Building the API 90
How to approach this chunk 91
Helpful resources 96
Python 96
APIs 97
AWS serverless 97
Source control 98
Jakob’s Story: From Clinical Research Technician to Cloud Engineer 98
Mods 100
Developer Mod: Schemas and Dreamers 100
DevOps Mod: Monitor Lizard 100
Part 1: Establishing metrics 101
Part 2: Getting notified 102
Security Mod: Check Your Privilege 104
Solutions Architect Mod: Choose Your Own Adventure (Layer) 105
Data Engineer Mod: Count the Right Things 107
AI Engineer Mod: Make It Sentient(ish) 108
Pause to reflect 110
Chunk 3: Front-end / back-end integration 110
How to approach this chunk 111
How to write your very own smoke test 112
Helpful resources 114
Mods 116
Developer Mod: Playing the Hits 116
DevOps Mod: Browser Up 117
Security Mod: Wall of Fire 117
Solutions Architect Mod: The Latency Whisperer 119
Data Engineer Mod: Analytics Tap-In 120
AI Engineer Mod: Smart Front-End, Smarter Back-End 121
Pause to reflect 123
Nana’s Story: From Tech Support to Cloud Native Engineer 124
Chunk 4: Automation / CI 126
How to approach this chunk 127
AWS-specific infrastructure-as-code tools 129
CloudFormation 129
The CDK 129
Other infrastructure-as-code tools 129
Terraform 129
Pulumi 130
Setting up your deployment pipeline 131
Helpful resources 132
Mods 133
Developer Mod / Security Mod: Chain Reaction 133
Initial reading 134
Challenge steps 135
DevOps Mod: All The World’s A Stage 137
Solutions Architect Mod: Blueprint Drift 141
Data Engineer Mod: Data Doesn’t Deploy Itself 143
AI Engineer Mod: Ship It Like You Mean It 145
Stephanie’s Story: From Bank Manager to Cloud Engineer 147
Pause to reflect 148
Chunk 5: The blog … and beyond 149
How to approach this chunk 150
Include a diagram 151
Make it about you, not about the challenge 151
Consider focusing on your mods 153
Don’t ramble on 153
Tag Us 154
Ian’s Story: Writing a Blog That Gets Exposure 154
Helpful resources 156
Pause to reflect 157
Part 3: From challenge to career 159
What is a “cloud job”, anyway? 161
The history of the cloud job 162
The first IT jobs 162
The “golden age” of IT: everybody has their own servers! 162
The emergence of the cloud job 166
What does a “day in the life” look like for a cloud engineer? 169
Is there actually such a thing as an “entry-level cloud job”? 171
Getting unstuck: the underrated skill of asking for help 174
What NOT to do: The Well of Despair 176
Three steps to get back on track 176
The career-changing art of reading the docs 182
Reading docs: the wrong way and the right way 184
What do I get out of all this? 192
Do’s and don’ts: AI assistance in the Cloud Resume Challenge 196
Learning like an engineer, AI edition 196
DON’T: treat AI like a wishing well 198
DO: treat AI as a tutor, explainer, and rubber duck 198
DON’T: commit generated code until you understand it. 200
DON’T: generate code without generating tests. 201
DO: Keep widening your own context window. 201
Some final notes on cost and utility 203
Mapping your path to a cloud job 205
Getting hired without tech experience 205
Building your skill stack 207
When to apply 209
Getting hired with IT experience, but no cloud experience 211
Exploiting your “unfair advantage” 212
Avoiding a temporary step back 215
How to effectively interview for work with a portfolio site 217
The three questions interviewers ultimately want you to answer 217
How to show off your portfolio site during interviews 219
Reminder: Interviews are two-way streets 222
Tech takes a backseat to company culture and learning 223
Networking your way to a job 226
Resume Roulette: a losing game 226
How hiring happens 227
Network Bets: a better game 228
Owning your credibility 229
Building connections 230
But I’m an introvert … I can’t network! 231
Play the long game – it’s a shortcut 235
Afterword: The side project that made the front page 237
Anatomy of the perfect cloud project 239
Paying it forward 242
Acknowledgements 244
Reviews
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