Cloud Computing Career Strategies

𝗦𝘁𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝘂𝘁 𝗶𝗻 𝗖𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱 𝗯𝘆 𝗣𝗶𝗰𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗬𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗟𝗮𝗻𝗲 𝗘𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗲𝗲𝗹 𝗹𝗶𝗸𝗲 𝘆𝗼𝘂’𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗶𝗻 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱… 𝗯𝘂𝘁 𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗹𝗹 𝗶𝗻𝘃𝗶𝘀𝗶𝗯𝗹𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗲𝗺𝗽𝗹𝗼𝘆𝗲𝗿𝘀? If your resume says you “do everything,” you’re competing with 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲. And in this market, 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 isn’t who gets hired. The fastest way to stand out? 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻. It’s not about knowing every tool under the sun. But… you have to be 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘀𝗼𝗺𝗲𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴. What do you mean, Broadus? ✅ Instead of “cloud generalist,” become the person who designs secure access systems. ✅ Instead of “AWS practitioner,” become the person who automates deployments flawlessly. ✅ Instead of “DevOps enthusiast,” become the person who can fix CI/CD pipelines in their sleep. When you do that, something shifts: 👉🏾 Recruiters know exactly where to place you. 👉🏾 Interviews focus on your strengths instead of exposing your weaknesses. 👉🏾 You stop blending in with the stack of other “I do everything” candidates. When I landed my first cloud role, it wasn’t because I knew everything. It was because I doubled down on 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴 and made sure every project, every story, and every conversation highlighted it. 👉🏾 𝗧𝗿𝗼𝘂𝗯𝗹𝗲𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗼𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗜𝗔𝗖. 👉🏾 𝗕𝗲𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻 𝗔𝗱𝘃𝗼𝗰𝗮𝘁𝗲 So think about it like this… While you’re learning all this cloud stuff, there are things that stick out that you REALLY like. Dive into those even more. Become the specialist there. 𝗪𝗵𝗮𝘁’𝘀 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲𝗮 𝗼𝗳 𝗰𝗹𝗼𝘂𝗱 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗰𝗼𝘂𝗹𝗱 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘀𝗼 𝘄𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝗽𝗲𝗼𝗽𝗹𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗿𝘁 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗱𝘂𝗰𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘆𝗼𝘂 𝗮𝘀 “𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗽𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁”?

10 things i would do today … if i were to get started in Cloud Security . (Cybersecurity career week edition) 94% of orgs are already using the cloud (Pluralsight state of the cloud report 2023) Cloud adoption/migrating to the cloud is growing … By 2025 over 95% of new digital workloads will be deployed on cloud native platforms up ⬆️ from 30% in 2021, ~ Gartner. Skills gap is one of the challenge in cloud security (1 in 4 companies cite cloud security skills gap) ~ SC media I also get a ton of questions on how to get started or pivot to the cloud security space As someone working as a cloud security Engineer at a Fortune 500 org i recommend 1. Ask yourself WHY you are interested in cloud security vs other domains in cybersecurity? What is it that about cloud security that appeals to you? 2. Start with the Basics - Make sure you've got a solid grasp on security fundamentals, Networking concepts, etc 3. Learn the cloud - start with any of the major cloud service providers either AWS, or Azure. If you know one it won’t be difficult to translate concepts to other cloud service providers such as understanding equivalent services etc I started learning the cloud late 2020 with AWS i earned - AWS CCP, Certificate of Cloud Security Knowledge (CCSK),SANS GCLD (Cloud essentials 2021, KCNA, AWS Solutions Architect in 2022 then recently passed the AWS Security Speciality, AWS AI practitioner & Microsoft security, Compliance & Identity 4. Learn Infrastructure as Code (IaC) such as Terraform, AWS CloudFormation, etc to deploy infra as code. 5. Understand DevSecOps culture, how version control tools work such as GitHub, GitLab etc 6. Learn scripting language such as python for automating tasks. 7. Cloud tech changes frequently. Keep up with the latest trends, tools, & technologies to stay ahead & being able to secure effectively. Follow folks on LinkedIn who are sharing relevant content on cloud security topics through posts, books, courses, podcasts etc 8. Essential skills are important - critical thinking, attention to details, communication, collaboration & networking. 10. Build Your Brand - Share your learnings, helpful tools & thought leadership on cloud security so that folks in your network & beyond know you are interested in cloud security for opportunities - i have a LinkedIn learning Course on that ->Build your in Cybersecurity. (Before I transitioned into a cloud security while doing the learning, I did a presentation with a demo on cloud security topic at SANS CloudSecNext summit). 10. Continue to learn on the job - you will continue to get unique problems, tools such as CSPM, etc - you get to learn the problem & find a solution. You won’t still know everything and that’s ok Hence the need for passion for continuous learning, problem solving skills, collaboration, asking questions etc Did I miss anything cloud security or cybersecurity pros? #cloudsecurity #cloudcomputing #cybersecurity #cloudsec

I’d rather be a beginner in the right field than an expert in a dying one. But you should use your existing experience to switch to cloud. Here are my top two tips that helped me and many of my students switch careers to the cloud and get high-paying jobs. Tip 1: Leverage your IT experience Your existing IT experience is NOT throwaway. For example, my student Abhisekh has deep knowledge of the telecom domain. He associated his cloud knowledge with telecom use cases. He learned how other telecom companies use AWS, learned the related concepts, and started augmenting his existing knowledge with AWS learnings. And soon, he got a telecom cloud architect position. Another bootcamper, Mughees, came from software engineering background without any SA experience. He showcased how to develop, test, and deploy his code on the cloud. And after he learned the associated AWS components for interviews, he was able to get a cloud architect job with a significant salary hike. In my case, I worked with SQL databases and COBOL on the mainframe for 10+ years. I learned what SQL databases are available on AWS, the differences between them and DB2 (Mainframe SQL database), how to migrate data, etc. To my surprise, the approach to cost-optimizing DB2 is the same as that of RDS: check utilization, adjust underlying VM sizes, tune queries, and some additional AWS concepts. In the same way, I learned how we can modernize legacy workflows to Step Functions and did projects on that. Because I am not showing these use cases in a vacuum, instead building on top of my existing expertise, it's more appealing to recruiters, and I can handle interview questions better. If you are currently a tech lead who has to influence many team members in a certain direction, you can leverage it for Solutions Architect roles. I have many such examples from my SA bootcamp, where candidates used their existing experience to switch careers to the cloud. Tip 2: "Delight" recruiters and interviewers A lot of you reached out to me and said that recruiters are not picking you. You’ve given multiple interviews, but you’re failing. What are you doing wrong? What it comes down to is that there is so much competition in the market. You have to set yourself apart at every stage. You work hard, and you do a lot of projects, but being good is not enough! You have to prove you’re good to the recruiter and interviewer. For example - replace generic answers like, "I used an application load balancer with EC2 auto-scaling," with detailed responses like, "I built a microservices system with Route 53 directing traffic to a load balancer, leveraging path-based routing to scalable, independent microservices using tailored scaling strategies." If you want more actionable tips with examples, and cloud interview guides from a real-world architect and mentor, subscribe at https://lnkd.in/eG7XdHmN (FREE) Happy New Year 2025! Let's make 2025 the best year for career and life 🙌🚀

Ever feel like your cloud career is stuck in JIRA quicksand? 🌪️ Amy, a Cloud Engineer at a top enterprise....came to me with a question: How do I advance my career or land a high-paying job, without getting stuck in the daily grind? I thought back to a pivotal moment in my career mentoring an L5 Engineer at AWS. We spent a year navigating tough challenges together, building trust, and achieving NIST CSF compliance for a client. Let's call him Sujoy. He approached me, eager to move from L5 to L6. Mentoring him was eye-opening; I realized that career growth is about changing your mindset more than anything else. The Learning I had observing Sujoy's career grow from L5 to L6 at AWS taught me about intentions and focus than anything else. So Here’s what I told Amy: **The Slow, Boring Path:** - Adding random skills without a focus - Being everywhere, yet nowhere - Fear and indecision - Following the crowd - Over-reliance on social media for learning **The Intentional, Enriching Path:** - Specialize in a niche, like Cloud Security or AI Security - Think backward from where you want to be (for eg. What does a cloud security engineer do) - Shift your mindset; it’s about perspective, not just skills - Understand how your niche operates in enterprises - Dive deep into the functions of relevant teams ( for eg. how does cloud security, infrastructure and other teams work together to drive business) - Understand your current mindset and know what it takes to see things differently and from one level up - Craft a 4-month action plan using the prism of understanding of where you want to reach - Look for mentors who have done and gone through all this following an organic journey. Peek into there mind spaces.. - Start the journey !! Don't be impacted by any thing.. Push forward !! **What's your strategy for intentional career growth?** #CloudSecurity #AISecurity #CloudCareers #Niche