Recap 2023

Recap of 2023 — Career switch from Networking to Cloud🌐🚀☁️

Introduction

Before 2023, I worked as a Network Engineer for more than 3 years at several companies for several clients managing, implementing, and improving their networks.

Between 2022 and 2023, I started working for the Municipality of Alkmaar and assisted them with the Lift and Shift process (moving their on-premise workload to the Cloud).
After finishing that project, I have figured that lots of companies are moving more towards the cloud whereas the work as a Network Engineer becomes less and less attractive for me. Less firewall rules on-premise that need to be changed, all network equipment is up and running and maybe a software update needs to be done every few months, but that is it.

Since I have to work for the upcoming 40 years and the Cloud is becoming more popular, advanced, and being used, I decided to switch over from becoming a Network Engineer to a Cloud Engineer.

In the next paragraphs, I will be describing my recap in 2023 what my journey was, and what my new New Year resolutions are.

Certifications

In 2023 I obtained the following IT certifications:

[Feb 2023] — AZ-400 Azure DevOps Engineer Expert
[Mar 2023] — AZ-700 Azure Network Engineer Associate
[Apr 2023] — AZ-720 Azure Support Engineer for Connectivity Specialty
[Apr 2023] — AZ-305 Azure Solutions Architect Expert
[May 2023] — Terraform Associate (003)
[Jun 2023] — PSM I Scrum
[Jul 2023] — AZ-500 Azure Security Engineer Associate
[Sep 2023] — SC-100 Cybersecurity Architect Expert
[Oct 2023] — SAA-C03 AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate
[Nov 2023] — SC-300 Identity and Access Administrator Associate

Very proud to say that I have invested my time and energy in knowledge in experience. Also most of these subjects came from my previous studies and certifications so that made it easier to achieve.

Courses
The courses (with no certifications) that I have attended in 2023 are:

[Jun 2023] — Cloud Security Professional (CCSP)
[Dec 2023] — Azure Bicep by Dylan Budgen

I tried the CCSP exam once but based on how the questions are being asked, I know that I will not pass this even if I attempt it after 5 times.

The Azure Bicep course for me is an eye-opening since I’ve been working with Terraform for almost a year, but can always be useful in case there are specific deployments needed that can’t be done in Terraform.

Work Experience
In February 2023, I started my first cloud job at InSpark as a level 1 Cloud Engineer. During the trial period, I have found out that the job was not what I was expecting and for that, I left the company.

Between April 2023 — December 2023, I’ve started at CGI once again (worked there 2 years as a Network Engineer) as a Cloud Engineer. I started working together with a senior and medior colleague together on different projects and assignments.

Started working with Azure DevOps, Terraform, Visual Studio Code, and more. In the end, together with the Cloud Team, an Azure ALZ (Application Landing Zone) has been created via Terraform, Assisted a customer with their ALZ in the field of Security (Azure Policies), and performing work duties for a customer who works with AWS.

Opinion Journey to Cloud
If I go back at the time that I started learning Cloud, then here are my 5 best tips to start within the Cloud career:

Do research on which country dominates the cloud market; In the Netherlands, Azure is more preferred to use than AWS or GCP.
Get the beginner certificates first such as AZ-900 Azure Fundamentals or AWS Cloud Practitioner;
Find a job where you can start to work in the field of Cloud; Preferable to work in the GUI.
Step in the field of DevOps working and know how Infrastructure as a Code (IaaC) works such as Terraform or Bicep; An example of this is to get the Terraform Associate certification or start with the Udemy course that I have taken.
Learn, practice, and implement on the job!