DON'T Get Cloud Certifications - Do THIS Instead

Summary

In this video, a seasoned tech professional with over a decade of experience explains why cloud certifications are not the golden ticket to landing a six-figure job. Despite spending over $1,000 and 300 hours studying, the speaker argues that certifications create psychological barriers, drain valuable time, and fail to teach the essential problem-solving skills employers need. Instead, the speaker emphasizes building foundational technical skills, mastering core cloud services, and using first-principles thinking to approach challenges. The video concludes with a call to focus on skills and projects rather than certifications to truly stand out in the 2025 job market.

Takeaways

• 😀 Certifications create a psychological barrier that prevents you from developing real skills and taking action.
• 😀 Cloud certifications drain your most valuable asset: time. The preparation often takes months without yielding significant results.
• 😀 Passing a certification exam doesn't equate to real-world expertise. Multiple-choice questions don’t prepare you for complex, real-world problem-solving.
• 😀 Cloud certification exams rarely test troubleshooting skills, which are crucial for solving real-world issues in cloud environments.
• 😀 Certifications teach you about individual cloud services, not how they work together in integrated solutions to solve business problems.
• 😀 Employers are increasingly valuing hands-on experience and problem-solving skills over certifications in the cloud space.
• 😀 Instead of focusing on certifications, build foundational technical skills like networking, Linux, and operating systems to thrive in the cloud industry.
• 😀 Specialize in mastering a few core cloud services, like AWS EC2, S3, VPC, and IAM, rather than trying to learn every service.
• 😀 Real-world engineers need to learn how to automate environments using tools like Terraform and CloudFormation, not just click around the console.
• 😀 Engineering leadership is critical—approach problems with ownership and a solution-oriented mindset rather than just following tutorials.
• 😀 First principles thinking is the key to mastering cloud engineering—break down problems to their fundamental truths to make better decisions and innovate.

Q & A

Why might cloud certifications not help you land a job?

Cloud certifications often create a psychological barrier that delays real skill development. People spend so much time preparing for certifications that they never actually focus on building the hands-on experience employers value in 2025.

What is the main issue with certifications when it comes to time investment?

Certifications consume a lot of time (often 2-3 months of studying per exam) without providing significant return on investment. Instead of memorizing multiple-choice questions, time could be better spent working on real-world projects that demonstrate your skills.

How do certifications create a false sense of expertise?

Certifications test theoretical knowledge, but they don’t equip you with the practical problem-solving skills required in the real world. Passing an exam doesn’t mean you know how to solve complex issues that occur in actual cloud environments.

What aspect of cloud engineering do certifications fail to teach?

Certifications generally don't teach troubleshooting. In real-world cloud work, services break, security threats emerge, and problems need to be solved. Certifications focus on ideal scenarios, but they don't prepare you for fixing things when they go wrong.

Why is it important to learn how cloud services integrate with each other?

A real cloud architect understands how different cloud services, like EC2, Lambda, and S3, work together to solve business problems. Certifications focus on individual services without teaching how they interact to create comprehensive solutions.

What is the alternative to getting cloud certifications?

Instead of focusing on certifications, it's more valuable to focus on mastering the fundamentals, such as networking, Linux, and operating systems, and learning how to use core AWS services effectively through hands-on projects.

What are the core skills an aspiring cloud engineer should focus on?

To develop technical excellence, an aspiring cloud engineer should focus on mastering networking, Linux, and operating systems. They should also learn core AWS services like EC2, S3, VPC, and IAM, which are used in almost every cloud project.

What is the significance of learning Infrastructure as Code (IaC)?

Learning IaC is crucial because it helps cloud engineers manage environments in a reproducible, version-controlled way using tools like Terraform or CloudFormation, which is a skill employers highly value.

How can engineers demonstrate engineering leadership?

Engineering leadership is demonstrated by taking ownership of problems and showing a solution-oriented mindset. This includes making decisions about architectural choices, considering alternatives, and understanding how to balance priorities like performance, cost, and security.

What is first principles thinking, and why is it important for cloud engineers?

First principles thinking involves breaking down complex problems into their fundamental truths to create innovative and effective solutions. It is essential for cloud engineers because it helps them approach problems in a way that challenges conventional thinking and leads to better, more scalable solutions.