Most Useful Cloud Certifications ( Azure, AWS, GCE, ... )

I haven’t seen the Azure or GCP certs as a strong hiring signal.

The AWS associate certs are similarly low signal, anyone with some skill at multiple choice can pass those.

The AWS professional certs and AWS specialty certs (big data, ml, networking) are all a solid hiring signal, to me. You can’t pass those exams without handson experience. Memorization isn’t enough. The networking cert in particular has a lot of content that most struggle with in the cloud.

I got an Azure AZ-203 Developer Associate and AZ-400 DevOps Expert about 2 years ago. It took about 3 months for each exam, passed each first time. I was studying in the evening reading Microsoft docs and doing the quickstart tutorials for all of their services. https://www.isaaclevin.com/post/az-203-study-guide/ this guys guides were a massive help.

I got them because I wanted to move on from an embedded developer role to a more cloud centric role. And it worked. Having the qualifications got me through the HR wall at companies and got me into the face to face interviews.

I also think the AZ-203 is especially good because it covers so much content and forces you broaden what you know about. Like I would have avoided learning things like RBAC and OAuth if they weren't on the exam.

I got a new job and now work daily in AWS but I'm still glad I did them.

- Which one?

GCP Cloud Data Engineer & Cloud Architect

- Why?

They are required by Google to be a partner.

- How many attempts?

One each.

- Was it useful

Yes. The exam wasn't, but the study and preparation that goes into passing the exam is helpful. It exposed me to tools that I didn't normally use in my job and the CDE exam in particular informed me on the important distinctions between all of the GCP tools available (there are a lot of overlaps between tools)

- How did you prepare?

Google helped create Coursera courses, so I took those. Plus taking the practice exam and using a sandbox account to reenforce my learning.

The GCP exams are all about memorization of nitty-gritty details. You will be presented with a case study for a solution, and all of the solutions will work, but there's a obvious best solution if you know the details of the tools available.

I'm still trying to study for AWS Cloud Practitioner, because my employee uses AWS and I wouldn't bother otherwise. TBH I'm really struggling to finish the course due to the fact I find the subject matter incredibly dull - it's just a whirlwind tour of all the major AWS services. Learning OS internals, networking, software architecture, etc. would be more useful and interesting...

I generally don't care about certifications, but was convinced to try the AWS Solutions Architect path.

While I'm still studying, I've found many knowledge gaps due learning things through experience. I guess studying something in a structured way definitely has value.

It's highly regional and industry specific. In my case, I found traditional companies are looking for Azure and AWS in my region. On the other hand I've been in a few interviews where a VC-backed startup is looking for GCP certs. While I tried to make the argument that all clouds are similar the hiring manager let me know it's not them making the requirement but the VC backing them.

Certifications can act as filter when competing with other candidates. Candidates with certification will have edge during initial or first round. However it is not the deciding factor while making hiring decision.

If you want to learn new stack then please take the certification and get acquainted. Real world experience cannot replace the certification.

AWS has more popularity and acceptability. There are so much of free and paid tutorials online and one pass with relatively minimal effort.

If you are targeting to work in Enterprise sector, I would recommend to take Azure Cloud certification. Azure certs are gaining lot more traction.

Taking a Niche or Specialty certs like (AWS ML, AWS Security) will have lot more weightage during the interview process. The specialty certs are difficult to crack and need some real experience.

Here is my journey of taking AWS Solutions Architect - Associate certificate.

https://www.rasikjain.com/posts/tips-and-resources-passing-c...

Good luck.

Having hired many folks for cloud engineering positions we never hired anyone with a certification. Experience was a better predictor of success.

What is it you want to do? is the certification the best path to reach that goal?

I think it really depends on the industry you apply for. An Azure Solutions Architect certificate could be quite appealing to certain kinds of large organizations that have been Microsoft partners in the past and have recently made the jump to the cloud. Those kinds of organizations are the reason that Azure has been gaining market share against AWS. That sort of certificate is useful to a company like that because it checks some boxes for HR right-off-the-bat in that it probably aligns with their 'cloud goals'.

Lastweekinaws just published an article about whether you should get a certificate: https://www.lastweekinaws.com/blog/is-aws-certification-wort...

While this is focused on AWS, the same holds true for Azure and GCE.

And I'll note that if you're at the point where you're getting the expert-level certs, those do stand out and are trusted by hiring managers across the industry.

I did AZ-900 and AZ-204. Thought they might look good on a CV. Passed both on the first try.

The use is debatable. There is definitely a gap between the certificates and the real thing. Had some issues with the first components, I added to the cloud. OTOH you get to play with the Azure Cloud and get some practise and you can get around better than without the training.

In terms of preparations, the MS Learn platform is a really good start. You can complement it by browsing some dumps that are freely available on the Internet

I would argue that any certification that's based on answering questions is not going to be very useful.

In the past, RHCE fetched you a job because to get it, you had to demonstrate practical knowledge. Nowadays, RHCE is definitely not enough for a job, but I'd argue it's a much better indicator of knowledge than something where you answer multiple-choice questions.

I'd go for something like CK{A,AD,S} unless you're trying to break into the industry and have no CS knowledge (in which case these AWS/GCP certificates can probably get you an entry-level tech support position in some companies).

As a side note, when interviewing people, I've not given much weight to the certs. A few weeks ago, I got excited about a candidate who passed CKAD. When I asked the candidate about their opinion (!) about pros and tradeoffs when dealing with distributed systems, they could not answer.

I'd argue that passing CKx when you know nothing about distributed applications/systems is counterproductive (because it'll make me ask about that thinking that I'm helping the candidate with some easy questions to break the ice).

I found the GCP Cloud Architect exam to be helpful. The most important part is learning and practicing along the way as you study. Many of the skills you learn should transfer over to other cloud providers as well helping with application architecture planning in general.

Got the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate certification two years ago.

I started working more with AWS and felt like there was a bunch of services and concepts that I didn't know. My employer paid for a three day course and the examination fee was included in the price.

It was useful mostly in giving me more confidence in my role, but I also got a better understanding of the huge AWS ecosystem. Helps us with clients sometimes that I'm "certified"...

The course was extremely boring (a lot of reading aloud from the textbook), but forced me to focus on the subject for three whole days. I also spent a few hours studying the textbook on my own and spent a few hours on parts of a Udemy course.

What is your end goal? If it's being hired at a large corporation, you'll find useful advice in lots of other comments here.

If you want to go to FAANG, it can still be useful, but open source contributions and learning data structures might be a better use of time.

If you're aiming at going to a high-growth early to mid stage startup however, be aware that certifications (especially a lot of them) can be an anti-signal. As a startup hiring manager myself, I view certifications at best as a basic aptitude check, at worst as signal of a personality who is fine with wasting lots of time into learning copypasta knowledge.

In that case, you might find a better investment in building presentable side projects.

YMMV.

Note that Amazon partners with certain companies (like acloudguru) to provide free training to their employees. All you have to do is sign up with an @amazon.com e-mail address. And they offer discounts on any AWS certs that you want to go for.

I have had had good experiences with some of the Udemy courses. In fact, when I lead a study group for the AWS CCP, we used the acloudguru course as the baseline, but the weekly quizzes I threw at them were based on Udemy material.

So, if you want to get AWS certification, there’s at least two sets of resources there that I think are useful. Maybe not the best available, but still useful.

Depending on the industry you are in, it could be an attractive credential. As a hiring manager it’s not what I use to determine proficiency or possibility of success, but lots of our contracts require them.

If you are using it to learn it’s not a bad tool to learn unless you have some pet projects you want to try out on the platform of your choice.

I’ve been working with AWS for the last 6 years and have been certified for the last 5. I learned new things through certification, but my practical experience tells me where the sharp edges are.

I have the "AWS Certified Solutions Architect " and the "Microsoft Certified: Azure Solutions Architect Expert" certifications.

I did some poc deployments on both these clouds -- started with wordpress deployment, kafka deployments , oracle installs and and migrated the POC from one cloud to the other and back. Took a few months and some $$ but worth it. These certifications on my linkedin profile did help me get noticed.

Use powershell exclusively for all Azure task . Use AWS CLI for all AWS tasks.

I’ve only done AWS, because that’s what work pays for. I think you need to consider the country/area you work in.

Azure is huge in Denmark and there’s a massive shortage of Azure specialist. We have sufficient AWS resources, but the customers are asking for Azure.

If you can ask around in your area.

I have a few co-workers with GCP certifications, but there’s little demand for GCP, at least in our area.

Certifications are mostly relevant when your looking for work. The AWS certs are fun and interesting, but no substitute for hands-on experience.

You should separate the reasoning from the execution. I've done some certifications over the years, but wouldn't say the pattern fits with certificate collector.

Why do these at all? For me, I was first in a role with a Microsoft partner. Certifications count towards their partner level, so they are incentivized to get their people certified in areas that accrue to their partnership. For a few (often regulated) clients, the certifications qualified them to participate in RFP processes.

They didn't hire based on certificates and had a great understanding of what different certifications brought (zero to a little.) Taking a recently introduced certification over an older one was preferred because Microsoft introduced lifetimes at some point. Support in terms of materials or time-off to take exams was provided.

Many companies have Azure and AWS, or AWS and GCP, etc. to try to create some competition when renewing deals and avoiding lock-in. It doesn't always work out in practice for them, but if you moved into the consulting space then you'll find that having a Microsoft cert and an AWS one will you pivot more easily. There is a lot more value in knowing two of these than just one.

I've moved on, but since then I have discovered that at times there is value in using certs to quickly attack a new area. This is only to get a lay of the land and force yourself to cover things that an advanced person will often skip. If I see something new I'll often jump in, get stuck, and then reverse engineer my way out. This is very important, but spending some time on the boring cert-level stuff enhances learning when it's available.

In terms of getting the certs, it depends on the exam. Lower-level Microsoft ones have been achievable with just reading and limited hands-on work. They've now got some more depth and you are best to have quite a bit of hands-on with more resources easily applicable to someone writing .NET. Adapting to another platform probably will help making the content stick. I would expect most people to pass these on the first attempt. Watch for vouchers etc. enabling retries.

Microsoft Learn seems like the new place to go for training now. I've done a few of their courses on Sentinel and other tools and it reminds me a lot of their old school cert training. I had good and bad experiences with certification tests. You need to check the reviews for your specific exam.

Do you work for a consultancy or internally at {Microsoft|Amazon|Google}? If not, then certs aren't for you.

I'd say the most important part is knowing the tools and that comes with practice. Here's a good summary [0].

[0] https://cloudonaut.io/5-good-reasons-not-to-get-aws-certifie...

On a tangent, how valued are Triplebyte certifications to a hirer? What about Pluralsight ones?

@NicoJuicy,

If you want to learn Cloud, definitely go ahead with Azure certifications.

If you are expecting to get hired because of certifications, that may be hoping for less than 5 percentile outcome.

Certifications do provide a defined goal and courses to get started.

VMware: https://www.vmware.com/education-services/certification.html

One thing that is missing here is that certs are a good starting point for a technology? Say your changing from AWS to Azure then a cert can force you to get up to speed on the subject

It must be proportional to which cloud is used by which employer, I assume. Which varies.

Real life experience with whichever.