My journey into cloud computing began unexpectedly during my industrial training in 2019. While working with an e-learning department at a tech startup, I met my mentor, a Linux administrator. Although I wasn't interested in coding at the time, watching him work sparked my curiosity.
At the time I was really scared of the CLI, I was traumatised by my lecturers in school and Instead of delving into it, I decided to focus on the first three phases of the Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC): planning, defining, and designing. This led me to explore instructional design, user interface (UI), and user experience (UX) design. I continued to develop these skills during my university days, which eventually landed me a contract job as an instructional designer at Alison Courses after the COVID-19 pandemic.
I worked on instructional design for a while before transitioning to UI/UX design in 2022. My experience in product design taught me valuable lessons about the importance of user-centered design, UX principles, and the significance of considering the user in software development.
After graduating in 2023, I decided to explore the final three phases of the SDLC: building, testing, and deploying. This marked the beginning of my cloud computing journey. I discovered the transformative power of cloud infrastructure through AWS and became passionate about learning more.
This newfound interest led me to enroll in ALX Africa's cloud computing track. The journey with ALX wasn't easy. The first few weeks were overwhelming, with a foundation program that covered soft skills, communication, time management, and more. As we dived deeper into cloud computing, I prepared for my first exam, the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam. Despite burning the midnight oil, I didn't meet the cut-off mark.
Undeterred, I continued, re-applied for a voucher and soldiered on, eventually I passed the exam. My next mission was to take on the AWS Solutions Architect Associate exam, which was even more challenging. With intense lab work, hands-on projects, and familiarization with infrastructure, I finally passed the exam on February 4th.
The Journey Continues...
This journey has taught me that curiosity is a catalyst for growth, and there's no rest for those who crave knowledge. As I continue on this path, I was able to also secure a DevOps internship with Flexisaf. And so far, it has been eye-opening, and I'm eager to dive deeper into the world of DevOps. My appetite for learning remains insatiable, and I'm looking forward to exploring more tools, expanding my knowledge of cloud computing, and contributing to the exciting projects at Flexisaf.
This journey embodies the spirit of "doing hard things," a mantra that ALX instilled in us throughout our the program. Their constant reminders rang true: nothing worthwhile comes easily. Completing this program is merely a stepping stone toward my ultimate goal, but what a transformative stepping stone it has been.
Thank you for reading and…
Ciao.