The 4 Big Money Certifications No One Is Talking About
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Just get certified as a Sitecore developer. That's where the money is.
Ok....this might be a long post so bear with me.
I finally passed the Solutions Architect exam yesterday. This was my fourth time taking it and I want to give some advice that will help anybody who wants to pass it.
The first two times I took it my dumbass was trying to "brain dump" my way to success. I used the acloud guru course and tried memorizing only the answers to their final practice exam. But I'mma be real with yall about acloud guru....those courses suck....the content barely scratches the surface on what you need to pass. So please stay away from those courses unless you want to waste your time and fail. The second time I did the same thing with the brain dump strategy by using cloudacademy's practice questions. I also used the site: http://jayendrapatil.com/. That site summarizes a lot of the services in a bullet point manner so it's pretty good if you want a quick review. But all of that still wasn't enough because I still failed trying to memorize just answers.
The AWS CSA exam is mostly scenario based and you have to learn how to analyze questions and answers on why they're right or wrong. That's what I learned from this course by DolfinEd on udemy: http://www.udemy.com/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-exam/.
I used this course and a set of practice exams by Jon Bonso. I'll post all of the recommended links at the end of this post but let me give you guys who still want to pursue this cert some advice.
This course is everything you'll need to know, in depth, for the exam. In order to get the most out of it you'll have to go through each section at least two times.
Each section will have:
- Theory
- Labs
- Quizzes
- Guided Practice
I didn't do many labs in preparation for this exam...all I did was watched the lab videos and to be honest you don't need to do labs unless you want to get familiar with the services.
Watch the videos once at normal speed and then watch the second round at a higher speed.
I'm more of a reader type of learner so I had to take screenshots of the video's slides and turn them into pdf files to study.
I would keep going through the sections until you score 80% or more on the quizzes.
After I was done with the course I used Jon Bonso's practice exams. There are 6 practice tests and I would keep taking them until you're scoring 90% or up several times in a row.
Don't memorize the answers but go through the explanations to understand why the answers were right and wrong. I also had some backup resources to study just in case but I mostly used the DolfinEd course and Jon Bonso's practice exams.
So here's a list of the links that I believe will help.
MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS:
DolfinEd Course
Jon Bonso practice exams
SUPPLEMENTARY RECOMMENDATIONS:
Neal Davis practice exams
Whizlab practice exams
Jayendrapatil (good summaries)
Linuxacademy (their labs are good, videos to follow along with and access to aws console without having to signup for an aws account)
Tutorials Dojo cheat sheets (good summary of services)
Good luck studying.
I finally passed the Solutions Architect exam yesterday. This was my fourth time taking it and I want to give some advice that will help anybody who wants to pass it.
The first two times I took it my dumbass was trying to "brain dump" my way to success. I used the acloud guru course and tried memorizing only the answers to their final practice exam. But I'mma be real with yall about acloud guru....those courses suck....the content barely scratches the surface on what you need to pass. So please stay away from those courses unless you want to waste your time and fail. The second time I did the same thing with the brain dump strategy by using cloudacademy's practice questions. I also used the site: http://jayendrapatil.com/. That site summarizes a lot of the services in a bullet point manner so it's pretty good if you want a quick review. But all of that still wasn't enough because I still failed trying to memorize just answers.
The AWS CSA exam is mostly scenario based and you have to learn how to analyze questions and answers on why they're right or wrong. That's what I learned from this course by DolfinEd on udemy: http://www.udemy.com/aws-certified-solutions-architect-associate-exam/.
I used this course and a set of practice exams by Jon Bonso. I'll post all of the recommended links at the end of this post but let me give you guys who still want to pursue this cert some advice.
This course is everything you'll need to know, in depth, for the exam. In order to get the most out of it you'll have to go through each section at least two times.
Each section will have:
- Theory
- Labs
- Quizzes
- Guided Practice
I didn't do many labs in preparation for this exam...all I did was watched the lab videos and to be honest you don't need to do labs unless you want to get familiar with the services.
Watch the videos once at normal speed and then watch the second round at a higher speed.
I'm more of a reader type of learner so I had to take screenshots of the video's slides and turn them into pdf files to study.
I would keep going through the sections until you score 80% or more on the quizzes.
After I was done with the course I used Jon Bonso's practice exams. There are 6 practice tests and I would keep taking them until you're scoring 90% or up several times in a row.
Don't memorize the answers but go through the explanations to understand why the answers were right and wrong. I also had some backup resources to study just in case but I mostly used the DolfinEd course and Jon Bonso's practice exams.
So here's a list of the links that I believe will help.
MAIN RECOMMENDATIONS:
DolfinEd Course
Jon Bonso practice exams
SUPPLEMENTARY RECOMMENDATIONS:
Neal Davis practice exams
Whizlab practice exams
Jayendrapatil (good summaries)
Linuxacademy (their labs are good, videos to follow along with and access to aws console without having to signup for an aws account)
Tutorials Dojo cheat sheets (good summary of services)
Good luck studying.
Thanks for this.
THANKS BRUH!!! MAN THIS IS RIGHT ON TIME. IM IN THE DC AREA AND AWS CLOUD SERVICES IS WHERE ITS AT ON THE HIRING FRONT.
I GOT A SECURITY CLEARANCE AND NO AWS BUT I GOT A STANDING JOB OFFER IF I GET THE CERT BC THEY ARE THAT DESPERATE FOR CLEARED PEOPLE WITH A CERT. THEY WILL BRING YOU ON AND TRAIN TOO.
THANK YOU BC I REALLY ONLY HAD ONE AVENUE TO START.
Thanks for coming back and sharing your experience.
Created this thread back in 2016
We all should be caking heavy by now.
Drop a link to the pdf you created, would def help the reading inclinced
Big congrats!!!!
Funny you should mention Sitecore. I've worked in 2 projects within the last year where we ripped out Sitecore for Adobe AEM. Might want to look into that tool.
It's an enterprise-level CMS (think WordPress on steroids) that specializes in personalization. Problem is that it's not very good at it and it's rigid to manage. Adobe Experience Manager integrated with Adobe Target works much better (but costs a lot more).
"Costs a lot more" is the key phrase here. AEM is too expensive. But why do you say Sitecore is "rigid" to to manage?
AEM is more expensive, but they Adobe is still selling it because of its more modular approach to CMS. I'm oversimplifing it, but it breaks down content to templates and components, which can be reused on other pages.
Since I added my AEM experienced to my LinkedIn, I'm contacted every single day...including for jobs at Adobe.
Thanks for the drop! I been saying I wanted to get on and how I have some first steps.
Sitecore does the same thing. Structures, templates, components, and pages.
I took two courses at the beginning of this year:
Azure AZ103 MS Azure administrator and AZ900 (or whatever the introductory course is.
AZ 103 is retired so AZ104 is the go to.
I've got to study for the exam but ever since we started telework I haven't been motivated.
In the meantime, I have to use Azure portal and Active Directory every now and then so I just get familiar with the features. At the course they tell you to sign up for a free azure account and you get like $200 free dollars worth of usage out of them. If you know the system, you can slide into an Azure Administrator job pretty easily. I'll let ya'll know what's up when I get prepping for the exam.
Edit: AZ900 is MS Azure Fundamentals. I took that one first.
Azure AZ103 MS Azure administrator and AZ900 (or whatever the introductory course is.
AZ 103 is retired so AZ104 is the go to.
I've got to study for the exam but ever since we started telework I haven't been motivated.
In the meantime, I have to use Azure portal and Active Directory every now and then so I just get familiar with the features. At the course they tell you to sign up for a free azure account and you get like $200 free dollars worth of usage out of them. If you know the system, you can slide into an Azure Administrator job pretty easily. I'll let ya'll know what's up when I get prepping for the exam.
Edit: AZ900 is MS Azure Fundamentals. I took that one first.
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Can somebody explain to me what possible employment opportunities after getting an AWS Certs such as MS Azure fundamental or Solutions Architect. Do I need any prior experience in as a developer or some kind of IT background? Also, what would be the best approac/path to get a AWS Cert which would allow me to get employment the quickest?
Thanks all
Thanks all
You do not need a developer background but it does help if you have Linux experience and able to write and execute simple bash scripts. If you get certified, all I can say is add it to your LinkedIn profile and watch as people will contact you.
And just to differentiate, MS Azure is for Microsoft's cloud, not Amazon. They both have a solution architect certification though.
As a CP or SA, you can consult or be an asset to a company looking to move (fully or partially) to the cloud.
As far as background, I'd highly suggest you know your way around a corporate network. Your role will require you to be able to explain to your client the differences in OSes, containers, applications, DNS, S3 buckets, load balancers, VPC, ACLs, firewalls and more.
Just came across this thread. Is this area still hot? Can you still get a job making 6 figs with just a couple AWS certs? Respect
It’s still hot. Probably even hotter now but you need experience to get the tip top dollar.
The cert is still worth it. To get in as a jr level engineer at least.
Im starting mine next week
If you all want something to show the young folks or people thinking about breaking into the IT field, tell them to subscribe to this brotha:
Which cert path would you recommend for this? I googled junior level engineer and didn't see anything specific. Moreso just architect, devops, and sysops. Thanks boss
Start with the associate solution architect
Thank you famo
good drop
just passed the CompTia Cloud+ on friday. (for jobs working with the DoD)
I want to add another cert or two, and learn some scripting (most likely python) along the way
i have also downloaded virtual box and i'm about to set up my first virtual lab.
any recommendations on future certs, or what direction to go?
I want to add another cert or two, and learn some scripting (most likely python) along the way
i have also downloaded virtual box and i'm about to set up my first virtual lab.
any recommendations on future certs, or what direction to go?
Whats your end goal?
….
Just learning the differences between the job titles to be honest
looking to become a cloud engineer or SysOps administrator.
i'm fascinated by the idea of programming (DevOps) but not sure what i would do with it
What is a good entry point?