Most certifications are a scam in my opinion - if your employer wants you to get one and is paying for it then ok, but I would never spend my own money on a certification. A couple years hands on in an AWS environment and you’ll be an old pro.
Ask HN: Did obtaining an AWS Solutions Architect certification help you?
11–18 of 18 posts
Re: Ask HN: Did obtaining an AWS Solutions Architect certification help you?
#12[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Did obtaining an AWS Solutions Architect certification help you?
#13I hold the AWS Solution Architect Associate certification. I had a lot of fun studying for the exam, and learned a lot.
However it did not help me one bit in looking for a job. Everyone wanted someone with experience.
My certification expires in November and I'm not going to renew it. I've decided that I'm going to work on getting an advanced VMware certification. There is still a lot of on prem out there, and I have 15 years of experience with VMware. So figure I should leverage that.
Re: Ask HN: Did obtaining an AWS Solutions Architect certification help you?
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
What level was it?
I got associate and then professional a couple months later. I studied for neither beyond maybe an hour of looking at what the question formats looked like. I figured that it was a better use of time to study only if I failed, and then re-take, since there’s no punishment for failure other than cost. I barely passed professional, but I passed. Associate felt easy for me. I have about 2-3 years experience working just…
Do you use Terraform? I'm just wondering because I interact with AWS 90% (possibly more) via Terraform. I rarely use the AWS Console and have never looked at Cloudformation or eksctl. I wonder if that's gonna make the certification more difficult for me...
Re: Ask HN: Did obtaining an AWS Solutions Architect certification help you?
#15Earlier quoted context omitted.
I got associate and then professional a couple months later. I studied for neither beyond maybe an hour of looking at what the question formats looked like. I figured that it was a better use of time to study only if I failed, and then re-take, since there’s no punishment for failure other than cost. I barely passed professional, but I passed. Associate felt easy for me. I have about 2-3 years experience working just…
Do you use Terraform? I'm just wondering because I interact with AWS 90% (possibly more) via Terraform. I rarely use the AWS Console and have never looked at Cloudformation or eksctl. I wonder if that's gonna make the certification more difficult for me...
Yes I do the same! Almost entirely through Terraform.
In no way does that hurt your knowledge! By doing everything in code you probably understand a lot more to begin with, since you don’t rely on some of the UI crutches and defaults.
Honestly I check the Terraform documentation before I even bother with AWS docs 99% of the time.
The system architect questions are definitely more high level architecture questions that revolve around understanding the AWS products and what trade-offs you make by choosing one of the the other.
Like any other multiple choice test, much of passing the test revolves around general test taking strategies (e.g. reading carefully and eliminating wrong answers)
I’m sure you’ll get the gist of it from the example questions that are out there (Amazon also has a few for free).
Understanding a few things about less commonly encountered products like Kinesis could help, too.
Re: Ask HN: Did obtaining an AWS Solutions Architect certification help you?
#16Most certifications are a scam in my opinion - if your employer wants you to get one and is paying for it then ok, but I would never spend my own money on a certification. A couple years hands on in an AWS environment and you’ll be an old pro.
Typically you will gain deep, rather than broad, AWS experience from your job because only certain stacks and configurations are used repeatedly.
Self-study and experimentation are viable routes to augment professional experience but some prefer to learn from curricula.
Re: Ask HN: Did obtaining an AWS Solutions Architect certification help you?
#17People often ask me if gaining a certification like the AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate is enough to get them a job. The short answer is that an AWS certification alone will not get you a job. There are several other attributes that play an essential part in kick-starting your AWS career. I think it’s also fair to say that AWS certifications are almost prerequisites, rather than differentiators today. Unless you have several AWS certifications, this is usually the case. Everyone seems to have their Solutions Architect Associate certification so that’s not going to make you stand out when applying for an AWS Solution Architect job.
Re: Ask HN: Did obtaining an AWS Solutions Architect certification help you?
#18I find certificates help when the person hiring you does not know enough about the topic. As such they use your certificate as a crutch to confirm you know something about the topic. It will also be used by recruiters to sell you, once again to people who do not understand the tech enough to properly evaluate you.
A certification might also get your resume past HR and to the hiring manager.