Unlocking Cloud Careers: Students Guide to AWS Cloud Club
Tags: aws, cloudcomputing, awscloudclub, cloud
Published: 2024-03-01 08:53:14

> It's Always Day One 

First, allow me to share how I got introduced to Cloud and this beautiful community and how it helped me in my career.

The story started in sophomore year when the pandemic subsided, and we could now start face-to-face classes. At that time, the GDSC (Google Developer Student Club) was also established and pioneered in our university. I was just a member at that time, but that's when the culture of attending workshop events and other meetups started. We went to multiple events like GitHub Field Day, GDG Pampanga, UI/UX Figma, Flutter workshop, and many more. We explored a lot of places and learned technical skills and career advice from different speakers who shared their knowledge.

Life was good until the 3rd term of our sophomore year when the fire nation attacked—kidding. When the academic projects and my commissions/freelance projects coincided or happened simultaneously, and I had to meet both deadlines. Unfortunately, I couldn't drop one. For academics, I was trying to maintain my dean's list status, and for the commissions, I also could not drop them since they were paid, and I needed the money. So, I did what needed to be done, and in doing so, there were a lot of late nights, and I became like a cog. My routine was waking up early since my college was far from my home, doing coding activities in school, and then other activities from other subjects. After that, when I got home from a long commute, it was coding time again for my thesis, and after that, it was coding time again for the commission. Then, I'd sleep late and wake up early. This was my routine for weeks, and in the end, I burned out. I just crawled my way through finishing the tasks. After this storm, my routine changed from "eat, code, sleep, repeat" to "eat, scroll, sleep, repeat." I was just mindlessly scrolling through social media because I lost the passion or the fire burning in me. I even questioned myself why I chose this field in the first place.

Then one day, here is the turning point. While I was scrolling through Facebook, I saw this shared post: "Level up your career with Apper Cloud School Open Day" on August 18, 2023, at AWS Office - Arthaland Tower, BGC Taguig. I was getting tired of just rotting in our house, scrolling my life away. So, for a change of pace, I decided to go, even though I still had no idea how to commute to the city. So, I registered, and then it was the day of the event. I went there by myself, the only one I had was Google Maps, checking every minute if I was getting closer to the destination. But thankfully, I made it. The event just went smoothly. I got introduced to the cloud industry, what resources can be used, how important certification is, etc. And I thought that was it. But then, after the event, there was this networking session where students and professionals were just conversing with each other and connecting on their LinkedIn. Me being an introvert, it was not in my nature to start up or strike up a conversation. But this time was different. I wanted to be a part of that conversation, and it hit me that I was alone, and no one knew me. I can stop acting how my environment views me, and because I am alone, what could go wrong? No one knows me. So, it gave me the courage to open up myself and network with people. And so, by chance, I met Isaeus Guiang or "Asi." It turns out he's the regional AWS Cloud Club Captain, but I had no clue at that time. We got to talking, and let me tell you, he had a lot of questions. "What year are you?" "What is your affiliation?" "What field are you interested in?" Those are the few of many that I remember. When he asked me the question "What field are you interested in?" I answered just randomly, cybersecurity because that's the field that came into my mind first. And then he said, "Oh really, me too." He then offered a voucher for ISC2 certified in cybersecurity and said that I should chat him so he can send the voucher. After that, the event finished, and I made new connections along the way. So, I went home feeling something new in me. And then when I got home, I chatted Asi on LinkedIn, asked for the voucher, and then I noticed in his bio saying "AWS Cloud Club Captain." I got intrigued, being introduced recently to AWS, and then I checked what it is. I realized it's like GDSC but focused on AWS technology. So, I asked him how did he apply. I wanted to ask some tips, and then he said, "Oh, you're also interested in establishing AWS Cloud Club University," and I said yes. I proceeded to create my application. I created a video explaining one of the AWS services, answered some questions, and then weeks later I got this email.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/cspmwhgm7g3fhwh9mj68.png)

I was at school during this time. I was so happy when I saw this after I checked my phone. But then, that happiness quickly turned into worry as I soon realized that I have to lead an organization. This is no easy task for me because at this point, I have zero (0) experience in leading/planning an event. So, the first steps were hard, just like in any field. But thankfully, I had a lot of people supporting me. I started to organize my team, and then fast forward to Feb 21, 2024, we concluded our 2nd event at AWS office, which was very, very successful, and I'm very happy with the results. A lot of students really did become interested in the cloud after that event.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/r0llrobpbyxmychapo6t.png)

Now, why did I tell you this story? Because in AWS Cloud Clubs, leadership is one of the things that is focused not only on technical skills but also about the community, not just the AWS technology. And I want you to realize that there are many opportunities outside university like events, workshops, hackathons, etc., to improve your skills. I want you to realize that leadership can be learned just like any other skill. So, if you decide to explore outside university and pick up the leadership responsibility and apply to GDSC, MLSA, AWS CC, DevCon, etc., just know that yes, it's not going to be easy, and that's okay because usually, things that are worth it are not easy. And yes, being a leader has no payment, but that is also okay because sometimes the things we do for free are the most fulfilling. I was so tired when we were preparing our second event, but it was all worth it seeing their smiles during the event and enthusiasm to cloud after. And I just want to share that also in some weird way when you give back to the community, it also gives back to you. I can testify that without this community, I wouldn't be where I am right now. Yes, I still have a long way, but in one of the Filipino sayings "Malayo pa, pero malayo na" ✒️🔥, and that's my humble journey of how I unlocked my cloud career.




So, you might be asking why is there an AWS Cloud Club besides learning AWS technology. So,

this is what we are trying to fix.

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/84z55tx1h5jlivqrt4qx.png)

So, this is what we are trying to fix, whether we like it or not, we are included in this one, so what we can do now is.

So why is this a thing? One of the reasons is because of the lack of application or hands-on of students. We don't lack in theoretical but in application, we lack greatly. The fast-moving phase of technology does not give the academic curriculum to adjust. It's one of the reasons why Computer technology-related classes have no board exams because technology updates so fast quarterly, monthly, or even weekly that the board can become obsolete fast. So what we can do now, our goal is to bring down this statistic and help students with the application of their theoretical knowledge.

What's in it for you joining the AWS Cloud Club:

1. **Student-centric:** Our primary goal is to facilitate learning and skill development in students. The technical knowledge taught here will be student-friendly, so it doesn't matter if you have zero knowledge or have experience in cloud; you'll have a place here to learn something new.

2. **Innovation project:** The cloud can host hands-on workshops, hackathons to improve students' skills, and be practiced on what they will do on their job after they graduate.

3. **Industry engagement:** In this club, you'll be exposed to meetups that will help you network with professionals and connect with like-minded peers. You'll meet a lot of students with similar passion in tech. You'll also gain knowledge from speakers with years of experience and many more.

So, what are the careers that you will unlock once you learn about cloud: solutions architect, cloud engineer, DevOps engineer, and web developer. But isn't web dev a typical route for tech students to be in without cloud knowledge? Yes, you're correct. But I included it here because I noticed that there are now a lot of job postings looking for web developers but with cloud knowledge. So if you have cloud knowledge, you'll have an edge over your competitors in your job. Not only web dev, actually, the whole industry is now migrating to cloud, even machine learning analytics, and other fields now use cloud.


Simple illustration of what the community can do for you:

![Image description](https://dev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/articles/q879bxf4f9sxwy1esj4k.png)

I am now an intern of one of the leading cloud education learning portals for cloud-related technology Tutorials Dojo. Done speaking engagements both online and face-to-face, certified cloud practitioner, and many more, and now I am helping other students to get into the cloud and get more opportunities in the tech industry.

Thank you so much to this community; you reignited my passion for technology and truly made it feel like "it's always day one!"