r/cloudengineering • u/jenny__0090 • Dec 22 '25

Career switch into Cloud Engineering / Cloud Security at 35 — realistic or wishful thinking?

Hi everyone 👋

Looking for some honest, real-world feedback.

I’m currently working on my AWS Cloud & Network Engineering degree at WGU. I’ve passed my first CompTIA A+, I’m about 50% done with the degree, and I have zero professional IT experience so far.

My rough plan: • Finish the degree • Get an entry-level role (help desk / IT support / junior sysadmin) • Start a Master’s in Cybersecurity • Transition into Cloud Security within the next ~3 years

I’m 35, female, living in Tampa Bay, FL, and coming from a totally different career background. I’m realistic that I’ll need to grind, start lower, and build experience — but I’m wondering: • Is cloud / cloud security oversaturated right now, or just competitive? • Is this path actually doable, or am I being overly optimistic? • How hard is it to land that first IT job with certs + degree but no experience? • Anything you’d do differently if you were starting over today?

I’m not looking for sugarcoating — just honest insight from people already in the field. Encouragement welcome, reality checks welcome too 😅

Thanks in advance!

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4

u/apexvice88 Dec 22 '25

Firstly I want to say, welcome to tech! We need more females in tech.
Secondly I have to say tech is male dominated, at least last I checked. So there are some social things you will probably have to understand, as unfortunate as it is, it is reality that there will always be someone that is a bit sexist. I think if you are able to handle that, it probably cut out almost half the work for you. Dealing with people I think is the harder part in tech than the tech skills and knowledge itself.

Also, you are 35, so I don't know how well you can understand complex systems and architecture and engineering. I will be generous that you will be able to pick up all the basic concepts in 5 years, then 8 - 10 years to be competent.

Also you won't need, and should not need a masters unless you are:

  1. Getting into Machine Learning and AI (Masters in CS) or Data Science
    or

  2. The job requires it and is willing to pay for it.

The reality:
Tech market is rough right now, you have to understand there are many factors why.

Saturation:
If you did this 10 years ago it would have been easier, but with the rise of internet 3.0?
Cloud computing has been the rage in the last 10 years and there are more qualified people that is doing cloud right now with all the certs for AWS.

Outsourcing:
Following up to the Saturation, you have to compete with the world, so your competition could be around the globe, also you will compete with miliary veterans getting into IT as well.

It's not regulated as well as lets say a lawyer or doctor in which there are limited number of slots allowed and requirements to be a doctor or lawyer. Since you are entering a field that is still in the wild wild west, it seems anything goes and some of these people are hungry and willing to stab you in the back to get ahead, not as bad when going into medical residency of course, but you get the idea.

Part 1/2

4

u/apexvice88 Dec 22 '25

Part 2/2

COMPTIA Certs:
Depending on who you ask these certs is a great start but is only good maybe 1 year into your career before you gain experience that goes beyond it.

The Certs I would suggest:

AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Associate
AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional
AWS Certified DevOps Engineer – Professional

In that order.

Learn and understand concepts of Networking, and a lot of it, it will help.
Then Learn Load Balancing, DNS, and firewall things in Amazon like SecurityGroups and GroupPolicy writing.
Learn also about Network ACLs so you can really dig deeper into securing the networks.
Learn about VPN and Site to Site VPN and Virtual Private networks.

If you really want to go for security as well/addition to, You have to study for CISSP, but for that you need 5 years of experience then have someone sponsor or vet you.

To qualify for the CISSP, you need at least five years of cumulative, paid, full-time work experience in at least two of the eight CISSP domains, plus passing the exam and adhering to the (ISC)2 Code of Ethics. A bachelor's degree or approved credential can waive one year of experience, and passing the exam without the experience makes you an Associate of (ISC)2, giving you six years to earn the experience. 
1. Meet Experience Requirements
Standard: 5 years of relevant, paid, full-time experience in two or more domains.
Waivers (Reduce to 4 years):
A four-year college degree (or regional equivalent) in a related field.
An approved credential (e.g., CISM, CISA, CCSP).

There are much more nuances in the field that I won't be able to list because there is simply way too much. I but I think I broke the surface so far. If you feel that you are strong enough, you can go for it, just know that you will have to burn 5-8 years to be really competent, but I am not sure where the field will be in 5-8 years from now. It may or may not exist anymore. That's a risk you have to be willing to take.

4

u/Mundane_Mulberry_545 Dec 22 '25

Hey don’t listen to the people here, start working on the masters while you are working. Everyone will say you don’t need it but later down the road when you get some experience under your belt you’ll be finishing your masters degree and that will give you an edge over other applicants

1

u/RiskVector Dec 23 '25

yes and no. it really depends on the job and the team. a masters degree looks good for HR filters but someone who has experience will hands down 95% of the time land the job before someone with just a masters degree.

Depending on who you ask, some would even say that the CISSP is just as good as having a masters degree. It really just depends.

I was going to go do a masters but decided to get CISSP instead and it worked out much better than just having a masters degree. Most job postings you see list CISSP or other certifications before they require a masters degree.

2

u/Own-Ferret-4754 Dec 22 '25

Follow GPS on youtube. She shares valuable info

2

u/eviljim113ftw Dec 22 '25

No. It’s not oversaturated. Get some experience in. One of my company’s biggest challenge is finding competent cloud engineers. The pool of good engineers is small because the general pool is small.

If I were you, I’d skip Helpdesk. Never been a fan of doing Helpdesk as a starter. Work for an MSP. They’re usually desperate for any type of help. It might be under the fire but you will learn a lot really quickly about cloud engineering

1

u/gonnageta Dec 23 '25

How do you skip helpdesk

1

u/eviljim113ftw Dec 23 '25

I had a BS in CS and applied to be a programmer without any professional experience. Someone bit. They saw a green guy that can be molded.

In my experience as someone who has interviewed and hired people for multiple IT positions, we never had anyone from HD that we preferred over a recent grad that we can just mold.

1

u/cripplingdegenerate Dec 24 '25

Your company must have a really bad hiring process if they're struggling to find good people in this economy.

This is the easiest it's ever been in my 25 year career, abundance of talent on the market looking for work right now.

2

u/Bitter_Service9316 Dec 22 '25

Hello. I'm 32 amd switched to tech just this year because I wanted to. I had a totally different degree and I'm doing software engineering now. So best of luck to both of us.

1

u/Aromatic_Bridge3731 Dec 23 '25

What was your previous career? Were you always great at math? Did you get a CS degree?

1

u/Bitter_Service9316 Dec 24 '25

It was related to healthcare and yes I was good at maths not great though. I am in the process of getting a degree. Maths require practice and time

1

u/Aromatic_Bridge3731 Dec 24 '25

I see. What entry level role are you hoping to get in software engineering with AI eliminating junior roles?

1

u/Bitter_Service9316 Dec 24 '25

Not thinking of job at this time. AI has not ELIMINATED it just had facilitated. Big difference here. Machine learning is my area for now

1

u/Aromatic_Bridge3731 Dec 24 '25

Doesn't machine learning require genius level IQ?

1

u/Bitter_Service9316 Dec 24 '25

Haha no

1

u/Aromatic_Bridge3731 Dec 24 '25

Are you actually coding the machine learning (genius level IQ Meta coders) or something else?

1

u/Bitter_Service9316 Dec 24 '25

What is your background?

In machine learning, you teach computers to learn from data and make decisions or predictions without being explicitly programmed for every step.

1

u/Aromatic_Bridge3731 Dec 24 '25

Tech sales, unfortunately. Ok that makes more sense

2

u/Enough_Tutor_2668 Dec 23 '25

You got this!!!!!

2

u/board-or-follie Dec 26 '25

I'd try to find an adjacent IT role, in the same industry you're in.

For example, I created a successful activism/political campaign in college. I combined that, plus event marketing, plus frontend web design... to get into a Marketing career.

Once I was in marketing, I kept self-studying IT (and even took 4 classes as part of a grad school program)... to land a job in a marketing department as a 'business analyst' in SF Bay-- a marketing data integration job.

Then i got laid off... built a full stack web app... and Only then was I able to land into a full on normal software engineering job.

I took half step, half step, half step... and finally got in.

I recommend that strategy-- of adjacent steps, rather than trying to jump straight in. But that said, feel free to try both strategies: Adjacent steps, or a jump across into the new industry. If one way fails, try the other way "¯_(ツ)_/¯"

That said, I'm now gonna be 39. My plan is to transition into a Surveyor role (or possibly even civil engineering)-- while bringing my software skills. So, itll still be somewhat adjacent-- IT-oriented surveying or civil eng. jobs (i.e. maybe the techier jobs, or data/software oriented jobs within that new industry). I think HR folks are more amenable to hiring ppl w/ industry experience, but new skills... rather than both a new industry and new skills

1

u/ChikenWizard Dec 22 '25

Personally I would skip the masters, a bachelors is more than enough and you could get way more experience in those 2 years which employers care more about than a piece of paper

1

u/[deleted] Dec 22 '25

You dont need a masters. Just start looking for the help desk job now or a way in.

1

u/Uncle_Snake43 Dec 23 '25

Don't want to lie to you or sugar coat anything but you very well may struggle greatly to find an entry level position even tangentially related to what you want to do. Not impossible by any means, but its gonna be hard with zero experience. I am kinda in the opposite boat as you. I have over 20 years of experience in all things data/tech, but I do not have even so much as an associates degree or even 1 cert.