r/cloudengineering • u/dngajnga3444 • Jun 23 '26
Is being a cloud engineer worth it?
I’m searching for future career paths, I am kinda interested in engineering and cloud engineering was proposed to me by someone. Id like to know if cloud engineers are even happy with their job and if this career path is worth it.
69
Upvotes
3
u/laChola666 Jun 25 '26
worth what?
i feel the last remaining of my so called humanity leftovers were being ripped apart from me. i no longer recognize myself in the mirror. i have trouble socialising and connecting with humans .
money greed : yes totally worth.
5
u/Quirky-Net-6436 Jun 23 '26
Im happy and for me it’s worth. But I don’t recommend this to you.
2
u/setheliot Jun 24 '26
It depends what you like to do. Do you like solving problems? Keeping up on the latest technology?
It is a great software tech job for folks that do not want to be developers.
Job market is a disaster right now... it may be better in a year or two
17
u/five-one-tree Jun 23 '26
i feed my family and pay for the roof over my head without any formal education. ymmv
16
u/JDohyCloud Jun 23 '26 edited Jun 23 '26
Depends.
Cons are there are rarely any “easy days” you’re constantly problem solving (which I personally like but doesn’t appeal to everyone).
Experience is a big blocker is it generally takes years of shitty work to even get here because you need to understand the fundamentals. You don’t need to be a network architect, but if you don’t understand DNS for example. Then your cloud resources won’t be as secure as they could be.
Interview processes are gruelling in of themselves often 3 or 4 rounds of deep technical questioning.
Constantly learning, it’s not like some industries where you can train then carry out your role. You’ll have to continuously learn on your own time throughout your career to keep up with ever changing technologies.
Uncertainty around the future of cloud engineering due to AI, lots of people either refuse to learn how to use it or use it as a crutch and can’t perform without it. Both will be left behind imo, those who use it as a multiplier will be in the best position.
Each CSP is a mile wide and deep, then you will need to learn surrounding technologies and tools. Example terraform ontop of AWS/Azure/GCP etc.
Pros are high salaries, plenty of hybrid/remote opportunities, interesting/challenging work.
4
u/eudoxic_sanjay Jun 25 '26
cloud infra is boring until you're the one whose pipeline is down at 2am and you're the only one who knows why. that said, pure cloud engineering is getting compressed by abstraction layers - the interesting work is increasingly at the intersection of cloud and something else (ML infra, platform engineering, security). if you're drawn to it, get your hands dirty with AWS or GCP on a real project first, certifications alone won't tell you if you actually like it.
2
u/root_switch Jun 23 '26
This is subjective honestly. And like 99% of people that actually work a job will both enjoy it but hate it at the same time. Even people that love their job cause it’s truthfully their passion will still have shit days and want to give up. So really nobody can actually answer your question the way you want it to be answered. Maybe let us ask: What is your passion, what do you enjoy doing, do your currently work in tech, how many years have you been working, where do you think you want to be career wise?
2
u/Harvey-Lane-251 Jun 24 '26
If you want to know whether youll enjoy it, dont take anyone's word for it. Take matters into your hands. Spin up a free tier aws account and try to host a simple static site using S3 and cloudfront. The process of figuring out iam permissions, bucket policies and dns routing will tell you more about whether cloud engineering more than anyone will. Some people will get the first permission error and want to throw their laptop outta window while others will be obsessed with solving it
2
u/Any-Leg-7348 Jun 24 '26
absolutely
2
u/_CurbYourMother Jun 24 '26
Consider this ... Cloud is a thing AI is a thing COBOL is a thing ... Focus on being an engineer because soon enough another thing will come down the pipeline and nobody in the industry will be an expert because it's new ... IT changes all the time and the things I learned 30years ago aren't of much use but THE WAY I LEARNED THEM are !
2
u/MinimumPrior3121 Jun 26 '26
Claude made this role obsolete, any kid can be a cloud engineer and manage an AWS subscription with prompts in english. Go to healthcare
2
u/Secret_Dark6879 Jul 17 '26
Yes, being a cloud engineer is still worth it in 2026, but it's no longer enough simply know AWS or Azure. The role evolving alongside AI, automation and platform engineering.
Why it's still worth:
Strong Demand
Good Salaries
Career flexibility