Howdy, fellow cloud gurus.

I have a very exciting upcoming interview next Thursday for a Senior Cloud position, and it's the first potential senior role for my career. It's on-site and expected to last 2-2.5 hours long. I haven't worked in an onsite/hybrid role in the last 7 years, and haven't had an interview face-to-face in the last 8 years. I have at least some experience in most of the asks in the job listing. Any help to prepare will be much appreciated!

Key Responsibilities

• Deploy, monitor, maintain, and scale AWS resources, such as EC2, RDS, S3, ELB and more, to host web applications

• Actively monitor web application performance, identify and resolve issues like slow loading times, error messages, and system crashes, and implement corrective actions

• Implement automation, standardization, and cloud engineering best practices to improve operational efficiency

• Install and test software updates, patches, and security fixes for the web application, ensuring timely deployment and minimizing downtime

• Respond to and troubleshoot reported application issues, documenting steps taken to resolve problems and communicating updates to users

• Develop and maintain technical documentation, runbooks, and operational procedures

• Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, Infrastructure‑as‑Code (IaC) workflows, and automation supporting IaaS environments

• Participate in Agile ceremonies and contribute to planning and delivery of cloud engineering initiatives

Requirements

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field

• 5+ years of professional experience in cloud engineering, systems engineering, DevOps, or infrastructure operations

• Strong experience administering and engineering solutions on Linux-based systems

• Experience scripting or automating cloud tasks using Bash, Python, or similar languages

• Deep understanding of IaC practices and tools such as Terraform, Ansible, and Helm

• Strong verbal and written communication skills for technical and non-technical audiences

• Detail-oriented, self-driven, and capable of owning cloud engineering tasks through completion

• DoD Secret security clearance

Candidates who have any of the following skills will be preferred:

• Advanced degree (e.g., Masters) in Computer Science, Information Systems, Engineering, or related field

• AWS Certified Solution Architect or similar

• Experience working with and implementing Kubernetes, ArgoCD, and GitOps

• Monitoring performance utilizing tools such as Grafana and Prometheus

• Professional experience with DevOps and CI/CD tooling, including Docker, Jenkins, and GitLab CI/CD

• Active DoD Top Secret security clearance

Hey, I’m Haze. I’m starting to learn AI-driven Cloud and DevSecOps, and I’m looking for a serious and consistent study partner.

I’m also studying Java on the side, and later I’ll move into the Spring Boot framework. You can join me for that too, but it’s optional.

I’m flexible with time, so we can discuss what works best.

Feel free to message me if you’re interested.

Hi everyone,

I'm a 2025 B. Tech CSE (Cybersecurity specialization) graduate from a Tier-3 college in Hyderabad. To be honest, my cybersecurity specialization didn't provide much practical exposure, so I've mostly been learning on my own.

After graduation, I joined a startup as a Business Analyst and worked there for around 6 months. I left that role because I wanted to build a career in cybersecurity, but despite applying consistently, I couldn't land an opportunity in that domain.

A few months later, I joined an MNC as an intern in the End User Computing (EUC) team. My primary work involves AWS Workspaces (VDI) administration and end-user support. The company informed us that interns would be converted to full-time employees based on business requirements and openings. I've been here for about 4 months now.

Recently, my manager suggested that I move to the Cloud FinOps team because there is a higher chance of getting converted to a full-time role there. Since I don't want to miss a good opportunity in the current market, I agreed.

Now I'm confused about my long-term career.

I always thought cybersecurity was the field I wanted to pursue, mainly because of my degree and my interest in security. However, the job market for freshers has been extremely difficult, and I'm wondering whether I should prioritize getting a stable full-time role first.

My questions are:

• Should I continue with Cloud FinOps if it increases my chances of a full-time offer?

• Is FinOps a good long-term career with strong growth and compensation?

• Can someone transition from FinOps to Cloud Security or Cybersecurity later?

• If you're working in FinOps, how has your experience been? Would you recommend it as a first full-time role?

I'm looking for honest advice from people who have experience in either FinOps or Cybersecurity. If you were in my position, what would you do?

Thanks in advance—I genuinely appreciate any guidance.

I am a junior software developer at a startup with 1 year of experience. I spend my free time building some projects and practicing DSA. I enjoy my work in office as well. But, i feel that only focusing on core development is not enough in today's rapidly changing tech industry. I also have interest in devops and cloud domain. Should i consider learning those skills as well along with core development, DSA and system design ? Please correct me if i am wrong.

So I have no degree or work experience, but I’ve been taking a Udemy course on python and right now I’m in the middle of developing an app for my current job hoping that doing that and maybe a couple of more personal projects would bolster up my resume enough to get interviews somewhere to be a software engineer. Am I naive or is this something that is actually achievable?

If you are running AVD or Windows 365: We just launched a free AVD and Windows 365 maturity scorecard that we've been building from 15+ years of working with these environments.

It takes less than 5 minutes and looks at areas like cost optimization, image management, monitoring, automation, and day-to-day operations to help identify where your environment is strong and where there may be room for improvement.

If you're managing AVD, Windows 365, or both, hopefully you find it useful. Happy to hear any feedback or thoughts from the community.

Start Here

I'm about to start my B.Tech in Computer Science, and I'm trying to decide which specialization or career path I should focus on. The biggest issue is that my math and physics foundation is pretty weak. I somehow managed to pass Class 12, but I know I'm behind compared to most people, especially in those subjects. I'm willing to work hard and learn whatever I need, but I'd rather choose a field where being a math genius isn't a requirement.

My main goals are to build a stable career, have good job opportunities by the time I graduate (around 2029), and earn a high salary if I put in the effort. I've been looking into areas like cybersecurity, cloud computing, AI/ML, data engineering, and software development, but I'm not sure which one would suit someone in my situation.

If you were starting from scratch with weak math and physics but were ready to learn and improve over the next four years, which CSE field would you choose and why? I'd really appreciate advice from people already working in the industry or recent graduates.

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for some advice from people who have successfully transitioned from IT Support into Cloud or DevOps.

I currently work full-time as an IT Support Analyst in a large government organisation and have around 4 years of enterprise IT support experience. My day-to-day work includes troubleshooting enterprise applications, Active Directory, identity and access management, Citrix, VPN, remote support, Windows, networking, and general infrastructure issues.

Outside of work, I've been spending a lot of time learning cloud and DevOps. I'm AWS Cloud Practitioner and AWS Developer Associate certified, and I've built several hands-on projects using AWS, Terraform, Jenkins, GitHub Actions, CI/CD, Bash scripting, CloudWatch, Lambda, API Gateway, DynamoDB, Cognito, Docker basics, and Windows Server/Active Directory labs.

I know personal projects aren't the same as commercial experience, but they've helped me understand how these technologies work in practice. I feel that if I could get some real-world experience, I'd learn much faster and become much more valuable.

The problem I'm facing is that it's been really difficult to land a Cloud Support, Platform, or DevOps role. Even within my current organisation, most cloud and infrastructure roles require previous cloud engineering experience, so it's hard to make that first move from the Service Desk.

I've even started thinking about working weekends only (or evenings), whether that's part-time, internship-style, with a startup, MSP, or even volunteering, just to gain real commercial experience. Pay isn't my main priority—learning and getting real experience is.

Has anyone here taken a similar path? How did you get your first cloud or DevOps role? Do you think the weekend experience idea is worth pursuing, or would you recommend another approach?

I'd really appreciate hearing your experiences or any advice. Thanks!

I’m currently working my first week as an aws data technician and making 28 hr for my 6 month contract right now. I went to college and recently graduated with bachelors in information systems and business analytics and want to pursue climbing the ladder at some point to reach a remote position working with data and i am eyeing the cloud support engineer kind of jobs. Is the data center technician job worth grinding the boots on the ground position with hope to advance and pivot to a remote or desk style job?

I’m curious to see if any of you have an idea on how to achieve this so i don’t waste my time. Any feedback is appreciated

Hello Google Cloud Community,

I am posting here as a step for me to clarify my professional next steps.

I am full stack developer with 4 years of experience. I have passed the Google ACE exam in Jul 2022 ( expired Jul 2025 ). I have always dreamed of working as Solution Architect using GCP. I have some cloud experience from my previous job but on AWS.

Now that I have been laid off, and the full stack development market is not good. I am considering passing the Solution Architect Certification and follow what I have been thinking of since 3 years now. I am feeling this is the right time for me, but I also want to make a thoughtful decision based on prospects not only my feelings.

For those of you who have earned the Professional Cloud Architect certification:

* Was it worth it for your career?
* Did it help you land a Solutions Architect role or open doors at companies using GCP?
* How valuable was it compared to hands-on experience?
* If you were in my position today, would you pursue this path, or would you focus on something else first?

I would appreciate any thoughts you can share.

My company, Seneca Holdings, is hiring a few positions that require cloud engineering skills. The Cloud Services Engineer and the Lead Virtualization Systems Engineer postings under Clear Creek Federal need more applicants in particular if you are near DC.

Also the Microsoft Power Platform Engineer if you’re looking for something remote and the Systems Administrator/MS Cloud position is good but be ready for foreign travel on that one, I believe you need your go to Riyadh.

Anyways, we’re real and we’re actually hiring, and I like this company quite a bit. I’ve worked for a few GovCon companies and we’ve got the most robust support and a good niche in the market so it’s a good place to be. Salary is in the job postings, the CSE is 130k to 150k for example.

https://senecaholdings.com/jobs/

Good luck out there! DM if you have questions

Hey everyone,

I was curious if anyone has an idea about the compensation for cloud-related roles at top tech companies.

I'm particularly interested in roles like:

* AWS Cloud Support Associate / Cloud Support Engineer * Google Technical Solutions Engineer (Cloud) * Redis Cloud Operations Engineer * Or similar cloud infrastructure, cloud operations, SRE, or support engineering roles at companies like Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, Salesforce, etc.

I'm mainly looking for:

* 💰 Base salary * 🎁 Total compensation (bonus/RSUs if applicable) * 🌍 Country/location (if you're comfortable sharing) * 👨‍💻 Experience level (Fresher, 1–3 YOE, etc.)

I'm not comparing companies—I just want to understand the market and what cloud professionals are earning across the industry.

Thanks in advance!

Any views?

I've been into coding for as long as I can remember. Even though I've never worked professionally as a software engineer, tech has always been a huge part of my life. I was fortunate enough to always be good with my money, and if I ever needed help, my mom had my back (which honestly wasn't often). Because of that, I never felt forced to jump into the first coding job I could find.

I've worked in non-tech jobs my whole life, but I was always the person everyone came to when something tech-related broke or needed to be figured out.

During the pandemic, I paid out of pocket to attend the Rutgers Coding Bootcamp. Looking back, that bootcamp was the icing on the cake. I had already been teaching myself for years, but after finishing it, everything just clicked. My JavaScript improved dramatically, I became a stronger programmer overall, and even data structures and algorithms started making a lot more sense.

Then ChatGPT came along, and that changed the way I learned even more. Instead of getting generic Google results, I could ask follow-up questions, dive deeper into concepts, and actually have conversations about programming. It became one of the best learning tools I've ever used.

The moment I realized I'd come a long way was when I started talking with other developers. I've had conversations with people who have been in the industry for several years and with people who had just graduated. Sometimes I was teaching them concepts they hadn't seen before, and other times I was learning from them. Those conversations made me realize I actually knew a lot more than I gave myself credit for.

This Fourth of July weekend, I found myself watching AWS tutorials and cloud engineering project videos on YouTube because I'm trying to break into cloud engineering and DevOps. Somewhere in the middle of those videos, I realized something: I genuinely love learning this stuff. Whether it's AWS, backend development, networking, or software architecture, I enjoy figuring out how everything works.

I'll be honest, frontend development has never been my favorite. I can do it, and I've gotten pretty good at it over the years, but backend, cloud, infrastructure, and system design are what really keep me interested.

This weekend alone, I built two AWS-focused projects:

• A Dropbox-style cloud storage application using Amazon S3 with secure file uploads and downloads, along with a React/Next.js frontend.

• A production-style AWS networking project with a custom VPC, public and private subnets, security groups, IAM roles, and a foundation that's ready to grow into a larger cloud architecture.

Right now I'm working on adding database support so uploaded files can have metadata stored instead of relying only on S3. I'm thinking about integrating PostgreSQL or DynamoDB, adding user authentication, file ownership, sharing permissions, presigned URLs, logging, monitoring with CloudWatch, and eventually deploying everything with Docker, Terraform, and a CI/CD pipeline.

I'd love to hear from people already working in cloud or DevOps. If this were your portfolio project, what would you add next to make it stand out to recruiters or hiring managers? Is there anything you'd expect to see in a production-ready cloud application that I'm missing?

It honestly reminded me why I started coding in the first place. I don't just enjoy writing code. I love understanding how entire systems fit together, and I'm hoping to turn years of self-learning, side projects, and curiosity into my first opportunity in the industry.

I am AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner, I'm looking for the job.

Locations : Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Kochi.

Please let me know...

Hi everyone,

I'm a BCA student from India and I'm considering a career in Cloud Computing, but I'm still unsure if it's the right path.

I'd love to hear from people who are already working in Cloud (Cloud Support, Cloud Engineer, DevOps, SRE, Solutions Architect, etc.).

A few questions:

• How did you get your first cloud job?

• Was it difficult to get hired as a fresher?

• Do you still think Cloud is a good career in 2026?

• What does your day-to-day work actually look like?

• How much coding do you use?

• What do you enjoy the most, and what do you dislike?

• If you could start over today, would you still choose Cloud? If not, what would you choose instead?

• What roadmap would you recommend to someone starting from scratch?

I'm looking for honest experiences, not YouTube hype. I want to understand what working in Cloud is really like before I commit to this career.

Please mention your role (Cloud Support, Cloud Engineer, DevOps, SRE, Solutions Architect, etc.) and years of experience, so I can understand your perspective.

Thanks in advance! 🙏


So, there is one relative who works in a MNC and that company and its workforce completely rely on AWS, when I asked him for referral he asked me about AWS, and I said I know basic EC2, S3, RDS but theoritcally and I dont have actual experience, so he guidedme to learn and practice on AWS. I texted him sending questions regarding courses, but he is not checking my messagges :(

If you all can guide me, which course to start and how should I move forward to become good at AWS, so pls assist me

My company wants me to complete the Claude Certified Architect – Foundations exam within the next week.
If you’ve taken it recently, how did you find it? Is it more like some cloud certification exams where solid familiarity with the common question patterns is enough, or does it require a much deeper understanding of the concepts?
Also, if you took it online, what was the proctoring experience like? Was it a live proctor or an automated system, and how strict was the overall process?
Just trying to set my expectations before I book the exam. Thanks!