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Is AWS certification worth it?
Zainab Mohsin
Oct 28, 2024
5 min read
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Key takeaways:
The certification increases your chances of landing an interview.
Around 88% of hiring managers consider certifications advantageous in resumes and demand cloud professionals with AWS certifications.
Almost 74% of cloud professionals reported an increase in salary after getting AWS certified.
62% of individuals feel their work quality improved after obtaining a certificate.
Whether you have just started your journey with AWS or are a skilled cloud professional, one question bugs everyone: Is AWS certification worth it? Well, that mainly depends upon the outcomes you expect after a certification. However, from a bird’s eye view, the answer is yes. To weigh it out more logically, let’s dive deeper.
Certifications, in any field, are a great way to validate your knowledge. They enhance your credibility and highlight your passion for your profession. AWS certifications can prove just as transformative for your career. They offer key benefits, including:
Better hiring prospects: According to the
Open Source job report https://8112310.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/8112310/LF%20Research/Open%20Source%20Jobs%20Report%202021%20-%20Report.pdf Higher salaries: Certified professionals have reported a
25-30% https://awsforengineers.com/blog/aws-certifications-salary-and-job-market-impact/ Expanding your knowledge: Certifications reinforce and sharpen your skills in AWS services and architectural patterns.
Let’s be honest: The job market is getting saturated, and landing tech job interviews is getting tougher than ever. An AWS certification shows off your expertise in cloud computing. The shiny certification badge boosts your resume and portfolio.
As per the
Around 89% of hiring managers demand cloud professionals with AWS certifications.
Almost 82% of hiring managers say cloud certifications make candidates more attractive.
Does AWS certification impact salary and career?#
AWS certification can help you get a salary hike if you are already in the market. According to AWS salary surveys, certified Solutions Architects earn an average of $121,000 annually. Meanwhile, non-certified Solutions Architects earn $110,000 on average. Similarly, AWS-certified developers earn almost $114,000 annually, while non-certified developers earn $105,000.
Certification also improves your credibility in the market. It improves your productivity, skills, and job security.
An
Around 74% of the respondents have reported higher salaries after AWS certification.
More than 90% of the AWS partners say that investing in AWS-certified staff has put their company in a competitive position for the next three to five years.
AWS certification: A good learning opportunity #
AWS certifications are a great learning opportunity. They broaden knowledge and prompt the learner to understand the AWS services in-depth, their unique features and best practices. If you have prior experience in AWS, preparing for certification is like putting the pieces of a puzzle together.
For example, while preparing for the AWS Certified Solutions Architect — Associate exam, you’ll get to explore the best practices for building scalable, secure, and resilient architectures. Preparing for the exam includes rewiring your brain to think about optimal architectures and utilizing the ideal service for a use case. This will help you pass the exam and be useful on the job.
Master AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03 Exam
Master AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate SAA-C03 Exam
AWS is a popular cloud service provider that offers various services. The course prepares you to design secure, resilient, high-performing, and cost-optimized architectures. You’ll learn about services to secure your AWS resources and accounts against external threats. You’ll also cover various load balancing and replication techniques to make AWS applications highly available and resilient against failover. Next, you’ll cover several storage options and analytics tools that help design high-performing architectures. You’ll also cover various cost optimization techniques by choosing appropriate purchasing opinions for compute and storage solutions. Finally, you’ll gauge your understanding with the help of some practice exams. You’ll also get hands-on experience deploying AWS resources using Cloud Labs. This course covers all four domains for the SAA-C03 exam and increases your chances of becoming an AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate.
Does a certification substitute for experience?#
AWS certifications require you to thoroughly learn the AWS environment. The AWS exam pattern is real-world scenario-based multiple choice questions. However, an actual job’s requirements are quite different from the exam.
Cramming up features of AWS services and practicing exam questions might prepare you for the exam but will not be a substitute for the hands-on experience required to get the job done. Depending solely on a certification for a real-world job without any hands-on experience is not a good idea.
For example, in an interview, you might be asked questions such as, “Tell me about a time when you encountered a high AWS bill and how you tackled it?” or, “Tell me about a data pipeline you have built using AWS analytical services.”
These questions cannot be answered unless you have hands-on experience in the cloud and have completed several projects.
But how to land the first cloud job without any experience? To prepare for the hands-on part of the job, several cloud labs are available online. Educative offers a plethora of cloud labs where you can get access to the AWS console. It allows you to perform hands-on while learning through the guided instructions.
Each cloud lab is engineered to meet the specific job requirements and you can easily search through the services of your interest.
What’s next?#
Once you have aced your AWS certification, what jobs can you get? AWS certifications open up multiple career paths, such as Solutions Architect, Cloud Developer, Data Engineer, System Administrator, DevOps Engineer, Cloud Security Engineer, and more.
The other side of the argument: What could go wrong?#
AWS certification is a challenging exam that demands extensive preparation. Besides, it costs comparatively high, so it does make sense to question the value of the certification, especially if you have a full-time job or are a student.
62% of individuals feel their work quality improved after obtaining a certificate.
However, choosing the right methods to prepare for the certification can help you save time. Educative offers an extensive course to prepare for the AWS Solutions Architect exam designed to help you understand scenario-based questions. The course also includes practice exam questions. Additionally, to help you prepare for the real-world job, it includes multiple Cloud Labs for each service that would prepare you for the challenges at work.
AWS is growing exponentially, and the requirement for professional cloud engineers is ever-increasing. AWS certification will help you validate your skills in designing scalable, resilient, efficient, and secure architectures on the cloud. In this competitive market, it is more of a prerequisite for getting a job than a unique selling point.
Therefore, start preparing for the certifications and get ready to flaunt your certification badge.
Not sure how to start preparing for the certification? Check out these reads to get started:
Frequently Asked Questions
Is AWS certification enough to get you a job?
Is AWS still in demand?
What is the easiest AWS certification to pass?
How long is AWS certification valid?
What is the best AWS certification for a non-IT professional?
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