Are you looking for help getting your first technology job? Are you having a
hard time with these entry-level or fresh roles trying to find a job? This video is for you.
Hi, my name is Michael Gibbs, I'm the founder and CEO of Go Cloud Architects
and we're an organization dedicated towards building high performance
cloud computing and networking careers. I've been working in technology for over 25 years now
and I've been coaching or mentoring others to get their first tech job or get promoted in tech for
over two decades and I've loved every last minute of it. This video is part of a series.
In the first video we explain the macro and micro economic conditions that are causing it to make
it extremely challenging to get entry-level roles and why it'll become harder and harder
in the future to get entry level roles because of what's going on in technology. So why you
should just stop looking for entry-level roles and move on to something bigger.
Then in the next series, in this video, we told you our recommended careers for moving forward.
In this video, as part of this series,
we're going to talk about the certifications that are going to help you get hired.
Now, I want to make this very clear to you, except for the CCIE, the Cisco Certified Internetwork
Expert, there is no certification where the certification alone is enough to get you hired.
Certification vendors have lied to you. They've made you feel like if you just get these 10
certifications, you're going to know what you're doing and you're hired. They do not,
they help you get an interview and an interview is part of the job. If you have the knowledge,
the communication skills, the right attitude, energy, enthusiasm out in these interviews,
then you get hired. If you've got all those things, but these certifications can build a case
of why someone should interview you and if they build a case on why someone should interview
you and you get in front of that hiring manager directly, it's up to you to win.
So our strategy is to get the best certifications, the right one, ones that are laser focused on your
career so that when a hiring manager sees it, they go, "Wow!, and they want to bring you in. Our next
part of it is get you so strong and so capable that when they bring you in, they forget you're
new when they hire you. Let me tell you, my first job was a senior network engineer. I'm not joking.
I left my office on a Friday, I was a nurse practitioner, I was hired on a Monday as a
senior network engineer. I had no tech background, I didn't start at help desk,
not that there's anything wrong with help desk it's a great place, but I didn't start it there. I
didn't start with an admin role, I started with a senior role. That was my first job and you can to.
So, we talked about the careers. Now let's talk about the certification to help you get each
career. The network engineer, my favorite. Well, I got to tell you, minimum level of certification,
even to think about working on the network as a Cisco Certified Network Professional,
minimum level, Cisco Certified Internet Expert, you always have a job. I will tell you that
I took that exam back when it was two days. I Read about 75,000 pages to pass that exam and my career
was like a rocket ship. I still get requests every single day of the week for people to hire me as
network engineer and network architect, based upon that CCIE. So there the certifications necessary
to start your career in network, again, certifications just get you the interview.
Let's say you love security, we love security too. What kind of certifications do we like? We
like the CEH master, the CISSP if you can find some experience on your resume to do
that and maybe even working in physical security or some other world. Maybe you've done something
that you can correlate it but that's a little tricky for some people. The Offensive Security
Certified Professional, we love it and the CCSP, again, these are good security certifications.
We didn't list Network+, we didn't list Security+, we didn't list any of those basic certifications.
They help you get entry-level roles there are almost no entry-level roles due to automation
and due to the cloud basically making it so easy to do things with [inaudible 00:03:58] people.
Just want to remind you guys, it used to be six weeks to order a server, a fresher would take the
server, they unbox it, they put it on a rack, they screw it in, they'd install an operating system,
they'd [inaudible 00:04:07] it up. Today's world cloud engineer, click, click, click, and it's all
done. So, that's why you got to get really good and you can't be there for entry-level roles. You
got to be prepared for more senior roles. Let's talk about another great career, Linux Engineers.
Awesome, everything is Linux, the whole world's Linux now. If you're not familiar, your cable box,
probably Linux. Your satellite TV box, probably Linux, your cell phone, if it's not running on
Apple, it's probably Linux. The appliances in your house that are smart, they're running on Linux.
The whole cloud runs on Linux, the cloud is basically servers with Linux on top of them as a
control plane, kind of like hypervisors and things that container managers [inaudible 00:04:46] . So
Linux, Linux Engineers, what is your minimum level certification? Guess what?
The Red Hat Certified Engineer or the Red Hat Certified Architect, nothing lower.
Again, we got to prepare you for bigger roles. How about security architect roles? It's a tough
one for [inaudible 00:05:03] honestly, but I'm going to list them anyway, because I created a
lot of security architects. CISSP a CCSP, CISM one of those kinds of certifications because
you're working on the leadership level. Cloud engineer, minimum level, AWS Certified Solution
Architect Professional or Azure Expert or Google Professional Cloud Architect. Do not get a million
and one certifications for the cloud, get the ones that matter. Do not get three associate
certifications that makes your portfolio look like you have no idea what you want to do.
Professional, maybe a Certified Solution Architect Professional as a cloud engineer,
maybe something coming from Linux, like a Red Hat Certified Engineer,
or a CCNA or a CCNP to show that you know, some networking and the cloud, great combination.
Cloud Architect, you need some basic entry level cloud certification.
I consider the Certified Solution Architect Professional to be entry level and consider
Azure Expert to be entry level and I consider the Google Professional Cloud Architect entry level.
What I mean by entry level, they teach in the name of the services and how to configure them,
but they don't teach you a whole lot about cloud computing or architectures, but it's a
good baseline for knowledge of the cloud. Combine that with something like a CCNP for networking,
a Red Hat Certified Engineer, a CCSSP for security. Something good from industry,
something from the cloud and you're not [inaudible 00:06:20] that's part of the certification to
be a cloud architect. DevOps engineer, well, certifications are not really your portfolio
for DevOps. This is more lots of skills, lots of DevOps tools, lots of coding skills
but if there's two certifications that I recommend, since a lot of this stuff
is moving to the cloud, it's again, that basic Certified Solution Architect Professional and
we call it basic because we train architects and we train people with real deep knowledge.
The industry would consider that highly skilled, but they don't hire people without a lot of
experience in general because they don't consider it enough of a skill to hire someone. So we use
it as an entry level and then we add a lot of the skills and knowledge. So that's enough to
get the interview and after that, we build the knowledge to get the exam and you can build it
too with us or without us. You can build it too. So DevOps, going to be on the cloud, so Certified
Solution Architect Professional like all else and there's an AWS Certified DevOps Professional.
For DevOps people we like that certification for cloud architects do not get DevOps certifications.
It's going to make your career, your resume, look cuckoo. It's going to be like you don't know if
you wanted to be a software developer or a systems designer, but DevOps is a great career. So, DevOps
Certified Solution Architect Professional, DevOps Professional, one teaches you about the Cloud and
how to do stuff on the Cloud, the other teachers do the DevOps tools and you'll be good to go.
So, we'll have other videos in the series teaching you how to get your first tech job, because I want
you all to get hired. Market forces changes, we adapt, we improvise, we overcome, we succeed,
all of us. We help each other succeed so that's why we're doing this for you. My name is Michael
Gibbs and I'm the founder and CEO of Go Cloud Architects. Thank you for watching this video.
I will have more free content coming for you to help you get your first tech job or
raise your career coming very soon. Look forward to seeing you soon.
It was so nice having you join us for this video today. Let me tell
you about some free services we do for the cloud community. Twice per week,
we have a free how to get your first cloud architect job webinar, where we tell you all
the things you need to do and know to get your first cloud architect job. In addition to that,
once per week, we actually have a free question and answer session live on YouTube. Where you
can come and ask us any questions you want about building your career related to cloud computing
or networking and we'll answer them in real time for you because we want to get you to your goals.
Several more times per week, we have guests from industry, industry experts,
that I have known for decades that are movers and shakers that have changed the world that can give
you information so you can build the best career. I invite them periodically, they are on my show.
If there's a chance to do some free training on our channel, we'll do it live because we want
you to all to have the best skills for the best career. So please subscribe and hit the bell.
I look forward to seeing you and I look forward to assisting you in your technology career.
Thank you so much. This is Michael Gibbs from Go Cloud Architects.