Aws cert- no experience

[Aquilacomputer]

I'm a 28 year old man in the Cleveland area of Ohio. My current situation is that I graduated with a BS in Technical Applied Studies 5 months ago. My associates degree is in Networking software. I have almost a combined year of experience working as a low level ios support for a remote company. My job history is not very solid because I was generally in factory work.
I quit my job about 2 weeks ago because I found no passion working in harsh settings given the fact that I just graduated. Some would say that this is stupid, but I came up with a budget to keep myself studying any subject in computers for the next month. I have a little experience in everything due to having taken network, systems, and programming courses in college.
Right into it- I know that some people will say not to put all my eggs in one basket. I think that studying my butt off to get the associate and professional level AWS certs would be a good venture.
My Questions:
1.)Is AWS still relevant and on the rise in 2020 as of this month?
2.) Paired with the Udacity Nano degree for cloud projects, would this make me even better prepared for finding a job?
3.) I'm planning on mastering this technology if I study it. Will employers in my region or another find me to be an interesting enough fella to hire with these certs and a bachelors degree?
4.) Will I more than likely get a job if I make it through these certs? I mean, would people see me as a good option even with no real job experience?
I'm new to reddit.

 

[ultimatebob]

I'm new to reddit.

Well... this isn't Reddit, so I'd probably start by changing your post

Welcome to Anandtech Forums!

Anyway, an AWS cert will probably be super helpful at getting you a job, but experience would help even more. Perhaps building a demo site showing off your new AWS cloud ninja skills might help.

 

[Aquilacomputer]

Thank you for the response. Are you a software developer of some kind?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

AWS expertise is highly sought after by large companies moving to the Cloud, but honestly, your degrees by themselves should be enough to get you a job; no real need to cert-whore. And after your first couple jobs, honestly, nobody cares about certs - they care about what you do/did. It honestly sounds like you need to throw yourself into professional networking and other schmoozing-type activities in order to find a position that's a better fit for you (something like half of tech jobs are never even posted, so you gotta know a guy who knows a guy.)

Honestly, it seem to me you made a small mistake in quitting a job without another one lined up. That's not a great look, TBH.

I'm actually a "Cloud Engineer" in an Azure (Not AWS) shop, sort of an automation specialist (I don't really care that my stuff is in the cloud or not, but whatever.) Around here, we all paid our dues working crappy helpdesk jobs, in most cases for multiple years, and yeah it sucks, but the payoff is pretty good in the 5-10 year timeframe if you have an idea of where you want to be and a plan to get there.

Good luck!

 

[Fanatical Meat]

AWS expertise is highly sought after by large companies moving to the Cloud, but honestly, your degrees by themselves should be enough to get you a job; no real need to cert-whore. And after your first couple jobs, honestly, nobody cares about certs - they care about what you do/did. It honestly sounds like you need to throw yourself into professional networking and other schmoozing-type activities in order to find a position that's a better fit for you (something like half of tech jobs are never even posted, so you gotta know a guy who knows a guy.)

Honestly, it seem to me you made a small mistake in quitting a job without another one lined up. That's not a great look, TBH.

I'm actually a "Cloud Engineer" in an Azure (Not AWS) shop, sort of an automation specialist (I don't really care that my stuff is in the cloud or not, but whatever.) Around here, we all paid our dues working crappy helpdesk jobs, in most cases for multiple years, and yeah it sucks, but the payoff is pretty good in the 5-10 year timeframe if you have an idea of where you want to be and a plan to get there.

Good luck!

Hey off topic question.
I’m a bit old to go back to school. How useful is a certification like AWS without degree?
I have modest salary expectations

 

[dave_the_nerd]

Hey off topic question.
I’m a bit old to go back to school. How useful is a certification like AWS without degree?
I have modest salary expectations

Depends on how you get the cert.

A public community college that does non-degree vocational training and has a really good reputation for encouraging students to network, does job fairs, has excellent internship placement rates, etc., and a large number of students in the area who will vouch for them and possibly be receptive to your resume? I have a couple like that near me and we are all better off for it.

Some online cert-mill, not so much.

IM-limited-E, non-degree'd folks with certs tend to spend a little longer in the less desirable jobs until they get enough experience that their lack of a degree doesn't really matter, but it's not crippling.