Career progression in tech can feel like an uphill trek.
It can take time, require plenty of effort, and sometimes it feels like the odds just aren’t in your favor.
With that in mind, it’s no wonder that, in the latest installment of the Jefferson Frank Careers and Hiring Guide: AWS Edition, just 59% of AWS professionals working for end users reported being satisfied with their current career progression.
To keep moving closer to your tech career peak, you must know how to keep the momentum shifting in the right direction—but it’s not always as simple as putting one foot in front of the other. Nobody likes detours and wrong turns when going uphill (we’re tired just thinking about it!), so you’ll need a map to ensure you’re taking the best routes forward.
Prasad Rao, Principal Solutions Architect at AWS, and Ashish Prajapti, Senior Technical Instructor at AWS, are co-authors of Cloud Career Journeys. This eBook explores the experiences and insights of cloud professionals at different levels of the career climb—and the good news is, they’ve seen tech professionals reach peaks in their careers by following a wide range of different paths:
“With robust technical skills and determined ambition, climbers can conquer fresh trails to become lead guides in tech,” Prasad told us. “We call professionals who aren’t afraid to take the road less traveled The Progressives—they’re the ones that have the avid determination to reach the top.”
“The ones that have reached the tallest of heights then become The Pinnacles” added Ashish. “ Through expertise and tireless drive, they’ve mastered the immense challenges on the path to the peak.”
The journeys of these Progressives and Pinnacles show us the route to the summit, helping you to follow in their footsteps when finding your way to the top—and this post will help map out your journey. Think of it like a GPS and a Hiker’s Guide all rolled into one.
So…which way?
Unmissable insights and career advice from across the AWS ecosystem
Paving your career path
To identify the best route to progress your tech career, ensure you launch your journey from the best starting point. But this doesn’t mean becoming an immediate expert in your field—far from it!
In Cloud Career Journeys, Prasad advises that even foundational IT skills can pave upward paths to success, just as long as you’ve got a solid understanding of the fundamentals. Of course, learning the ropes and mastering the basics is a natural point for most tech professionals, but you’d perhaps be surprised at how often these can be overlooked. After all, the fundamentals are time-consuming and booooring—right?
However, mastering the basics is a crucial part of laying the strong foundations on which your tech career will be built, meaning it’s absolutely vital you have a proper grasp of core skills and concepts from the get-go. You wouldn’t set off on a climb without your kit, so don’t embark on your career journey without packing the essentials!
Only once this metaphorical rucksack is on your back are you ready to plan your learning path. Mapping out a focused learning path will keep you moving forward with purpose by measuring progress through essential milestones and tangible outcomes, and ensuring you never drift too far off track.
What direction this learning path takes you will ultimately be dictated by your overarching goal. Once you’re confident that rucksack of fundamentals is strapped on tight, don’t be afraid to dive deep and explore the areas you’re most interested in. Common approaches to learning like certifications have a whole host of benefits, but they’re only a small part of that journey in your development. There are various streams and verticals within tech and the cloud, so be sure to explore all the options afforded to you.
For this to be most effective, you must adopt a growth mindset. Talent and ability in tech are ultimately developed through dedication and hard work, meaning you must prepare for a career of lifelong learning. Tech evolves rapidly, so you’ll need to put continuous effort into keeping your skills current—so make sure you do your stretches!
Top tip: Don’t try to rush the learning process. Career progression in tech is a long and rewarding journey that won’t be completed overnight, so don’t try to find shortcuts. Instead, focus on learning something new every day, whether you’ve worked with a technology for weeks, months, or years.
That’s not to say a continuous learning mindset is the golden ticket to the top. Networking and building your brand can be just as important to your success, so don’t just learn—develop a front-end presence and share this learning with others!
If this all sounds a bit daunting, don’t worry, you’re not alone in feeling this. After all, launching a prosperous career in tech is no easy feat!
In these instances, Ashish recommends trying to tame your mind. “Your mind will lure you to stay on the path of least resistance because it’s comfortable in that box,” he says, “but this can be counteractive to your ability to overcome barriers and move upwards in your career. Instead, don’t live a life defined by the limits you imagine and try to turn negatives into positive growth opportunities.”
With patience and persistence, results will start to manifest themselves, so always look to find validation from within. Ultimately, no one starts walking (let alone climbing!) without falling first, so don’t let a fear of failure hold you back.
In these periods of self-doubt, it’s essential to rest, regroup, and reset. It’s easy to see everything through a prism of negativity during those low points, so taking the time to re-evaluate your resources and have another think through your journey is often a good idea. Quitting is tempting, but it’s never going to help you reach that peak—so don’t give in!
Don’t underestimate the role fitness can play in avoiding this mindset, too. Never compromise on your physical or mental fitness in order to achieve a goal—sitting in front of a computer screen all day, every day, doesn’t do anybody any favors!
Top tip: Don’t procrastinate. Procrastination is all too easy, and there will always be a reason not to do something. But the best time to embark on your tech career progression journey is today—so why delay?
Moving on up
So you’ve got all your gear and identified your route—all that’s left is to get moving! But what actions should you take to master your learning, accelerate your development, and open up more career progression opportunities?
The hardest part of advancing in your career is often taking that first step, but don’t stay still. Technology evolves whether you do or not, meaning if you’re not taking steps to move forward in your career, you’re actually moving backward. Figure out what type of learning works well for you and stick to this learning regime, actively exploring any and every opportunity that arises along the way.
Implement a clear strategy to avoid unstructured learning. Without a proper plan, it’s far too easy to get sidetracked and lose sight of your goal, picking learning topics randomly and aimlessly switching between resources. Structure your learning journey carefully with a proper plan to avoid wasting time and effort.
This structure starts with fixing time for consistent learning. Block off time in your calendar each day or week for scheduled learning, and do your best not to stray from this, as consistency is really the key to success. Don’t just leave learning to chance or take an ‘as and when’ approach to your development—this won’t have the impact needed to keep you climbing up your path.
Top tip: Adjust your pace when needed. It may not be possible to tackle all your learning at the same speed, but the good news is that it doesn’t have to be. Feel free to pick up the pace when learning topics you’re already familiar with if it means you can devote more time to complex and unknown topics.
In Cloud Career Journeys, it’s recommended that you structure your learning in three distinctive ways: teaching, sharing, and doing.
Let’s start with learning by teaching. Try to approach each topic as though you need to teach it to somebody else—this tactic is often highly effective in helping you scratch beneath the surface level of knowledge.
Learning alongside other tech fanatics is a great way to collaborate on this learn-by-teaching method by building social support. You might be surprised at just how much value this can add, so if you don’t have a friend or team join you on your learning path, don’t be afraid to network, network, network! Strive to make at least one new meaningful connection every week, reaching out to fellow learners or tech professionals already working in the role you want to be in. Likewise, ensure you’re always welcoming newcomers to encourage collaboration and growth in the meetings, groups, and communities that you curate and participate in.
Of course, there’s no better way to solidify your knowledge than learning by doing, so don’t be afraid to get hands-on with technology, especially when you’re first starting out. Instead of just learning from a video or an article, perform practical tasks yourself and build projects from scratch, keeping a record of any practical work by building a portfolio like a GitHub repo or a personal blog where you document all your projects. In fact, this is one of the best ways to showcase your skills to potential employers.
Top tip: Don’t be too shy in asking for help. There’s a whole community of tech professionals out there willing to assist you on your tech journey, and the likelihood is that they’ve all experienced many of the same challenges you come across—so don’t be afraid to ask for a helping hand!
That’s not forgetting knowledge sharing! Learning by sharing is one of the best ways to enrich the expertise of both yourself and your peers, whether you’re documenting your findings through blog posts or videos, speaking at local meetups, conducting workshops, or even just posting an update on LinkedIn—the more you share, the more you learn.
With that in mind, always be on the lookout for new information and learning opportunities. Get organized by using alerts, periodic searches, RSS feeds, newsletters, and other subscriptions to your advantage. This will help you keep your finger on the pulse and stay on the cutting edge of your specialty.
Climbing to the peak of a tech career is about refusing to get stuck in the past. Take the fork in the road by seizing the career opportunities that come your way, however surprising, and experiment with applying your skills and experience in new and exciting ways. Always embrace the future by adopting a mindset of continuous learning and striving to be an early adopter, experimenting with new applications, tools, devices, processes, and platforms. Career progression in tech isn’t just about achieving success today; it’s about preparing for success tomorrow.
Interested to learn more about how professionals have used the advice in this post to pave upward paths and reach new heights in their tech career? Deep dive into first-hand accounts from inspiring professionals at the top of their field, including Ryan Kroonenburg from A Cloud Guru, and Vice President and Chief Evangelist of AWS, Jeff Barr! Grab your paperback copy today, or click here to pick up the Cloud Career Journeys eBook with 50% off and click here for 50% off a Starter Kit featuring the eBook, mentoring, and additional learning resources!
