This week, we sat down with Rajesh, a member of our expert training team, to talk about his new book, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam Guide, his role as one of our expert training team, and what he’s thinking of writing next. Strap in!
Hi Rajesh! Tell us about yourself, your background, and what you do at Revolent
I’ve been working in the IT industry for about 20 years now and I started off with Microsoft as a Desktop Support Engineer – particularly Microsoft infrastructure, things like building networks, supporting backend services, and server solutions.
I then progressed my career by moving into Consultancy and had to engage with a lot of clients and build MS infrastructure on-premise for them, across the UK and the US. Then as AWS and Microsoft Azure started taking off in 2010 with the Cloud, a lot of clients started needing that – so I started helping clients migrate their on-premise workloads to AWS. And that’s how I got my start in AWS.
Around about 2017, I decided that I wanted to get involved in training – as I had loved the opportunities I’d had to do training in my career so far. I started with some freelance training with Capgemini, and absolutely loved it – that was it for me.
Since then, my career has largely revolved around training people to use AWS technologies and getting IT teams skilled up, too. Naturally, this meant I had to do a lot of certification training for employees of the clients I was working with. Which led to Revolent.
When I was approached by Revolent, I could already see they were a top provider for Salesforce training, so it was a really exciting opportunity to join them as they became the top provider for AWS, and other technologies!
Tell us a little bit about your new book
Absolutely! My book, AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner Exam Guide, is essentially a study and examination guide for the AWS Cloud Practitioner pathway, produced for Packt Publishing.
When they initially approached me to write on this topic, I had a look at the certification materials and training resources out there and – if I’m honest – I found them a little lacking.
While there’s plenty of information out there to help you prepare for the exam, there’s surprisingly little on applying these skills in the real world. Which – as we all know – is incredibly important when it comes to working with a real business implementation.
When I noticed that, it really became my focus for the book; it contains a lot of hands-on exercises, labs, etc. to help the reader apply their skill set in the real world and build their practical knowledge base.
It took me about 14 months to write, and I loved every minute of it. And, naturally, it has been technically reviewed by external examiners too, so it meets all the requirements for the syllabus of the Cloud Practitioner exam itself.
How did you finding writing the book? And do you plan to write anything else?
If I’m completely honest, it was a brilliant experience – I really enjoyed it. It took a mammoth amount of research and cross-referencing with existing materials (and all the other things that come with writing something this technical) but I truly loved it.
I’m definitely interested in writing more, I think my next topic would probably be the Solutions Architect Professional exam. I’ve seen a lot of content out there for the Associate level exam, but not much for Professional, so I think that would be really useful to people.
As one of our senior trainers, we have to ask, what’s your favorite thing about working in AWS?
For me, the most enjoyable part of working in AWS is how innovative the technology is – it’s really that simple.
AWS is pretty-much one of a kind, in that they offer over 200 different services for solution building, so there’s always a new technology you can use, or process you can follow, to build a secure and resilient solution for your client. It never gets boring!
The platform is also designed to make things easy for people to build solutions, so it’s highly intuitive and easy to understand. As a trainer, usability and the ability to get building quickly is a big priority for me, so I rate that.
And of course the support available from AWS themselves is just fantastic, so I’d have to mention that.
And what’s your favourite thing about delivering training?
Probably the kick you get out of knowing that you’re genuinely making a difference to someone’s life. It’s such a great feeling to see someone pass their exam, they’re always so excited because they know they’re one step closer to achieving their career goals.
Also, whenever I’m delivering training, it’s a really interactive and engaging experience. The problem solving that people do can be incredible to watch – especially when they finally resolve the issue!
What tips do you have for someone who wants to learn AWS?
If you’ve already worked in IT and are interested in getting started in AWS, I’d recommend reviewing existing AWS services to see which are in your existing wheelhouse, then start studying.
Once you fully understand those services – you’ll be in a good place to come to Revolent – where we can train you on one of our world-class career programs.
What kind of person is suited to become an AWS Developer?
Anyone can become an AWS Developer, really. And, as cloud computing continues to replace on-premise IT, it’s definitely a good time to do it.
But, you should also ask yourself one big question: Do you take a logical approach to solving problems and building solutions? If so, this career could be for you.
Tell us a little more about Revolent's AWS career programs
The Revolent AWS program is a 24 month cross-training journey; you’ll get paid through your training, certification, and get to work with some brilliant clients.
There are 12 different tracks, so there’s something for everyone’s interest – developers, security, databases, etc.
On each career program, there’s an initial burst of training (usually about 12 weeks) and then you’ll start working with clients. Throughout your two years of on-site place, you will come back to us for additional training, certification provision, and professional skills development.
In short, it’s a two-year career program that will take you from zero to hero – and it’s great!
