Should you go multi-cloud as a junior engineer?
A question I get commonly asked by people just starting out in their cloud journey is if they should learn multiple cloud platforms. Usually, they have gone through a program where they have learnt the basics of AWS and want to know if they should maybe learn Azure or GCP.
So, is it beneficial to learn more than one cloud?
Well, the short answer is…
Now time for the long answer…
Look I get it, I’ve been there before, you’ve learnt the fundamentals of one cloud and because you are not sure of how to progress your development you assume that learning another cloud will make you more valuable in the marketplace. You think it means that you can apply for a lot more jobs and it helps to keep your options open.
The reality is that understanding one cloud platform is very complicated as there are a lot of nuances and pitfalls that are not visible to beginners, and attempting to learn a second cloud platform when you have not gained a deep understanding of one platform is a recipe for stagnation. This is a mistake illustrated by the famous quote that the person who chases two rabbits ends up catching none
The first reason you shouldn’t learn multiple clouds at the start of your journey is that it does not make you more attractive to employers. Most employers only run their workload on one cloud and so want to hire someone who is an expert in that particular cloud platform.
The assumption when they see experience with only one cloud is that you have spent a lot of time learning the intricacies of that cloud and know it really well, however, if they see multiple clouds then that communicates that you don’t have deep expertise in either and are simply bad in two clouds.
The second reason you should only focus on one cloud platform is that in the DevOps space, there are a lot more tools and concepts that you need to develop your career, some of these include:
- Infrastructure as code (Cloudformation, Terraform, etc)
- Programming languages (Python, Bash, Ruby, etc)
- CI/CD Tools (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, Code Pipeline, etc)
You will be a much better engineer and more likely to progress in your career if you went deeper into one cloud by using these tools to create more complex and sophisticated projects. The time you spend learning a second cloud is time you are not spending becoming a better and more nuanced cloud engineer.
In conclusion, do not split your focus on learning multiple clouds, to progress in this industry, learn the fundamentals of one cloud, create some projects in that cloud, and then build on those projects with automation using DevOps tools and programming languages. This is how you build your skill and develop your experience
Now that you have a better understanding of the benefits of focusing on one cloud platform as a junior engineer, it's time to take action. Start by choosing a single cloud platform and diving deep into it by creating a project and automating it with DevOps tools.
If you have any questions or need guidance, don't hesitate to reach out to me for more information and support on your journey to becoming a cloud expert.
Thanks for reading🙂
Fayomi
The Cloud Career Mentor
PS. If you have been struggling to land your first cloud job and are ready to equip yourself with all the skills and techniques to impress hiring managers. Then you can enroll in my Cloud Career Acceleration Program