As I was writing an article yesterday: Can You Learn AWS On Your Own? How To Ensure Success, I mentioned that joining a community can be a great way to ensure success when you’re getting into cloud engineering.
At which point I realised that I hadn’t yet published a list of great communities (that I’m also a member of) for keeping up to date, asking questions and generally being involved in the industry, today we’re going to fix that!
Yesterday, as I read an article on DEV, titled: “forget web development, become a cloud developer instead!” I punched the air: yes! The author, Moneer, put into words something I’d been talking about for some time, but never wrote down.
Getting a job in web development isn’t getting easier. The bootcamp factories churn out graduates and the entry-level market is saturated. Add to this that the web development world hasn’t moved much recently, so there’s no hot tech to leverage. But that’s where cloud tech presents an amazing opportunity.
By the end of this article you’ll understand why learning cloud skills is the unique opportunity which will separate you from other graduates and ultimately land you a job.
Hey Lou, I’ve been following you since I registered in Dev.to.
Your posts and blog are some of the reasons I got interested in Cloud, but I kept delaying it because I didn’t want to rush into it, now that I’ve learned Docker, Swarm, Kubernetes, Jenkins, Ansible, Linux administration and a bit of cloud with Digital Ocean droplets (mind you I’m a junior so I have very little experience), I feel ready to begin AWS, I’m so excited you have no idea. I bought a course on AWS Architect Associate, but I haven’t started it yet, I have one question.
I’m aware AWS has four levels: foundational, associate, professional and specialty. I’m also aware associate has three paths: architect, developer, sysops.
I read that it could take a couple years to move from associate to professional, should I put all my time into one path? or should I learn all three associate paths before focusing on one?
Also, if you have any general advice for me and/or any useful posts from your blog before I begin AWS I’d seriously appreciate it.
Thank you very much!
DevOps. Platform Engineer. Cloud Engineer. So many terms and roles! But they all seem to mean the same thing. So when it comes to this new term Cloud Engineer. What do Cloud Engineers do all day? And do cloud engineers code?
The short answer to whether Cloud Engineers code is: yes. But, Cloud Engineers don’t write any old code, they write very specific types of code.
By the end of this article you’ll know what a Cloud Engineer is and whether they code (spoiler alert: they do).
Knowing just the basics of Software Engineering isnât enough to thrive in todayâs market. Many Software Engineers need to have drastically more knowledge of cloud platforms than they currently do.
Why? Thatâs todayâs question. Weâre going to be discussing what a Cloud Native Software Engineer is, why they exist, what their skills are and ultimately what that means for you as a Software Engineer.
By the end of this article you should know exactly what a Cloud Native Software Engineer is and why that matters for your career in Software Engineering.
Here is my latest post for Simple ProgrammerâŚ
It looked something like this: Become extremely knowledgeable in a given programming language until eventually you become a senior programmer.
Once youâre a senior programmer, you ride out the rest of your career as a programmer. Or you make a leap out of the technical world and into a strategy- or management-focused role.
For many programmers, this is a hard decision. Programming is what we love and we donât want to lose our hard-earned skills. As programmers, weâre often very aware of how quickly our skills fade when weâre not in the business of putting out code anymore.
But it doesnât have to be this way. There is another option that allows you to straddle both areas of the so-called softer and technical side of the profession.
And thatâs in the realm of professional services.
Here is my latest post for Simple ProgrammerâŚ
At some point in your programming career so far, you might have been asked to âcoach.â Most programmers get into the field to write code, and often before we know it, we end up in a leadership role, almost as if by accident.
Only a few months into my first job I remember telling my boss that I felt like I was teaching a lot. Iâd like to say it was a natural inclination towards teaching, but I donât think thatâs it. Because of the nature of the field of technology, teaching and coaching others is an inherent part of what we do. Even if weâre really new to the field.
Are you going through the job application process now? Have you been asked to write a cover letter as a junior software engineer?
Not to fear. Because how to write a punchy junior developer cover letter is what we’re covering today.
To help us, we’re going to go through a real world junior developer cover letter example.
By the end of this article you should be able to analyse your cover letter critically and make the important improvements you need to bag yourself a job!
Before we dive into the case study, I want to take some time to set the scene. So, let me tell a short story, if you will. The story will be useful to see where a lot of junior engineers go wrong in the job application process.
It was an evening at summer camp. We were in the staff room by the table tennis table. Throughout my entire life I’d been pretty mediocre at skill sports. So there I was, just watching the game with a sense of quiet admiration for those that were playing.
Stood beside me was the head of athletics.
He turned to me and asked whether I would play.
Naturally, I declined. I emphasised my lack of skill and let him know that I’d rather just spectate.
He smirked, “watch”.
We looked back over at the players as he started to play out a narrative on top.
“Did you see that?” He exclaimed.
“See what?” I thought to myself, puzzled.
He continued, “every time the ball lands on his weak hand, he struggles to return it. Now look! When played to his right side â he can apply LOTS of power and win the play!”.
What unfolded for the next half an hour was a harsh realisation. I realised that I’d struggled at sports, not because I was bad, but because I’d not recognised that to be exceptional you must: watch, read and play to your opponent.
Probably at this point you’re wondering what all this talk of table tennis has to do with writing a good cover letter? Let me explain…
The tale in the story is exactly the same fatal mistake that junior developers make in the job application process: focusing on themselves and their skills but failing to tailor their communications to the person opposite them, their prospective employer.
Let’s fix that.
Okay, so we want to understand our prospective employer and their needs so that we can tailor our communications to them. But how do we do that?
First, by listing the emotions that we want to address. When it comes to hiring you, we need to know your prospective employers:
Okay, I admit, these are a little abstract.
Let’s strep through each emotion to detail what I mean.
First up, they are suspicious.
But what are they suspicious about? They’re suspicious that when you start work you won’t have the skills you said you did. They’re suspicious that you were great at talking in the interview but won’t back these up with hard skill when you start.
The bottom line is: they’re suspicious that it will transpire that your skill is not as good as you said it was.
Up next, fear.
Your prospective employer will fear that when you start the job that you’ll take a long time to get up to speed. They’re fearful that your communication skills might make it difficult to work with you. They’re fearful that you might get paralysed with an ambiguous task and request pain-inducing explicit detail.
Ultimately they’re fearful that you’ll cost them more time, money and energy than you put back in.
Lastly, what do they dream of?
Your prospective employers dream is that they can delegate work to you and you pick it up with ease. You ask the right questions, at the right time, at the right level. Their dream is that you teach, empower and help those around you. Their dream is that you delight them in your job in ways they didn’t even imagine.
Simply put: Your prospective employer dreams you alleviate pain and make their life easier.
Okay, now we’ve started to paint a picture as our prospective employer see’s it we’re now in a good position to start to put together our cover letter. We’re going to go through an example cover letter and update the wording. We’ll refer back to our prospective employers emotions in order to give it some real punch.
At the start of your cover letter, you’ll want to introduce yourself, stating who you are, your background and why you’re unique. The junior engineer in question kicked off their cover letter as follows:
I am a self-taught web developer since 2016. As you can see from my attached CV, I was a full-time student during that year. I was just focusing on my learning, practices and building my skills. Some of my skills includes HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, Ruby, Bootstrap and I am on my way to add API and HTTP requests.
Let’s have a go re-writing this, and I’ll explain the changes I made and why.
I am a self-taught developer. I’ve delivered working application utilising HTML5, CSS3, JavaScript, jQuery, Ruby, Bootstrap. I’m currently teaching myself back-end development, skills such as: RESTful API’s and HTTP requests.
Improvement 1: You ARE a developer (right now!)
If you’ve written code, you are a developer. Now. Today. Immediately. In the original intro was the additional detail of the year that this individual had been developing since (It was 2016, in this case). Go through each sentence on your cover letter and ask yourself: does this strengthen my argument? If it doesn’t, rip it out. Be ruthless.
Improvement 2: Emphasise delivery
I specifically reworded the intro from “I’ve learned” to “I’ve delivered”. Many workplaces let you learn on the job â but learning should always be geared towards delivering. Remember what your prospective employer will fear. They will fear that you’ll be slow to get up to speed and start delivering. If you’ve got examples, even better.
In your cover letter you also get the opportunity to explain why you’re unique. The junior developer here had put:
Also, I can assist my fellow colleagues and mentor interns whenever I am ready. I have some work experience in mentorship and I was doing some design mentoring when I was a regular attendee with Codecademy’s Katathons and Hackathons.
Let’s do some word-smithery:
One of my favourite ways to learn is to teach. I find teaching others gratifying and I know that in order to teach we just have to be one chapter ahead. I work as a design mentor at Codecademy’s Katathons and Hackathons.
Improvement 1: Avoid Self DeprecationÂ
It can be tempting to add in words like some. As the original junior engineer put: “I have some experience”. As we said in the intro, if it doesn’t strengthen your argument, remove it. You have experience. Your prospective employer will be concerned about the amount of time they’ll need to invest in training you prior to you having impact. Be confident, you have skill.
Improvement 2: Favour Present Tense
When it comes to your cover letter, if it doesn’t help your case, remove it. In the original wording, the junior developer put: “I have been a mentor”. It’s much more succinct to say you are a mentor. Saying you have been a mentor also implies that you’re not anymore, which raises the question: why? If you have been a mentor, you ARE a mentor.
Improvement 3: Emphasise Teaching
Above I added a reference to only being one chapter ahead in order to teach. This is an important statement. Most junior engineers take a long time to build up the confidence to teach others. But they need not wait. If you know something that others do not, your employer would love for you to share. In technology learning is essential, and if you can up-skill their teams you’re playing to their dreams.
That concludes our look over this junior developer cover letter case study.
When it comes to influence, emotions are powerful. Don’t fall into the trap of focusing too much on your own skills. Put yourself in the shoes of your prospective employer and tailor your language to play to their dreams, allay their fears and confirm their suspicions. If you can do this, you’ll have a covering letter that really packs some punch.
Are you currently putting together a covering letter? Want feedback? Send it my way, I’d love to help you out.
