There Is No Compression Algorithm For Experience! – Andy Jassy, AWS CEO
In our previous article we talked about what we get asked all the time – “How do I get started learning AWS?”
The next question we get after people pass their certification is
“How can I get hands-on experience?”
Training, books, videos and lab learning is awesome, but… Just like Andy said – there is no substitute for hand-on experience.
Inception of Our Intern Program
We started our intern program, affectionately known as the Zintern program, several years ago. We started because we had a need for amazing talent with AWS knowledge AND experience. We started the program focused on helping people train to get ready to take the AWS Solutions Architecture Associate certification. The program has been amazing! We’ve trained over 100 people, had some amazing Zinterns, hired a few people, helped a ton of people get cool jobs and made some new customer relationships from the program.
Zintern Program Updated!
We’ve seen amazing progress with people getting serious about their AWS knowledge and are passing one or more certifications on their own using the amazing resources that are available. So we are raising the bar and instead of focusing on helping people study to pass the certs, we are now focusing on helping people get the hand-on experience they are looking for! Our Zinterns work with our experienced Cloud Architects on real customer projects. They start out by shadowing our team going through the AWS Well-Architected Review process with a customer.
This is an amazing way for our Zinterns to learn the AWS best practices and see them in action. They get to identify real issues across all five Well-Architected Pillars: Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization & Operational Excellence. They get to participating in the process for how we identify gaps and recommend remediations. They learn more about security, cost optimization, cloud architecture, automation and so many AWS capabilities! If you’ve completed at least one of the AWS certifications and are interested in our Zintern program please contact us.
