'Cloud is not just a choice any more, it has really become a necessity'

Three to four years back Dipali realized a need to level up her skills to grow in her career. She got to know about AWS Trainings through her colleague. She got herself certified. She liked it so much that she became an evangelist for promoting AWS Trainings in her current company as a volunteer, with her full-time job. In the last 2 years, she has trained over 500+ professionals in her company. She also recently published her own course on DevOps on Linkedin. AWS Certifications gave her a new level of confidence and visibility in her company. We spoke to Dipali where she told us about her journey.

"I started out as a database developer in 2003. Most of my early career days, I worked on Oracle technologies like Informatica, OWB. But within 3-4 years, I realized that just working on this technology will not help me progress in my career. I really need to step up and learn new things if I want to survive in the market. Cloud computing was a buzz word then in late 2000. We were also hearing a lot about Data Science, AI/ ML. Coming from the data background, I started to explore Data Science and also tried AI/ML. I found it very challenging, as understanding it from a scratch is not an easy task. Honestly, I did not find it interesting for a very long time," says Dipali.

Speaking about how she began this journey, Dipali says, "In 2017, at Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS), we had an internal training for AWS services. I was really impressed with the whole concept and what cloud computing had to offer. I started hands-on training with AWS and found it interesting. Thanks to my colleague Vikas Bajaj, who acted as a catalyst for acknowledging us with AWS. That’s how I started my journey with AWS and kept on exploring on this."

"After exploring AWS for 2-3 months, I took the Cloud Practitioner Certification. I was motivated to explore further and understand the AWS ecosystem better. Later, I also did the AWS Solution Architect Associate Level Certification. The best thing I liked about AWS was that even when I wasn’t so much well versed with AI/ ML, I could still leverage those concepts in my use cases, with minimum level of programming knowledge. I participated in various AWS hackathons and Game Days."

on continuing the learning, Dipali says, "When Vikas left the organization, he passed on the baton to me to continue the AWS trainings at RBS. We used to host at least 2 trainings in a quarter. Vikas only introduced me to the Delhi AWS User Group, and we hosted a lot of meetups there as well.

So far, so many people have got certified for AWS at RBS that it gives me an immense sense of accomplishment in mentoring these folks. This is an opportunity for me to give back to the community. When I cleared my Solutions Architect Certifications, it gave me a great sense of confidence and the trainings I used to conduct gave me visibility and people started acknowledging me more, and it helped me secure a good position in the team as well. Overall it helped me with my career progression. Today I’m working as a VP – Data Engineering at NatWest and couldn’t have been happier."

"I recently cleared the Professional level certification and also published my DevOps course on LinkedIn. It's been a great experience. Cloud is not just a choice any more, it has really become a necessity. If you want to innovate and stay ahead in your business or career, you must learn cloud."