What's your job about?
I work for CMD Solutions which is a cloud consulting company focused on building solutions on the AWS cloud. It is one brand under the Mantel Group umbrella of technology consulting companies. I am an Associate Cloud Engineer at CMD in the data practice, working on building data solutions such as data warehouses and data pipelines in the cloud.
Currently, I am still working on a lot of training so a typical day would usually involve at least one training session, such as a course on Terraform which we used to build the cloud infrastructure automatically, or an AWS course to prepare for my AWS Developer Associate certification. I don’t have many meetings so the rest of my day is spent writing code and figuring out how to get the data from where it is to where I want it to be, in the format I want it in. Sometimes straightforward, sometimes I really have to do a lot of googling to find help for what I want to do.
For the project that I am currently working on, I am responsible for designing a database schema that describes the structure of the data that we are collecting. I then wrote functions that went out and collected all of the data to populate the database. With this data, we are able to run reports instantly and get this information to clients quicker. After all, we build solutions that help solve our clients' problems, and ensure that these problems stay solved.
What's your background?
I grew up in Western Australia and moved to Perth to attend University. I initially started with Engineering as I did two maths and two science classes at high school, and after my first year, I realised I did not want to be an engineer. I then switched Universities and began studying Accounting and Finance. After graduation, I went to work in banking, which was too sales focussed for me, and then auditing, which was too repetitive. With this in mind, I returned to my University to work in their strategy team, but again this was not the right fit as I was writing policies mostly.
I had the opportunity to switch to the analytics team which I enjoyed a lot more, analysing data, but I didn’t have the technical skills to excel in the role. I used this as the motivation to return to study Data Science, and being at the University made it convenient to balance both work and study. Plus I could put what I learnt in class straight into practice at work.
I found balancing everything challenging as I entered my final year so I switched it up and put my focus on studying whilst teaching on the side. This made the end of my course come a year sooner as well as realising that I enjoy teaching, and have tried to incorporate elements of that ever since. Once I finished studying, a friend shared that his company was hiring, and here I am.
Could someone with a different background do your job?
Yes, anyone can do my role. To succeed as a Cloud Engineer you first need to develop an understanding of the cloud, so pick one of AWS, GCP, or Azure, and there are learning materials out there. The main skill that will help you succeed is an eagerness to learn new skills and solve problems. The technical skills such as coding languages will come over time. Sometimes the question is not clear and the answer is not straightforward, so the ability to pick the right tool and build a solution that meets the requirements is all that is needed.
What's the coolest thing about your job?
What I enjoy most about my role is that whenever I learn something new, I can visualise how I can apply it in any project, both company and personal. Recently I was working with Terraform to build cloud infrastructure and I then applied it to my own project, and it made it better! That and the supportive environment at Mantel Group, such as whenever I have a question, I can send a message to the whole company and someone will have the answer, or start a debate about what the answer could be! Everyone wants to help.
What are the limitations of your job?
There is often ambiguity in the work, from a client that doesn’t know exactly what they want, to any number of solutions being able to solve the problem. Whilst this is sometimes good, often it means you need to build something out of an uncertain environment, and not knowing if you are on the right track. This is amplified by the flexible working environment and the variety of projects that come through the door, that often you will need to apply your critical thinking and creativity skills to every new project.
3 pieces of advice for your university-self?
Think about the beginning of your career and build the skills and experience to get through the first door. You don’t need to be an expert at everything, but technology is a big field and clarifying what you do (or don’t) like goes a long way to figuring out what roles you might like and what electives will be the most valuable. Don’t be afraid to change your mind and explore different things, pick what you think you will like to start with, and then use that to end up somewhere you enjoy, just remember to learn along the way!