So you're on a cloud computing career path -- that's great! But how do you increase your earnings and best align your career choices with your interests? Here are three tips.
First, be specific. As you can see from job site Indeed.com's chart below, when the general term "cloud computing" is used to find positions, there's a decline in the number of postings. But when more specific terms are used, such as "AWS" and "big data," the postings increase.
The reality is that "cloud computing" is a concept, not a skill. If you are going for "cloud" jobs, you'll find that your résumé is pushed aside for those who have specific skill sets such as AWS developer or Google Cloud storage specialist.
Find your niche, promote it in your résumé, and hone it with experience.
Second, focus on security. In the cloud, security must be systemic -- a part of the compute layer, storage layer, database layer, network layers, and so on. People who know both cloud and security are highly sought after.
Specific technologies to focus on include anything related to identity and access management, as well as encryption (both in flight and at rest), and of course anything dealing with compliance for specific industries such as health care. Even if you're a cloud architect or developer, security should be a big part of your skill set.
Third, get the devops religion. Devops is the most productive way to affect a public cloud strategy. However, people who know both cloud and devops are rare finds.
As most enterprises transition to cloud-based everything, they are also transitioning to a devops tool set and culture. These two simultaneous transitions make for a lot of confusion. People who can bring good skills to the twin change effort will be paid well and valued more.
The fact of the matter is that cloud computing, like other sweeping technology trends, requires that you understand the market for the skills and have the skills themselves. Smart people will turbocharge their cloud careers by making a few changes like these to their skill sets and to their résumés. I hope you'll be one of them.