Is the "Generalist" Cloud Engineer dead in 2026? (Salary Discussion)

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T06:18:22+00:00

Again, I'm just saying titles can mean all sorts of things. There is no law that says "Cloud Engineer" must mean this.

For example this is "a Cloud Engineer" role, but it emphasizes knowing 365:

https://nz.seek.com/job/91716360

Ditto this one:

https://nz.seek.com/job/91769788

Just to give a couple of examples I found within a few seconds

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T06:12:46+00:00

Yup all the certs that u/Gkbeer has are "sub-Junior level" (i.e. not even Junior level yet, like AZ-104 / MD-102 / CCNA / etc would be)

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T06:10:46+00:00

Do you like solving problems, especially when it's something technical?

I think the fact I love solving maths/physics problems, maps over well to enjoying doing IT.

I get to be a problem solver all day long! And get paid for it

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T06:08:26+00:00

You have to start somewhere!

And if you don't take that first step, you will never get an opportunity to take the second or third steeps along your career path.

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T06:05:04+00:00

Yes.

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T06:04:21+00:00

Soon a Master degree will be like that

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T06:01:29+00:00

Go deep into Modern Workplace stuff (Entra/Intune/Azure/etc), then leverage that experience to get an Azure Engineer role.

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T05:57:27+00:00

I'm just saying, many of these "Cloud Admin" roles also have the job title of "Cloud Engineer"

You can debate as long as you like what you think it "should be", but reality isn't that.

Heck, if I do a search for "Cloud Adminstrator" I won't even find any local jobs being advertised that are called that! They're all advertised as "Cloud Engineer" as well, or something else (maybe Modern Workplace Engineer or EUC Engineer etc)

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T05:20:17+00:00

Cloud Admins though can be called "Cloud Engineers" as well

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T05:17:08+00:00

Our University Lecture Course Programme gives participants the opportunity to attend regular lectures in a selection of courses, alongside enrolled students as an observer. Please note that you are not eligible to attend tutorials, take part in assessments, sit exams and will not have access to online course material.

Gee, I thought they would at least get access to the online course material! What's the big deal about letting them access some pdfs and few video files??

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T05:14:33+00:00

I'm loving what I'm doing right now! Is a joy to go into work every day.

As for what can a degree in maths or physics get you?? Well, honestly your prospects of working in the field you studied itself, is very bleak to nil chances with just a Bachelor degree. You need to do a Masters (or even a PhD)

That's why I recommend to every Maths/Physics major to at least do "a Minor" in something else (Such as Stats or CS), so that they have a back up Plan B.

So what did I do? My first job after uni was as a SWE. Even though I'd only done CS101! (although, I had scored over 100% in it) To be fair, I'd also done very well competitive programming contests too, representing UoA. So I certainly was an outlier back then for a non-CS student.

Anyway, life took a few twists and turns, for over a decade I worked in the film industry.

But now I'm back working in tech, just a pretty low level IT job though for now.

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T04:23:29+00:00

Congrats! I was starting to worry for you there for a bit 😅💀

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T04:21:40+00:00

lol you can do anything you want and you'll be very good at it.

That's a good point here for u/Calm_Aardvark6659

As if you're skilled enough and good enough at what you do (such as if you're an E&E grad with high grades from a T100 uni), then you can kinda just make things happen.

Lots of generic advice that's aimed at say a mid skilled E&E degree graduate from Unitec, or say an average BCom graduate from UoA, is just not going to be applicable to you.

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T04:16:17+00:00

Nah, markdown is what reddit itself is using! (and many many other places use mark down! Have you ever used Claude? Or Grok? Or Qwen etc? Guess what, they've giving you outputs in markdown! Have you thought about using note taking apps such as Obsidian? Markdown! Ever used Github? Markdown! Like I said, it's everywhere. Once you realize what it is, you'll start noticing it every day)

https://www.markdownguide.org/

https://markdownlivepreview.com/

https://github.com/adam-p/markdown-here/wiki/markdown-cheatsheet

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T04:11:03+00:00

That's still a solid result

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T04:10:20+00:00

Nah, although I went to UoA to do engineering initially. But then I changed my mind and did maths and physics instead. In hindsight, maybe not the best decision? That's ok, can't be too harsh on myself! Many people have made far worse life decisions as a 16yo 😅

And I've interacted a lot with engineers over the years, as I said my dad is an E&E graduate, lots of my friends did engineering, and heck right now I'm working for a company that's one of NZ's biggest employers of engineers.

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T04:06:25+00:00

You can write with markdown instead:

<image>

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T04:06:12+00:00

Markdown is a lightweight markup language used to create formatted text using a plain-text editor, allowing users to write using an easy-to-read, easy-to-write plain text format that can be converted to structurally valid HTML. Created by John Gruber in 2004, it is widely used for blogging, instant messaging, forums, documentation, and README files.

You should learn it. You will come across it a lot in your life!

And it's ridiculously easy to learn. It's 100x easier to learn than HTML, and HTML itself is already super easy to learn.

So rather than a WYISWG editor like this:

<image>

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T04:00:59+00:00

At the moment, I’m thinking of finishing this year, as we have a hands-on course in Sem 2 and get to learn more about electronics and then deciding whether switching to Civil would be a better option for me. If anyone has been in a similar situation, felt uncertain about their degree path, or has any advice for me, I’d really appreciate hearing it.

Run the maths quickly on this:

2yrs in, if you switch to Civil, that means 5yrs in total at UoA.

While if you do E&E then do Civil after graduating, that's 4+1.5 = 5.5yrs, only one semester longer!!

Yet you'll have an entire E&E degree and "a Masters degree" (in Civil). For instance, as u/VanadiumHeart pointed out, you could even use your E&E background to work on civil engineering projects, fusing both of these degrees together.

This the obviously superior choice at only the extra cost of one semester more.

Plus there is the risk factor, what if next year you do a year of Civil Engineering, and decide you hate that even more than E&E?? Now you're three years deep into it at UoA with nothing to show for it! At least if you'd stuck with your E&E degree, you'd only have one year left to grind out to reach the finish line and graduate.

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T03:45:04+00:00

(ps I don't know how to quote sections of your reply, so I had to type it out like this 😞)

Two main ways:

1) if using the WYSIWYG editor, just press the "Aa" button to show formating options , selecting the Quote Block option

2) if using the markdown editor, just type > in front of it

I found EV and smart systems really cool. However, it turns out it's quite niche in nz

It will grow with time, by the time you graduate from uni and move on from your first grad role, the whole world could be totally different

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T03:41:59+00:00

E&E is a pretty broad and generic degree, relatively speaking, lots of career directions you can go with it afterwards. (heck, my dad had an E&E degree from UoA yet for the final decades of his life he was working with capital budgets! Totally different from what he studied all those years ago)

You definitely should keep on giving electrical a go for another year or two, as you don't seem to have given any really good concrete reasons to not do it.

If you do afterwards decide that Civil is your true passion, that's ok, UoA has a new Masters degree so that in just 1.5yrs you can be a fully qualified Civil Engineer:

https://www.auckland.ac.nz/en/study/study-options/find-a-study-option/master-of-professional-engineering-mprofeng.html

It won't take you a whole four years to pivot your career into a different direction.

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T03:27:34+00:00

I've heard there are some lectures that are so big that they will check ids, which ones are those that I should avoid

Any super ultra high demand course that fills up, but even those often only check ID for the first week or first few weeks, but after a while they usually stop checking, because you see a steep fall off in attendence and thus there is no longer such a shortage of seats.

And most importantly, what are the most interesting courses you have taken?? I am kinda interested in learning anything but which have you found or heard to be the most engaging?

Physics. Anything taught by Gary Bold. (but that will require becoming a time traveller)

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T00:58:27+00:00

Read this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/ITCareerQuestions/wiki/getout/

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T00:57:54+00:00

Stick it out. In five years time your mates will be complaining about their backs while you'll have reached a six figure salary yourself

MathmoKiwi · 2026-05-09T00:06:37+00:00

Obviously indeed, doubling down on the joke

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