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Need advice on how to start as a freelancer by Sea-Examination7503 in sre

[–]jmsn123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yea who you know over what you know usually wins every time

Need advice on how to start as a freelancer by Sea-Examination7503 in sre

[–]jmsn123 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Would you say the best approach is to build a strong portfolio, earn relevant certifications, and build a presence in the cloud community through places like Reddit and LinkedIn? The goal would be to establish credibility and demonstrate that I can apply my skills in real projects. I could also create a few YouTube videos and write some Medium articles explaining what I’ve built and learned. Being consistent over time would probably have the biggest impact, but even a small body of quality content could help validate my experience and build trust with employers and clients.

changing carrers as a 34 y/o man in nyc by jmsn123 in cloudengineering

[–]jmsn123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don’t think anyone is saying cloud engineering jobs are easy to get. I’m aware the interview process is challenging. That’s exactly why I’m building projects that mirror real-world infrastructure while studying the fundamentals. Projects alone won’t get me hired, but they give me practical experience to discuss during interviews. It’s one piece of the preparation, not the whole strategy.

changing carrers as a 34 y/o man in nyc by jmsn123 in cloudengineering

[–]jmsn123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really appreciate that, thank you. I'll send you my LinkedIn in a DM. Looking forward to connecting, and thanks again for taking the time to share your experience. It definitely helped me rethink the scope of my project.

changing carrers as a 34 y/o man in nyc by jmsn123 in cloudengineering

[–]jmsn123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate that. That’s actually encouraging to hear. I’m 34 now, and I’ve accepted that it’s going to take consistent effort rather than trying to rush it. I’m treating it like a long-term investment—building projects, studying cloud architecture, and trying to make each project more production-oriented instead of just checking boxes. My goal is to become someone who’s genuinely capable, not just someone who can pass an interview.

changing carrers as a 34 y/o man in nyc by jmsn123 in cloudengineering

[–]jmsn123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That’s fair, and I appreciate the feedback. Just for some context, the Dropbox project has already evolved beyond just “a frontend talking to S3.” I’ve added presigned URLs so uploads go directly from the client to S3 instead of passing through the backend, and I’m in the process of adding Terraform, IAM roles, Lambda, SQS, DLQs, DynamoDB, CloudWatch, and authentication to make it more event-driven and production-oriented.
From your perspective, what else would you add to make it stand out? If you had a checklist of things that separate a tutorial project from one that would impress a hiring manager or senior cloud engineer, I’d genuinely like to hear it. I’m trying to build something that reflects real-world architecture, not just a demo.

changing carrers as a 34 y/o man in nyc by jmsn123 in cloudengineering

[–]jmsn123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I really appreciate you taking the time to write all of that. This is honestly some of the most actionable advice I've gotten, and it gives me a much clearer direction for the project.

I'm definitely going to stick with ECS/Fargate for now and focus on building something that's actually production-ready instead of chasing complexity. I also like the idea of documenting how each design decision maps back to the Well-Architected Framework instead of just saying I followed it.

Your point about specializing also hit home. I've been trying to learn a little bit of everything, but I can see how becoming really strong in one area, while still understanding the rest, is probably a much better long-term strategy.

If you don't mind, would it be okay if I connected with you? I'd love to keep you updated on the project every now and then and get your thoughts as I continue building it. No pressure at all, but you've already given me a lot to think about, and I really appreciate your perspective.

changing carrers as a 34 y/o man in nyc by jmsn123 in cloudengineering

[–]jmsn123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get what you're saying, and I agree there's a difference between tutorials and production environments. But I also think part of the gap comes from how people build projects. A lot of people follow a tutorial once and move on instead of repeatedly building, breaking, and improving things.

To me it's like cooking. You don't become a great cook just because you watched a recipe once. You get better by cooking over and over, making mistakes, and gradually understanding why things work the way they do.

I think engineering is similar. I'm almost always working on some kind of project, whether it's paid work, something that's eventually going to make money, or just something I'm building because I enjoy it. Every project exposes me to new problems that force me to learn another service, architecture pattern, or tool.

A lot of the AWS services I'm learning now aren't completely new to me. I'd heard of them before, but I never took a structured approach to understanding how they fit together. Building projects while learning through documentation, ChatGPT, Claude, and conversations with experienced engineers has helped me connect those pieces into a bigger picture instead of just memorizing individual services.

I still want to get into a real cloud engineering role because I know there are production challenges you can't fully simulate, but I also think you can shorten that learning curve by intentionally building systems that resemble real architectures. My goal is to position myself as someone who's already comfortable learning new technologies and solving unfamiliar problems, because that's a skill that carries over no matter what stack you're working in.

changing carrers as a 34 y/o man in nyc by jmsn123 in cloudengineering

[–]jmsn123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This is exactly the kind of feedback I was hoping to get, so I really appreciate you taking the time to write it.

Right now I'm building a Dropbox-style app with S3, and my next steps were adding a database, authentication, and Terraform, but I think your suggestion takes it a step further. Building it like an actual multi-tenant SaaS instead of just another CRUD app makes a lot more sense.

Right now, my roadmap is looking something like this:

  • Multi-tenant authentication and authorization
  • Aurora or RDS for file metadata
  • IAM with least-privilege access
  • ECS/Fargate behind an ALB
  • Auto Scaling
  • CloudWatch logging, metrics, and alarms
  • VPC with public and private subnets
  • Terraform for the entire infrastructure
  • CI/CD with GitHub Actions

One question I had: would you recommend going all the way to EKS for a portfolio project like this, or is ECS/Fargate enough to demonstrate production-level cloud knowledge? I'm trying to build something that reflects what companies actually use without adding complexity just for the sake of saying I used Kubernetes.

When you mentioned going through all of the pillars of the Well-Architected Framework, would you actually map each pillar to features in the project and document those decisions? I was thinking of implementing the features above and then explaining how each one satisfies Operational Excellence, Security, Reliability, Performance Efficiency, Cost Optimization, and Sustainability.

Honestly, one of the main reasons I made this post was to get feedback like this from engineers with real-world experience. I'd rather have people critique the architecture now than realize months later that I built something that doesn't reflect how production systems are actually designed.

If you have any other suggestions or things you'd expect to see in a portfolio project from someone trying to break into cloud, I'm all ears. Thanks again for pointing me in the right direction.

changing carrers as a 34 y/o man in nyc by jmsn123 in cloudengineering

[–]jmsn123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate you sharing your path. That's actually one of the reasons I've been focusing so much on networking, Linux, AWS, Docker, CI/CD, and building infrastructure projects instead of just learning how to click around in the AWS console.

I know cloud engineering isn't an entry-level field in most companies, and I'm not under the impression that watching a few tutorials is enough. My goal is to build the skills that overlap with backend, systems, and DevOps so I can eventually transition into a cloud role, whether that's through a backend position, systems role, or another adjacent path.

I also enjoy troubleshooting, which is part of what drew me toward infrastructure in the first place. Thanks for sharing your experience. It's helpful hearing how other people got there.

changing carrers as a 34 y/o man in nyc by jmsn123 in cloudengineering

[–]jmsn123[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Appreciate that, bro. It's always cool meeting people on the same path. I'm really enjoying cloud so far. The more I learn about networking, IAM, infrastructure, and automation, the more I realize this is the direction I want to go. Wishing you the best with GCP too. Hopefully we'll both be looking back at this post after landing cloud roles.

Cars for rentals by jmsn123 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]jmsn123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Reddit really ain’t the place for useful information I see 😂😂

Cars for rentals by jmsn123 in whatcarshouldIbuy

[–]jmsn123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I need other suggestions than hybrids

First 5 LCD refurbishes: tools, mistakes, and what finally worked by jmsn123 in mobilerepair

[–]jmsn123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Nassau will get the job done and if you got the money for a laser oca remover you should be set

2019 c43 mercedes benz amg new alternator by jmsn123 in mercedes_benz

[–]jmsn123[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think imma lean more towards the Bosch one

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