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Plus... 2x FTEs to manage the AWS support tickets 3x FTE to understand the differences between the AWS bundled products and open source stuff which you can't

by baz00 3y ago

Plus... 2x FTEs to manage the AWS support tickets 3x FTE to understand the differences between the AWS bundled products and open source stuff which you can't get close enough to the config for so that you can actually use it as intended. 3x Security folk to work out how to manage the tangle of multiple accounts, networks, WAF and compliance overheads 3x FTEs to write HCL and YAML to support the cloud. 2x Solution architects to try and rebuild everything cloud native and get stuck in some technicality inside step functions for 9 months and achieve nothing. 1x extra manager to sit in meetings with AWS once a week and bitch about the crap support, the broken OSS bundled stuff and work out weird network issues. 1x cloud janitor to clean up all the dirt left around the cluster burning cash. --- Footnote: Was this to free us or enslave us?

hotpotamus 3y ago
> Footnote: Was this to free us or enslave us? I assume whichever provides more margin to Jeff Bezos.
gymbeaux 3y ago
Our experience hasn’t been THAT bad but we did waste a lot of time in weekly meetings with AWS “solutions architects” who knew next to nothing about AWS aside from a shallow, salesman-like understanding. They make around $150k too, by the way. I tried to apply to be one, but AWS wants someone with more sales experience and they don’t really care about my AWS certs
- baz00 3y ago
  As an AWS Solution Architect (independent untethered to Bezos) I resent that comment. I know slightly more than next to nothing about AWS and I can Google something and come up with something convincing and sell it to you in a couple of minutes!
  - gymbeaux 3y ago
    How do I make $150k (or more) having high-level conversations about AWS with senior software engineers? Seriously. I’m sure it’s not an “easy” job, but fuck if I make less actually writing the software (median SWE salary is something like $140k in the US- depends on who you ask but it’s not the $250k+ that Levels.fyi would lead you to believe).
- scarface_74 3y ago
  I can guarantee an SA working for AWS makes more than $150k. A returning L4 intern makes that much (former AWS Professional Services employee) And no one cares about AWS certifications. They are proof of nothing and disregarded by anyone with a modicum of a clue. I’m speaking as someone who once had nine active certifications and I believe I still have six active ones. I only got them as a guided learning path. I knew going in they were meaningless.
  - icedchai 3y ago
    This cracked me up. I was "asked" to get some AWS certs since I joined a company that was an AWS Partner. We have a new VP that is forcing other people to get them. Big waste of time for all practical purposes.
    - scarface_74 3y ago
      So to be clearer. Having an AWS certification is not a requirement or even that important to get a job at AWS in the Professional Services department. Depending on your job position you are required to have certain certifications once you get there. I now work for a partner and you are required to have a certain number of “certified individuals” to maintain partnership status. But even then, certifications never came up in my three interviews after getting “Amazoned” a couple of months ago. But then again, after having AWS ProServe on my resume and having been a major contributor to a popular open source project in my niche, door opened for my automatically.
      - icedchai 3y ago
        I didn't mind getting the certifications to "help out" the company, I just find it such a racket: paying for courses, buying books, $200 tests. Some people take months preparing for that stuff! I didn't buy any courses and only spent a few days preparing, but others spend tons of time and money on it. And based on my own personal interactions with other "certified" individuals, it doesn't actually mean anything.
  - gymbeaux 3y ago
ezekiel68 3y ago
Where I work (hint: very large satellite radio company) this is very much a thing.

by baz00 3y ago

hotpotamus 3y ago

> Footnote: Was this to free us or enslave us? I assume whichever provides more margin to Jeff Bezos.

gymbeaux 3y ago

Our experience hasn’t been THAT bad but we did waste a lot of time in weekly meetings with AWS “solutions architects” who knew next to nothing about AWS aside from a shallow, salesman-like understanding. They make around $150k too, by the way. I tried to apply to be one, but AWS wants someone with more sales experience and they don’t really care about my AWS certs

baz00 3y ago
As an AWS Solution Architect (independent untethered to Bezos) I resent that comment. I know slightly more than next to nothing about AWS and I can Google something and come up with something convincing and sell it to you in a couple of minutes!
- gymbeaux 3y ago
  How do I make $150k (or more) having high-level conversations about AWS with senior software engineers? Seriously. I’m sure it’s not an “easy” job, but fuck if I make less actually writing the software (median SWE salary is something like $140k in the US- depends on who you ask but it’s not the $250k+ that Levels.fyi would lead you to believe).
scarface_74 3y ago
I can guarantee an SA working for AWS makes more than $150k. A returning L4 intern makes that much (former AWS Professional Services employee) And no one cares about AWS certifications. They are proof of nothing and disregarded by anyone with a modicum of a clue. I’m speaking as someone who once had nine active certifications and I believe I still have six active ones. I only got them as a guided learning path. I knew going in they were meaningless.
- icedchai 3y ago
  This cracked me up. I was "asked" to get some AWS certs since I joined a company that was an AWS Partner. We have a new VP that is forcing other people to get them. Big waste of time for all practical purposes.
  - scarface_74 3y ago
    So to be clearer. Having an AWS certification is not a requirement or even that important to get a job at AWS in the Professional Services department. Depending on your job position you are required to have certain certifications once you get there. I now work for a partner and you are required to have a certain number of “certified individuals” to maintain partnership status. But even then, certifications never came up in my three interviews after getting “Amazoned” a couple of months ago. But then again, after having AWS ProServe on my resume and having been a major contributor to a popular open source project in my niche, door opened for my automatically.
    - icedchai 3y ago
      I didn't mind getting the certifications to "help out" the company, I just find it such a racket: paying for courses, buying books, $200 tests. Some people take months preparing for that stuff! I didn't buy any courses and only spent a few days preparing, but others spend tons of time and money on it. And based on my own personal interactions with other "certified" individuals, it doesn't actually mean anything.
- gymbeaux 3y ago

ezekiel68 3y ago

Where I work (hint: very large satellite radio company) this is very much a thing.