My Google Associate Cloud Engineer Certification Journey ….
I heard about the Google Africa Developer Scholarship (GADS) in 2019. I was working at a bank and almost done with my contract, completely unsure of what to do next. So, I applied.
I Chose the Mobile Web Track because I had little knowledge of HTML and CSS, plus it was the only track that made sense to me (i didn’t know what cloud was). It was a struggle for me. I remember “cramming” the meaning of HTML and getting frustrated when my brain couldn’t “cram” most of the video content given by Pluralsight, so I quit.
Fast forward to 2020, I had applied to go to a Bootcamp (Decagon), but due to covid, I couldn’t resume. And then I saw the call for application for GADS 2020. This time I chose the Google Cloud Track.
I dived into the courses given by Pluralsight, it was well-curated and beginner-friendly. It wasn’t all a smooth ride. I had some issues with some of the labs given, I had to do one particular lab 3 times. At this time, I had resumed at the Bootcamp so I was juggling the GADS program and the tasks given at the Bootcamp.
There were many times where I wanted to give up, but I had amazing friends around me who pushed me to keep going. I read many medium articles of those who had successfully written and passed the certification to gain insight into how the exam would be and resources to use. I would personally recommend the article by Mercy Markus, I followed most of the advice and resources that she recommended.
I made it to the final phase and picked a date to write the exam. I started preparing for the exam, I went over the courses and labs by Pluralsight again, I finished the Google Cloud study guide and ensured I did all the exercises, I went through a course by a Cloud guru and also by Dan Sullivan both on Udemy.
A week before the exam, I thought I was ready. I decided to pay for a practice test and that was where I started having doubts about my preparedness. I didn’t get up to 50 in the first trial. I was so frustrated, but I was encouraged by a friend (ikechukwu onuorah) who advised that I still have 4 days to give it my best and I should go over the practice tests as many times as possible which I did.
I took the exam on the 16th of January 2021 and passed. The Result was verified by Google and my Certificate was sent to me after a few days. I would like to use this opportunity to thank my friends(Sq005) at Decagon especially Louis Akhigbe and Fatimath Bawa-Allah for their continuous words of encouragement.
I would strongly recommend that after going through the resources, you test your knowledge with the practice tests to know the areas you need to work on more. Good luck!!
What Next?
I look forward to diving into Microsoft Azure, as I currently work with C# and the .NET environment.
Resources:
The article by Mercy Markus: https://medium.com/@MercyMarkus/from-alc-to-google-certified-associate-cloud-engineer-b7e5707f9bf0
Official Google Cloud Certified Associate Cloud Engineer Study Guide Book by Dan Sullivan.
The Pluralsight Content given by GADS.