Skills for Working as an AWS Cloud Consultant

Overview

Being a successful cloud consultant is finding the balance of soft skills and hard skills when investigating and solving customer problems. This course is designed to improve students’ understanding of key soft skills necessary to become successful cloud consultants. The course's first week provides foundational knowledge of what cloud consulting is and then dives into important skills for solving customers’ business problems. During the second week, students learn how to work with customers (gather requirements, propose a solution, plan and build out the project, monitor progress, and conclude final tasks) and how different soft skills can help them throughout all stages of the process. The third week of the course focuses on helping students develop and maintain strong business relationships. The main emphasis of this week is on developing soft skills that are necessary to build relationships, earn trust, manage changes, establish a brand, and build a good reputation. Finally, in week 4, students receive different recommendations and techniques on how to design a plan to improve their soft skills and grow as a leader.

Syllabus

Thinking as a Cloud Consultant

Module one starts by answering a couple of fundamental questions: What is a cloud consultant, and what do they do? You explore the basic functions of this role to help you decide if being a cloud consultant is a job you’d like to pursue. In addition, you learn about critical thinking and analytical skills, which are important to the business world and for cloud consultants. You explore what they are, how to develop them, and some strategies that you can employ on your next business project.

Designing Solutions and Managing Projects

In module two, you take on the role of a cloud consultant who is working with a customer. You start the module by walking through a common project for a cloud consultant: migrating a workload from an on-premises data center to AWS. During this process, you learn about the types of meetings that you might experience, and the different types of job functions that you might perform in the organization. By the end of the module, you should have a solid understanding of the different tasks and activities that a cloud consultant might do in their workday.

Managing Relationships

Module three focuses on building and maintaining business relationships. In business, who you know can be as important as what you know. In this module, you focus on building and maintaining a network of professional connections. In addition to networking, it’s important for you to develop your own professional brand. To that end, you also explore how you can establish your brand and maintain a positive image in the business world.

Building your Career

In module four, you explore how you can continuously improve your skill set. Because business is always changing, you should also consider how you can keep evolving your skills. You learn how to create a plan to develop your skills and work on addressing your weaknesses. As you develop new skills, it’s important to manage your time and make the most out of what you have. At the end of the module, you learn the principles behind designing effective resumes, and then you go hands-on to review and update your own resume.