An Interview With a Real Cloud Marathoner

Cloud Academy’s Cloud Marathon is an easy framework that users joined this spring to make step-by-step changes in their lives and careers by committing to learning for 60 minutes a day for 100 days.

How does someone really do that? How hard is it and what are some tangible results? We spoke to Dominik Lenda, who’s in the middle of his Cloud Marathon, about what the experience has been like.

Can you tell us a bit about your background?

Hi, I’m Dominik. I’m a psychological researcher and data analyst. I’ve been working on research about decision-making for a few years. My job was in quantitative psychology, so it involved loads of data analysis and R programming. Currently, I work as a data analyst, and I’m finishing my grant project on experience-based decisions.

I’m changing my profession because I realized that technical activities such as programming were the most attractive to me in my work. I had experience with a few tech areas, but cloud computing was the most exotic. Out of pure curiosity, I started exploring the cloud, and after a few months of intensive training, all I can say is, I love it.

Why did you start the #100DaysOfCloud challenge? Is this your first time in the challenge?

I started the challenge because I wanted to immerse myself in the cloud community to boost my learning. First, I used Twitter to follow people for whom cloud computing is the bread and butter. Then, I bumped into #AWSCertified, a challenge to tweet every day about learnings for AWS certs. I used this tag to start my journey but quickly changed it to #100DaysOfCloud. After 30 days, I reset my counter to join Cloud Marathon and started the challenge again.

What are you training on at the moment and how is that going?

I took a data engineering path in the cloud. So currently, I’m studying for the DP-900 exam that tests knowledge of Azure data fundamentals. It’s my second exam during the challenge. The first one was AZ-900 (Azure Fundamentals), which I passed on the 21st day. The pressure during those first three weeks was high. After a while, I realized that I prefer to learn less but more deeply.

Recently, I’ve started making notes and visualizations to share with others. Writing about the cloud so others can understand it better is not the easiest job, but it makes my learning more effective.

Did the Cloud Marathon help you in your challenge?

Yes, it helped a lot. Before Cloud Marathon, I attempted the #100DaysOfCloud challenge, but my motivation wasn’t that high. Some days, I learned for only 30 minutes or had a few one-day breaks. Being in Cloud Marathon, I haven’t missed a day. At the moment of writing this text, I’m on the 67th day in a row. Cloud Marathon surely helped me to keep my work consistent.

We know you are on the job market at the moment. How did training help you in the process?

In the beginning, I listed a few goals that I’d like to achieve in the challenge. One of them was to have two job interviews in 100 days. So far, I’ve had four full interviews for positions related to the cloud, a few short phone calls, and many offers on LinkedIn. I’m surprised by the number of opportunities I’m getting. So the effectiveness of training is above my expectations.

What aspects do you appreciate the most about our training (for example, labs, exams, or any feature of the platform)?

Labs do a great job. Parveen Singh, Cloud Academy tutor, prepared excellent labs for Azure in the form of challenges, for example, creating a task to set up Azure resources (e.g., Azure Virtual Machine or Azure Virtual Network) without instructions and in a limited time. Labs are great opportunities to practice cloud without worries about unexpected costs.

Who are your favorite instructors?

Parveen Singh and Guy Hummel. Both create excellent Azure content that helps me a lot. Thank you very much!

Thank you, Cloud Academy, for the Cloud Marathon and great content that makes my job transition easier. All the best to you!