Completing the AWS Cloud Resume Challenge: A Beginner's Experience

Salutations Fellow Cloud Enthusiasts,

It’s the middle of 2024, and time seems to be flying by. Looking back, I’m proud of how far I’ve come since April 2023 when I started learning networking as a complete beginner. My journey began with repeated failures on the Juniper Networks Certified Internet Associate (JNCIA) exam—not once, but twice! However, by the end of the year, I turned things around after enrolling in a cloud bachelor’s program and acquiring the CompTIA Network+ certification. I also joined my school’s cybersecurity club, where I participated in capture the flags (CTFs) and earned two more certifications(CCST & AWS Cloud Practitioner). Despite these accomplishments, by early 2024, I still hadn’t landed an entry-level IT job, let alone a cloud position. Every job I applied for required professional experience, which I lacked. Sound familiar?

Enter The Cloud Resume Challenge (CRC), created by Forest Brazeal. The CRC is a project designed to give you hands-on experience with cloud technologies, enhance your resume, and demonstrate your ability to manage and deploy cloud-based solutions. In a nutshell, the challenge involves hosting a static website with a visitor counter (powered by a serverless function) and your resume info, all on a cloud service provider like AWS. The project also includes setting up a CI/CD pipeline, which I accomplished using GitHub Actions. The final piece is configuring Infrastructure as Code (IaC), which I plan to complete with Terraform. This is a simplified overview, but I don’t want to overwhelm you with technical jargon just yet!

You can learn more about the challenge here: Forest's Website

Now that you have some context, let me share my personal experience. This won’t be a step-by-step guide, but I do plan to create something similar in the future, broken down into digestible chunks to avoid information overload. Trust me, there’s a lot more to this challenge than meets the eye, so stay tuned for those tutorials!

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The Beginning

I first learned about the CRC from Gwyneth Peña S., a cloud YouTuber I admire. Since she specializes in Azure, my initial attempt was with Azure. Unfortunately, I ran into issues, particularly with the visitor counter. I tried using C#, but quickly realized it wasn’t the right fit for me. Overwhelmed by new technologies and college technical classes in Java and AWS, I had to reassess my approach. Looking back, I see that I had spread myself too thin. So, I made an "executive decision" to push my code to GitHub and recreate/restart the project in AWS.

If you’ve made it this far, kudos to you! (And I guess I’m doing alright so far.) Check out my completed AWS serverless resume website here: My Resume Website

Recreation

Recreating the project in AWS was much smoother. I reused the same HTML and CSS for the frontend so the site looked the same. I uploaded my files to S3, created a CloudFront distribution for dynamic caching and HTTPS support, and registered a domain in Route 53. I then wrote a Lambda function in Python 3.11, which worked seamlessly (C# was definitely not for me). This function interacts with a DynamoDB database to keep track of the visitor counter. I could've used API Gateway for secure communication between the function and the database, though Lambda's auto-created "functionURL" worked fine for me. A bit of JavaScript was needed to invoke the Lambda function and display the updated data. However, when I visited the site, the counter wasn’t displaying due to a timing issue with the DOM content loading. Fortunately, a one-line fix with ChatGPT’s help resolved the issue. (Again, this isn’t a detailed guide, so if you want to be notified when I publish those tutorials, subscribe to my newsletter!)

The final step was creating a CI/CD pipeline for the frontend files using GitHub Actions, which turned out to be surprisingly simple. The project was complete, except for the IaC component, which I plan to finish soon. I also intend to learn Docker and containerize the project for fun.

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Final Thoughts and Key Takeaways

Recreating this project in AWS turned out to be a smooth process, thanks to the lessons I learned from my initial attempt in Azure. Here’s a quick summary of what I accomplished:

• Reused Frontend Code: I used the same HTML and CSS, ensuring consistency in design.

• AWS Setup: I uploaded files to S3, set up CloudFront for dynamic caching and HTTPS, and registered a domain with Route 53.

• Serverless Function: I wrote a Lambda function in Python 3.11, which interacts with DynamoDB to manage the visitor counter.

• CI/CD Pipeline: I implemented a straightforward CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions for the frontend.

Key Takeaways:

1. Flexibility is Key: Switching from Azure to AWS was a strategic decision that aligned better with my skills and project requirements. Sometimes, changing tools or platforms can make a significant difference.

2. Hands-On Experience Matters: Completing the CRC not only enhanced my technical skills but also provided practical experience that is highly valued by employers.

3. Embrace Learning: Challenges like these are opportunities to learn and grow. Even if things don’t go as planned initially, perseverance and adaptability can lead to success.

Whew! I haven’t written this much in a while(hopefully it doesn't show) lol XD.

Thank you for following along with my journey through the Cloud Resume Challenge. Stay tuned for more posts, beginning with an in-depth, step-by-step guide on the frontend portion of this project. If you’re interested in learning more or have any questions, don’t hesitate to subscribe to my newsletter!