I’ve been searching for a new job, and it’s a real bloodbath out there. We all see the layoffs left and right, automation filtering out candidates who don’t say the right things before recruiters and hiring managers even see them. It’s tough.
Additionally, when you are naturally curious and love to learn, there’s already a million things you’re juggling to study. Some are deep dives, others are “just enough to continue this project.
That brings us to the projects. 50-100 projects sitting there in Obsidian, looking at me, saying, “Hey! When are you going to work on/finish me!” “When I get a new job to fund you?”
I’ve determined to bring all of these things together, buckle down, and get at least a certification or two done this month. After all, it’s a pretty good way for a recruiter (or ATS) to then check those boxes.
Before the current push to get certifications again, I was already kind of studying AWS, Data Science, ML/AI (training, fine-tuning, engineering using models), Docker, Security+, Pentester… My pile of e-books and bookmarks is deep and wide.
Now, I’ve decided to start pursuing certification, instead of just study, to start creating provable silos of expertise so that the experience tells a story, but also current industries back it up.
- AWS was chosen first because AWS + my current experience proves DevOps.
- Docker will probably be next. I need to deep dive that to better my skills for sandboxing, model delivery, and my plans to automate more of my personal projects. It also expands the certifications I already have through Google (IT Automation with Python). An AWS certification will do that too.
- Security+ certification is another big (and expensive) goal. It expands on my certification I have already with Google for Cybersecurity. Addtionally (Security+) + AWS + my experience = proof that I have the DevSecOps silo of knowledge.
If it weren’t for the job market, I’d just keep hopping around my current Projects tab in my browser, hopping between Kaggle and Huggingface. I’d be ticking off projects in my Obsidian. I might be getting more sleep but I wouldn’t bet on that.
That said, I really like the idea of taking all of my interests in software engineering, AI/ML…all of them, to find a solution to real world problems out there in the wild.
But for now, it’s the freelance, study, decompress, sleep grind.