From Engineering Student to AWS Leader | Interview with Principal Developer Advocate Curtis Evans

From Engineering Student to AWS Leader | Interview with Principal Solutions Architect Curtis Evans Contact Curtis: Twitter: https://twitter.com/curtEYEvan Medium: https://medium.com/@cie247 About Curtis: Curtis is a Principal Developer Advocate covering Infrastructure, Storage, SysOps and Observability. He has worked in the IT industry for over 20 years in a variety of roles including Linux Administrator, Systems Management Consultant, and Data Center Operations Manager. Curtis has spent the last 6 years of his career at AWS, where he’s helped customers across a number of industries including digital media move tons of workloads supporting live news, sports, and streaming services for millions of subscribers to the AWS cloud. --------- Contents of this interview -------- 00:00 - Intro 01:35 - How did you get started in tech? 03:03 - How did you get introduced to technology? 05:03 - How did you determine what you wanted to do in I.T.? 07:45 - If you had to start over in tech what would you do different? 09:53 - If you were new to tech today. Where would you start? 11:25 - What are the foundational tech skills people should have? 13:34 - How important are soft skills? 15:01 - How do you navigate the workplace when you don’t fit in? 17:16 - I.T. Certifications vs College? 20:14 - Do professionals with a college degree make more money? 21:53 - How do you gain tech experience if you are new? 25:52 - How do you manage burnout? 28:13 - How do you determine if a job if right for you? 32:22 - Was there ever a time you wanted to leave tech? 37:20 - How important is it to have a mentor? 38:50 - Is a mentor something you pay for? 40:13 - What challenges have you faced with advancing your career in I.T.? 43:00 - How do you establish work life balance? 47:08 - How do you advance from mid-level positions to Sr. level positions in tech? 50:12 - How long should you stay in a job role before changing companies? 52:08 - How long does it take to learn an I.T. job role? 53:43 - How important is it to understand your manager’s communication style? 58:00 - What advice do you have for I.T. professionals? 01:00:43 - How do you manage your finances? 01:04:00 - How you can contact Curtis. ••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••• Du'An Lightfoot on Social Media: Twitter: https://twitter.com/labeveryday LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/duanlightfoot/ Medium: https://medium.com/@labeveryday/ DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. This helps support the channel and allows us to continue to make videos like this. Thank you for the support! #LabEveryday #AWS #PrincipalSolutionsArchitect