The certification journey: How AWS credentials launched a woman's cloud career

Viktoria joined a women in cloud initiative and developed training activities to help other women gain expertise in the could computing. She spoke at conferences, mentored students, and worked to do her part to shift the gender imbalance she saw across the tech industry. She also took on side projects and participated in hackathons to gain hands-on experience, motivated by her determination to break into a cloud career.

“When you’re trying to break into the industry, certifications give you that credibility and show you have a solid technical understanding,” she said. “It shows an employer that you can pass this very tough certification, and I think it helps mitigate some of the self-doubt some women might have while trying to break into tech. But employers will also ask about your experience implementing projects, so you also need to build hands-on experience.”

While nine months pregnant with her third child, AWS recruiters reached out to her about open roles and she ended up interviewing for a Solutions Architect position. She decided not to disclose her pregnancy to her recruiter to prevent any unconscious biases, and her interview ended up taking place a couple of days after her daughter was born.

A few weeks later, after she accepted the job offer, Viktoria decided to share her story on LinkedIn to support other women balancing career and family. Her post went viral, resonating with thousands of working moms.

“I could have called and asked to reschedule my interview, or said it’s not the right time for me and passed the opportunity. But instead, I took it on as a challenge,” she said. “When I shared my story, it really resonated with a lot of women who had gone through similar experiences.”

Moved by her story, her new AWS colleagues reached out and extended warm welcomes and support. She found an inclusive work culture for mothers at AWS, and immediately felt like she had made the right career decision. She received an overwhelming response from her social media network, too, with many professionals reaching out for guidance on work-life balance as a new mother.

The attention motivated her to become an advocate for people pursuing tech careers. She started sharing resources for learning and professional development on her social media pages and became an ambassador and mentor of the AWS’s Cloud Up for Her, a community-based program for technical skills development. At the time, CloudUp for Her had a relatively small reach, which Viktoria said has now grown into a community with more than 100,000 women.

Her contributions in creating and sharing educational resources earned her recognition as a Top Voice on LinkedIn. When she joined AWS in 2020, she had approximately 1,000 followers on the platform. Now, she shares insights and expertise with over 500,000 professionals across her social media channels.

“Now I see all of these women achieving certifications and how it’s changing their careers, ”Viktoria said, “and it’s really rewarding.”