The Work-From-Home Era Is the Perfect Time to Start Your Cloud-Computing Career Industry coach Broadus Palmer offers his advice on how tech professionals can take advantage of a now-ubiquitous business need.

In this critical time, many companies have been recognizing the benefits of remote work. Consequently, those companies will have to start relying on the cloud to replace most of their physical infrastructure and effect a seamless remote experience from home.

This, in turn, will create a plethora of opportunities for technology professionals to propel themselves into into a new cloud career.

I recently connected with Broadus Palmer, founder and cloud career coach at Level Up With Broadus, and here are the three biggest pieces of advice he offered about embarking on a cloud-computing career.

Learn the Fundamentals

"Grant yourself an opportunity to understand what the cloud is and how it works," he recommends as a first step. "There are plenty of cloud service providers out there, but in the U.S., the big three are Amazon Webservices, Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure."

Palmer duly encourages folks to "check out some of the best cloud training providers, such as Linux Academy and A Cloud Guru. This time should be spent understanding the major core services within a cloud service provider that you choose to learn about. Having this expertise will put you ahead for the next step."

Finding Your Path

As for that next step, Palmer reminds that, "The cloud is a vast industry filled with limitless opportunities in many roles that will need to be filled. After learning how the cloud works, it's important to find a direction to try to focus on. The good news is, if you don't like a certain direction, you can always pivot and move."

Palmer elaborates that, "Some of the hottest careers in cloud now include cloud security engineer, DevOps engineer and cloud architect. These roles have been trending for a long time in this industry within no signs of slowing down. Once you've chosen a path, check out some of the tech companies in your area using Glassdoor or Indeed and figure out what skills they are asking anyone for that role to have. This will give you an idea of which hands-on skills you need to retrieve."

Learn Technical Skills

Finally, Palmer reinforces that, "Now this is the time when you need to have dedication, consistency and commitment. These three things will help you make tremendous progress when it comes to getting the hands-on skills you need. Focus on how you can solve current problems with current trending tools within the industry."

He also urges that it's necessary at this stage to "put your war face on; not only will this get ugly, but you will become frustrated and sometimes feel defeated. That is OK, because every experience is a learning experience. What you can do is reach out to a cloud career coach who has been through the mud and understands what you need to do to transition. Projects and labs will also help you understand exactly what you are capable of in a test-production scenario. By always challenging yourself like this, you will be ready to steer the ship when the captain calls on you."

Palmer is sympathetic to the fact that, as he puts it, "Transitioning into this industry can feel overwhelming." Nevertheless, he maintains, "If you have the passion, hunger and patience along with the direction of a coach, you will do fine."

Above all, he enthuses, "Use this opportunity to propel yourself forward and reach those blessings that lie right around the corner for you."