I finished the 12-hour full stack React course with Appwrite created by @HiteshChoudharydotcom last night.
I figured out how to get the final app running and it almost works completely. I am having an issue with the signup flow.
When a new user signs up, it creates the user and logs them in but it errors. The error is, “getCurrentUser is not defined.” It’s supposed to create the user, log them in, and navigate to the home page. The error happens before it redirects to the home page and the page is stuck on /signup.
I took the exam and I passed. I fell behind on blog updates starting about a month ago but I studied up until the day before the test. I was somewhat disappointed in myself for not keeping my schedule but in the end, I passed and that was the main objective.
Persisting Through Difficulty
First, I want to remind myself and everyone that we are still living through a pandemic. Being a year into it, the abnormality of pandemic life is becoming the new normal. The new normal is still a collective state of crisis, widespread trauma, and loss. Many of us have been not okay for at least the past 12 months.
It’s okay to acknowledge that we aren’t okay. Out of necessity, I’ve developed the ability to be productive at times when I’m in need of rest and care. As I move into a new season of my life, I’m intentional about being kinder to myself. I’m learning to let “good enough” be good enough. I’m learning that I am responsible for asking for the help I need and taking breaks as necessary.
I believe that I hit the “pandemic wall” between my last blog post and this one. I hit the wall, took a moment to recover from the shock, and then went to work on scaling it. To scale the wall means to keep going even if it’s at a slower pace, setting reasonable expectations, focusing on what’s most important, and rationing the energy that is available to me.
All of this is to say, please give grace to yourself and others right now. There’s pressure, even if it’s coming from yourself, to act and perform as if things are normal. Persist, but don’t forget to rest. Don’t be hard on yourself for the times when you are not operating at full capacity.
What I Would Have Done Differently
Near the end of my study period, I started to have doubts that I was ready for the exam. I didn’t take the course that AWS provides until about a month before the exam and by my test date, I hadn’t even finished half of it.
If I had known what I know now when I started studying, I would have started with that course. It makes sense that AWS itself would have the most up-to-date curriculum for its certifications. The videos are well-produced (with transcripts available) and they also present content in text and illustrations. At the end of each lesson, there are links to documentation so you can go deeper on the topic if you choose to.
What’s Next?
I’ve secured the certification so what’s next for #NikemaLearns? I have a web project to wrap up with a Hugo site, so I’m sure I’ll be learning and re-learning some things for that. For my next blog series, it’s looking like I’ll be learning and playing with Spinnaker and Armory Enterprise. My AWS CLI is installed and my own namespace is ready to go. Should be fun.
I passed my practice exams thrice in a row so I felt ready to register for the real thing. I booked my test yesterday (February 26, 2021) and my exam date is April 9th.
I’ve had a busy and tiring week. It’s important to me that I keep my word, so my Friday post was in the form of this short live stream.
So far, I’ve written about how I’m studying for this exam, but I haven’t shared much about what I’ve learned. I thought it would be fun to make bite-sized presentations covering key topics. I know teaching and sharing learnings are ways to reinforce and solidify new concepts.
I abandoned the idea to review the video course that I completed; that would have been boring. I did start working with the e-book I mentioned last time and I added this video course provided by AWS. I like both resources for different reasons. The AWS course from Amazon does a great job of simplifying terms and making the concepts relatable. The cert guide (e-book) makes it easy to check your understanding and goes into more detail with technical terms.
I planned to add a voice-over to the video below and that will still happen, but not today. I’ll probably re-upload the video to the same URL once I record the voice-over.
Like I said in the video, I’m going to keep this short and take it easy. Next time I should have the “Value Proposition of Cloud” video completed plus a new video on a different topic.
I really wanted to finish my video course before writing this blog post, and *spoiler alert* I did it!
I finished the course and took my second practice exam today. I didn’t get a passing score (69.23%, so close), but I did improve since the first attempt.
This will be a short blog post. The work I’ve done in the last two weeks isn’t the kind of work that I have much to say about. In preparation for today’s blog, I made sure to finish the course, set up the repo for notes, and I randomly had the idea to recap the lessons from the course using video (transcript here).
At least now the stage is set. I expect that my next post will be more interesting.
The last thing I want to say is video is hard, but that’s okay. We can do hard things! I’m looking forward to feeling more confident on video and more secure in my knowledge of cloud fundamentals. I’ll get there, it’s just a matter of investing the time and effort to do so.
Next Steps
Continue to work on converting handwritten notes to typed notes at https://aws.nikema.dev
Getting started can be difficult. The state between the initial excitement of learning something new and when things start to click into place can be hard to move through. I’m proud to say that I’ve started and I’m moving forward in my study practice.
I’m still wobbly and uncomfortable but I know that’s part of the process. I trust that learning is still happening here 😀.
As a reminder, I am working towards building proficiency in cloud computing fundamentals and AWS services so that I can confidently attempt the AWS Cloud Practitioner Certification Exam.
Why am I doing this? Because having a high-level understanding of the cloud will help me to be more effective in my role at Armory. I am also intentionally learning in public to show that there is a doable path from beginner to certified.
My Process
Organizing my study practice and thinking through how I’ll document it turned out to be time-consuming and challenging tasks. I’ve figured out enough to get started and know what I’ll do next but I am allowing myself the flexibility to change plans as needed.
I’m glad that I took the advice to go with a structured and well-defined learning objective. It’s easy for me to get into the weeds “getting ready” to work. I think having a path laid out for me cut down on some of the time it takes for me to start.
Here’s the study plan as it stands today:
Before anything else, take a practice test to see where I’m starting from (done ✅).
Test and retest until I can reliably score 75% or above.
Schedule the real certification exam.
My Progress
I started and that’s a win that I have to acknowledge. I planned to take the practice test first and that’s what I did. I scored 50.77%; 70% is the minimum passing score.
Taking the test was helpful because it made it clear that I would have to cover many of the core services for the first time. It was also validating because I’ve been slowly introducing myself to DevOps and cloud concepts and some things are starting to stick.
For example, I’m starting to feel like I know parts of the value proposition of cloud computing. I’ve had repeated exposure to the concepts of immutable infrastructure and the benefits of automation and scalability. I’m understanding more of the “what”s and “why”s of DevOps.
After I took the practice exam, I started the video course. I’m currently on lesson five out of nine total lessons. I watch the videos and take notes as I go with my Remarkable2 tablet.
So far these are the lessons and modules I’ve completed and the one in progress:
Module 1: Cloud Concepts
Lesson 1: Cloud Practitioner Certification
Lesson 2: Fundamental Concepts
Module 2: Technology
Lesson 3: Fundamentals
Lesson 4: Basic Core Services
Lesson 5: Advanced Core Services (In progress: up to 5.7/5.11)
This is what a page of my notes looks like (gist version of the text). I take notes by writing and drawing what I see onscreen.
What’s Next
I plan to be finished with my first run of the video course before the next blog post is due. According to the plan, the next steps will be to retake the practice test and start entering my typed notes on GitHub.
I’m happy with my progress and I am having more of those moments when things start to click. As a person who enjoys learning, I live for the “clicks.” Now that my note-taking process is planned out, I think putting it all together will start to be fun and gratifying.
I am geeked out about learning! I get enjoyment out of adding to my knowledge and pushing at the edges of my comfort zone. While continuous learning is important to me, It’s easy to fall out of practice when work and family time demand a lot of my attention.
Part of what excited me about joining the Armory crew was the culture that promotes a growth mindset, experimentation, and psychological safety. One of our employee perks is an educational budget that we can use for professional development.
Since Armory is offering to invest in my education, I’m going to take advantage of this opportunity to level up my skills and learn on the job. I see value in documenting my learning in public, and that’s what I’m announcing today.
My hope is that my fellow technologists (especially developers) who are new to DevOps will see me wobbling about on my training wheels and feel encouraged to learn more about this field for themselves.
GIF alt text: Person swaying with books stacked on their head. Pencils and writing utensils in the background. Text: Always Be Learning
My Starting Point
I started out making webpages on our family computer as a kid and tech has been part of my life ever since. What I love about our industry is that there’s always more to learn, there’s always the next level.
As I discover more about myself and my aptitude, it has been a fun challenge to see which areas of tech align the most with my natural abilities and interests. I have the most exposure to programming (in a variety of languages) and front-end development (HTML, CSS, JavaScript). I’ve dipped my toe in lots of things; I’m not an expert in any of them. I consider myself a language-agnostic generalist.
My relative inexperience with cloud computing and DevOps triggered my insecurities in my early days at Armory. I accept that It’s normal and natural to be wobbly when taking on something new. Starting in a new role and feeling like everything is new is nerve-wracking. It took me a minute, but I’ve started to settle in to remember who I am.
GIF alt text: Cartoony, anthropomorphized, cloud literally making it rain dollar bills. Nikema’s sidenote: There’s a lot of money to be made in this industry and you don’t necessarily need to be a programmer 👀. Don’t forget the wide variety of tech roles available for you to pursue.
I trust myself enough to know that I can learn new things and I can do hard things. After investing a few hours into getting up to speed in this new domain, I realize that I’m coming in with more than a blank slate. I have peripheral knowledge and experience.
My pre-training self-assessment is that I’m an advanced-beginner. I’m solidly in noob territory but I know a couple of things.
My Objective
My first milestone objective is to earn the AWS Cloud Practitioner certification. I chose this certification for several reasons:
I had a false start to this learning in public blog series because without enough structure, I struggle to stay on task. With a popular certification, I can easily find structured study plans off the shelf.
I needed a confidence boost. Learning something new and having the receipts of my progress (the blog series and the certificate in this case) is my approach to combatting impostor syndrome. Also Cloud Practitioner is the foundational certification, it feels well within reach of my starting point.
The more familiar I get with cloud infrastructure and DevOps the more comfortable I’ll be in my role at Armory. I’m looking forward to having a deeper understanding about what we do and how my work serves our vision to “unlock innovation through software.”
I have access to O’Reilly study materials and the online learning platform provided by AWS. My first step will be to take the practice exams. In my next post, I’ll have a more defined study plan and a projected testing date.
The Format
Every other Friday I’ll publish a blog reflecting on what I learned and what I did in the preceding weeks. I haven’t decided on the exact format for these posts yet, but I’m aiming for the standard of “really good notes” as defined by Joel Hooks.
Let’s Go!
I’m excited to get back into focused and structured learning. Not only will I learn the foundations of the AWS cloud, but I’ll also get to practice what mentor-in-my-head Angie Jones calls “working out loud.”
Hmm, I more look at what I do as “working out loud” vs marketing.
It’s life changing. Opportunities flood in daily – for jobs, talks, writing, etc. Even from the top of the top companies. To even be on their radar is wild to me. #DevDiscusshttps://t.co/oKaGwXm7p7
