Links
Introduction
You made it to the end! ...assuming you came here from my previous posts. If not - Hello, and welcome!
Before we get started, I'm going to take a little bit of time to speak about why we're here - whether you came from my previous posts or not, you probably didn't click on this by mistake and have some idea what it's about so I'll keep it brief.
The Cloud Resume Challenge is a skills challenge adapted from an A Cloud Guru challenge, where the goal is as follows: Pick one of the big three cloud providers, host a static website consisting of your resume, create a database and an API, use some JavaScript to update a visitor counter on your website (using the API to interact with the database), and then automate it all to the best of your ability using source control, Infrastructure-as-Code (IaC), and CI/CD.
In my previous posts, I chronicled my journey through the challenge (which actually was quite challenging, more than I expected it would be) and wound up here - the last step - writing a blog post about my experience.
Why did you take on the challenge?
Personal and professional development. Mostly professional, I suppose. It also lined up nicely with completing CS50x, and I'm submitting this as my final project.
How did you complete the challenge?
That's way too much to put here - screenshots or code blocks would swallow the rest of the post. Instead, I'll refer you to the three posts I linked at the beginning. This feels appropriate here, though:
What was the hardest part?
Officially? The hardest part was the Python API and getting my JavaScript to interact with it in a meaningful way. I had little Python experience coming into this - just what I've learned from throwing together some rudimentary Discord bots and what I learned in CS50x (which was much more applicable here, but still nowhere near this level).
Unofficially? Because I restricted myself to using Terraform instead of ARM for IaC, and I chose to do the whole environment that way, and I didn't know Terraform at all going in.. that was the hardest part. It was also the most rewarding when I got it working.
Which part did you enjoy the most?
All of it. Learning new things, especially related to one of my interests (and my career, so maybe I can take this to propel myself into a higher role) is one of my favorite things to do. I'm no stranger to trying to learn something, getting frustrated, banging my head against the desk or the wall, then sleeping on it or walking away for a bit before returning - Soulsborne games are also my favorite video games, so maybe I'm just a little bit of a masochist at heart. I always prevail when I set my mind to something, though, and this was no different.
What are your biggest takeaways?
That I had no idea what I was doing 😅
Seriously, though - I have huge respect for people that do this on the daily. Competency comes with time and practice, and I had neither going into this. Now, I still wouldn't consider myself competent, but I know considerably more than I did going in - that's a win in my book.