Before starting, answer honestly
Hours per week I can study: ____ (8-10 is a workable minimum)
Months I can sustain this: ____
Financial buffer if switching takes longer: ____ months
Do I enjoy troubleshooting and reading documentation?  Y / N
Am I comfortable with a support role as a first step?  Y / N

Turn past work into cloud-relevant stories
Past role: ____ (e.g. retail operations, sales, BPO, accounts)
Times I solved a problem under pressure: ____
Processes I documented or improved: ____
Tools or systems I learned quickly: ____
Use these in your CV summary and interviews.

# A web server is not responding. Check in order:
systemctl status nginx              # is the service running?
sudo journalctl -u nginx --since "10 min ago"   # recent errors
ss -tlnp | grep ':80'               # is anything listening on port 80?
curl -I http://localhost            # does it respond locally?
sudo ufw status                     # is a firewall blocking it?
dig +short example.com              # does DNS point to this server?

# main.tf — a private S3 bucket defined as code
terraform {
  required_providers {
    aws = { source = "hashicorp/aws", version = "~> 5.0" }
  }
}

provider "aws" {
  region = "ap-south-1"
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket" "notes" {
  bucket = "my-career-switch-notes-2026"
}

resource "aws_s3_bucket_public_access_block" "notes" {
  bucket                  = aws_s3_bucket.notes.id
  block_public_acls       = true
  block_public_policy     = true
  ignore_public_acls      = true
  restrict_public_buckets = true
}
# terraform init && terraform plan && terraform apply ... terraform destroy

# Highly available web app on AWS (practice project)
## What it does
Serves a simple web app from two availability zones behind a load balancer.
## Architecture
VPC → 2 public subnets → Application Load Balancer → Auto Scaling group (2 EC2)
## Built with
Terraform, Amazon Linux, Nginx, CloudWatch alarms
## What I learned
- Security groups must allow ALB → instance traffic on port 80
- Health checks failed until Nginx started on boot (fixed with user data)
## Cost control
All resources destroyed after testing; budget alert set.

Career changer moving into cloud engineering after 8 years in operations.
Hands-on with AWS (EC2, S3, VPC, IAM), Linux administration, Terraform and Bash.
AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (credential ID: ____).
Built and documented three AWS projects (GitHub: ____).
Strong in troubleshooting under pressure, documentation and customer communication.

Months 1-2: Linux daily, networking basics, Bash
Month 3:    Python scripting, Git
Months 4-5: AWS core services, budget alerts, first projects
Month 6:    Terraform, CloudWatch, second project
Month 7:    Certification exam
Months 8-9: Third project, CV, applications to bridge and junior roles

Weekdays (1 hr): Mon Linux, Tue networking, Wed cloud lab, Thu scripting, Fri review notes
Saturday (3 hrs): project work
Sunday (2 hrs): practice questions + write-up
Total: ~10 hours/week

Company | Role | Degree required? | Referral? | Applied | Status
______  | ____ | Y / N / Not stated | Y / N | ____ | ____
Prioritise roles where degree is not required or not stated.