Hey everyone! I've been in the DevOps field for nearly five years and am currently deciding between getting the AWS Certified Solutions Architect - Professional certification or leveraging my cybersecurity degree to pursue the AWS Certified Security - Specialty. I'm aiming to boost my salary from $120k to about $160k-$180k, and I'm not looking to take a pay cut. What do you think would be the best path for me?
2 Answers
In my experience, security roles generally offer higher pay, but breaking into that field can be challenging and there are fewer openings. If you're content in your current role and want a mid-term goal, aiming for the AWS Security cert can be beneficial.
I’m pretty happy with my job too, just looking for ways to increase my earnings!
How are your coding skills? Can you handle Terraform, Python, or Golang? Remember, certifications don’t mean much if you can't perform the engineering work. From my perspective, those who can code well tend to have more options. If coding is a weak spot for you, it might be worthwhile to go the security route since many security roles pay well regardless of coding skills.
Python is definitely my weak point right now, but I’m working to improve it.
I have the AWS Security cert along with my Pentest Plus from my degree, and it opened a lot of doors for me!