I am done with Government work…

Well I have finally hit a wall in my life and have done some very deep self-reflection on what it is I truly want out of a career and life.

To give you some background, I work for the gov and have been for about 10 years. I love IT and technology, but the government bureaucracy and lifestyle drains my inner soul. I am a very extrovert person who loves challenges and changing atmospheres. The government is a place where people go to die in my opinion. Not a flesh death, but a death of the soul. There is something terribly wrong about knowing how much you are going to make and when you are going to retire for the rest of your life that just does not sit well with me. So I have to start a change.

After a lot of thought I have decided to align my current goals with where I would like to be in the future. I would like to work on my own terms and I don’t mind having an office; but I want it to be my decision on where and what I work on. I don’t mind putting in 40-60 hours a week on projects, but they have to have meaning to me.

This is where I need your help…

My plan:

I have been a systems admin for the most of my career with roles in security here and there. The gov agency I work for is in the middle of transitioning into AWS architecture so I started to learn the platform. While learning AWS I realized the enormous opportunity for small and medium businesses to utilize the platform and I see an opportunity for me to break out of the government and start my own journey through this endeavor.

I have another friend who decided he has had enough of the government as well and is willing to start a business with me becoming an AWS partner. We have a website and LLC and actually have been providing MSP services to 2 very very small businesses, but we can both see the potential of AWS for these SMB's and want to try and fill that gap with amazon.

My goal is AWS: Associate Architect>AWS: Dev Associate> AWS: Architect Pro> AWS: Dev Ops pro.

At that point I feel that I would be comfortable enough to consult with companies on transition all or portions of their units into AWS. We will also be hitting backups and disaster recovery options for business. I don’t care about money as long as it’s enough for me to pay bills and heave my freedom. I have a military retirement and the 10 years and however more in the federal government as well.

I am looking for advice, opinions and anything that can help me understand or provide any more insight to my plan.

Thanks a ton and sorry for the ramble!

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Comments

DDStime

thomas_ wrote: »

For the certs I would recommend you get a subscription at LinuxAcademy. They have training covering those certs.

As far as your business goes make sure you have the proper business license and you keep on top of all the things that go along with having a business such as filing taxes

Awesome. Thanks. I have been using UDEMY and a business version of AWS.

I used the site you recommended to get the striped parity on an R2 instance to improve IOPS on an ESC2 instance. Great stuff and thanks again!

DDStime

jdancer wrote: »

Good luck on your endeavor. As a previous freelancer, I suggest two things:

- Know how to handle cash flow (payroll, taxes, etc)
- Study managerial accounting (amazing what you learn)

Great advice and thanks.

DDStime

philz1982 wrote: »

If you're going to be doing this on AWS I would go learn about AWS CloudFormation. That way you can build out a few templates and then you can sell them on your website.

That is great advice as I have been looking at some templates for active directory/r2/SharePoint and word press. Pretty impressive stuff, thanks again!

Gess

1 year down, 29 to go for me.

My agency is understaffed in almost every section so I get to do a lot. It's keeping me engaged until I can move back closer to the East Coast like I want.

That said, about 30% of our staff would rather be somewhere else and are not quiet about it.