Highly depends many consulting shops have to have requisite amount of AWS certified professionals to maintain the partnership status with AWS. They highly value people who have appropriate AWS certs.
Yeah, but then you'd have to work in consulting. ;)
A related idea is to just take the 400 bucks and spend it on AWS playing around. Spin up a few Kubernetes clusters, try out their various database offerings, maybe see if you can run a load-test and get your play system to auto-scale.
That would also require keeping a sharp eye on the billing side to make sure the total cost doesn't go over $400... but, hey, that's part of the learning, too!
Solutions Architect Associate is the way to go - definitely the broadest coverage and most approachable. Won't get you a job by itself but I would find it a bit odd if I was hiring someone who works with AWS already and doesn't have this.
I was an AWS employee for 5 years, launched a new AWS service, and don’t have that. I guess my dreams are crushed without the Solutions Architect Associate credentials, lol.
I was an AWS employee too and found that people building services basically lived in a completely different world, hardly ever actuallyusing AWS - so I'm not surprised.
A related idea is to just take the 400 bucks and spend it on AWS playing around. Spin up a few Kubernetes clusters, try out their various database offerings, maybe see if you can run a load-test and get your play system to auto-scale.
That would also require keeping a sharp eye on the billing side to make sure the total cost doesn't go over $400... but, hey, that's part of the learning, too!