| I saw the writing on the wall a decade ago and moved into cloud consulting. I’m 50 now. In 2016, I was a senior engineer on two projects—one involving hiring contractors and another leading a legacy transformation with a small team. I preferred the latter. Next, I joined a startup, gained hands-on AWS experience, led AWS initiatives across teams, and focused on POCs/MVPs, actively avoiding team lead roles. Then, I landed at AWS Professional Services as a mid-level consultant, leading smaller projects or workstreams in larger ones. After leaving, I had a choice: a strategy role overseeing acquisitions or a staff software architect position at a consulting firm. I chose the latter. Now, I either work with customers to define requirements and project plans (acting as a solution architect) or lead multiple workstreams, coordinating architects, sales, customers, and project management. |