Education · 1 of 4
The path
No licence and no single school route. Employers want a base in IT plus proof, through certifications and projects, that you can build on a cloud platform.
- 1
High school
Grades 11 and 12
Computer science, math and English. Make a free cloud account and host a small website on it.
- 2
Diploma or degree
2 to 4 years
A 2 to 3 year computer systems diploma or a 4-year computer science degree. Co-op terms matter a lot in this field.
- 3
First IT or developer job
1 to 2 years
Systems administrator, network technician or junior developer. Learn how real companies run things, then start moving those things to the cloud.
- 4
Certify and specialize
6 to 12 months
One associate-level certification from AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud. An 8-month graduate certificate such as Seneca's Cloud Architecture and Administration is another way in.
- 5
Cloud engineer
Year 3 to 6 onward
Building and running cloud systems full time. Next steps are senior engineer, cloud architect, or DevOps (development plus operations) and site reliability roles.