I was having a conversation with a friend a couple of weeks ago. We noted nervously that now that we had committed to becoming AWS Solutions Architects, the rah-rah of people urging us to join the tech sector had dissolved into a deep foreboding silence. Help with projects is being stitched together through Stack Overflow and Server Fault message boards and advice from generous, anonymous Reddit gurus. We’re forging ahead together relying on each other through what feels like a sandstorm — a veritable case of the blind leading the blind.

We need an oasis. A place for learning amid the daily onslaught.

It is well publicized that tech industry is experiencing a talent crunch. This is evidenced in part by oft-quoted statistics: By the year 2020, you may have heard, there will be nearly 1 million jobs that will go unfilled due to a lack of computer science graduates. Encouragingly, our industry has taken on its workforce challenge with gusto and has attempted to solve it by providing nontraditional paths into the sector.

READ FULL ARTICLE HERE