A lot of the value comes from getting opportunities through the AWS Partner Network (APN, https://aws.amazon.com/partners/). To advance through the partner level hoops as a company, you need more and more 1099 or W2 employees who have AWS certifications. Therefore, if you get some certifications, you'll be a lot more attractive as a candidate to companies (mainly tech consultancies) that leverage APN to get business.

I hear that the basic ones are very easy, but the professional ones have a bit of heft to them. From a business standpoint, there's no reason for these to be too hard on developers--AWS is trying to push its agenda and needs workers ready with shovels to do so. The benefit could be to identify the most eager partners who can pass a basic competency check to reduce implementation risk, and of course, the training can tour you through the gamut of AWS offerings.

I just got my AWS CSA Professional certificate a couple weeks ago. It was definitely an intense experience and the 3 hour test was a fun challenge but through the process of studying I was able to pick up quite a few lessons that I applied to my SaaS deployment. It also gave me a good excuse to go in depth on a bunch of AWS features that I don't use day to day in my AWS deployment such as Direct Connect and Storage Gateway.

It's a signal. One of, hopefully, many. Personally, and I speak as someone who interviews many people each year, I tend to care more about projects you developed than your certifications. That said, it all adds up. So I'm not saying don't obtain such certifications. I'm saying, obtain demonstratable experience (e.g., through projects in your spare time) and don't count on certifications alone. The key should be gaining experience and adding several positive signals to your resume. For example, an active github account, open source contributions, cutting edge languages or technologies mentioned on the resume, interesting projects, a blog on the subject of programming, and yes AWS certifications, are all good signals.

Wow, Thanks. That is the direction I have been going too. My present focus is on a couple of projects which will be eventually spun off as subscription based software services.

I am doing it with a genuine interest to earn money, and also act as a validation/proof of skills.

I am working on the projects alone, so all the more worthwhile.

I definitely don't mean to put you on the spot but have you seen much applicants over 30, or 40 year mark?

These days, I tend to interview candidates for two type of positions:

- interns/early career developers;

- data scientists.

Due to the junior nature of the developer positions, we rarely see anyone apply who is not fresh out of college or still enrolled.

For the data scientist positions, however, the average applicant is older and I have both interviewed and hired people in their 30s and 40s.

I believe that ageism is one of the most prominent "isms" in tech, so I try to do my part to prevent its continuation.

I work at a SaaS company in the energy industry, 4 of our engineers including myself (3 electrical, 1 chemical) have gone though the certification for solutions architect associate. We did this as we all transitioned to working on our SaaS product from our previous engineering disciplines. It's fairly useful but served more to verify that our web infrastructure is correctly implemented rather than teaching us new paradigms. I think you'll probably come close to certification level through usage of the docs and implementing real-world solutions - as we have. I think the professional level courses will probably be more challenging and useful.

Also worth mentioning that these courses tend to propose AWS products as solutions to common problems in infrastructure design, keeping a critical eye for these problems allows you to learn what's actually happening and why you "need" to use the correct AWS product. If you do this you won't feel as locked in to AWS as a provider and will be able to transition to GCE or similar if needed.

I'm a college dropout with only a few years experience, and I'm looking for opportunities to learn - this looks pretty valuable, as well as nice resume material. Do y'all agree?

It's hard to say. If you want a full time employee position, I don't think they're particularly useful. If you're looking to get into consulting or similar, suddenly they look a little more appealing. At the end of the day, nothing beats experience - though you probably get at least some of that through the certification.

A consultation role is definitely more preferable to a full time employment. And the nature of work with an AWS based solution is more inline with consultation based projects. An AWS architect may not be required full-time once the project is running in production.