Please share with us your professional life’s journey and at which point in your career did you aspire to pursue this programme?

I have worked in the satellite communication industry for the past 20 years. I transitioned from satellite operations to project management and pre-sales activities. It was a bittersweet experience, and after facing a few health scares, I realised that it no longer made sense. I had taken short courses to explore different areas in computing, covering network, software, and hardware, among others. However, none of them resonated with me until I was introduced to Cybersecurity. From that point on, I never looked back. After completing my diploma, I sought to expand my knowledge further. Cloud technology was one of my interests, and fortunately, this SCTP in Cloud Infrastructure Engineering offered by PaCE@NTU came at the right time!

How was your learning experience with this programme?

This SCTP was unlike any programme. The support system was superb, and the team established an excellent communication system. We used Slack as a means of communication, and even made phone calls. The programme felt highly personalised, and I wished more programmes were like this. The trainers truly invested effort in walking the journey with us.

Could you share with us some interesting facets of the programme you enrolled?

The hands-on portions of the Cloud Infrastructure Engineering labs curated for us on the AWS Cloud were splendid. These were combined with coaching sessions. The AWS platform provided us with speed and reliability, complemented by well-structured teaching sessions. This was truly amazing, as it greatly aided us in visualising code and understanding infrastructure as code.

What were the challenges you faced when trying to complete this programme?

I struggled to grasp the fundamentals of cloud computing and DevOps. These two subjects are quite intricate. With no prior background in either area, merging Cloud and DevOps posed a significant challenge for me. The allocated lab time seemed insufficient, particularly in my case. I faced difficulties in establishing a connection between the basics of Cloud and DevOps. DevOps heavily involves programming, whereas cloud focuses on infrastructure. In reality, we had to speed up our learning process to understand these two closely interconnected yet distinct domains.

Which aspect of this programme did you like the most?

The support structure and communication were amazing. The trainers tried their best to provide a real-world experience, and the teaching methodology was based on that approach. Recognising that many of us were new to the subject, they further enhanced our learning by offering extensive individual coaching and guidance. This made all the difference.

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