DEV Community: Aleksandar Yosifov

Tips for better AWS re:Invent experience

Aleksandar Yosifov — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 14:29:46 +0000

Hello Everyone!

This blog post is based on my experience at last year's AWS re:Invent. A few tips to make your experience better.

Try to book your sessions as soon as the session registration opens. I did this ~2 hours later and there were no available seats for a few interesting sessions. However there could some available seats (I think that there are some reserved and there may be someone who has booked a seat but didn't show) , so if you go earlier in front of the session room you can manage to get a seat.
Book the hotel in which you have the majority of the sessions.
Arrive a few days earlier. The event started on Monday but I arrived in Vegas on Friday. This helped me to adjust to the time zone difference which was 10 hours. I also went to the Grand Canyon and booked 1 day trip to Los Angeles.
Get the AWS Events app on your phone. Useful to track and manage your sessions and there is also a map.
Use the organised by AWS shuttle bus to travel between the hotels. If you decide to walk you will lose valuable time and get tired.
Do not underestimate the distance between the hotels.
You should have at least 30 minutes between the sessions if there are in different hotels. After a session you need to have the time to go to the bus, a few minutes to get to the other hotel and then walk to your session.
Meet new people and talk to them. Talk with the other attendees, presenters after the sessions and company representatives in the Expo.
Go to at least 1 keynote and be there early. It was very nice seeing Adam Selipsky speaking.
There are some free events with food and drinks organised by the companies attending the conference. You can check them and reserve a spot here. Make sure that you do this earlier.
Go to the Expo and get some swag for your colleagues and friends. T-shirts, stickers and many more.
Go to the AWS party on the last day of the conference. You don't want to miss it.
And the most important is to have fun! :)

Prepare for AWS Advanced Networking Specialty Exam

Aleksandar Yosifov — Fri, 22 Dec 2023 13:28:42 +0000

My first blog post here :)

In this short post I will advise you how to prepare for the AWS Advanced Networking Specialty exam.

This is not the first time taking the exam. My previous one expired in October and I didn't plan to recertify. However I thought about it and decided to go for it.

Passed a few days ago with 904 points.

In order to prepare I suggest you to go through the following:

Take Adrian Cantrill's course. His courses are the best. Why? A lot of useful information on top of what you need for the exam, real life examples, great labs and diagrams.

Go through the AWS whitepapers for Networking and Content Delivery.

AWS blog posts.

Watch the latest re:Invent videos in the Networking and Content Delivery category. I am watching only the 300 and 400 level sessions as they are more technical.

I also recommend you to watch those from the previous years.

Practice tests from Stephane Maarek and John Bonso.

Check the official exam guide.

Having real work practice is also VERY important.

Some useful videos, whitepapers, blog posts:

Have fun! :)