I was an AWS Community Builder in ML from 2021 to 2024. AWS did not extend the relationship because, according to AWS, the book “Hands-On AI Trading with Python, QuantConnect and AWS,” which I co-wrote as the lead author, does not help other AWS Builders. No matter how ridiculous the statement is, some other participants have been extended by submitting GenAI-generated unreadable articles published on websites nobody ever reads.
This short blog post explains why you should never be interested in the AWS Community Builders (CB) program.
Reason #1 – AWS CB program constitutes employment
The AWS CB program is a global AWS influencer program that operates in all countries. Its nature is obfuscated and is presented as a volunteering program to avoid immigration and employment law consequences.
Still, the program’s features constitute an employment relationship between its participants and AWS. The relationship is essentially an exchange of producing content about AWS for an annual salary of 500 USD AWS Credits (the credits do provide value and are a cash equivalent) plus performance bonuses in AWS Credits and gifts for following program managers’ instructions on what posts to write, where to publish them, and how frequently. If you do not publish, you will not get renewed.
Surprisingly enough, there is, by design, no written contract between AWS and AWS CB members to hide the nature of the program. One cannot even open an AWS account without agreeing to a written agreement.
The program’s employment nature presents unique challenges to anybody working in any country on an employment visa where additional employment is subject to prior governmental approval. If you are an AWS CB member and work on an employment visa, you may be subject to your visa being terminated and you being deported.
Reason #2 – Poor Value of the AWS CB program
The AWS CB program has two key objectives:
Produce as much content about AWS technologies as possible.
Create as much emotional attachment to AWS technologies as possible so that you prefer AWS rather than MS Azure or GCP.
While the program may have some limited value to people without AWS Certification (I have earned twelve of them), the more proficient you are, the less value it provides – one can earn more than 500 USD per month as a professional blog post writer.
In addition, the educational value of the other AWS CB members’ output and presentations is usually at a beginner’s level, while their sentimental value is at a maximum. I have never seen Slack messages with so many emoticons as in AWS CB Slack.
The AWS program offers very few opportunities managed by capricious managers, and in my view, it’s not worth your time.
Reason #3 – AWS CB program is for followers, not leaders
While AWS was ahead of other cloud providers a decade ago, cloud technology is largely a commodity nowadays.
Critical judgment and the ability to master new skills rapidly are essential skills when hiring a person. The criteria for determining the optimal platform for their use case are cost-effectiveness, reliability, clarity of vision, and security. AWS no longer meets all the requirements.
I have not seen an AWS CB blog post that critically judged AWS technologies. Instead, most posts blindly parrot AWS marketing lines without concern for cost-effectiveness or actual need. Some posts even encourage using AWS technologies ineffectively and then introduce some FinOps methodologies to magically reduce some of the resulting excessive costs. Those costs would have never occurred if the AWS architecture had been designed well.
Reason #4 – AWS CB program is a career blocker
Being associated with AWS in an influencer’s position blocks your career as you are more likely to be biased towards using AWS technologies than more optimal ones.
Summary
Careerwise, one should focus on building an extensive portfolio of original projects rather than being associated with one technology vendor.
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