A Starter Kit

A lot of people's new year resolution is to read more. I did it before, didn't work for me. And my reading list became a never-ending list. This year, I change the approach. Find your motivator If you heard of the " mental model " before, you would know that the mental model is how we understand the world. The more knowledge we have, there is a higher chance that we can build them into our mental model and understand this world, and everything around us, even ourselves better. We can use the mental model in many practical ways, such as making a better decision, build a better relationship, get a better score at school. You can also use a mental model to  prepare the AWS certificate exam . To continuously build and adjust our mental model, we need to read a lot.  Knowledge builds up, like compound interest . Warren Buffett and Charlie Munger are both  learning machines . According to Warren, he  spent 80% of his time reading and thinking .   I always optimiz...

This year I have the pleasure of being part of the Summer of Tech hiring process. During the process, I was amazed by the young talents and their proactive attitude to take the challenge to start their career in the tech area.  A lot of people would love to help with the internship program. In this post, I would like to share some learning and insights from my Summer of Tech experience. Hope those insights can help with both the students and the organization staff who's keen to help with the hiring. For Students:  After register in the Summer of Tech, as a student, you can find the process and main events, due date on their official website. As a recruiter, we don't have enough time to answer all the questions. And this year, due to Covid19, we hosted all our events online. I would recommend reading all the instructions from the Summer of Tech website before joining some of these events, so the conversation between students and recruiter can focus on the roles, required skills...

New Zealand moved to COVID-19 Alert Level 3, then Level 4 in 48 hours. After this has been announced yesterday afternoon, hundreds of thousands of New Zealanders are shifting to working, learning and staying connected online. Working from home could be daunting for people who haven't done it before. What you can do to help yourself and your family to cope? Understand what you need  People have different styles and personalities. When your routine changed and have to do your daily tasks in a different environment, you might not aware of your needs straightaway. I don't have a home office, so sharing the living room with my families and try to working there is not ideal. To figure out what I need, I asked myself these questions: Are you introvert or extrovert? How much space do you need? Do you prefer an open space or a small room? Do you have all the devices? Such as network connections, headphone, extra monitor, pen and paper. Do you mind distractions, such as noise...

The hardest part of the study for the AWS certificate is to evaluate if you're ready to take the exam. And here's what I've done so far and all the resources I found useful. The goal is to: Have a deep understanding of AWS and what certification exam includes; Gain hands-on experience in working on AWS; Able to self-assess to decide if you're ready to sit an exam and pass.  This guide is to help you pass the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam.  Understanding the Landscape If you never work with any AWS services or read anything about it, the first thing you want to do is to gain some basic understanding of the landscape, and build the backbone of your mental model.  The certification prep page on the AWS website provides a quick guide to exploring the learning path. You can find the exam guide and sample questions, a 6 hours online course, few whitepapers related to the exam. Let's start with the exam guide.  The exam guide will give you an ove...