So I Joined a Cohort Program

Look, I never thought I'd be the type to blog about "my journey" into anything. But here we are.

A few weeks ago I got an email confirming my spot in the 14th batch of AWS re/Start. Starts March 1st, 2026. That's about a month away as I'm writing this.

How I Ended Up Here

I got into AWS re/Start through Orbit Future Academy. They partner with AWS to run the program—found them while doom-scrolling through career options and figured "why not." Didn't expect to actually get in.

What Even Is AWS?

AWS stands for Amazon Web Services. It's cloud computing—renting servers, storage, and services from Amazon instead of buying and maintaining your own hardware.

Companies use it to host websites, run applications, and store data. Tokopedia, Traveloka, and a lot of other major services run on AWS.

Market share: AWS has about 30% of the total cloud market. Microsoft Azure is around 20%, Google Cloud is 13%. So AWS is the biggest player.

A huge part of the internet runs on AWS infrastructure.

My Background

I have a Bachelor's in Computer Systems and Networking. Yes, the thing with hardware routers and switches and subnet masks configuration. And yes, I technically know how that stuff works.

Configuring actual network equipment is a soul-crushing experience. You spend 45 minutes setting up a VLAN, triple-checking every command, hit enter, and... nothing. Doesn't work. You debug for two hours only to find out the firmware has a known bug that requires a specific patch only available if you sacrifice a goat on a Tuesday. I hated every second of it. The slowness, the obscure failure modes, the realization that a single typo in a 200-line config means starting over.

Never got a chance to prove what I had studied, so I pivoted, and for the past three years I've been doing freelance web development, created a bunch of failed projects using React, Node.js, the usual suspects. And at first? Loved it. You write code, refresh the browser (don't even need to if you use HMR), and bam—instant feedback. No waiting for switches to reboot. No checking if the cables work properly. Just you and your web browser.

But Web Development Feels Different Now

Lately? in the mix of love and hate.

Not because of the tech. The tech is fine. It's because of what AI has done to the whole experience. I remember when you'd Google an error, read three Stack Overflow threads, try a solution, break something else, learn why it broke, and actually understand the problem.

Now? You paste an error into Claude or ChatGPT, it spits out the fix, you copy-paste it, and it works. End of story. You got the result but none of the struggle that makes it stick. It's like ordering a puzzle that's already assembled. Sure, it looks nice, but you didn't actually do anything.

But here's the worse part: it feels like a race now. Everyone's using AI. If you don't, you're left behind. The work AI produces now isn't just "junior level" anymore—it's straight-up senior-grade output. Creative agency-level stuff. Entire landing pages, complex components, architecture decisions, all generated in seconds. The barrier to creating "impressive" work has evaporated.

This makes me feel stagnant. Like I'm just connecting pipes other people built, hoping I don't leak somewhere—while watching AI connect those same pipes faster than I can type.

So Why Cloud?

Honestly if AI is going to eat the world, might as well help build the infrastructure it runs on.

Think about it: every AI company, every LLM, every "we put AI in your toothbrush" startup—they all need compute. They all need storage, networking, scaling, all that backend infrastructure. And where does that live? The cloud. If demand for AI keeps climbing (and it will), cloud demand climbs with it.

It's a tool mindset. AI is a tool. Cloud is a tool. I just want to be the person who knows how to wield them instead of getting replaced by them.

(That said, if companies start replacing juniors with AI before we even get a foot in the door, I'm going to be pissed.)

What I'm Doing Until The Program Start

I've been poking around AWS Skill Builder because apparently that's what you're supposed to do. My approach so far:

• Cloud Practitioner stuff – Plenty of free digital course, enough to keep me busy.
• Linux and Python – After getting through the Cloud Practitioner, I'm planning to brush up on these. Hopefully when classes actually start, I won't be as blur as I was back in Uni.
• Re-learning how to take notes – I've been getting into Obsidian again. Raw notes being refined into permanent atomic notes, and making sure everything links together somehow. Turns out dumping everything into a single note isn't actually "knowledge management."
• Touching grass occasionally – Gotta try to balance the screen time or my eyes would suffer.

The Bigger Picture

Despite all of the complaining above, I'm actually looking forward to this program. There's something exciting about stepping into a new domain, even if it looks intimidating. Every lesson learned, every lab completed, every concept that finally clicks—it's all moving me one step closer to something I've been thinking about for a while.

I'm not going to share what that end goal is just yet. This cloud journey is definitely a piece of a larger puzzle, and I'm curious to see how it fits.

• Current status: Pivoting from web dev to cloud
• Confidence level: 60% and increasing (somehow)
• AWS bill: On the free-tier (they will charge you even if you owe them $0.01)

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This article is a living document. I'll update it as the program progresses—assuming I survive the first week. Part 2 coming after I'm knee-deep in the program...