I never really expected to write a blog post about my journey, but here it is. I started tracking this back in February when I first joined the 14th batch of AWS re/Start, and now that the program has officially wrapped up, it is the perfect time to look back at how the experience actually went.
How I Ended Up Here
I found out about this program through Orbit Future Academy, who partners with AWS to run the cohort in Indonesia. I was just looking through career choices online, saw the application, and decided to apply. I didn't think I'd actually get selected, but I got in.
What Is AWS?
AWS stands for Amazon Web Services.
I like to think of cloud computing like renting a commercial kitchen. Instead of spending a lot of money upfront to buy expensive stoves, refrigerators, and physical space, you just rent a fully equipped kitchen from Amazon. You only pay for the exact hours you use it.
Most of the modern internet runs this way. When you use apps like Tokopedia or Traveloka, you are interacting with their cloud setup. In 2025, AWS owns about 30% of the entire cloud market share, while Microsoft Azure sits around 20% and Google Cloud is at 13%. Learning AWS means learning the biggest system out there.
My Actual Background
My formal background is a BTech in Computer Systems and Networking. That means I spent a lot of time in labs dealing with physical infrastructure—routers, switches, cables, and subnet masks.
While it’s good to know how data packets move physically, managing physical network equipment felt pretty slow. Hunting for a single typo in a massive configuration text file on a physical rack just wasn't my style. It felt a bit like carving marble—if you make a mistake, fixing it takes forever.
Because I wanted a quicker workflow, I switched to freelance web development for the last three years, building things with React and Node.js. Web dev felt more like sketching on a digital tablet. You write code, the browser refreshes instantly via HMR, and you see your results right away. I really liked that quick feedback loop.
Why I Am Learning Cloud Now
Lately, web development has started to change a lot because of AI tools.
With modern models, you can generate components, database schemas, and backend routes in seconds. These tools save a lot of time, but they also remove the actual troubleshooting process.
Using AI all the time is like driving a car using only a GPS. If the system goes offline or gives you a weird route, you get stuck because you never actually learned the map of the city.
I don't want to just be someone who pieces together AI-generated code. I want to understand the actual infrastructure underneath. As AI grows, the demand for the cloud infrastructure behind it scales up too.
If tech is going through a modern gold rush, cloud computing is the company selling the shovels. I want to understand these systems so I can manage the environments where applications live.
Preparing for the Program
Before the official classes started, I wanted to get a head start using AWS Skill Builder. I focused on three simple goals:
- Cloud Practitioner Basics: Learning the basic AWS terms and services.
- Linux and Python: Getting comfortable with terminal commands and simple scripting.
- Better Notes: I moved my system over to Obsidian to organize my notes as simple, connected markdown files instead of one giant document.
The Mid-Journey Experience
The entire cohort is fully remote. We have 3-hour daily video sessions, which is nice because you don't have the social exhaustion of a physical classroom. However, it takes a lot of self-discipline to stay focused when learning from home, especially with around 600 students in this batch.
The material is huge, and 3 hours a day isn't enough to cover everything deeply. Most of the real learning happens during self-study blocks before and after class.
The technical labs are very guided. I managed to finish all 160 assignments quickly, but the sandbox environment allows unlimited retries. It feels like a video game with infinite respawns—you can pass just by trial and error without truly understanding the concept. I wish the checks were a bit stricter.
Then there is the job readiness and soft skills track. To be clear, this isn't officially from AWS re/Start, but a separate platform provided by Orbit Future Academy, our cohort provider. The platform itself feels pretty unpolished. Funny enough, I feel like almost everything on it is AI-generated—the platform design, the videos, and of course, the quizzes. The videos are unskippable and you can't fast-forward, so getting through the backlog takes a lot of patience. Nevertheless, the content is actually valuable; it's just incredibly exhaustive to get through.
The best part of the program so far was a sharing session with alumni. Seeing real graduates who successfully transitioned into cloud jobs was a great motivator for me.
Graduation and Beyond
To graduate, we need to maintain an 80% attendance rate and finish a long list of assignments through the Canvas learning platform: 96 quizzes and 69 labs.
Finishing this gives us the AWS re/Start Graduate badge. This isn't an exam certification, but graduating this program gives you a free voucher for the official AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CCP) exam, which gives you the actual international industry certification.
While the badges are nice milestones, they aren't the main goal for me. The real value is the job placement phase. The program partners with multi national companies to offer direct interview opportunities, and that is the real target.
The Bigger Picture
Even with the dry corporate modules, I am genuinely enjoying learning this new field. There is a great feeling that comes from taking a complicated system, breaking it down, and finally understanding how it works.
For now, my routine is simple: keep studying, fill in the knowledge gaps, and take on practice questions to retain the knowledge. I'd give myself around a month's time to prepare before taking on the exam itself.
This article is a living document tracking my transition into the cloud. I'll update it as I take my exams and move into the job placement phase.