A mentee messaged me last year with a screenshot of his study dashboard. He had been grinding AWS Solutions Architect Professional for three months straight — flashcards, practice exams, video courses, the lot.

He had never used AWS.

Not once. No console access. No side project. No hands-on lab. Just three months of theory for a professional-level exam that assumes years of real architecture experience.

He failed. And honestly, the exam was not the problem. The approach was.

I have seen this pattern dozens of times now — across DMs, mentees, and newsletter replies. Smart people. Motivated people. Wasting months on certifications because nobody told them the three things that actually matter before they start studying.

Mistake 1: Skipping levels to "save time"

It feels logical. Why spend 6 weeks on Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02) when the associate exam is what hiring managers want?

Because the foundational cert is not about the badge. It is about building a mental model.

Cloud Practitioner teaches you how AWS thinks — regions, availability zones, the shared responsibility model, how services connect. Without that framework, every associate-level concept sits in isolation. You memorise answers instead of understanding patterns.

The people who pass SAA-C03 on the first attempt almost always started with CLF-C02. Not because it is required, but because it makes everything after it click faster.

Skip levels and you study harder for longer. Start at the right level and the next cert takes half the time.

Mistake 2: Studying without building

This is the most common one I see.

Someone studies S3 bucket policies for two weeks. They can recite the JSON structure. They know the difference between bucket policies and IAM policies. They pass the practice questions.

Then an interviewer asks: "Walk me through a time you secured access to an S3 bucket for a cross-account use case."

Silence.

Certifications test knowledge. Interviews test experience. If your only experience is reading about a service, you will struggle to explain how you used it — because you never did.

The fix is simple: for every major topic you study, build something small that uses it. A Lambda function that processes S3 uploads. A VPC with public and private subnets. A DynamoDB table with a global secondary index. It does not need to be production-grade. It needs to be yours.

That thirty-minute hands-on exercise will stick longer than three hours of video lectures.

Mistake 3: Chasing certs on the wrong platform

I earned four Azure certifications before I ever touched AWS. That was not a mistake — I was working on Azure infrastructure at the time. The certs matched my work.

But I regularly see people earning AWS certifications when every job they are applying for runs on Azure. Or studying for Azure when their target companies are all-in on AWS.

Before you pick a cert, look at ten job descriptions for the role you actually want. Count which cloud platform appears most. That is your answer.

If the market around you is 70% AWS, start with AWS. If your current employer runs Azure, start with Azure. Certifications compound when they match your environment. They collect dust when they do not.

How to avoid all three

Here is the 3-step check I give every mentee before they start studying:

Step 1: Match the platform to your market

Search 10 job listings for your target role. Whichever cloud provider appears in 7 or more — that is your starting platform. Do not guess. Count.

Step 2: Start one level below where you think you should

If you want the associate cert, start with the foundational. If you want the professional, make sure you have actually passed the associate and worked with the services it covers. Humility here saves months later.

Step 3: Build before you book the exam

For every domain the exam covers, build one small project. Not a tutorial copy-paste — something you designed, even if it is simple. When you can explain what you built and why, you are ready to sit the exam. Not before.

I put together a free AWS Certification Roadmap that maps out the full path — foundational through professional — so you can see where each cert sits and plan your route.

→ sholastechnotes.com/aws-certification-roadmap

💬 Your turn: What is the biggest cert mistake you have made — or almost made?

Reply with MISTAKE and I will send you a quick checklist I use with mentees to audit their cert plan before they start studying.

Know someone about to start their first cloud certification? Share your referral link — 1 friend subscribes, you get a free LinkedIn Profile Optimisation Checklist.

{{rp_refer_url}}

---

— Shola

P.P.S. If you are stuck on which cert to pursue next — or whether certs are even the right move for you right now — reply to this email and tell me where you are. I read every reply.