Hello Reader, Every CEO in the last two years stood on a stage or got on an earnings call and said some version of the same thing: "AI is going to transform our operations. We are reducing headcount because AI will handle it." Two stories broke this week that every Solutions Architect and cloud professional needs to understand. Starbucks quietly shut down their AI inventory system after nine months. Deleted the blog post announcing it. No press release. Just an internal memo: go back to...
4 days ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader, Most AI agents built today have a fundamental flaw. They forget everything the moment a session ends. You tell the agent your preferences, your constraints, your context. You close the tab. You come back. It has no idea who you are. This is not a bug. It is the default state of every LLM and agent. They are stateless by design. And if you are building agents or going into SA interviews, understanding how memory works at a system design level is now a baseline expectation. Why...
8 days ago • 4 min read
Hello Reader, GenAI is expensive. Most teams find out how expensive after the bill arrives. The overspend is not random. It comes from the same mistakes made across almost every GenAI project, and most of them are easy to fix once you know where to look. This is a popular interview topic. But when asked "How will you cost optimize Gen AI workflow and application?", some of the average answers I hear is: I will optimize prompts I will use cheaper models I will reduce usage Why are they...
11 days ago • 5 min read
Hello Reader, Cloud With Raj is expanding, and looking to hire 4th fulltime position: Customer Success Manager Job Description Title: Customer Success Manager Responsibilities: Being the point of contact and managing 80-100 clients for the 12-week duration of the program. Host 1-on-1 calls with the clients every 2 weeks. Proactively guide clients through activation points to get results. Our customers’ success is our biggest success. Suggest necessary changes to the client fulfillment process...
15 days ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader, A new job type is getting very popular, called FDE or Forward Deployed Engineer. I analyzed multiple FDE job roles at OpenAI and Google. In this newsletter, we are going to go over what qualities you need to become an FDE, how to crack the interview, and how to excel at the job. OpenAI FDE Role Snippet Let's start with a specific job requirement from FDE posting: Own delivery across multiple deployments from first prototype to stable production. Scope work, sequence delivery,...
20 days ago • 4 min read
Hello Reader, If you want to join but haven’t made up your mind yet, this is the last chance to do so. There are less than 15 spots available. Because this program includes direct support from Raj, spots are limited. This bootcamp works, as proven by previous bootcampers and mentees getting jobs at top companies, FAANG, and other cloud roles, even when coming from non SA backgrounds. As a quick recap, if you join Become An AWS SA Bootcamp, you’ll get access to: 10 weeks of live sessions with...
29 days ago • 2 min read
Hello Reader, Are you thinking about becoming an AWS Solutions Architect and working at top companies? Data shows that Solution Architects earn between $200,000/year and $500,000+/year (screenshots below). The demand for AWS Solutions Architects has never been higher and will continue to rise because there are literally trillions of dollars worth of projects currently running on legacy technologies that need to be migrated to the cloud. When looking into becoming an SA it's really common to...
about 1 month ago • 1 min read
Hello Reader, Most people preparing for an AWS Solutions Architect interview are using outdated information. The process has changed significantly, and if you are preparing based on what worked two or three years ago, you are preparing for the wrong interview. I am a former L7 Principal SA at AWS who have conducted hundreds of interview, and I have helped many of my students crack Big tech interviews, including at AWS. Here is the updated process. The online assessment is not optional for...
about 1 month ago • 4 min read
Hello Reader, I have interviewed hundreds of candidates as a Principal Solutions Architect at AWS, and helped many of my students crack top jobs. And here is what I keep seeing: candidates who are technically qualified still get rejected, because their answers sound exactly like every other candidate's. In today's edition, I will walk you through few of the most common Solutions Architect interview questions. For each one, I will share the average answer that quietly gets you rejected, and...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Hello Reader, SNS versus SQS versus EventBridge is one of the most common comparison questions I see, both in Solutions Architect interviews and in real customer conversations. A lot has changed on the features recently. In today's edition, I will level-set what these three services are, then compare them on every factor that matters. I have used these exact same factors when I designed world-scale applications as a Principal Solutions Architect at AWS. Let's get started. The Foundation &...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read