Developer Student Clubs
University of Central Florida
Why should you earn a certification in the first place? We think that globalknowledge.com said it
best:
“Why should you earn a certification (or certifications)? What is the value of a certification to you
and to your employer? A certification is a quick and readily recognized benchmark mapped to a
specific
skill set based on standardized testing. A certification demonstrates your dedication, motivation
and
technical knowledge on a specific platform. Once you earn a certification, you join a select group
of
individuals - a peer group with demonstrated skills. Having a certification shows that you not only
possess comprehensive knowledge of that technology, but you also care enough about your own career
to
spend the time and money to get certified. Remember: You are your own best career manager!”
With the rapid increase in cloud dependency by businesses, it’s critical that students expand their
skill sets to the cloud regardless of their specialty or career focus.
By participating in Developer Student Club (DSC) activities and Cloud Study Jams (CSJs), students get
free access to benefits from Google to prepare for Google certification paths.
Students and professionals should focus on Google’s Associate Cloud Engineer certification first. Unlike
the other certification paths offered by Google, the Associate Cloud Engineer certification only
recommends six months of experience with Google Cloud (as opposed to one to three years for the other
paths).
So, where do I start?
First, let’s get access to our student benefits.
Here, you’ll get 13 Coursera courses and 200 Qwiklabs
credits for free by completing the form. Note: the student verification process can take up to three
weeks.
Okay. I have access, now what?
Let’s take a deep dive into the Associate Cloud Engineer and the recommended preparation material.
Google has provided a preparation schedule for you to follow which will best prepare you to successfully
earn your certification.
Note: most of the free/discounted offers are expired at the time of writing this article. However, you
still can find the Exam Review Guide, practice exam, and the Associate Cloud Engineer Guidebook linked
in the PDF.
PDF
Guide
Now that you’ve gotten access to your student benefits and have reviewed the preparation schedule, there
are a few things we should point out. The preparation schedule suggests five separate Coursera courses
which will help you prepare to take the Associate Cloud Engineer certification test. Unfortunately, only
one of those five are included in your student benefits package: Google Cloud Platform Fundamentals:
Core Infrastructure. We know, this is a bummer for us too.
However, we think there is another way you can get access to the additional Coursera content free for 30
days. If you register for the Google
Cloud certification journey by (11/16), you get access to Qwiklabs
and “relevant Google Cloud training courses,” which we can only assume means the other four courses
outlined in the preparation schedule. The downside to this method is you will have to provide a valid
credit/debit card to receive the material and if you don’t cancel before 30 days is up, you will be
charged $49/month after that. To be fair, the cost of the Coursera content is very reasonable compared
to other certification test prep offered by other vendors. At the time of writing, DSC UCF is working
with Google to see if these additional Coursera courses can be made available for free.
On the flip side, your 200 Qwiklabs credits from you student benefits can be applied towards any quests
or labs in the entire Qwiklabs catalog. Here are the labs and quests that Google suggests taking to help
you prepare:
This adds up to a total of 147 credits spent, well within your 200-credit budget. Additionally, if you
attend any of our Cloud Study Jams, you will get the Qwiklabs Advantage Subscription, which gives you
unlimited access for up to 60 days and labs will not use up any of your Qwiklabs credits. RSVP for
Getting Started with Google Cloud today!
The last component of most exam preparation is reading material and practice tests. In the PDF, Google
provides an exam guide, which
outlines each exam objectives, and an official
study guide book which you
can purchase. To make sure that you’re ready to take the exam, you can also take the practice
exam.
From the entire team at DSC UCF, we wish you the best on your path towards certification. If you want to
check out Google’s professional certifications beyond Associate Cloud Engineer, check out their
certification paths here.