My experience participating in an AWS workshop as an AWS Certification SME
Back in April, I received an exciting email inviting me to join an AWS Certification item development workshop for the AWS Certified SysOps Administrator — Associate exam. As you can guess from this post’s title, I jumped at the chance, and I’m thrilled to share my journey with you!
First off, who are AWS Certification SMEs? In the AWS world, they’re the professionals who dive into creating and refining AWS certification exams. Whether it’s through online meet-ups or face-to-face gatherings, subject matter experts play a crucial role in shaping and validating the exam content.
And how can you get involved? Simply fill out a form with details about your work experience, the tasks you handle, your language skills, and more. You can find all the essential details and how to apply right here: Become an AWS Certification Subject Matter Expert (SME).
The workshop kicks off with some training. We learned the ins and outs of the platform, how to craft questions, what resources we could use, and what’s off-limits. Plus, you should have already completed the “AWS Certification Subject Matter Expert Training” course, available for free on the AWS Skill Builder platform. And if you’re gearing up for certifications, you’ll find tons of helpful prep courses there too.
The next phase is all about developing questions. While kickoffs, office hours, and group reviews might last between one to two hours a few times a week, overall, you’re expected to dedicate about 18 hours in total. You’ll draft questions, send them off for review, and it’ll go through several rounds of checks. After tweaking and refining, your questions make it to the group review where everyone weighs in on its suitability, checks the sources, and suggests tweaks or even rejects it. For me, the toughest part was discussing my own questions, but it all turned out great in the end.
I currently hold six AWS certifications, including two at the professional level, and I’ve always been curious about who develops all these questions. I decided to dive into this program to peek behind the curtain of certification creation. The workshop brought together experts from various countries, including both native and non-native English speakers, and specialists from different companies, including engineers from AWS. We had lively discussions about ways to enhance certain certifications, what new things we could include, and how to refresh them to keep up with the latest trends. It’s been an incredibly enriching experience that really lets you contribute to the industry’s growth.
As our workshop leader reminds us, the first workshop might be the toughest, but it gets easier from there. Initially, you need to figure out the expectations, how to frame your questions correctly, and how to handle the reviews. Sure, it’s a bit stressful, but that’s part of any new challenge. Taking the first step can be tough, but remember, a journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step. The main thing is to just go ahead and take that first step.
