Engineer Story: Ismail Temiz

Having graduated from the Norwich University of the Arts with a BA in Graphic Design, I found it very difficult to find a job after graduating. I did part-time work as a waiter and spent a year working in a travel agency but was struggling to find my passion. I had done some technical support work prior to university and had always had a massive interest in technology so I turned my attention to looking for opportunities in tech. Cloud was a concept that seemed really interesting and rewarding, so I started to investigate it further. I knew that AWS was one of the leading cloud providers, so I did a one-day taster course on AWS. This left me even more intrigued about the cloud. I was drawn in by the limitless opportunities and the problem-solving aspect of it. But I didn’t know how to start my career in cloud.

That was when I came across Digital Futures.

Digital Futures offers the opportunity to train for 12-weeks in cloud engineering before taking up a cloud role working with one of their clients. I was really drawn to the programme due to Digital Futures’ partnership with AWS and the incredible opportunity to achieve multiple AWS certifications in record time. As someone with little to no experience, this sounded like the perfect opportunity to break into the field of cloud.

Digital Futures was also really appealing to me as they emphasise diversity and inclusion and are focused on finding engineers from all backgrounds. This made me feel really welcome throughout the entire process.

Having been accepted on to the programme, I started my 12-weeks of training alongside an amazing group of people. Ryan, our lead instructor, is incredibly knowledgeable about AWS and the cloud more generally and we couldn’t have asked for a better person to lead us through an intense training period.

Overall, my experience in the Academy was great. I learned a huge amount about AWS and the cloud more broadly. I achieved my AWS Cloud Practitioner within our first 3 weeks of training and my AWS Solutions Architect Associate by the end of the 12-week training period. Being able to achieve these in such a short space of time gave me so much confidence in my own capability and knowledge of cloud technology.

I have since transitioned into my role as a cloud engineer, working with one of Digital Futures’ clients – a multinational telecoms and media company. So far, I have found this role challenging but incredibly rewarding. There is still so much to learn but my experience in the Digital Futures Academy has prepared me to pick things up quickly, making me a real asset for employers. I love building and implementing infrastructure, problem-solving and providing cloud solutions. There are so many technologies out there and I want to gain as much knowledge and experience as I can. Cloud is such a varied and ever-evolving field that it is difficult to predict where my future lies. Whilst I have ambitions to progress into more senior and managerial roles, for the moment I want to experience as much as possible and continue to develop my skills so that I can shape my career around the cloud.