AWS Builder experience so far

Hi.

As of March 2022, I am an AWS Community Builder. In this post, I will explain to you what an AWS Community Builder is and how you can become one. In addition, I will reveal my motivation for why I wanted to become an AWS Builder in the first place. In the end, I will explain what is good and not so good about the AWS Community Builder program from my perspective.

What is and how do you become an AWS Community Builder?

You can find the description of the AWS Community Builder here. In short, it provides the opportunity to expand your AWS-focused network. I have already met many exciting and helpful builders.

You become an AWS Community Builder by applying during a certain time window. For me, that time window was in January. The next time window is expected to open again mid-2022.

Why did I want to become an AWS Builder?

Over the past few years, I have learned how valuable and good it is to build and extend your professional network. This allows for great opportunities such as finding a new great employer or other interesting collaborations. In addition, I have met many great (AWS) engineers in networks like Slack and at meetups who have helped me or whom I can help.

What do I like so far?

What I like most is the exchange with other AWS builders. The exchange mainly takes place in the AWS Community Builders Slack. Many of them are very passionate and dedicated people. Also pretty cool is that builders share their blog posts there which I usually read with excitement.

A cool bonus is the AWS Community Builder swag. It's kind of a surprise box of swag. I can't wait to see what will be in there. So far the box has not arrived to me yet. Very important to me about the box and the contents was that it was sustainably made and shipped. AWS has assured that this is the case. So I don't need to have a guilty conscience here :).

What I don't like

What I don't like is that only a relatively small percentage of applications to the AWS Community Builder were accepted. It would be great to exchange with even more builders and also give a chance to Engineers who don't have as high visibility as me yet. However, I can also very well understand why AWS should not let the Builder Community grow too fast. As that would come very hard to handle like organizing events.

Summary

In this post, I have summarized my thoughts and feelings about the AWS Community Builder. Of course, I've only been a member for a few months and therefore can't give 360 degree feedback. From there, I will reflect again in a few months and let you share.

If you are also looking for a cool AWS community, I highly recommend our AWS CDK Slack Community. Also great is our DACH AWS Community.

I love to work on Open Source projects. A lot from my stuff you can already use on https://github.com/mmuller88 . If you like my work there and my blog posts, please consider supporting me on:

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