--- title: This AWS Certification WILL NOT Make you a Solutions... description: A former Amazon solutions architect argues that the AWS Solutions Architect Professional certification is largely useless for career advancement. Despite its... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/this-aws-certification-will-not-make-you-a-solutions-architect-how-to-actually-get-hired--7iiota735 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: This AWS Certification WILL NOT Make you a Solutions Architect (How to actually get hired) | daily.dev og:description: A former Amazon solutions architect argues that the AWS Solutions Architect Professional certification is largely useless for career advancement. Despite its... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/this-aws-certification-will-not-make-you-a-solutions-architect-how-to-actually-get-hired--7iiota735 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/7iiotA735.png og:image:alt: This AWS Certification WILL NOT Make you a Solutions Architect (How to actually get hired) og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # This AWS Certification WILL NOT Make you a Solutions Architect (How to actually get hired) **[Tech With Lucy](https://daily.dev/sources/techwithlucy)** · 7 min read · 44 upvotes · 6 comments ## Summary A former Amazon solutions architect argues that the AWS Solutions Architect Professional certification is largely useless for career advancement. Despite its prestige, the exam can be gamed through pattern recognition and AI tools, and employers increasingly view certifications without hands-on experience as a red flag. Instead, the recommended approach is a 20/40/40 split: 20% theory, 40% hands-on projects, and 40% networking, personal branding, and interview prep. The AWS Cloud Practitioner and Solutions Architect Associate certifications are sufficient as a foundation before moving directly to real-world projects. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@stuartgreig** · 2 upvotes > People have been gaming certifications since there have been certifications. People sell the answers to questions dumps with the real questions so they can just be memorised. Real world experience has always been far more valable than a certification at least to me **@k041k4** · 0 upvotes > Nothing new, this is known for a years and applies to any certification, not just AWS. The question is, why is she coming out about this now… **@hardik15** · 0 upvotes > Certifications only helps to get upper hand in the jub hunting where you may have a upper hand getting priority apart from that practical skills always beats some who has just theory knowledge with certification **@saturin** · 0 upvotes > without skills, knowledge, and the spirit of engineering, any certification doesn't give you seniority pass **@proxamix** · 0 upvotes > Alright, and how do you go about getting real-world experience without the certification? Is there any personal projects that mimic real-world experience to be able to be qualified to get a job? --- Tags: [#cloud](https://daily.dev/tags/cloud), [#aws](https://daily.dev/tags/aws), [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/this-aws-certification-will-not-make-you-a-solutions-architect-how-to-actually-get-hired--7iiota735) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"This AWS Certification WILL NOT Make you a Solutions Architect (How to actually get hired)","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-aws-certification-will-not-make-you-a-solutions-architect-how-to-actually-get-hired--7iiota735","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/this-aws-certification-will-not-make-you-a-solutions-architect-how-to-actually-get-hired--7iiota735"},"datePublished":"2026-03-02T12:00:45.723Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T12:01:06.053Z","description":"A former Amazon solutions architect argues that the AWS Solutions Architect Professional certification is largely useless for career advancement. 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People sell the answers to questions dumps with the real questions so they can just be memorised. Real world experience has always been far more valable than a certification at least to me","datePublished":"2026-03-17T12:13:36.465Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/7iiotA735#c-ygzSQdgKa","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Stuart Greig","url":"https://daily.dev/stuartgreig","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--FoVqUWgr--/f_auto/v1772633885/avatars/avatar_V6TOuZS8XXplYvc5hNLgE?_a=BAMAMiiu0"},"interactionStatistic":{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":2}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Nothing new, this is known for a years and applies to any certification, not just AWS. The question is, why is she coming out about this now…","datePublished":"2026-03-18T15:32:36.246Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/7iiotA735#c-jY0cgAIkX","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Vladimir Baranek","url":"https://daily.dev/k041k4","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a/ACg8ocL7RWfAZFOi5nKeQagncKKNWcOxlebaqG84EuV476ueUtpGTsg=s96-c"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Certifications only helps to get upper hand in the jub hunting where you may have a upper hand getting priority apart from that practical skills always beats some who has just theory knowledge with certification","datePublished":"2026-03-29T11:44:56.974Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/7iiotA735#c-b4Pg8rcIT","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Hardik","url":"https://daily.dev/hardik15","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--O0TOmw4y--/f_auto/v1715772965/public/noProfile"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"without skills, knowledge, and the spirit of engineering, any certification doesn’t give you seniority pass","datePublished":"2026-03-25T13:54:23.998Z","dateModified":"2026-03-25T13:54:56.512Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/7iiotA735#c-qBlyNXy2b","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Dawid Walaszkowski (Saturin)","url":"https://daily.dev/saturin","image":"https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/a-/AOh14Gj-CP6B_esDsONgUZlUyEeyHaWtlfIzX5LDpnrz=s100"}},{"@type":"Comment","text":"Alright, and how do you go about getting real-world experience without the certification? Is there any personal projects that mimic real-world experience to be able to be qualified to get a job?","datePublished":"2026-03-25T14:56:48.023Z","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/7iiotA735#c-T2ZPtjjIl","author":{"@type":"Person","name":"Proxamix","url":"https://daily.dev/proxamix","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--dCQBSD_8--/f_auto/v1774450717/avatars/avatar_cGeExSrw2NORgze1EvM2e?_a=BAMAMiWQ0"}}]} ```