10/10 GCP Certs the CTS Way…
In this post, I don’t really want to cover how I got here, I have already covered that in my earlier posts: Adventures learning GCP, the path to multi-certification, the Google Database Engineer Beta Exam, and the latest exam, the Associate Cloud Engineer, already has plenty of resources to help you study.
What I want to write about this time is how we enable our teams to gain these certifications here at CTS. It wouldn’t surprise me if we had one of the best certification-to-person ratios of all of Google’s partners. Whilst I might be the first to get all 10 GCP-related ones (at the time of writing anyway), many of my technical colleagues are not far behind me at all and are fast catching up, our non-technical (well as much as you can be working in IT consultancy) colleagues are also achieving the Digital Leader certification, with several of them also looking at the Professional Cloud Architect next in order to have better conversations with our customers.
But how do we go about helping our colleagues achieve, well let me give you a little insight:
CTS lives and breathes Google Cloud
Firstly, CTS lives and breathes Google Cloud, we don’t work with any other public clouds which means we have an absolute focus on delivering Google Cloud solutions to our clients.
CTSers share knowledge with one another
Secondly, CTSers share knowledge with one another. Done an exam recently? What resources did you use to study? What did you or didn’t you find helpful? What topics came up in the exam? These are all questions we aim to answer on our internal confluence pages to help our fellow team members prepare for the exams themselves.
In addition to the above, as a team we also are more than willing to mentor our colleagues. Personally, I have mentored people through different certs both on a formal and informal basis, this is really just an extension of the culture we have here at CTS.
CTS gives people the time needed to study
Thirdly, CTS gives people the time needed to study, we get 10 learning days a year to study. We also encourage people to study if they are between projects. We have dedicated programs such as Convert where we give new starters coming from an AWS or Azure background, additional learning days and support to help them cross-train in GCP.
CTS pays for training and certification costs
Fourthly, CTS pays for training and certification costs. It is just the case of requesting the training, stating the cost, and getting it approved. I must have put through approximately $3000 worth of exam costs alone during my time working here. I am also able where time permits, to attend an abundance of training sessions Google offers either remotely or in person.
CTS has incentivized many of us to gain certifications
Finally, CTS has incentivized many of us to gain certifications, previously offering us financial incentives to achieve certifications which I spoke about in my earlier post.
Hopefully, in this post, I have outlined some of the ways here at CTS we help our colleagues achieve their goals. If you like what you hear and would like to join us we are always on the lookout for new talent. But otherwise, until next time keep it Googley ;)
About CTS
CTS is the largest dedicated Google Cloud practice in Europe and one of the world’s leading Google Cloud experts, winning 2020 Google Partner of the Year Awards for both Workspace and GCP.
We offer a unique full stack Google Cloud solution for businesses, encompassing cloud migration and infrastructure modernisation. Our data practice focuses on analysis and visualisation, providing industry specific solutions for; Retail, Financial Services, Media and Entertainment.
We’re building talented teams ready to change the world using Google technologies. So if you’re passionate, curious and keen to get stuck in — take a look at our Careers Page and join us for the ride!
