E14 - Alexandra Huides at AWS

On today’s episode, our Infrastructure and Cloud Consultant, Francesca Denoon was joined by Alexandra Huides a Networking Specialist SA at AWS in Strategic Accounts and talks all about her amazing role in her career in the Cloud space, especially being a woman in a male-dominated industry. We learn all about her best tips as well as what she believes is the best thing I know if you’re just starting out in your career.

Her dad was an Engineer so had always been surrounded by the tech side her whole life which led the path for her into the space. Alexandra started this crazy journey all the way back in her 2^nd year of college studying for a Computer Science degree. She soon realised she didn’t like the programming side and wanted to really think about what she could do when she left college. She then knew someone who was doing their CCNA at the time, with her family background in Engineering, she had heard of Cisco prior to this but this was really the turning point that she decided to give it a go. After completing her CCNA she fell in love with Networking completely and this was really when her journey began.

AWS… Always a dream of hers or a given opportunity?

For Alexandra, it was a bit of both. She found herself to be a bit of a boomerang when it came to AWS. She first started her journey at AWS in Dublin where she completed her CCIE certification. She felt like she had done everything she wanted to do at that point and wanted to go somewhere, where she could continuously learn new things and where at this point, decided to move back to Romania.

Now back at AWS and recently promoted to Principal Solutions Architect, she works as a Network Specialist on their Strategic Accounts. Her role primarily focuses on helping AWS customers design flexible, scalable and reliable network architectures. It’s the ‘bread and butter’ of the entirety of her day-to-day role.

The skills one would need in order to fulfil her role is being able to have the drive to find the best solution. A skill that’s not only important in her particular role but in the Networking industry as a whole is wanting to learn and being curious. There isn’t a day that passes where she doesn’t read something that’s relevant to her role or the industry, to ensure she’s not missing anything. If you’re considering it, dive deep into learning, don’t just skim the surface.

Would you recommend it?…

For Alexandra, she has found something that gets her up at 6 am excited about what she’s doing that day. Her view on this is that you can give every recommendation under the sun but if it’s not something you aren’t passionate about, don’t do it. it can be hard figuring it out, but life is too short to be doing something you don’t enjoy. It’s worth putting in the time to find out that thing that gets you excited. She never questioned her path because she knew it was exactly where she was meant to be.

Alexandra shares a piece of advice for any woman who is considering a career in the Networking industry. Tune in now to hear it.