Maria Godoy’s cloud learning strategy with the IBM Center for Cloud Training.

Maria Godoy was on a familiar career path — Bachelor’s degree in information technology and Master’s in software engineering. Thirteen years in Customer Service and Technical Support with IBM.

Then, along came cloud; and with it, a sharp turn in her path.

“There was a mandate [in my division of IBM] to take the cloud foundation training,” she recalls. “So, I did that. And then some of the software I was working with started to migrate into the cloud. And I understood that this was a completely new technology for me. I’d done my degree in the nineties. And we had no idea about cloud at that time.”

Making the change, making the grade

Maria, it turns out, was in the right place at the right time for an industry-wide shift. Not only were careers changing for herself and her colleagues, but her client companies also were experiencing a digital transformation.   

“This was bringing everybody to the cloud,” she explains, “and as IT professionals, we needed to have a good understanding of this technology and be able to have good conversations with our clients. Cloud professionals are in high demand.”

Maria saw the new direction as an opportunity. Having worked in several roles at the IBM office in Dublin, Ireland, she could see the benefits in continuous learning and being adaptable to change.

Taking an extra career step with the IBM Center for Cloud Training

Now in a more technical role than her previous position, Maria could easily see gaps in her preparation. “We were meant to go a little bit deeper into technical conversations with the customer and actually drive discussions about cloud design and architectures,” she explains. So, she turned to the IBM Cloud Architect curriculum offered by the IBM Center for Cloud Training (ICCT).

“I think the learning path for the certification exam was absolutely fantastic,” she says in retrospect. “You start from a high vision, and then go deeper. It was engaging and it was easy to follow. It’s a commitment, to be honest, if you are doing it while you are still working. But I dedicated an hour or two in the evenings, and a couple of hours to go through exercises and review sections on weekends. And in four weeks, I completed the whole program.”

Maria gave herself an extra incentive, though, by signing up for the certification exam even before she had finished the course. This way, her goal was tangible, and it was right on the horizon, not something in the indefinite future.

Her approach worked — Maria passed the certification exam on the first try.

Reaping the career benefits right away

For Maria, the benefits of certification as an IBM Cloud Architect also were immediate.

“There is confidence,” she says. “I have to talk to the customer and drive a conversation and I’m not afraid to go deeper on technical details because I know exactly what capabilities they are looking for or what we can offer.”

“Customers know you have the knowledge, and they know that what you say is true. You turn into a trusted partner for them.”

She also has discovered benefits within IBM: “I have in my portfolio a few enterprise accounts where we have huge teams in IBM to work with them. In that team, I became a very good pillar in planning and strategic planning.”

Extending her reach to multicloud

Then there’s the wider understanding of cloud computing and using the confidence and knowledge she gained from her IBM certification for insights into the competition.

“As part of my role,” she explains, “I need to know other offerings, because in our conversations with customers, they always bring up other software — how we can pair it or how we can improve that.”

With this in mind, Maria also has earned certifications in Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS) technologies.

All of this not only improves her own effectiveness, but it also dovetails nicely with the IBM vision of multicloud environments, where organizations will blend solutions from multiple providers to create the cloud that works best for them.

Reaching worldwide

This all fits perfectly with Maria’s growing responsibilities as a Customer Success Manager working with customers in EMEA, the USA and Latin America. It wasn’t long ago that cloud was new to everybody. Now she is spreading the technology — along with awareness of IBM Cloud training and certifications—around the globe.

“I recommend it quite highly,” she says. “I always recommended to my customers and especially to IBM partners who are working with our cloud but are also working with other clouds. They have to be able to offer the same quality of service and knowledge. So, this certification is valuable.”

Get started on your learning path

Visit the IBM Center for Cloud Training to learn more about how you can achieve your next cloud certification. And be sure to check out the new IBM Cloud Prep app for flashcards, detailed study guides and practice quizzes to help you on your cloud certification journey.