Self-Assessment
At this point, I’ve completed the foundational phase and am starting the practical project phase. I want to take a moment to reflect on how far I’ve come over the past few months — what’s going well and what still needs improvement.
To be honest, I was quite lost at the beginning. My weekly tasks mainly consisted of doing AWS labs, reading documentation, writing worklogs, and translating blogs. It sounds simple, but every week brought something new, so I had to work hard to keep up. The good thing is that the more I worked, the less I needed to follow step-by-step instructions, and I could handle more on my own. Still, I know I’ve only gotten comfortable with the basics — there’s still a lot to learn.
Self-Assessment Table
| Criteria | Rating | Comments |
|---|
| Knowledge | Fair | Solid grasp of core AWS services (IAM, VPC, EC2, RDS, S3, Lambda,…); still lacking in advanced networking and IaC |
| Learning ability | Good | Kept up with the weekly roadmap, continuously improving and self-studying beyond requirements |
| Proactiveness | Fair | Often reads ahead and explores beyond labs; sometimes reactive when multiple tasks pile up |
| Discipline | Good | Followed the 12-week roadmap, cleaned up resources after each lab, regularly checked billing |
| Communication | Fair | Worklogs and documentation are clear; needs to be more concise |
| Teamwork | Fair | Actively participated in group discussions and events; collaborated well when working with others |
| Problem solving | Fair | Knows to check Security Group, IAM Policy, CloudWatch logs instead of restarting from scratch when encountering errors |
| Project contribution | Fair | Completed all assigned tasks — worklogs, blogs, events, and project proposal |
What I’ve Improved
- More comfortable with AWS services: At first, I only knew the names. Now I’ve actually worked with IAM, VPC, EC2, RDS, S3, CloudWatch, Auto Scaling, Route 53, CloudFront, DynamoDB, Lambda, API Gateway, CloudFormation. I’m not an expert by any means, but at least I can redo labs on my own, understand why configurations are set a certain way, and fix some basic errors.
- Less panicked when facing errors: Previously, whenever an error occurred, I’d restart from scratch or ask for help immediately. Now I know to check Security Groups, Route Tables, IAM Policies, or look at CloudWatch logs first. I can’t always find the root cause, but at least I have a direction rather than wandering aimlessly.
- Better at self-learning: The weekly schedule forced me to keep up with the pace, so I gradually got used to reading ahead, doing labs, and noting what I understood and what I didn’t. Before, I just wanted to get things done; now I find myself stopping more often to ask “why is this configured this way?”
- More aware of cloud costs: I didn’t pay much attention to this at first. But after seeing the bill go up a few times because I forgot to turn off services, I learned my lesson. Now I immediately clean up resources after finishing a lab and regularly check billing to see if anything is still running.
- Better writing skills: Thanks to writing worklogs and translating blogs every week, my ability to express myself has improved quite a bit. It’s still not very concise, but compared to the first few weeks, I ramble much less.
What I Need to Improve
- Can’t design architecture on my own yet: If there’s an existing diagram or a guided lab, I can follow it. But if someone gives me a requirement like “build system A for client B” and asks me to propose an architecture, I still don’t know where to start.
- IaC is still weak: I know what CloudFormation is and have tried running a few templates, but most of the time I’m still clicking around in the Console. I know this isn’t the right approach, so I need to practice infrastructure as code more.
- Advanced networking is still hazy: Basic VPC is okay, but things like hybrid networking, Transit Gateway, or designing complex multi-tier networks are still hard for me to understand. I need to invest more in this area.
- No experience building a complete system: I’ve only worked on individual labs — I’ve never integrated everything from start to end into a full system with monitoring, testing, and deployment. I’ll probably only get this experience during the project phase.
- Easily overwhelmed by multiple tasks: During weeks with heavy coursework and dense labs, I tend to panic and don’t know what to prioritize first. I still need to improve my time management skills.
Overall
If I had to grade myself, I think I’ve gone from “knowing the service names” to “being able to do it, check it, and know how to learn more.” I’m not good yet, but compared to when I started, the difference is significant.
I know I’m not ready for complex architecture problems or deployments. Right now, I’m in the foundation-building phase, trying to fill gaps in IaC, CI/CD, and system design. I hope the remaining part of the program will help me turn all this fragmented knowledge into something more practical.