Thread regarding Wells Fargo & Co. layoffs

AZ-900 is a basic course and provides what essentially amounts to a rudimentary understanding of the available services, both on prem and in public cloud. If you’re planning on staying in TI you should familiarize yourself.
That said, our cloud migration is at least 3-5 years away for most apps, and there are many for whom public cloud will not be an option. Those apps will continue to run on IaaS in the new data centers until they can be reimagined on micro services. The truth is that our cloud journey is very, very immature and for all but a select group of apps in waves one and two it will be years before these platforms are realistic options.

Yes, knowing the details of billing and costs is vital to my job 🙄🙄

Vital for you job in two years? That's just silly. People will have long forgot the details since the test and plenty will have changed. Learn things as you need to use them. Also, takes little time to read up on basic cloud concepts, no need to get into the details of a cloud provider.

With the 'race' going on it would have been nice to have the SME's and the trainers actually be certified and able/willing to do it. Some of the ones named are not certified and others are training still and not certified but were listed as a SME.

One cert as you are SME of anything cloud related if you've been with WF for some time you know what I'm saying

@1dfl+1ioHV5Ep
Yes it is most likely free for them as well.

As for the game/piece analogy, welcome to modern capitalism.

@1jfm. You forgot to mention that you’ll get laid off anyway when he sends your job to India where they got the free certification training. They probably pay for them to take the test too.

It’s all a game and you’re a piece on their board until they remove you.

That certification and five bucks will get you a Starbucks coffee you can sip while Saul blows smoke up your a$$.

@1qsm+1ioHV5Ep
You'll need to know the topics and information covered by the test in a year or less. It will be vital to your job in less than two years.

@1yak+1ioHV5Ep That's horrible advice. First, you can't cheat. they monitor what you're doing. 2nd-- you get caught cheating that's worse than not doing it.

@1yak+1ioHV5Ep
It is extensively monitored. Neither of these would work as no one else can even be in the same room, so youd have to go through a LOT of trouble running cables to another room and hiding them from the pre-test scan. If they do not think you are able to take the test at home or if they get any red flags, they fail you or require you to take the test at a center.

Getting certified in something you don't use and will not use for a long time, if ever, is a joke and waste of time. They are only doing this because someone in upper management made this pointless goal to try make themselves look good.

Easy way to cheat: do duel screen(extra montior), have thay monitor away from you. Other person can record or take pics of test. Or find developer friend, ask him do the test for you. Have wireless mouse and extra monitor. Other person can do test from extra monitor, while you pretend you are taking test.

@ogo+1ioHV5Ep There are practice tests available from the training materials we all have access to. They are identical to what is on the tests. And yes, they know if you're running screen capture software and they also require you have your webcam and mic on the entire time you test. If they see you looking around too much - auto fail.

If you take the test at home, do they have a way of verifying or not if you are running some screen capture software?

Would be nice to build a collection of test questions to pass around.

@cly+1ioHV5Ep

And some of the teams who work with vendor apps that can't be moved to the cloud are being told to look at switching to vendors who offer cloud based apps.

Don't take the test at home. There have been people who were automatically failed for having a kid run in the room and telling their kid to be quiet and leave.

@hbe - you can go to a testing site as well. Don’t have to do at your house.

@qpg - lots of vendor apps (hosted internally) also cannot move to cloud

@hbe+1ioHV5Ep and @krp+1ioHV5Ep
Doesn't matter if it is a legacy app. If they determine it can be moved to the cloud, it will be. The only ones that cannot move will be vital ones with archaic requirements, some sort of need for static system details, or apps that require too much configuration. The rest will be moved to web applications/front ends with database backends, virtualized, or terminated.

@krp - Yes, app I was referring to is end of life but at WF that means 2-3 years. Currently no alternative and none being worked.

@hbe+1ioHV5Ep
You can take it at a testing center too. I would advise not taking it at home.

The push for apps to move to the cloud will be immense. I'd estimate all apps able to migrate will be told 2025 is the deadline. The rest will remain or be shut down.

Same boat. Only know 2 devs that pass AZ-900. One kicked her family out of the house to study and take the test over a long weekend. The other took PTO over a couple weeks top study and take. Exams are proctored, can't look away from webcam for more than a second. Have to take the exam on your personal computer. I don't even own a webcam. I have no interest in taking/passing it. Currently and for the next 2 years at least we will not be on the cloud. Legacy app, not moving.

I have said many times, being certified has no bearing on whether you can do the job. There is passing a test and then again there is actually doing a job, which are totally different things.

I’ve known certified tech folks who couldn’t do their job if their life depended on it. Most were fired not long after that became apparent.

@mwp+1ioHV5Ep
If you are doing it on nights/weekends then it should be on Workday. If that overtime is an issue, then it should be done during work hours. Whoever told you that is encouraging illegal behavior and should be reported.

@ypb+1ioHV5Ep Sure, ask Saul. My group did that with one of his directs and we were told, point blank, that we had to use nights and weekends to study if did not have any slack in our workday. He went so far as to say that if we DID have slack in the workday that would be a bigger problem.

So good luck with that!

@mne+1ioHV5Ep All of the companies involved with cloud services rely on data. Information. Information you provide them, save to their storage services, download/consume, search for, buy, etc. All of this info is saved and coagulated then fed to algorithms or intelligence applications. This is how the digital age works. Fight for your privacy, and elect leaders who want to limit this kind of stuff.

Maybe you don't understand - this isn't something that is just for businesses. This is going to be a major change for home computing as well. Most of the things you will use your computer for will be in the cloud. Shopping, Movies, Gaming, Finance, Investing, Work, Design, Programming, etc. All of these are in various cloud configurations already and will only become more anchored in. Even windows itself will be in the cloud. You'll basically boot a connection client, and harness whatever power your subscription allows you. This has been announced and discussed for 2 decades at least. The writing has been on the wall.

@aiq+1ioHV5Ep
Has nothing to do with mainframe.

It's so fun going back to mainframe computing.

It's due by 8/31. No matter what management says, they are watching to see who completes by 8/31.

Cloud is going to become the largest part of technology in a very short while. You should take the test they pay for. The terminology and fundamentals it teaches will become a cornerstone of technology at WF. The days of desktops/laptops and other tech departments doing things locally is about to become obsolete.

You may never actually work with the public cloud providers like Amazon, Google and Microsoft.

But what is left of Wells Fargo IT will operate like a cloud provider, so the concepts are still necessary to understand. That is why there is a push for foundational knowledge and not deeper platform specific certifications unless you are on a team working with one of those cloud platforms.

This is a business requirement, and can be done during business hours. I'm putting blocks on my calendar and studying in cram sessions each week, and other work is being re-prioritized based on this new business requirement I was given. If your manager doesn't approve of you working on business requirements during business hours, then I would bring that up to their manager, or ask "anonymously" on a Saul AMA, or through Employee Assistance or some other mechanism. I don't work on WF work during family time, and I don't work on Family work during WF time. Draw your lines deep and don't apologize for it.

When we were first told of the 50% goal at the beginning of the year, we were told the 900 course would not count since it’s just a basic course and not a real cert. then about 3 months ago they must have figured out very few would have the time and/or skills to get any of the other certs, so they did an about face. Now that we’re near end of q3, lots of push for people to cram this in. Cohort classes, online instructor led options, bootcamps, anything you might need to get this useless 900 certification. All so mgmt can say we have 50% of our “engineers” certified.

All development will be done in the cloud... basically outsource as much of the infrastructure / platform / etc. as possible to save $.

Like liberty mutual, you only pay for what you need (use).

WF will need trained/skilled cloud engineers.

Training and cert is paid for. I thought the same about studying during nights and weekends but quickly realized the cert is basic and easy to pass. Done.

I’ll never use a personal computer! This typewriter works just fine for me.

they are moving everything they can to cloud including infrastructure/infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, software as a service (eg active directory, microsoft 365 already happened, desktop applications AND all development). Your desktop tech person obviously hasn't taken the classes yet or they would know that what they were going to be supporting was either already in the cloud or going to be migrated there.

Please do not take the classes or get the certifications, my bonus will be bumped up and I will know what is happening in the company with regards to technology strategy. (you sound as d-mb as the person I worked with at intel who refused to learn anything web related in 1996 because he thought it was a phase)

Is the company even paying for any of the training or materials?

Fun fact - offshore has on site instructors during business hours to teach these certs. Don’t believe it? Go find their town halls on WFOD where they discuss it.