Starting My Portfolio

Setting Up My Static Website

Today I completed the first major step in developing my Cloud Engineering skills within the AWS ecosystem: I built a simple static website using S3, CloudFront, Route 53, and Certificate Manager. Since this is all new to me, I leaned on Perplexity.ai to help map out a step-by-step process.

The first task was to route an existing domain name I had registered through Squarespace using Route 53. I chose not to transfer the domain to Route 53 yet—instead, I redirected traffic to my new site using Route 53. I wanted to avoid the 24-hour propagation delay that comes with a full transfer and opted for the quicker, simpler option. I may transfer the domain fully later on, but for now this setup works fine.

My Learning Journey

Getting Started with AWS and Cloud Engineering

I began this journey in March 2025 as a way to shift my career. For the past 10 years, I’ve been a mechanical engineer, working in aviation since 2007. I never intentionally pursued a career in aviation—it just unfolded that way, and over time I built a lot of valuable experience. I’ve worked for multiple airlines, most recently joining Frontier Airlines in 2019.