Alfred Leichenstein's Move from IT Support to Cloud Architect

Credentials Earned
CompTIA Cloud+

For years Alfred Leichenstein was stuck in basic IT support in Munich, Germany, watching better cloud roles pass him by while he handled the same routine work. Today he is a Cloud Architect in Chicago, in a job that doubled his salary and changed his life. This is how CertLabz gave him the path forward he had been missing.

Alfred Leichenstein shares the full story on camera.

Stuck in basic support

Alfred spent years in entry-level IT support, handling the same routine tickets day after day. He reset passwords, fixed printers, and answered the same questions, and while he was good at it, the work never grew. He could clearly see where the industry was heading, and he watched the cloud roles he wanted go to other people with the experience he lacked. The problem was that nothing in his job was preparing him for that work, and he had no obvious way to bridge the gap on his own.

He was capable and deeply motivated, but capability without a path leads nowhere. Every cloud posting asked for skills and credentials he did not have, and his daily work gave him no chance to build them. The longer he stayed, the more the role felt like a ceiling rather than a stepping stone. He knew he needed something that would actually move him forward, not just keep him busy.

Finding a real path forward

When Alfred found CertLabz, what convinced him was that it offered structure and real practice rather than just more theory to memorize. He had read plenty about the cloud already, and reading had not changed anything about his career. What he needed was a place to get his hands on the technology and to know he was studying the right things. CertLabz promised exactly that, and for the first time in a long while he felt he had a genuine route out of basic support.

A safe place to build and break

CertLabz gave Alfred room to learn by doing. CertLabz's virtual labs let him build real cloud environments and break them on purpose, so he could understand exactly how everything fit together. Instead of memorizing services from a slide, he configured them, watched them fail, and then worked out how to fix them. That kind of hands-on practice built a depth of understanding that no lecture had ever given him.

The labs also took the fear out of the technology. Cloud computing had felt enormous and intimidating from the outside, but breaking and rebuilding systems in a safe environment made it approachable. Each session, the pieces connected a little more clearly in his mind. By the time he finished, the cloud was no longer a mystery he read about but a system he could confidently operate and design.

"SkillTracker showed me exactly what to study, and the practice exams made the real test feel easy."

Alfred Leichenstein, Cloud Architect

SkillTracker pointed the way

What kept Alfred efficient was knowing precisely where to spend his limited time. CertLabz SkillTracker assessments mapped his weak areas and pointed him at exactly what to study next. He stopped wasting evenings reviewing things he already knew and focused only on the gaps that actually mattered for the exam and the job. That focus made his study time far more productive than it had ever been. The full-length practice exams then made the real certification feel like familiar ground, so that when test day came there were no surprises left to rattle him.

Passing the cloud certification

Alfred passed his cloud certification, and everything he had worked for began to pay off. The credential opened doors that had been firmly shut for years, and he landed a cloud role that doubled his salary. It also took him across the world, from Munich to an entirely new life and career in Chicago. The basic support job that once felt like a permanent ceiling was now far behind him. He had become the cloud professional he used to envy from the sidelines, and the transformation was complete.

His advice

Alfred's message to anyone in his old position is direct and practical. If you are serious about cloud, you cannot just read about it; you have to build it with your own hands until it makes sense. CertLabz, he says, is where he found the structure, the feedback, and the practice that finally moved his career. The path he had been missing turned out to be hands-on work backed by clear, honest guidance about what to study. For him, that combination changed absolutely everything.

Ready to write your own success story?

Hands-on labs, performance-based questions, and practice exams for every certification. Start your free trial today.

Start learning free