Hi all!

I love the initiative that the 'HotChowSprings' crew thought up. There has been a lot of love been given to the community from the community leaders which immediately moves into the first question!

What surprises you most about the community builders program?

I've been surprised by the level of interaction between the community leaders and the community builders. But also, and this activity is just a public example, of the community builders giving back to the program.

I love the Slack community. The help we give each other from technical and mindset, to education and training. It's spectacular.

What’s your background and your experience with AWS?

I've been working with AWS for years. I started together with my then company going from datacenter to AWS.

I started as a Windows engineer when the cloud project started. But by stepping up and proposing, designing the method of migrating Splunk into AWS using IaC. The company gave me the trust to implementing it and I succeeded without downtime and under time/budget.

Over the years, I've designed an implemented more and more workloads on AWS. Moved companies and now I do architecture for a living!

What’s the biggest benefit you see from the program?

The biggest benefit I feel is the connection with like-minded people all over the world. You need to apply to get into the Community Builders. And everyone that made it in has put in a good amount effort to bring AWS to the world.

By speaking with other Community Builders, I get inspiration in my own work. And I've helped people out with technical and architectural advice.

What’s the next swag item that you would like to get?

I am such a hoodie-hoarder. I wear them every day. My 2020 hoodie has been worn down that my wife is complaining.

This year, at Re:Invent I was able to bribe my colleague for his hoodie so I could bring back two and could switch them.

So, in case it wasn't obvious, I'd like a lanyard... No, a hoodie! CB Hoodie! GIEV! ;)

What are you eating for dinner today? Share the recipe!

Tonight I'm making Chinese Mushroom Noodle Soup!

The base recipe is here:
https://www.errenskitchen.com/chinese-mushroom-noodle-soup/

I'm adding a bit of spring onion and pak choi to it for some more veggies!

Is there anything else you would like to say about the community builders program in 2022?

Thank you for existing. Your public and private presentations and interactions are amazing, the events are great and the community is awesome. I love being part of it. Giving us this platform on dev.to is great, even though I haven't used it much. (a blog is coming though!) If I were to give any comment, especially for our use of dev.to, it would be to inspire for quality over quantity.