I worked for big tech out of undergrad (mostly frontend/mobile for a few years) moved on to work at a few startups where I naturally switched to do more backend/cloud infrastructure work. I never got a 'formal' education in terms of masters or any kind of certs. Would it be worth it for me to start getting some Certs (like AWS solutions architect - associate/professional) if I want to switch my career towards more solutions design/consultation? I don't know many people personally that went this path. I guess I'm looking to work for reputable agencies or consultancies and get assigned to different clients/projects instead of the usual big tech route of IC for a particular team of a particular company until that company decides to reorg you to another team.

Obviously not all Certs have the same value. I think AWS Solutions Architect - Associate would be the most adjacent 'bridge' for me, is there any other ones that I should be seriously considering? Seems like theres a new one every week nowadays with AI (which I've dabbled with before in some prior projects but nothing deep or extensive).

AWS Certifications do help to a certain extent to convey your knowledge of the AWS ecosystem to consultancies and their clients. I don't have a certification but almost all of the consultancies I've worked with advocate for it just to give the client more confidence. Mind you these are the larger consultancies with larger clients so they tend to like these certifications as a signal. Have you ever had a chance to work with the various components in the ecosystem already?

I really don't understand the point of doing this certificates seriously for what joy. i literally figured out lot of things through chatgpt deployed and scalled services. I am like its that easy. you just have practice it few times thats it.

No.