Your First 30 Days in the Club
No guessing. No overwhelm. Follow this week-by-week roadmap to go from “where do I start?” to building real GRC automation, landing interviews, and growing your professional brand.
Orientation & Foundation
Get your bearings and understand what GRC Engineering actually looks like.
Where Do I Start? Your Interactive Roadmap
Answer four questions in the Academy and get a personal, ordered roadmap through the club. Do this first and use it as your compass for everything that follows.
Welcome to the GRC Engineering Club
Meet the community, understand the mission, and learn how to get the most out of your membership from day one.
What GRC Engineering Really Looks Like in the Cloud
Forget checkbox compliance. See what modern GRC looks like when you bring engineering principles to the table.
Why First Principles?
The thinking framework behind everything we build. Understand why we approach GRC differently than everyone else.
Cloud Computing 101
A no-fluff introduction to cloud concepts every GRC engineer needs to know before touching AWS.
Find Your Chapter
Club members are in 40+ cities across 15 countries. Find yours and the chapter leads will loop you into local meetings and events - or claim your city and start one.
Add Yourself to the Member Directory
Get found by employers and other members. Browse the directory by specialization and framework expertise, or add your own profile.
The AntiCheckbox Podcast
Real conversations with the engineers, assessors, and founders building compliance that actually works. Watch on YouTube or listen early on Patreon.
Hands-On Labs
Stop reading, start building. Get your hands dirty with real AWS labs.
Recommended Tech Stack
Python, the AWS CLI, and an AI-first editor. Set up your GRC engineering workbench with the current recommendations, then verify it with one script.
AWS CLI Tutorial: Setup and Configuration Guide
Your first hands-on exercise. Get the AWS CLI installed, configured, and ready for everything that comes next.
LAB: Building an Automated Access Review
Build a real access review automation from scratch. This is the kind of work that gets you hired.
LAB: Password Policy Verification
Write Python scripts that verify AWS password policies meet compliance requirements automatically.
LAB: Inactive Key Rotation Check
Detect stale IAM access keys and build an automated rotation checker that auditors love.
Using CloudWatch Logs to Troubleshoot Lambda Functions
A 3-minute GRC overview of how to use CloudWatch for monitoring and compliance evidence.
By Week 2, Members Are Already Winning
This is what happens when you stop watching from the sidelines and start building.
“I turned a cold DM into a real shot at a GRC role. The club gave me the confidence and the playbook to make it happen.”
Akeem
Landed a GRC Role
“Completed the AWS labs and immediately applied those skills at work. My manager noticed the difference within a week.”
Darius Bush
AWS Lab Triumph
“The community here is different. People actually help each other. I went from lurking to leading a study group in 3 weeks.”
Club Member
Community Contributor
Go Deeper
Connect the dots between automation, evidence collection, and real-world compliance.
Every Auditor's First Question: Show Me Your Logging
Learn what auditors actually look for in cloud logging infrastructure and how to have the answer ready.
From AWS APIs to Audit-Ready Excel
Build automation that pulls cloud data and transforms it into evidence spreadsheets that actually get used.
LAB: AWS Least-Privilege Compliance Checker
Build a tool that scans IAM policies for over-permissive access and flags compliance violations.
Cloud Encryption Evidence Lab
Collect and verify encryption-at-rest and in-transit evidence across AWS services programmatically.
Shifting Security Left: A Hands-On Lab
Learn how GRC engineers can integrate security checks earlier in the development pipeline.
Podcast: From Zero to Cloud Security AVP
Hear a real career journey from entry-level to AVP in cloud security. Pure motivation and actionable advice.
Level Up & Career
Turn your new skills into career momentum. Resume, interviews, and portfolio.
From Resume to Offer: What Actually Moves Your Career Forward
Cut through the noise. Learn the specific actions that lead to interviews and offers in GRC.
How to Build a Resume That Opens Doors
Structure your resume to highlight the technical GRC skills hiring managers are searching for.
Mastering the STAR Method for GRC Interviews
Nail behavioral interviews with structured answers that showcase your hands-on cloud security experience.
Terraform 101 for GRC Engineers
Add infrastructure-as-code to your toolkit. Learn Terraform fundamentals through a GRC engineering lens.
Automate Your Portfolio Deployment with GitHub Actions
Set up CI/CD for your personal portfolio site and demonstrate DevOps skills to potential employers.
AWS Portfolio Website Deployment Kit
Everything you need to deploy a professional portfolio on AWS. Stand out from every other applicant.
Turn What You Built Into a Credential
The labs in Weeks 2 and 3 are the same skills the CGE-P and CGE-AUD certifications test. Both are free for members through the Training Academy - take them whenever you're ready, no need to wait until day 30.
Practitioner
The foundation credential. Design, implement, and maintain compliance automation across infrastructure as code, policy-as-code, CI/CD, and continuous authorization - earned through a real capstone you submit on GitHub. The Week 2 and Week 3 labs above are your on-ramp.
Free for members · $350 for non-members
CGE-AUDAuditor Specialty
Read pipelines, sample code-defined controls, and evaluate engineered evidence without becoming an engineer. Built specifically for auditors and assessors working in automated environments.
Free for members and beta · $350 for non-members
Every hands-on lab in this roadmap runs on AWS. Azure and GCP specialty tracks are next on the Academy roadmap, following CGE-AUD - for now, AWS is the fastest path to a working portfolio.
Build in Public & Build Your Brand
You've built the technical skills. Push them further in the 6-Week GRC Build-In Challenge, then build the professional presence to match with the LinkedIn Brand Builder course and the 90-Day GRC Builder Challenge.
6-Week GRC Build-In Challenge
A live, in-public build sprint on the same evidence pipeline you build for the CGE-P capstone: terraform validate, conftest, trestle validate, cosign verify, vault upload. A new challenge drops every Tuesday, finishers post their progress on LinkedIn, and a $1,000 prize pool goes to the best submissions. Runs in cohorts - the first one just wrapped, so watch the community for when the next round opens.
Start Here: 6-Week GRC Build-In Challenge
The kickoff post with the full challenge structure, the weekly drop schedule, and what you need before Week 1.
cgep-app-starter (GitHub)
Fork this repo to build in. It is the same starter used for the CGE-P capstone - deploy it, then govern it.
LinkedIn Brand Builder Course
The exact playbook AJ used to grow from 9 to 50,000+ LinkedIn followers. Eight modules covering strategy, content, engagement, and the 90-day system that builds real professional influence.
LinkedIn Brand Builder Intro
The course overview and why building your personal brand is the highest-ROI career move you can make right now.
Module 1: 90 Days - Ignore the Results, Build the System
Stop chasing vanity metrics. Build the daily system that compounds into real influence over 90 days.
Module 2: Mastering LinkedIn - The Golden Hour Strategy
The exact timing and tactics to maximize your LinkedIn visibility during the critical first hour after posting.
Module 3: LinkedIn Post Secrets - Get MORE Engagement & Views
Proven post formats, hooks, and structures that consistently drive high engagement in GRC and cybersecurity.
Module 4: Dominate LinkedIn - Whale Strategy for GRC & Cloud
Target high-value connections strategically. The whale strategy that opens doors you did not know existed.
Module 5: Stop the Scroll - Visuals & Content That Converts
Design scroll-stopping visuals and content that converts passive scrollers into engaged followers.
Module 6: Engagement Strategy That Builds Real Relationships
Go beyond likes and comments. Build genuine professional relationships that lead to opportunities.
Module 7: Content Calendar Strategy
Eliminate daily posting stress with a content calendar system that keeps you consistent without burnout.
The 90-Day GRC Builder Challenge
Put everything together in a structured 90-day challenge. Build your brand, sharpen your skills, and create real career momentum with accountability and community support.
And This Is Just the Beginning
After your first 30 days, unlock advanced deep dives into the frameworks and standards that define enterprise GRC.
Implementing Organizational Guardrails with AWS SCPs
Lock down multi-account AWS environments with Service Control Policies that enforce compliance at the org level.
Mastering ISO Standards for Security, Privacy, and AI Governance
Bring GRC Engineering principles into ISO 27001 programs using IaC, automated control tests, and streaming evidence.
HITRUST Framework: A Deep Dive for GRC Engineers
Go beyond surface-level HITRUST knowledge. Understand the framework like an engineer, not just an auditor.
FedRAMP 20x: Modernizing Federal Cloud Security
The future of federal cloud compliance. Learn how FedRAMP 20x changes the game for GRC engineers.
Frequently Asked Questions
A structured 4-week roadmap covering orientation and GRC engineering foundations, hands-on AWS compliance labs, advanced automation and evidence collection exercises, and career development resources including resume building and interview prep. Members can also generate a personal version of this roadmap with the Where Do I Start tool in the Training Academy.
No. The roadmap starts with foundational concepts like Cloud Computing 101 and first principles thinking before progressing to hands-on labs. It is designed for both career changers and experienced professionals looking to add GRC engineering skills.
Labs include building automated access reviews, password policy verification, inactive key rotation checks, AWS least-privilege compliance checkers, cloud encryption evidence collection, and shifting security left exercises. All labs use Python and AWS today - Azure and GCP specialty tracks are next on the Academy roadmap.
Week 4 of the roadmap focuses entirely on career acceleration: resume structure for GRC roles, STAR method interview prep, Terraform 101, CI/CD portfolio deployment, and a full AWS portfolio website deployment kit. Members also get access to mock interviews and resume reviews.
An 8-module video course included with your membership that teaches the exact LinkedIn strategy AJ Yawn used to grow from 9 to 50,000+ followers. It covers posting systems, the Golden Hour strategy, engagement frameworks, and a 90-day challenge.
The club has chapters forming in 40+ cities across 15 countries. Visit the chapter directory to find yours - chapter leads will loop you into local meetings and events. No chapter in your city yet? You can apply to start one.
They run alongside it. The hands-on labs in Weeks 2 and 3 build the same skills the CGE-P (Practitioner) and CGE-AUD (Auditor) certifications test. Both are free for active members through the Training Academy, and you can start whenever you are ready - no need to finish all 30 days first.
A build-in-public sprint on the same evidence pipeline you build for the CGE-P capstone - terraform validate, conftest, trestle validate, cosign verify, vault upload - with a $1,000 prize pool for finishers. It runs in cohorts and is the natural next step after your first 30 days. The first cohort just wrapped, so watch the community for the next one.
Yes. The First 30 Days page shows every piece of content in your onboarding roadmap with descriptions and content type labels. The posts themselves are members-only, but you can see the full curriculum and decide if it is right for you before subscribing.
Ready to Start Your 30-Day Journey?
Join 1,000+ GRC professionals who are building real cloud security skills, growing their careers, and connecting with a community that actually ships.
Join the Club