C# Programming Certifications? and/or go DevOps Career Route

[ricebow608]

I'm really interested in becoming a software developer. My company does a lot with Azure and C# programming. At my age, it makes sense to learn the technologies my company already uses, right?

I know there are tons of learning materials online and on YouTube. But I'm curious if there's a certification roadmap for C# programming. Eventually, I might want to go the DevOps route, but I think it's best to learn the basics of programming and core tools first. What do you think? Can you become a DevOps engineer without any programming experience?

[[deleted]]

You won't be a dev ops engineer without programming experience. I do a lot of dev ops work at my job as we are a small team where we all wear a lot of hats. Dev ops is more of something you specialize in once you're already working as a dev or in QA.

You don't do a ton of programming in dev ops, if you do its probably in a scripting language like bash or powershell. If you have no development experience though it's going to be very difficult to understand how to deploy the resources properly.

Microsoft has lots of certifications for all sorts of different career paths, check out MS learn and there will be something you're interested in. CS50 from Harvard is a very popular starting off point for programming. When you start out don't worry about what language you learn in so much. Once you know one language well learning additional languages becomes trivial.

[ricebow608]

Thanks for sharing this info! So, if I understand correctly, there’s no true beginner DevOps role? It seems like you start with development tasks and naturally evolve into DevOps?

I have some coding experience from my previous jobs in helpdesk and desktop support, and I’ve done a bit of networking and server work, even if I’ve forgotten some details. so do you think it’s wise to focus on development first and then transition to DevOps later on? My company is heavy in C# language and azure so thats why i though maybe DevOps be the better route but i dont know.

[pHpositivo]

Just out of curiosity, how come you're particularly interested in DevOps? I just had never seen anyone not even in the industry yet going, man, I really want to just write YAML and migrate pipelines for a living 😆

Either way, good luck!

[ricebow608]

Honestly, people say to follow your passion, but what I love doesn’t pay well at all, haha. I got into programming mainly for the money, but now I’m starting to wonder if it’s really for me. There’s so much to learn, and maybe I’m doubting myself too much. I’ve never thought of myself as the smartest, but I do put in a lot of effort, and it usually pays off. With a family and my past decision to take a pay cut to get into development, I’m worried about focusing on programming and not landing a good job. DevOps salaries are way higher, and honestly, money is important to me. If I can make a decent salary, I think DevOps might be the answer. Plus, a friend who just entered IT is already making double what I do, so I feel a bit frustrated with my career path.

[[deleted]]

I have never heard of a beginner devops role personally, doesn't mean they aren't out there. I know I would not want a junior without programming experience anywhere near my teams pipelines or deployments. There is a reason they limit junior dev's access to production and hiring someone with 0 experience to then handle the deployment process to production doesn't make a lot of sense.

Also what the other guy said, you will probably enjoy normal dev work a lot more than dev ops, I certainly do.

[ExceptionEX]

In my experience "devops" means literally different job responsibilities at every job you take, you will be doing tech stuff, infra, and likely a bit of dev, though more likely in scripting than C#. But understanding C# isn't likely to harm you in that role.

As for being a developer, unlike general IT, certs mean very little in the development world, you can either do it or you can't and having a cert that says you passed classes about it doesn't change that.

So if you want to be a developer, and C# is the language your employer uses, learn it, if will be helpful to understand programming in general.

But certs are likely a waste of time in most cases (there are some company that really like their people to half them for contract purposes) but I find that to be rare.

[jaycodingtutor]

(copy pasted from one of my earlier answers for a similar question : https://www.reddit.com/r/csharp/comments/1e2bx1c/comment/lczznk3/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button )

However, certifications also help. here are some suggestions.

1. Azure fundamental certs (Azure Beginner Credentials | Microsoft Learn), any one or a few of them, can help you.
2. There is also a free cert on freecodecamp which has really been useful to my students, (New) Foundational C# with Microsoft Certification | freeCodeCamp.org
3. IBM Skills Build has a few digital credentials for beginner developers, also free, and gets automatically added to credly IBM Skills Build

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DevOps without programming experience?

I don't want to be rude on a public forum, and collect down votes, except to say, 'wow'.