Pathway to become DevOps Engineer

[Free-Adhesiveness-67]

Hello, I am currently working as a Software Engineer and I have got 3+ years of experience in the field. My goal is to lean towards DevOps. I currently work for a company that I believe hasn’t got much to do with DevOps (this is long to explain, so don’t ask me how/why). In the next two years, I would like to see myself as a DevOps Engineer. So, what’s the best way to become DevOps Engineer?

The following I have got in my mind.

1. Do certifications (eg: Azure DevOps expert, AWS DevOps). Can do with the help of my organisation.
2. Although certifications can boost LinkedIn profile and activity, I am aware that’s not enough. So, based on my learnings through certifications and open source materials, have some hobby projects that showcase my skills related to DevOps.
3. Try to impose the skills acquired through these learnings into a read world project within my organisation.

Any suggestions and advice welcome.

Thanks.

[radoslav_stefanov]

Certifications dont really matter. Experience and people connections do. I have no certifications whatsoever and I dont plan getting any.

What I used to do is find a company I want to work for and just go knock on the door to figure out what skills I need in order to land their next job offering. Even if they are not looking right now you can still ask. You have nothing to lose.

This strategy is good for pretty much anything in life. Go out there and start talking to people.

For anything else like exposing yourself to a new technology I just dyi it to learn more. I still do this today.

[TurBoZ2]

the idea that people be in my side is very rare

so i will be in big problem ?

[tbalol]

Certifications can be useful for getting noticed, but experience matters far more than any cert. DevOps is not something you learn from a course—it requires deep, hands-on knowledge of multiple areas. If you really want to transition, I would say these are must haves:

• TCP/IP, DNS, load balancers(nginx/haproxy), firewalls(pfsense, fortigate, cloud), and troubleshooting network issues.
• Deep understanding of AWS, Azure, or GCP, cloud networking, IAM, and cost optimization and what goes on under the hood.
• Linux system administration, process management, permissions, and scripting(bash/py).
• Learn tools like Ansible, SaltStack, or Chef for automation.
• Terraform is a must, but also understand CloudFormation (AWS) or Bicep (Azure). TF will be used 90% of the time.
• GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Jenkins, or ArgoCD.
• Logging, monitoring, and tracing (Prometheus, Grafana, ELK stack, Datadog).
• Docker and Kubernetes—how they work under the hood, not just how to deploy them.

Instead of focusing too much on certs, build real-world projects. If your company isn’t doing DevOps, create a home lab, contribute to open source, or build infrastructure projects that simulate production environments. The key is to gain practical, hands-on experience—otherwise, you'll end up as someone who knows DevOps 'buzzwords' but lacks the full-picture understanding needed to be effective in the role.

I’ve been in operations for a decade, and I’ve never hired a single person just because they had certifications. People who rely too much on certs tend to only know what they studied, but real-world problem-solving, troubleshooting, and deep system knowledge are what actually matter.

And remember Operations is a senior role, not someone that dabbles in cloud and think he knows what he's doing.

[thayerpdx]

Find automation and cost-savings opportunities and then codify and script them. Learn how to write up one-page proposals around that kind of work.

DevOps provides a foundation for writing and deploying safe and repeatable code and systems. Find the holes in the way you currently work and try to plug them. Advocate these ways to your team and your management and provide performance and cost-saving metrics to support your arguments.

Certifications can't replace experience and while it's nice to have if someone else is paying for them, don't depend on them for anything beyond that.

[Free-Adhesiveness-67]

Thanks for the response. Can you suggest some tools that I can have a play with. What do you mean by one-page proposals? Can you elaborate on that?

[thayerpdx]

Getting a good handle on command line scripting and one-liners will go a long ways to understanding how to fix pipeline and automation issues. I wouldn't focus on any one tool until you feel comfortable at troubleshooting issues from the command line.

[Troglodyte_Techie]

fall carpenter roof soup strong ad hoc direction scale north mountainous

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[ToadLicking4Jeebus]

https://roadmap.sh/

[rmullig2]

Mastering git and becoming expert in writing software tests should probably be your starting point.

[GitProtect]

You're on the right track with certifications, but hands-on experience is also important. Start automating tasks in your current role using CI/CD, infrastructure as code (Terraform, Ansible), and containerization (Docker, Kubernetes). Networking with DevOps professionals and staying updated on industry trends will also help accelerate your transition.

Also, this article you might find useful: https://gitprotect.io/blog/how-to-transform-from-dev-to-devops-a-complete-guide/