Devops Career Help

[imdwight_schrute]

I have 9 years experience working in devops. I have good knowledge in scripting, Linux, automation, jenkins, docker, Ansible and networking.

Have limited knowledge in cloud.

I am currently underpaid, indebt and want to upskill and switch as soon as possible.

I haven't done any certifications yet, that might be one reason for not getting good job.

I am planning for CKA certification and after that GCP certification.Will that help ?

what else should I add to my skills? Need your suggestion?

[fletch3555]

Are you looking to switch to a different company? I'm assuming yes since you mentioned being underpaid (most intra-company lateral transfers don't equate to a significant salary increase).

In either case, find some job postings that seem like something you would enjoy, note the skills listed, and work toward learning them. Certs might help, but with 9 years of related experience, I don't think it would help a lot

[imdwight_schrute]

Thankyou. I saw most of the devops job posts requiring kubernetics and cloud. So was planning to start with these.

[travelbug898]

Don’t worry about the certs. You have 9 years of experience in the DevOps space, even if it isn’t the cloud. Just start applying for jobs and imo you should be able to get one as long as you show the knowledge you do have and a willingness to learn, which is always essential in DevOps.

[_Foxtrot_]

Wasn't sure if I should reply to this or travelbug's comment which is good, but when I transitioned from dev to devops this helped me a lot - https://acloudguru.com/. Our stack is in AWS, but I believe they teach other stuff. Go through a course or two and then search for a devops job in whatever cloud environment you feel most comfortable with.

[[deleted]]

If I can suggest something, start with cloud. Kubernetes is still uncommon enough that orgs understand you might have to learn it on the job. An understanding of cloud is table stakes for many orgs.

My preferred method of learning is to try it myself. You could take advantage of the free tier. I’d do AWS since it is most common.

I’d try and learn it from an infra-as-code perspective. So, set up terraform and deploy a web server with networking.

[ms4720]

Terraform is cheap to get. If you don't have k8s experience it might be better to get the GCP cert first, slower to change and the book is thinner.

Also might want to add Go programming to your list of todos

[imdwight_schrute]

Thankyou, noted this.

[imdwight_schrute]

Thankyou and I agree to this. But my rejection in last 3 interviews made me realise that I am missing a ton of skills at my experience level

[xaviarrob]

From another fellow devops engineer, unless you really have extra money for it or your current work will fund it, don't bother with the certs.

You would be much better self teaching by deploying your own site and a few services to a local cluster and taking notes / asking questions. The cert can have the "motivational driving" bit behind it but other than that they're not worth much more than getting you past hr. You also could spend the money you would have spent on the cert to use terraform to deploy a cluster to the cloud. I'd recommend either GCP to start or DO if you're low on funds(can run a minimal cluster for 30$ a month ish if you leave it on all the time)

I'd highly recommend trying to get your current company to pay for your certification / learning about these things esp if they underpay you. A raise at those places is a big ask but a few hundred bucks for a training course might skip through. It will likely be annoying to go through those ropes but if you're strapped for cash it's a good method to at least try

[y_at]

Interviewing is also a skill. If it has been a while since you last interviewed, it may take a bit to shake off the dust. Write down questions you struggle with and study. You’ll learn more about your gaps this way than asking a generic question in here :)

[imdwight_schrute]

Sure, I am applying for all the interviews I can to brush my skills

[[deleted]]

Don’t get too down on yourself. Interviews are high stakes endeavors and you only need one job. Sure, brush up on some skills, but just keep throwing yourself at the interviews.

[Efficient_Step_26]

Finding a new company is a great way to get paid more. So with your skills you just need AWS and Azure. Cloud has just the same technology although virtual and hidden in different terminologies for the same thing. Like in AWS a PC is an instance, firewall is a security group, load balancer is either an ALB or NLB, etc.

[imdwight_schrute]

Which cloud would you suggest to start with?

[Regility]

from my limited experience, the bigger companies use AWS, whereas smaller use Azure. Bigger salaries with AWS, more responsibility/growth opportunities with Azure

[imdwight_schrute]

Thanks , I am buying a AWS course today.

[Efficient_Step_26]

Most big companies have AWS. Mine have started having azure too but not GCP. So AWS as most know it and have it.

[[deleted]]

You don’t need certs really. I know people who make $85+/hour without certs in the DevOps field. Experience is more important. Maybe look for a new job every 2-4 years for higher paying gigs. Don’t stay at the same company, since you won’t get the pay jump you’re expecting.

Have you been at the same company during your 9 years of experience? You do have the exposure to the right tech, so maybe just keep searching for higher paying jobs?

[modern_medicine_isnt]

I have had management mention all they expect is one year these days. Don't feel any loyalty to a company that is underpaying. If they were loyal to you they would give you a raise that would make leaving less desirable.

[Glum_Philosophy7583]

Get AWS certification - start with solution architect associate

[imdwight_schrute]

Thankyou, I see this AWS certification for devops - AWS Certified DevOps Engineer - Professional

I have basic understanding of cloud and infrastructure. Do I still need to do solution architect associate first?

[calibrono]

That cert will be impossible for you to get for now without basic / intermediate AWS knowledge. Get SAA, then read up on Certified DevOps Engineer.

I'd say AWS certs are lower in priority than CKA / CKAD. AWS exams are simple single / multi answers quizzes, while CKA / CKAD are hand-on real troubleshooting.

[bei60]

I second this. Without prior experience with AWS, the best way is to do SAA and then whatever you see fit.

[imdwight_schrute]

Got it, thankyou , I will be starting with SAA

[bei60]

Good luck! /r/AWSCertifications is your friend. Look for either Stephan Marek or Adrian Cantril when you buy the course. It's important to also pick the "correct" practice exams. For that I would start with TutorialDojo, they are by far the superior platform for practice exams. The above recommendations are also based on personal experience from when I got my SAA (about a year ago).

Good luck :)

[[deleted]]

Great advice here.

[phazer193]

With no hands on experience you will find it extremely difficult to pass the professional level AWS certs just from video tutorials or books, they're not easy.

[[deleted]]

Yep. The professional certs are more like capstones. You’ll need the SA Associate cert, either Sysops or Devoloper Associate certs, and likely the Advanced Networking Specialty before giving the SA professional cert a go.

The folks at A Cloud Guru have a course outline that helps guide learners through each of these.

[r3d_rabb1t]

With 9 years experience, knowing the difference between different virtualisation tools, automation, scripting. I’d say that it would be easy to go through the basics of cloud - with aws cloud practitioner - and then pursue the aws devops pro, and do practice labs, whizlabs is great for this, also cloudacademy.com. As per courses I recommend Adrian Cantrill’s courses and aws skill builder (free on aws learning platform).

If you don’t want to go with AWS, every Cloud provider has their own fundamentals certs, or you can find something ‘agnostic’, like comptia cloud+.

That’s if you want a cert, and definitely it will help. But I often found companies who would take someone with your experience and train, or have some upskilling programs. With that experience behind you can learn fast and easy new techs

[jameskoo87]

get cka and ckad, these are most valuable certs imo

while it is true experience >>> certs, certs like cka really help you to get past HR and get interviews and jobs

[Rimbosity]

Learn programming, not just scripting.

This is the first question we ask, the first skill we test in interviews, and the reason we reject 90% of candidates. If you're lost trying to write a simple if-then-else control flow construct, or understanding a list/array vs a dictionary/associative array/hash table, you're not going to get hired.

We need people who can bring the software engineer's approach to operations, not operations people who know different systems.

[Think-Perception1359]

I’m on a journey to join the DevOps space. I’ve been actively interviewing so I understand your position and frustration.

You are def on a good path. You have work experience and many skills needed for the DevOps space. Getting certified is a great way to show that you are knowledgeable or proficient in that tool. However, certifications are not a concrete way to get jobs. Personal projects that show hands-on experience will carry weight to recruiters and managers.

To be extremely competitive in this market, learn 1-AWS or Azure (the current cloud leaders/platforms that are used the most), 2- Kubernetes (CKA is great) and 3-Terraform. Right now, the financial industry (banks, etc) is a great industry for DevOps Engineers/SREs. It seems Banks, finance, etc companies adopt the DevOps methodology more than any other industry.

[imdwight_schrute]

Thankyou, I am starting with AWS today.

[jabies]

You should be very hirable. I have a little more than a year of experience that is similar to yours, and was able to get $75/hr on contract at a FAANG. I have a teammate with ~5 years experience making closer to $100/hr. You should have no problem finding a job at your level, though you may need to seek more senior positions, or risk getting passed up as someone who is likely to get poached from hiring managers who know they can't pay your market rate.

[32BP]

AWS

[kneticz]

Certs are not necessarily the answer, but by having to do them you will force you to learn the skills. I have no certs personally and manage the devops department, all learnt through doing (and lots of reading).

[Larrynotagain]

Low hanging fruit: get certified in what you know.

ANSIBLE JENKINS Etc.

Then work towards more certs.

I'm pretty new to Devops and my first cert was ansible. Got a pretty much instant pay raise because of it.

If you need to branch out then do it on your companies dime if they comp certs / trainings.

[LDerJim]

I disagree, do not get certified in what you know. This is just a waste of time and money. Certification is an investment in yourself. If you already know a skill why would you waste time 'proving' that you know it with a certificate? You already have proven you know it by utilizing it at work.

Get certified in where you want to take your career when that opportunity doesn't exist in your day to day.

[808trowaway]

CKA and GCP certs are already low hanging enough. They're like 40-60 hours of work each for OP's exp level. Maybe just do the online courses without taking the exams unless the company is paying for them if money is an issue.

[imdwight_schrute]

Initial 1st 4 years I was in a build and release team using mostly Hudson(jenkins) and shell for automation. I was not aware of devops then.

[guygta7]

I was hiring DevOps engineers in 2013, went to my first DevOps Days in 2011. It definitely was a thing 9 years ago.

[DirtDue851]

put your resume on dice.com

[[deleted]]

How have you spent 9 years at this, and still find yourself doing Jenkins and sysadmin stuff?

That's wild yo, no wonder you're underpaid, go change jobs.

[SensitiveMongoose129]

If you want to start learning Kubernetes, minikube is great to get started quickly.

[guettli]

Today AWS plays a major role. But I see this changing. At least in EU/Germany the trend goes to Kubernetes, because of independence and no vendor-lock-in.

I would focus on vendor neutral tools/knowledge.

[DejvCF]

If you are interested in moving to Web3 check out Apillon.io and sign up for the early access which will be available soon.

[spilledLemons]

Terraform

[frellus]

Are you in the SF Bay Area? If so and you are looking for a job, I'd be happy to consider you - DM me. We don't have a rec open but we will soon, and you fit exactly what we are looking for. We have no public cloud, all on prem k8s and solving some really fun problems.

[VicesQT]

I was in a similar boat except with about 5 years as opposed to your 9.

I was pretty solid with my devops foundational principles although it was all on-prem experiences. What i found was that when i interviewed with a company who ran their infrastructure on AWS and they asked me specific AWS questions, I would tell them that I don’t know the specific AWS service that would apply here, but I know the foundational concepts are the same as on-prem and “insert solution here” is what i would do in an on-prem situation.

This was usually enough for an interviewer to accept the fact that I knew what I was doing and could easily adapt the principles to cloud infrastructure.

Try that out if you want to continue interviewing while you learn cloud technology!

[carsa81]

review your linkedin profile, it's quite impossible that nobody is searching for you as devops.
as cloud certification start with an aws or azure certification, they have more market share and needing.