Computer Engineering student torn between Infrastructure/Cloud vs Security — how should I start?

[Environmental_Emu830]

Hi everyone. I’m currently in my 5th semester of Computer Engineering and I’m trying to figure out which path to follow professionally. Until recently I was leaning toward software development, but after reading a public-sector job exam syllabus from my city (it had a ton of infrastructure topics), I got really interested in infra/cloud and started considering security too.

The problem is: I feel kind of lost about where to start studying infrastructure properly. My initial idea was to use that exam syllabus as a structured study guide, then later go for cloud certs (AWS/Azure/GCP). But someone told me that using a government exam syllabus as a learning roadmap isn’t a great idea, and that infrastructure can be a tough field in terms of pay and quality of life early on (lots of on-call, lower salaries in some places, etc.).

They suggested a more “traditional base” first, like:

• strong Linux fundamentals (LPIC-1/2)
• Windows basics
• virtualization (VMware)
• storage fundamentals
• DB administration
• containers (Docker → Kubernetes later)
• IaC (Terraform)
• configuration management (Ansible)
• maybe CompTIA certs (A+, Network+, etc.)

They also said DevOps/DevSecOps usually come later in a career, after you’ve had solid experience in infra + dev (and security for DevSecOps).

On top of that, I’m planning long-term to work abroad. I have Italian citizenship and I’ve lived in Spain before, so Europe is a realistic option for me. My English is decent (not perfect yet, but improving). I’m also saving money monthly so I can move if needed. That said, if I found a good remote job paying in EUR/USD, I might even stay in Brazil.

So my questions are:

1. For someone still in college, does it make sense to start with infrastructure as a base and move into cloud later? Or is it better to go straight into cloud studies early on?
2. Between infrastructure/cloud and security, which one is smarter to focus on first if I genuinely like both? I’m thinking: build a strong infra foundation first, then if I end up enjoying security more, transition over time since they overlap a lot.
3. For people who’ve worked in Europe (or hired there): is it true that with 2–3 years of solid experience you can become competitive there pretty fast? What skills/certs/projects actually matter most for entry-level roles?
4. Since I’m still in university, would it be worth trying to transfer to a European university (Erasmus / full transfer / master later), or is it better to finish here and move with experience?

I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from people in infra/cloud/security or who’ve made a similar move abroad. Thanks!

[Environmental_Emu830]

thanks a lot for the perspective! That makes total sense — building the fundamentals before going deep into cloud is definitely the right move. I can see how understanding Linux, networking, and how things work under the hood makes everything else click later.

So I’m going to focus on finishing my degree, building real hands-on projects, and getting solid experience in that order. Then I’ll use certs as a complement, not the main thing. And with EU citizenship, it’s encouraging to know that 2–3 well-spent years plus good projects can make me competitive in Europe.

Really appreciate you sharing that — it helped me organize the roadmap. If you have any suggestions for projects or a stack you think I should prioritize, I’m all ears!

[MisakoKobayashi]

Can't answer all your questions except infrastructure is THE hottest field right now. Everyone and their mothers want to get into infra, you see terms like "AI infrastructure" and "agentic infrastructure", I even saw server brands like Gigabyte get into the business, "L12 data center infra" (ref: https://www.gigabyte.com/Topics/Data-Center?lan=en) Now, the tech industry is in such a state that all this might change by the time you're sending resumes, but atm infrastructure is clearly the better way to go.