I've been in application and cloud support for a decade now, and I've hit a wall with salary growth. I'm eager to move into a core DevOps role, but I'm having a tough time breaking through, even with relevant certifications like Azure Architect, GCP Associate Cloud Engineer, and Terraform Associate. While I've had hands-on experience with cloud applications, containers, and CI/CD pipelines using GitHub Actions, most of my background is heavy in support. I'm curious if anyone here has made a similar shift—what steps did you take? Were there specific projects, internal movements, or networking strategies that helped you? Also, are there any freelance opportunities where I could gain hands-on experience, even if unpaid at first? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
5 Answers
The main hurdle is that "support-heavy" experience you mentioned. Certifications are great for getting noticed, but they don’t show your engineering skills. Focus on creating and showcasing personal projects that highlight your ability to design secure pipelines and infrastructure. Contributing to open source can also help.
If you really want to break in, turn every task at work into a learning opportunity. Working in support can give you the chance to work on scripts and automation. Consider setting up a home lab with cheap resources from Cloudflare or AWS. It doesn’t need to cost a lot. Create projects from scratch to learn Terraform and GitHub Actions—this hands-on experience is invaluable.
Why not focus on building a small personal project? Even a simple service that incorporates full CI/CD and infrastructure automation can showcase your abilities and make transitioning into a DevOps role much easier.
I've seen people successfully transition by concentrating on practical experience over just getting certifications. Look for projects at your current job or start your own ones; those will help reinforce your journey into DevOps. Have you worked on any specific DevOps tasks in your current role?
To be honest, many people have gotten into DevOps with much less experience than you. Just keep applying wherever you can. It’s a tough job market right now, but since you already have a job, focus on building up your skills. Be ready to start at a lower seniority level and possibly take a pay cut when transitioning; that was my experience too.
Did you have any prior experience with DevOps tools before making the switch? How did you manage to learn on the job?
I started in support too. I used my experiences to set up a cheap home network, learned to automate using Hyper-V, and created personal projects that helped me grow. Test out as many tools as you can!