I'm a QA Engineer in the gaming industry with about nine years of experience, and I'm seriously considering moving into DevOps. I understand the SDLC and STLC, have followed features from specification through development, testing, and production release, and have worked with Jenkins for builds and server deployments. I use Git mainly for creating pull requests, but I need more practice with commands and workflows such as branching, pushing, pulling, and rebasing. I've also used Grafana to investigate logs and issues, AWS SSM to access servers and modify configurations, and I'm currently learning the basics of Python and Java.
I have a good relationship with my company's DevOps team and am considering an internal transition once I'm better prepared. I know I still have a lot to learn and want to approach the change realistically. I'm 34 and sometimes worry that I'm starting late, but I'm committed to putting in the necessary effort.
What would be a practical learning roadmap for someone with my background? Which areas should I prioritize first—Linux, networking, Git, scripting, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, Terraform, AWS, or something else? How much programming should I learn, and should I start with Bash or Python? Are there beginner-friendly courses, resources, or project ideas you would recommend? How can I make the most of my existing experience with Jenkins, deployments, monitoring, troubleshooting, and the software release lifecycle? Would moving internally into a DevOps team be reasonable before I meet every requirement listed in an external job description?
If you were in my position, what would you focus on during the next six to twelve months, and in what order?
1 Answer
The biggest change is moving from someone who mainly follows existing processes to someone who designs, automates, and maintains those processes. Instead of only executing deployment steps or checking whether a pipeline works, start learning how to write the pipeline, define the environment, automate the setup, and document the recovery process. That mindset shift is important, and the technical skills will build around it.
That makes sense. I’ll focus on understanding and automating the underlying process rather than just using the tools that are already in place.