How Can I Gain Production Experience with Kubernetes?

I feel you on the certification costs being too high! Instead of focusing solely on certifications, maybe you could start a blog about your experiences with your cluster. Writing about your projects weekly could help showcase your learning process and problem-solving skills. While it might not have the same weight as a certification, it does demonstrate initiative and a commitment to growth in the field—it could catch the eye of potential employers.

A great way to boost your profile is to get the Kubernetes certifications, specifically the CKA (Certified Kubernetes Administrator). While certs aren’t everything, they do show employers that you’re serious about your learning. I had around two years working with production-grade K8s in Google Cloud, and I found doing the certification really helped deepen my understanding, especially in areas that I might have overlooked before. The CKA exam is hands-on and practical, which is critical since your experience level will matter a lot in interviews.

I get that resources can be tight, but here's a suggestion: try building a small cluster on your own machine or through cloud services. Deploy an API service, set up monitoring with Prometheus and Grafana, and simulate stress tests to assess its scalability. Document everything, noting how the service responds to different scenarios. You could even publish a detailed report on your findings on GitHub. This kind of hands-on project could really impress interviewers and show your willingness to learn more about Kubernetes, especially if you explain what you've learned so far and express your desire to delve deeper into scaling microservices.