Is it hard to switch from System Admin to Platform Engineering?

I've made the transition myself after 20 years in IT as a systems admin/engineer. In my experience, you definitely need some coding skills, though you may not code as well as someone who's been a software engineer. I've had to read code, debug, and even write fixes and features, plus participate in code reviews. I earned an AS in CompSci, a BS in IT, and took certification courses in Python, without ever holding a pure app dev job. Also, familiarize yourself with CI/CD and Kubernetes (k8s) as necessary depending on what your target Platform team does.

Transitioning was incredibly freeing; no more late-night trips to troubleshoot VPN issues! To succeed, I’d suggest mastering PowerShell beyond just the basics, learning AWS CDK, Terraform, YAML, and how to work with JSON.

Transitioning to platform engineering is largely about understanding 'YAML engineering.' You don’t have to be a software engineer (SWE) but knowing YAML is essential. Also, while k8s knowledge is valuable, it's not the sole focus of platform engineering.

I moved to Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) about 20 years ago, and it's been a great choice. The key obstacle for me was overcoming the fear of automating tasks. I’m motivated to automate because I dislike repetitive work! Don’t underestimate your development skills. Even if you don’t have that 'pure app dev' label, you might be a stronger developer than many with that title since you understand how the entire stack functions.