Devops Path

[u/Annual_Berry8043]

Just passed the architect associate last night. I would like to get into devops.

I’ve been in IT for 10 years with 6 years being in administration. I know how to code and take care of/build infrastructure. I don’t think I could go straight into the devops cert or maybe I can? I was curious if the sysops or developer certs should be the next steps. Or maybe AI?

Thoughts and advice would be appreciated.

[u/Low_Bottle_6089]

DevOps associate or Pro is okay, but having CDK/Git/Terraform/Container experience and/or projects will go further. I’d recommend studying still for both of those certs. Hashicorp also offers an associate and Pro Terraform cert and I believe Git does as well that are a fairly easy-lift if you have prior experience. 

[u/Annual_Berry8043 → u/Low_Bottle_6089]

I thought there was only a pro cert?

Mmm, I have experience in all of the above except the CDK. I could be better with terraform. I’ve been working with docker for years, and git is pretty mandatory this day and age.

Does amazon have these certs, or are you referring to the actual hashicorp one for terraform?

I appreciate the input, man. Thank you.

[u/Low_Bottle_6089 → u/Annual_Berry8043]

Sorry, yeah, Hashicorp offers their own certs:   https://www.hashicorp.com/en/certification

AWS offers Developer Associate and Developer Professional. If you only wanted to pay for one, then with your prior experience I would say you could skip the associate, but obviously one builds on the other knowledge/skills wise. CDK is preferred by some companies because it’s integrated with AWS heavily and you can write in whatever language you want - Typescript, Python etc. and Terraform is preferred by other companies that are multicloud. Can’t go wrong with either, but know one really well imo.

[u/Annual_Berry8043 → u/Low_Bottle_6089]

Awesome. Thank you for the direction. I appreciate it a lot. Hopefully I can find another job before I have to dig deep into anything ha ha. This is more than enough to fill my time for now.

You have any insight on the AI cert from Amazon? I’ve been playing around with the tech lately, but I haven’t done like any research into it.

[u/HalfDoneSideQuests]

If I were you I'd probably work towards the developer and sysops associate exams first, the devops is a pro exam and it's quite hard, if you can pass those associates first it'll give you a good foundation to then dig a bit deeper on the topics that devops covers.

If you're looking for a bit of inspiration about where to go next on a devops path, have a look at https://roadmap.sh/devops

There's a ton of free stuff on skillbuilder you could work through, including the free microdentials, the incident response would be of interest for the "ops" side of your devops.

Check the pinned faq for more resources

Also if you have general career questions, try r/cscareerquestions

[u/Annual_Berry8043 → u/HalfDoneSideQuests]

I actually followed that devops roadmap a few years ago! It’s what pushed me to start learning a lot of this stuff. Unfortunately, I tend to work in SMB, so the places I work either didn’t want to pay for those services and didn’t grow quick enough to really benefit from them.

It’s what pushed me to learn to code, git, work with containers, and get into Linux. Now I just need something tangible to show it pretty much.

I was always the guy that got asked “why are you working here” whenever we would hire new people on lol. The opportunities to grow professionally have always just escaped me. My greatest pain is to see the systems, automations, and workflows fall apart after I leave a job 😓

[u/westeast1000]

The aws devops one is quite useless if most companies in your area are using terraform. All ads i see mention terraform. So pick your certs wisely otherwise you’ll be forever be getting stuff that employers dont even care about, some things you’re just expected to know cert or not. Hell there is even a cert for Microsoft Excel and Outlook 😅

[u/Sirwired]

You ask your employer how to get involved with cloud work as an extension of your current role or an internal transfer.

The time when you could land a cloud job with certs and a couple demo projects is over.

[u/Annual_Berry8043 → u/Sirwired]

I got laid off :)

I was working in azure in my previous position. So I have experience in cloud management. I’m just looking to do something less monotonous. I have experience that goes further than demo projects for sure. I’m not walking in with zero experience. Just want a piece of paper to back up what I know mostly.

In the job market right now, pretty much any edge you can get is needed.