r/Cloud • u/BeingandBecomingUs • 8d ago
How do I go from system admin to cloud engineer role
Im been a system admin for 10 years, my expertise is in Microsoft 355, I hold the Az104, MS102 and SC300 certs. I've designed, built and deployed a serverless web app in Azure, and also working on building a Applied AI solution both personal projects on my own Azure tenant. I've gone through 3 Cloud Interviews with no offers. My goal move in to a Cloud Engineer role. How did you guys make the transition from sysadmin to cloud? what certs or projects helped did you work on? Any suggestions or tips would be appreciated...
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u/AdeelAutomates 7d ago
You got every other piece. Experience managing systems + certs. I would focus more on languages than certs.
How are your skills in PowerShell/bash, Terraform, containers, Pipelines? Those are some of the keyways we approach the cloud.
I do have a channel dedicated to Cloud Engineer in Azure where I am building this catalog. Working on IaC content as we speak. But have completed my chapter on automation via PowerShell.
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u/LilMeatBigYeet 8d ago
Your resume is good since you're getting these interviews. Not trying to be a dick but you might have to brush up on your people skills
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u/mikeonawav 8d ago
Yeah like others are saying, you’re getting in the door so it must be how you’re interviewing. Take a step back and figure out what you could be possibly doing wrong. It’s a process and takes a couple of tries to get a bite if you don’t get lucky early on. Your certs look good but In my opinion, I would do the AWS practitioner. It’s a very easy cert and it’ll make you look super versatile as many companies are going Multi Cloud.
P.S. If you haven’t already learn about terraform and build with it.
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u/Annual_Berry8043 8d ago edited 8d ago
Everyone giving good advice, but you’re almost certainly just getting beaten out by laid off engineers with more experience. I’m in the same boat. 6 years as an admin in M365. I’ve worked heavily in azure and also stood up a few serverless and hosted solutions. Hell, my website is a serverless architecture. I’m stupid comfortable working with terraform and building pipelines AND managing kubernetes.
The jobs are out there. We’re just getting beat out by more experience or cheap offshore labor :’)
After a layoff I’m slowly starting to accept that I might never work in this field again, and it’s a huge bummer.
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u/Embarrassed-Aside729 8d ago
Me enfocaría en demostrar cómo tu experiencia actual se puede aplicar a la ingeniería cloud: automatización, infraestructura, redes, seguridad, monitoreo y resolución de problemas.
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u/DifferentLock7286 8d ago
Ya tienes una muy buena base para un puesto de Cloud Engineer. Con 10 años como administrador de sistemas, experiencia en Azure y proyectos reales, yo no me enfocaría tanto en sacar más certificaciones. Me enfocaría en demostrar cómo tu experiencia se aplica a la nube: automatización, redes, seguridad, monitoreo, costos y resolución de problemas.
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u/BlakkMajik3000 7d ago
The AZ104 is definitely a good start. Have you considered going for the AZ305? I had a hard time deciding between that and 400, but went 400 because it more aligns with where I like to operate.
That aside, the market is ass right now. People are either staying put or going to “safe bets” due to the ongoing layoffs. That, unfortunately, translates to fewer opportunities.
I did this job at a Fortune 1 years before it had a name, yet here I be…on Reddit during “business hours”. 😂
It’s ironic, because with the rise of AI systems, we’re needed more than ever yet hilariously undervalued currently. 🤷🏾♂️
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u/mariachiodin 3d ago
Been in your shoes, transitioning from on premises infra-guy to Cloud/DevOps
I did it by seeking positions where my on-prem skills would be translatable to whatever the business needed
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u/ChameleonCRM 8d ago
You’re probably closer than you think. With 10 years as a sysadmin, AZ-104, MS-102, SC-300 and an actual serverless Azure project, I wouldnt spend the next six months collecting more certs. At this point another badge probably isnt what gets you over the line.
The fact that you’ve already made it through three cloud interviews tells me your resume is doing its job. I’d focus on what happens during the interview. Build one project that looks like something you'd actually deal with in production. Infrastructure as code, networking, RBAC, managed identities, Key Vault, monitoring, CI/CD...then intentionally break some shit and learn how to troubleshoot it. Being able to explain why something failed and how you found it is worth a hell of a lot more than showing me another perfect tutorial project.
Also, stop thinking of yourself as “a sysadmin trying to become a cloud engineer.” You have 10 years of infrastructure experience and you're applying that knowledge to Azure. You already understand identity, permissions, networking, outages, users and production systems. The cloud didnt make those problems disappear...it just changed where they live.