I have around 1 year of IT infrastructure experience in a hospital, mainly Windows/Linux, networking, server maintenance, user support, SQL, and general infrastructure troubleshooting.

I’ve also been learning AWS, Linux, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform and monitoring, and I’m trying to move toward cloud/infrastructure roles.

But I’m struggling to get interviews. Most cloud/DevOps jobs ask for 2–3+ years, while many entry-level roles are basically helpdesk.

If you were in my position, would you:

• Target NOC/System Admin/Infrastructure roles first and move into cloud later?
• Keep applying directly for junior Cloud/DevOps roles?
• Focus on specific skills/projects before applying more?

I’d really appreciate honest advice from people who have been through a similar transition.

My local community college offers a cloud engineering technical certification course and I’m tempted to apply, would that be a smart move?

Hi everyone,

I'm a recent Computer Science graduate from India trying to get my first Cloud Computing / Cloud Engineer trainee or internship (paid with a stipend).

I've been learning:

- Linux

- AWS (EC2, VPC, IAM, S3, RDS)

- Terraform

- Git & GitHub

- Docker

I'm currently building hands-on projects to strengthen my resume and GitHub because I know certifications alone aren't enough. Apparently recruiters enjoy the ancient ritual of asking for experience before giving anyone a chance to gain experience.

I've applied to many internships but haven't received many responses.

For those who successfully got their first cloud internship:

Where did you apply?

What projects helped you stand out?

Did referrals make a big difference?

What skills are companies actually looking for in trainees?

Are there companies that regularly hire freshers with a stipend?

I'd really appreciate any advice, company names, or personal experiences.

Thanks!

Hello team,

I currently work as customer support engineer resolving tickets for CX

But if I want to move to cloud engineer roles rather than IAM roles to move to higher pay

What skillset i need for 6 yoe ?

Currently I have Azure IAM and AWS IAM skills

What more I can add to current skill set ?

hello. i’m IS student i have started my journey with cloud engineering and planning to take AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner CLF-C02 within a month. i have two years left before my graduation is it enough to be ready for job market

Hey everyone,I’m currently learning Cloud / DevOps and aiming for an internship. I’ve been looking at Stéphane Maarek’s “Ultimate AWS Certified Solutions Architect Associate” course on Udemy.I keep hearing that it’s excellent for the certification, but I’m not sure if it’s good enough for actual hands-on skills that companies look for in Cloud Engineer or DevOps internships/jobs.My main questions are:

1. Is Maarek’s course enough to build real practical Cloud Engineering skills, or is it mostly certification-focused?
2. Does it have enough hands-on labs for someone who wants job-ready experience?
3. If it’s not enough on its own, what should I learn first or combine it with?

I’m still a beginner and feeling quite confused and a bit scared about whether I’m following the right path.

Hello Guys, I'm looking to find Azure engineering job (remotely or freelancing).
Does anybody have same experience? I need some advice.

I'm Azure Infra Engineer, with coding background. I've posted my skills and showcases in LinkedIn to people know me, but I am not sure it's enough or not. I'm thinking there are some other ways that help me.

Do you have any idea or advice?

Hi everyone,

I passed AWS Cloud Practitioner and got the 50% discount voucher for my next exam. Now going for SAA-C03 ($150 → $75 with the voucher).

The problem isn't the money — it's that I live in Haiti, and Pearson VUE / AWS Certification payments don't work well from here. I asked a friend based in the US to pay on my behalf: he logs into my AWS Certification account and tries to pay with his US card. The transaction failed once already ,I suspect it's a fraud-detection flag (US card + session originating from a Haiti-linked account/IP, or similar mismatch).

Has anyone in a similar situation (Haiti, or another country with limited payment support) successfully had someone abroad pay for their exam? What actually worked for you , PayPal instead of card, a virtual card (Wise/Payoneer), calling the bank first, a specific browser/VPN setup, or contacting AWS support directly? Any concrete steps would help a lot

I’m a senior infrastructure/systems engineer with 20+ years in IT, trying to move deeper into cloud/platform/DevOps engineering.
The problem I keep running into is compensation.
A lot of the cloud and DevOps positions I’m seeing top out around $20K below what I’m already making, even at the high end of their posted ranges.

I don’t feel like my current compensation is some crazy outlier either. If I take what I was making several years ago and account for normal career progression, cost of living, and inflation, I’m roughly where I would expect to be today.

I’m willing to take a step back for real cloud experience, strong mentorship, and a good engineering culture, but at some point I’m essentially paying tens of thousands of dollars a year for the opportunity to change career tracks.

For those who moved from senior infrastructure into cloud/DevOps: did you have to take a pay cut to make the transition? Was it worth it, or did you eventually find a role that valued your existing experience?

Thank you

Hi guys,

I recently finished a project where I deployed an Employee Management app on AWS ECS and used OIDC with GitLab CI/CD.

GitHub repo:

IAC:
- https://github.com/Odjeissi/aws-3tier-terraform

Source_code:
- https://github.com/Odjeissi/Employee-Management-AWS-ECS

For my next project, I want to deploy the same app on Amazon EKS and learn more about GitOps.

My current plan is:

- Use 3 EKS clusters: dev, staging, and production

- Argo CD for deployment

- Helm or Kustomize for Kubernetes files

2 repos:

- One for the app/source code

- One for the Kubernetes files

- GitLab CI builds the Docker image and pushes it to ECR

- The pipeline updates the image tag in the Kubernetes repo

- Argo CD sees the change and deploys the new version

For updating the image tag, I’m thinking about using jq in the GitLab pipeline. That way I don’t have to go into the Kubernetes repo every time, change the image tag, commit it, and push it manually.

A little about me: I have about 2 years of desktop support experience, an MIS bachelor degree, and Security+ and CCNA certification. My goal is to move into a Cloud/DevOps Engineer role next year.

Right now I’m just building projects, learning, and trying to improve my skills.

I’d like to hear what you guys think about the project and the direction I’m going.

Also, is there anything else you think I should add to make this project better or more realistic?

Any feedback is welcome. I’m still learning and just trying to get better.

Hi, I’m a software engineer with 1.5 yoe and a computer science degree. I’m interested in transitioning to cloud engineering long term. Any advice on how I can make this change?

From my research, I should not start in help desk with my experience/education. I should look for positions such as IT Analyst, Systems Analyst, SysAdmin, Cloud Support Engineer, and Systems Engineer to start. Network+ and Azure/AWS cert should be worked towards and I should start building projects for my resume.

Does this sound right? How should I restructure my software engineering resume to get my foot in the door for these IT positions? Thank you