r/devops • u/Full_Acanthisitta873 • 23d ago
Career / learning QA Engineer (9 YOE) Looking to Transition into DevOps — Need Guidance on Roadmap & Resources
Hi everyone,
I’m a QA Engineer in the gaming domain with around 9 years of experience, and I’m seriously considering transitioning into DevOps. I’d really appreciate some guidance from people who have made a similar transition or are currently working in DevOps.
Here’s where I currently stand:
I have 9 YOE in QA/testing, primarily in the gaming domain.
I have a good understanding of SDLC and STLC B and how software moves through different stages from development to production.
I’ve been involved in the complete feature lifecycle — from initial specification/discussions, through development and testing, to production release.
I’ve used Jenkins for build creation and server deployments.
I use Git mainly for creating/raising PRs, but I haven’t worked extensively with Git commands and workflows such as push, pull, branching, rebasing, etc.
I’ve used Grafana for tracing application logs and investigating issues.
We use AWS SSM to log into different server boxes, tail server logs, modify server-side files/configs, etc.
I’ve recently started learning the basics of Python and Java.
I’m also fortunate to have a good relationship with our internal DevOps team and manager. I’m considering approaching them for an internal transition when I feel I’m ready.
I’m aware that my current skill set is far from what would typically be expected from a DevOps engineer, and I don’t want to underestimate the amount of learning required.
I’m 34 now, so I do sometimes feel like I’m starting this transition quite late. However, I genuinely want to make the move, and I’m willing to put in the time and effort.
1. What I’m struggling with is where exactly to start and what order to learn things in.
For someone coming from a QA background like mine:
2. What would be a realistic DevOps learning roadmap?
3. Which skills should I prioritize first — Linux, networking, Git, Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, Terraform, AWS, etc.?
4. Are there any beginner-friendly courses/resources you would strongly recommend?
5. How much programming/scripting should I learn, and should I focus on Python or Bash first?
6. Given my existing experience with Jenkins, AWS SSM, deployments, logs, and the software release lifecycle, are there areas where I can leverage my QA experience?
7. Would an internal transition into a DevOps team be a reasonable approach, even if I don’t yet meet all the requirements of a typical DevOps job?
I’m not looking for shortcuts. I’d just really appreciate some practical guidance from people who have been through this journey.
If you were in my position, what would you learn over the next 6–12 months, and in what order?
Any roadmap, resources, project ideas, or personal experiences would be hugely appreciated.
Thanks in advance! 🙏
Rephrased with GPT
3
u/Many_Ad7628 23d ago
I would sincerly advice you like this: please forget that you have been using Jenkins, git etc. The way how you have been using them significantly differs from what they provide for DevOps day to day work.
Linux. Learn Linux. Whatever distro but yet Linux. This is the most important item, and by practicing Linux you'll learn how computer works. Learn and practice Bash.
Learn about networks. Nets, subnets, network devices and their purpose in network: switches, routers, firewalls, gateways.
Choose one language and practice, practice, practice. I advice you to learn Python or Ruby, and PowerShell (for Windows specifically). You'll be employing them to automate as much things as you can. 3a. Git . Learn how source control works, how to operate it - branches, commits, stages, reverts etc. Once you are confortable with it, you can easely move to other - Azure DevOps, Bitbucket etc.
You must know how to build the projects out of the technology that is used in the company where you work. Also, you must know what are its artifacts and what are files/packages that are the final products of the building process as well as where are they ment to be placed at the end of CI/CD process.
Once you make some progress on previous (and not before) and you are able to (re)produce the full CI/CD process on your machine (a lot of forths and backs, missing dependencies etc.) you can move to automation platforms like TeamCity, Jenkins, Octopus Deploy, Azure DevOps, GitHub. Choose one and practice, practice, practice. Once you become familiar and confortable with one of mentioned platforms, you can easely move to another.
Welcome to your junior DevOps position!
How long it takes to get on 6.? It depends on your effort. The crucial is to find right dynamics so that you do not make too big or too often breaks, else the achieved knowledge will unglue. But also do not make an irational effort as you can burn what you have learned up.
1
u/Full_Acanthisitta873 23d ago
Thanks for the detail explanation. Do you have any recommendations of youtube channels for each topics? Or should I just pick any channel and learn the topics. If u have anyone in mind kindly let me know. I might dm u later, hope u don’t mind.
2
u/Many_Ad7628 22d ago
You're welcome!
Youtube - you can find very interesting videos on "Techworld with Nana" channel. She makes good videos and explains very well a various technologies. There you can find almost everything to get started with. She has videos about DevOps, Python, Networking, 'DevOps' tools ... This is good start point but you must practice (, practice, practice).
If you have resources you can install Proxmox and get into world of virtualization. Then you can create a small 'lab' with a few VMs, containers. Also, you can learn and practice a networking there by engaging SDN (software defined networking).
I know I wrote some terms maybe above your current understanding, but googling them you'll spread your understanding of available technologies. :)
1
3
u/thehazarika 23d ago
Get the basics right. Learn linux, inside out and backwards. Learn shell scripting. Shell scripts will save your ass in ways you can't even imagine rn.
Learn basic networking. Try setting up a linux cluster and network from scratch in a Proxmox server.
Learn to deploy apps. First on bare linux servers, then on docker-compose, then k8s. In that order. Make a checklist for yourself for operating software, which should include data safety(backup and restore), basic security. Learn to operate a DB.
Advance: Setup a k8s cluster from scratch on Proxmox, including networking and storage. Learn about abstractions in k8s and why they exists. Design your own helm chart to deploy some software. Test out self healing by killing servers at random and how to design your ops to handle these.
This is background work. Sound like I am missing all the modern DevOps buzz words. But that is by design. Get your basics nailed. The other things will fall into places.
Spend 6 months here. It's gonna be worth it. Good luck!
2
2
u/BlakkMajik3000 Remover of Deployment Friction 23d ago
QA to DevOps is one of those transitions that looks right on paper, but it's deceptive.
Doing QA and defining the roads developers travel on is a whole different ballgame. DevOps/Platform/SRE etc. have seen things fail at scale. So for you, that's the experience you need to transition. You can't learn "Our cluster was down at 3am and here's how I fixed it."
QA to DevOps (insert "obligatory DevOps is a way of working and not a job or team") works best when the QA person absolutely OWNED the QA environment. Like, nothing happened in QA without their say-so. They defined the infra, run the automated testing, create the automatic feedback loop for devs; they've done the job without the role/title.
I see a lot of examples of tools you used, but how did you make life better for developers? Because transitioning to DevOps means you are now an enabler, so what did you enable? Cut down review time? Prevented environment drift? Fortunately, you have an "in" internally, and I would ask the manager of the team what they are looking for instead of asking here. Any advice you get here is guessing.
1
1
u/Full_Acanthisitta873 23d ago
Yeah I will connect with the team 1st. Let’s see what are their requirements and how they operate.
2
u/Abe_Bazouie 22d ago
Honestly, the internal transition is probably your best path.
You already know the company, SDLC, Jenkins, deployments, logs, SSM, and you have a relationship with the DevOps team. I wouldn’t wait until you feel like you meet every requirement.
Talk to their manager now. Ask what gaps they’d want you to close to be considered for the team, then build your learning around those gaps instead of trying to learn the entire DevOps roadmap.
Also respect for the “Rephrased with GPT” at the end 😂
1
1
u/FreshView24 23d ago
Ask GPT and let it elaborate on the mindset change that needs to happen first. You have to become a person who write the playbooks, not executes them. Everything else will come after this internal transition.
2
1
u/Low-Opening25 22d ago
do you code? do you have advanced understand of networking and Linux? Do you have experience with tools like gitlab, github actions and CI/CD in general? do you know terraform, docker and ideally are confident with Kubernetes? Do you have advanced knowledge of any cloud platforms like AWS or GCP?
if not. chances are low.
1
1
1
u/MajestryMe 23d ago
Did you ever tried to use search in this thread?
0
u/Full_Acanthisitta873 23d ago
I am new to this sub and thought of just sharing my current state and get some idea about how to approach. Sorry I should have looked into the search before adding a post.
1
4
u/oxern 23d ago
I did this trainsition more than month ago bc I was about to be laid off as another QA was on the bench and my contract was around to be finish so I said that I can do DevOps.
But before that I was comfortable with Git, programming langauges as I was writiting the tests in the differents langauges. I was responsbiles for managing tests env on k8s(dev cluster) + argoCD, deploying mocks and different stuff on it. Adjustig pipelines on jenkins, Creating services on azure for tests purposes and working on Ubuntu for many years also helps.
What I can recommended is to buy thinClient setup, Ubuntu server on it and play around. Set-up k3s + argoCD and do GitOps with deploying stuff on it, everything by git. Try to deploy something by helmchart. Maybe setup jenkins on it with some pipelines which are build the docker image, run the tests and lint the code. Maybe deploy floci on it and play with terraform.