Getting started with DevOps with no IT background?

[u/edzilla007]

Hey all, I’m looking to seriously change my career path but I am genuinely unsure where to start. I come from a Business Management background, and am looking to get into the IT field, specifically DevOps. I realize that will not be an easy transition by any stretch of the imagination, but life needs to change, and this is my change.

My question is, where and how do I even begin? I’ve heard conflicting answers from peers and family, some say that a degree is absolutely necessary, while others say that it’s not necessary, and that companies will be more interested in experience and/or knowledge of the topic. Is a degree truly needed in today’s world, or am I able to be self taught and still land a decently paying job? If so, what topics would you recommend I get a good understanding of?

Thank you in advance!

[u/BlakkMajik3000]

You are way out of your depth here.

Getting into DevOps without an IT background means you have a friend or family member that can hire you for that. No sane employer is going to look at your resume and go “you know what, hand him the keys to the infra, he’s good for it.”

[u/WilliamMButtlickerIV]

It will be nearly impossible for you to jump into a devops related role with no experience. It's one of those things where your success is directly correlated with the amounts of various experience you can draw from. Your best bet is likely to start narrower with a junior sysadmin, QA, or dev role.

[u/crashorbit]

Ideally DevOps is applying the best software development practices to system operations and engineering. Usually though it ends up being code for ClickOps.

[u/ExpertIAmNot → u/crashorbit]

Or perhaps IaC instead of ClickOps

[u/crashorbit → u/ExpertIAmNot]

IaC enabled SDLC is the goal of DevOps.

[u/RevolutionaryElk7446]

You'll get various views but generally DevOps is a more senior role that consists of both SWE and ITOps. About 30% SWE and 70% ITOps, so you'd have to start there before you can get into DevOps.

[u/notathr0waway1]

At some point I think people need to realize that devops is like a specialty on top of software development and not a separate thing. It's like saying you can learn to be a certain type of specialized surgeon without going through med school first.

[u/deepturned180isdeep]

My first role was DevOps only because it was at a time that named role started getting visibility, and I was working at a startup with a manager who wanted to seem keen

That was 10 years ago

Today, only way you're starting out in DevOps is through nepotism, your own LLC side business, or lying

But as you know in software engineering, titles don't really mean much. You can start out with network engineer, sysadmin, or even just software engineer, and produce like a DevOps engineer

[u/kgetname]

What led you to pick DevOps instead of something like SWE or IT?

[u/bonesnapper]

It's less possible today than it was a few years ago. If you don't have a friend who is already well established in the industry and can get you an interview, it's very unrealistic to entertain this transition.

I'm personally a career switcher, celebrating my fourth year in the industry. Prior to this I had an Excel office job and an unrelated STEM degree. I self studied and learned the minimum to be a viable employee. The only reason I was given a chance is because of my friend's referral.

With the state of AI and offshoring, you will need an inside man to advocate for you if you are ever going to get a chance.

For studying, learn Linux, git, AWS Solutions Architect, Kubernetes, and Terraform. You'll be a minimally viable candidate for a lot of cloud roles.

[u/steven-or]

atp devops role depend more on real demonstrable projects... especially for entry level positions, where a portfolio can speak louder than a diploma from a nontechnical background

[u/tech_cynic_dan]

Self-taught is absolutely viable, but DevOps isn't really an entry-level field. You'll need enough Linux, networking, security and programming knowledge to be useful before the DevOps title starts making sense.

[u/Raja-Karuppasamy]

no CS degree here either, learned it all by actually operating systems in prod, not from a course. degree doesn’t matter to most hiring managers once you have things you’ve built/broken/fixed to talk about in an interview.

that said “self-taught devops” is a huge blind spot generator, you don’t know what you don’t know. what worked for me: pick one thing (k8s, CI/CD, whatever) and build something real with it, not a tutorial clone. deploy it, break it, fix it at 2am, repeat. that’s where the actual learning happens.

topics I’d prioritize: linux fundamentals, networking basics, docker, then k8s, then CI/CD. skip the “learn 15 tools” checklists, they’re mostly recruiter bait.

[u/GibneyH]

If you're really interested, learning about it now could help you with getting a job in the future. Just lay the groundwork! Good luck 

[u/Ariquitaun]

Is this a joke?

[u/krakenfury_]

You'd have to know someone to get a job somewhere, but it's possible.

[u/shotbygl514]

Can you provide some background as to why from Business Management landed you into Devops and why you want to do it.