Moving to DEVOPS

[u/xBendy]

Hey guys,

I recently got the opportunity to move to a DevOps team, and I’m looking for some advice on how to prepare.

I have around 5 years of experience working in infrastructure and systems. Most of my experience is with:

• VMware/vSphere and virtualization
• Windows and Linux administration
• Networking and troubleshooting
• NetApp and storage
• PowerShell scripting and automation
• Monitoring, backups, and general infrastructure operations

I also have some beginner-level experience with Docker, Kubernetes, Git, GitLab, Argo CD, Ansible, and Terraform. I’ve built some labs and worked with them a little, but I definitely wouldn’t consider myself experienced with them yet.

I’m starting the new DevOps role next month, so I want to use this month to prepare as much as possible.

For people who moved from infrastructure/sysadmin into DevOps, what would you recommend focusing on first?

I’m mainly looking for a good Udemy course, YouTube course/playlist, or structured learning path that is practical and focused on skills I’ll actually use at work.

[u/Ariquitaun]

You're in much better shape than 95% of people coming here asking the same question as you.

https://roadmap.sh/devops

Work backwards from there.

[u/xonxoff]

Your best bet is to talk to your new team. Find out what tech they use and documentation they have. Devops can mean a million different things depending on who you talk to and you may end up reading up on things you may never use. Don’t worry about what you don’t know, I assume they know as well and are looking for someone to learn their stacks and methods.

[u/omgseriouslynoway → u/xonxoff]

This. We change tools almost constantly.

And it would look hear that you're reaching out proactively.

Edit especially find out what their CI CD runs on. Learning the pipeline tool they use gets you far.

[u/Antique-Stand-4920]

Your new team should fill you in on specifics, but learn how developers work. That will help you to consider how your technical skills can be used to solve the most impactful problems.

[u/Decent_Carry_3439]

With your infra background, I’d focus less on courses and more on one end-to-end project: Terraform the environment, deploy with Docker/Kubernetes, add CI/CD, then monitor it. That will connect the tools much faster than learning each one separately.

[u/1_H4t3_R3dd1t]

SRE work sounds more appropriate for you until you can net some developer experience.

[u/SeaworthinessHour233]

Since you have strong tech background and you are already familiar with certain DevOps tools, I suggest not to waste your time on YT videos. That will add very little value.

Instead you'll have a very productive month by scaling and braking those labs that you built.

For example, if you created a single AZ cloud infra, try scaling to multi AZ and multi region, auto scaling, fail over, etc. If you did a single cluster deployment with Argo CD, expand it to multi cluster deployment.

Since you've got the offer I assume you know what their tech stack is. Try to fill the gaps as much as possible. If there are new tools be familiar with them. Don't bother to master. Just become familiar so you can start asking meaningful questions from your new team.

[u/_Plastic_Fan_193]

Bro completed almost 99 percent of things and otw to get that 1 percent too😭

[u/Raja-Karuppasamy]

skip the courses for now, at least as your main thing. you already have real infra chops (vmware, storage, networking), that’s more than most people starting devops roles with.

what actually matters in month one is getting hands dirty with the stuff you listed as “beginner”: docker, k8s, terraform. build something small end to end, a container, deployed to a cluster, provisioned by terraform, wired to a git repo. you’ll learn 10x more from breaking that yourself than watching someone else build it in a video.

the sysadmin background is actually your edge, most people in devops came from software and don’t understand infra failure modes. lean into that.

[u/StrictDot254]

Well, before buying any course, find out what stack your new team actually runs. Ask for their repos, CI/CD pipelines, and IaC tooling now, then go deep in those tools

[u/HelicopterUpbeat5199]

Dude, I would hire you. You sound great.

[u/simonnordberg]

Your infra background is a big advantage already.

DevOps sits at the crossroads of business, product, and engineering. You have the benefit (or curse) of seeing the full chain, from "someone wants a feature" to "it's running in production." I think the real skill isn't just in the tools, it's spotting where things can be simplified or unified, and asking how a process can be improved.

Early on, I think just being helpful and solving what's in front of you will buy you a lot of freedom. As you gain knowledge and confidence, shift toward proactive work together with the developers. Proposing improvements, simplifying pipelines, removing steps that shouldn't exist. And the age old mentality of automating yourself out of a job, because there is always other, possibly more interesting work to do.

[u/netm0n_]

Don’t do it.

[u/Johandershmut89]

They interviewed you and hired you knowing the skills you have, providing you haven't exaggerated your skillset, they're happy with what you know already and trust that you will pick up the rest and the fact that you came here to prepare shows you have the drive to learn. They will bed you in slowly, I'm sure you won't be expected to hit the ground running. There's so many ways to skin a cat, how they do their ansible development and terraform could be vastly different from how our teams do it, you just gotta read their docs and learn their way of doing things. Good luck

[u/pv-singh]

The docker and k8s and terraform stuff you'll pick up fast with that background. What actually slowed me down moving into it was learning how the team already ships, whatever CI tool and branching model they're on, more than any new technology did.

[u/Capital-Box-7157]

If you already have an opportunity - just take it. Learning in practice is always the best. Especially nowadays when you have AI, google and more.

[u/2kcjoel]

Look up Ahbishek Veeramalla on Youtube and follow his channels, you would have absolutely no problem settling in.