From IT Admin to DevOps / Cloud Engineer — worth getting certified without experience?

Posted by 0xSebulba@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 22 comments

Hey everyone, I’ve been working as an IT Administrator for over 5 years now — from big corporations to smaller companies. Most of my day is the usual stuff: updates, tickets, user issues, server maintenance, monitoring… it’s getting repetitive and I feel like it’s time for something new. I recently passed my first AWS certification (Cloud Practitioner) and I’m now looking at the AWS DevOps Pro. But I’m wondering — is it even worth pursuing that cert if I don’t currently work as a DevOps engineer? My goal is to transition from IT Admin to a Cloud / DevOps Engineer. What would you recommend to make that switch realistically? What should I focus on learning? Are there any good hands-on projects, GitHub labs, or home setups to build real experience? I’ve got an IT degree and solid sysadmin background, but I want to make the move the right way — not just collect certifications that don’t lead anywhere. Any advice or personal stories would be greatly appreciated 🙏

22 Comments

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Vegetable-Put2432@reddit

Hello, I'm a DevOps/Ops with Azure Cloud with 1,5 years experience. Feeling a lack of fundamental networking knowledge will prevent to be good DevOps

abuhd@reddit

Don't bother with network stuff. Devops isn't really about that. Leave the networking to network folks. Just know the basics.

Your job is operating an on-prem server. The setup includes cicd and K8s. Can't leave the networking stuff. On cloud, it can be easier, but you still need all the basic knowledge across domains

PrincipleExciting457@reddit

What networking would you consider basic knowledge?

OSI, virtual network (subnets, IPs, gateways), firewall, load balancers, and routing. Does anyone else have another input?

oginome@reddit

Great list. Emphasis on TCP/IP imo... that’s the foundation everything else is built on. Once you actually get how data moves through those layers, a lot of other stuff starts clicking (like why DNS, DHCP, ARP, and routing behave the way they do). After that, mess around with network monitoring and troubleshooting tools... that’s where it all starts to feel real. Learn how to read ping, traceroute, and netstat outputs, mess with ipconfig/ifconfig, and maybe get comfy with Wireshark for packet captures. You’ll start to see how packets move, not just read about it. If you can do things like this then you should be able to freely move through virtual spaces, identify, and solve problems.

Beautiful 😍

Don't forget about snmp protocol for monitoring 🔥 basically 1 of the most important things to know and know very very well.

yawn1337@reddit

As someone who is friends with a k8s networking support guy, he is shittalking people with k8s environment and no networking knowledge ALL DAY. "How do these people get paid, this stuff is necessary basic knowledge"

gabbietor@reddit

even in cloud world you can’t escape the fundamentals. hybrid makes you full stack infra whether you want it or not

mallet17@reddit

I can't imagine how one could even without networking, especially load balancing (cluster internal and external access).

Meh, its basic networking...nothing complicated. Thats all I was trying to say.

![gif](giphy|10Jpr9KSaXLchW|downsized)

Still need to understand software defined networking for each cloud platform you support / manage and how it all comes together. Eg. Azure: NSG, route tables, vnets (hub/spoke), subnets, peering, firewall, load balancers, gateways, network watcher, etc.

moofishies@reddit

>Feeling a lack of fundamental networking They were referring to the basics, yes.

It's not a bad idea to do both AWS DevOps and the Cloud Ops training and cert. Give the AZ-104 Azure Administrator Associate a consideration too. You'll see a lot of postings wanting this cert.

notedlycircular@reddit

The DevOps Pro cert focuses more on AWS-specific DevOps tools and services - some are broadly relevant, some and pretty niche. For your very next cert, the Architect Associate (or the new CloudOps associate) might be better to show you have a good overall understanding of AWS core services instead. I really like using GitHub actions or Gitlab CI for simple personal products that need build/deploy automation, like building a simple container or deploying a single-page app; messing around with that stuff and getting an AWS Architect Associate would be my recommendation if coming from a sysadmin background. Source: I've got the AWS Architect Pro and DevOps Pro + a couple of specialty AWS certs, and have done DevOps-adjacent cloud consulting work for 10ish years

SevaraB@reddit

Certs that are relevant to the work you're doing are good. Certs that are relevant to the "next hop" in your career (pardon the networking pun) are good- certs for certs' sake that you can't tie to either your job role or a pet "would be nice" enhancement project you've been working on can actually be a red flag/turnoff to potential employers that worry about whether you'll be able to focus on getting your actual work done.

From IT Admin to DevOps / Cloud Engineer — worth getting certified without experience?

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22 Comments

Vegetable-Put2432@reddit

abuhd@reddit

Vegetable-Put2432@reddit

PrincipleExciting457@reddit

Vegetable-Put2432@reddit

oginome@reddit

Vegetable-Put2432@reddit

abuhd@reddit

yawn1337@reddit

gabbietor@reddit

mallet17@reddit

abuhd@reddit

Vegetable-Put2432@reddit

mallet17@reddit

moofishies@reddit

mallet17@reddit

notedlycircular@reddit

SevaraB@reddit

jdanton14@reddit

Difficultopin@reddit

abuhd@reddit

Distinct-Sell7016@reddit