Latest / The Career Change Podcast with Fexingo: Switching Fields, Bootcamps, and Reskilling / How Bootcamp Grads Can Transition Into DevOps
Transcript
- Lucas: So we've spent a lot of episodes talking about breaking into frontend development, data science, product management — the usual bootcamp targets. But there's a path that doesn't get nearly as much attention, and it might actually be one of the smarter moves right now. Luna: Let me guess — you're talking about DevOps? Lucas: Exactly. And I want to anchor this in a real story. A listener named Priya wrote in — she was in marketing for six years, did a 14-week full-stack bootcamp in 2024, but she didn't want to build consumer-facing apps. She wanted to work on the infrastructure side. So she spent her last month of the bootcamp focused on AWS, Linux, and scripting. She landed a junior cloud operations role at a mid-size fintech company six weeks after graduating. Luna: That's impressive. What was her salary bump? Lucas: She went from sixty-five thousand in marketing to eighty-five thousand base in that first DevOps role. And within eighteen months, she hit six figures. That's not unusual for this field. Luna: Okay, so what made Priya stand out? Because a lot of bootcamp grads have the same full-stack curriculum, but she got hired into a role that's usually seen as requiring years of sysadmin experience. Lucas: Right, that's the myth we need to bust. The reality is that modern DevOps has shifted. Ten years ago, you needed to know how to rack servers and configure networks by hand. Now, a lot of that work is abstracted into code — infrastructure as code. So the skills that matter are: one, scripting — Python or Bash. Two, familiarity with CI/CD pipelines — at least understanding what Jenkins or GitHub Actions do. And three, some exposure to infrastructure as code tools like Terraform or CloudFormation. Luna: So basically, the same coding skills bootcamp grads already have, but applied to a different domain. Lucas: Exactly. And here's the data point that really sold me. The 2025 Stack Overflow developer survey — which came out last year — asked DevOps engineers about their education. Forty percent reported having no four-year degree at all. That's higher than any other engineering discipline they surveyed. Luna: Wow. So the formal credentials barrier is almost nonexistent. Lucas: It's about demonstrable skill. Priya didn't have a computer science degree — she had a marketing degree. But she built a portfolio that included a deployment script for a web app using Docker and a Terraform configuration that spun up an EC2 instance. That was enough to get her foot in the door. Luna: I think a lot of bootcamp grads avoid DevOps because they assume it's too complex or requires deep Linux knowledge. But your point is that you can learn the basics in a focused sprint. Lucas: Absolutely. And honestly, if this episode helps you think through a career move or decision, that's exactly what we're here for. We keep this show ad-free, and listener support makes that possible. If today was worth a coffee to you, you can find us at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. That's all lowercase. And now, back to those three skills. Luna: Yeah, I love that you broke it into three. Let's dive into scripting first. Lucas: Scripting is the entry point. A bootcamp grad who can write a Python script to parse a log file or automate a backup is already ahead of most applicants. You don't need to be a software engineer — you just need to be comfortable with loops, conditionals, and basic file I/O. Luna: And for bootcamp grads, they've already done that in JavaScript or Python. It's just a matter of shifting context. Lucas: Right. Second skill: CI/CD pipelines. I'm not saying you need to be able to set up Jenkins from scratch. But if you can explain what a continuous integration pipeline does and show that you've used GitHub Actions or GitLab CI to run tests and deploy code, that signals you understand the development lifecycle. Luna: And that's something bootcamp projects usually skip. They focus on the code, not the deployment. Lucas: Exactly. So a simple project with a README that says 'this app is deployed via a GitHub Actions workflow that runs on every push' is a huge differentiator. The third skill is infrastructure as code. Terraform is the most popular tool right now, and the learning curve is not that steep. You define resources in a declarative language — it's like writing a config file. Amazon Web Services even has a free tier, so you can practice spinning up a virtual machine or an S3 bucket for free. Luna: So a bootcamp grad could build a project that provisions a server, installs a web app, and configures a database, all through Terraform. That's a portfolio piece that screams 'hire me for DevOps.' Lucas: Exactly. And the competition is lower. Every bootcamp grad tries to build a Twitter clone or a to-do app. Very few venture into infrastructure. So if you do, you're one of a handful of applicants with that skill. Luna: What about certifications? Does Priya have any? Lucas: She got her AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner three months after starting the job. Her employer paid for it. But she didn't have it when she applied. So it's not a prerequisite — it's a nice to have that can accelerate your learning. Luna: So the path is: learn scripting, build one CI/CD pipeline, and create a Terraform project. Then apply to junior DevOps or cloud operations roles. Lucas: That's it. And I'd add: target companies that use AWS or Azure. Most job descriptions will list the cloud platform. If you see AWS in the requirements, and you have a project on AWS, you've already checked the box. Also, don't overlook job titles like 'site reliability engineer' or 'platform engineer' — those are DevOps roles with different labels. Luna: One concern I hear from bootcamp grads is that DevOps roles often ask for years of experience with tools like Docker or Kubernetes. How do you overcome that? Lucas: You create your own experience. Docker is free. You can install it on your laptop, containerize a simple app, and write a Docker Compose file. Kubernetes is more complex, but minikube lets you run a local cluster. A weekend project can give you enough to talk about in an interview. Priya told me she did exactly that — she spent two weekends building a multi-container app with Docker Compose and then wrote about it on her blog. Luna: I think that's the key insight for this whole episode. Bootcamp grads often underestimate how much they can learn in a focused two-week sprint on a specific tool. Lucas: Absolutely. And the DevOps community online is incredibly generous. There are free courses on YouTube, free tiers on cloud platforms, and open-source projects you can contribute to. If you have the initiative, the resources are there. Luna: So for any bootcamp grad listening who's tired of building the same CRUD app as everyone else, consider DevOps. It's a lane with less traffic and high demand. Lucas: And the demand is only growing. Cloud spending is projected to hit one point two trillion dollars by 2028, and companies need people to manage that infrastructure. Bootcamp grads with the right three skills — scripting, CI/CD, infrastructure as code — can absolutely step into that gap. Luna: Alright, I'm convinced. Next time someone asks me about career changes, I'm pointing them to this episode. Lucas: Good. And if you're that person, start with the scripting project. We'll put links to some free resources in the show notes — including a Terraform tutorial and a GitHub Actions starter guide. Thanks for listening, and we'll see you next episode.