Latest / The Career Change Podcast with Fexingo: Switching Fields, Bootcamps, and Reskilling / How Bootcamp Grads Can Pivot Into DevOps Engineering
Transcript
- Lucas: If you've been through a coding bootcamp, you've probably heard the advice 'pick one lane' — front-end, back-end, maybe data. But there's a lane that a lot of grads overlook, and it's growing about 20 percent year over year. Luna: DevOps. Lucas: DevOps. And it's not just for people who've been sysadmins for a decade. The skills you learned in bootcamp — scripting, version control, even basic cloud deployment — those are the foundation. But you need to add a few specific things to actually get hired. Luna: So what's the gap between a bootcamp grad and a DevOps role? Like, what's the one skill that makes the biggest difference? Lucas: I'd say infrastructure as code. Specifically, Terraform. If you look at job postings for DevOps engineers on LinkedIn or Indeed, Terraform shows up in more than 60 percent of them. It's the tool that lets you define your entire cloud infrastructure — servers, databases, networking — in plain text files, and then spin it up with a single command. Luna: Right, so it's like writing code to manage infrastructure instead of clicking around the AWS console. Lucas: Exactly. And bootcamp grads are already comfortable with that workflow — write code, test it, commit it. The learning curve for Terraform is maybe two to three weeks of focused practice. And you can practice it for free on AWS Free Tier or using a local tool like Minikube. Luna: Let me guess — you've got a real example of someone who did this. Lucas: I do. Her name's Mariana. She graduated from a full-stack bootcamp in early 2025. She spent about six months applying to front-end roles, got some interviews, but kept losing out to candidates with a few years of experience. So she pivoted. She spent eight weeks learning Terraform, Docker, and basic Kubernetes — just enough to automate a simple three-tier app deployment. Luna: And that got her the job? Lucas: It got her the interview. She applied for a DevOps engineer role at a mid-sized SaaS company — about 200 employees. The hiring manager told her later that her bootcamp background showed she could learn fast, and her Terraform project proved she could actually ship infrastructure. She got an offer at seventy-five thousand dollars — which, for a first DevOps role, is solid. Luna: Seventy-five thousand is actually on the lower end of the DevOps range, right? Lucas: It is. The median DevOps engineer salary in the U.S. right now is around one hundred and ten thousand. But for someone with less than a year of experience and no traditional IT background, seventy-five is a great entry point. And the growth trajectory is steep — two to three years in, you can easily hit ninety-five to one hundred and ten. Luna: So what's the path? Bootcamp grad, learn Terraform, build one project, apply — is that really enough? Lucas: It's a good start, but you need more than Terraform. Let me walk through the actual skill stack that employers list. First, version control with Git — you already have that from bootcamp. Second, a cloud platform — AWS is the most common, Azure second. Third, infrastructure as code — Terraform or Pulumi. Fourth, containerization — Docker. Fifth, orchestration — Kubernetes, at least the basics. And sixth, CI/CD pipelines — tools like GitHub Actions or Jenkins. Luna: That sounds like a lot. How long does it take to learn all of that? Lucas: If you're focused, three to four months of dedicated learning — maybe two to three hours a day. But you don't need to be an expert in every single one. Most job postings list 'familiarity with Kubernetes' not 'five years of Kubernetes admin.' You need to be comfortable enough to set up a basic pipeline and debug common issues. Luna: And certifications? Do those matter in DevOps the way they matter in, say, cloud architecture? Lucas: Certifications help, especially for bootcamp grads who don't have a traditional CS degree. The AWS Certified Solutions Architect – Associate is probably the most recognized. But I'd also look at the Certified Kubernetes Administrator, the CKA. It's a hands-on exam where you actually have to run commands in a live cluster — it's not just multiple choice. Passing that sends a strong signal that you can do the work. Luna: So let's say I'm a bootcamp grad listening right now. What's the first step I should take tomorrow? Lucas: First, set up a free AWS account. Spin up an EC2 instance — that's a virtual server — and install Docker on it. That alone will teach you the basics of cloud provisioning and command-line work. Then, write a simple Terraform script that creates that same EC2 instance automatically. Once you have that working, you've got the core loop. Luna: And from there, you can expand — add a database, add a load balancer, build a small app that actually runs on that infrastructure. Lucas: Exactly. And document everything. Put the Terraform code, the Dockerfile, and a README in a GitHub repository. When you apply, that repo is your portfolio. Employers in DevOps care a lot more about what you can automate than what you can build in React. Luna: You know, this kind of focused advice — it's exactly why people keep coming back to this show. If today's episode helped you see a path forward, or even just gave you one concrete thing to try tomorrow, that's the whole point. Lucas: Yeah, and the reason we can keep making episodes like this without any ads or sponsors is because of listeners who chip in. If you found this useful, you can support the show at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. It's a simple way to keep these conversations going. Luna: Totally. And we really appreciate it. So — back to the Terraform project. Once you've got that basic setup, what's the next logical step? Lucas: Next, I'd add a CI/CD pipeline. Use GitHub Actions to automatically run your Terraform code whenever you push to the main branch. That way, every time you make a change, your infrastructure updates automatically. That's the DevOps mindset — automation, repeatability, and version control for everything. Luna: And that's a skill that translates to almost any company. Even if they use different tools — like Ansible instead of Terraform, or CircleCI instead of GitHub Actions — the concepts are the same. Lucas: Right. The principles are more important than the specific tool. Once you understand the idea of 'everything as code,' you can pick up any new tool in a week or two. That's why bootcamp grads actually have an advantage here — you're already comfortable with that paradigm. Luna: One concern I hear from bootcamp grads is that DevOps roles often ask for 'production experience' — like running systems that serve real users. How do you get that if you've never had the job? Lucas: That's a real barrier. One way around it is to contribute to open-source projects that need infrastructure help. A lot of smaller open-source projects run on shoestring budgets and would love someone to automate their deployment or set up monitoring. You can find these on GitHub by searching for 'help wanted' labels in the infrastructure category. Luna: So you get real experience, and you can point to a live system that's running because of your work. Lucas: Exactly. And that's more impressive to hiring managers than a hundred LeetCode problems. They want to see that you can handle the messiness of real infrastructure — things like failing servers, security patches, and configuration drift. Luna: What about networking? Bootcamps rarely teach subnetting or DNS. Is that a dealbreaker? Lucas: It's not a dealbreaker, but you should learn the basics. You don't need to be a network engineer. But you should understand what an IP address is, how DNS works, what a load balancer does, and the difference between public and private subnets. The AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner covers a lot of that, and you can learn it in a weekend. Luna: So the overall message is: bootcamp grads can absolutely move into DevOps, but it requires a focused detour into infrastructure and automation. The payoff is a role with high growth, good pay, and less competition than front-end or back-end. Lucas: Exactly. And the demand isn't going away. As more companies move to the cloud and adopt microservices, they need people who can build and maintain the plumbing. If you're willing to learn Terraform, Docker, and a CI/CD tool, you can carve out a really solid career. Luna: Thanks, Lucas. That was a great breakdown. Lucas: Thanks, Luna. And to everyone listening — we'll be back next time with another angle on making your career change work.