I was a network administrator for 8 years when cloud computing started taking over. Instead of fighting the change, I decided to embrace it and learn cloud technologies.

Started with AWS certifications while still working my day job. The transition felt natural because I already understood networking, security, and system administration fundamentals.

My breakthrough project was migrating our company's entire infrastructure to AWS using Infrastructure as Code. This gave me real production experience with cloud technologies and DevOps practices.

The job search was surprisingly quick. DevOps engineers are in high demand, and my system administration background made me attractive to employers looking for someone who understood both traditional IT and modern cloud practices.

On the interview

Straightforward process due to high demand. Phone screen about cloud experience, technical discussion about infrastructure design, then hands-on AWS/Terraform exercise.