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Here's what they don't tell you in bootcamps: I broke into DevOps without formal experience using one strategy. My students Eric and Danil did the same. Eric landed a senior SRE role. Danil got hired straight out of university. The secret? A home lab that mimics production environments. ​ Before I share the complete strategy, pay attention: 2 of my students landed jobs last week. That means 2 spots have opened up. If you want to land a DevOps jobs within the next 90 days, CLICK HERE to apply for my Career Accelerator program. We have limited interview spots available, book now before they're gone. ​ The 4-Step Home Lab Strategy: → Take an old laptop→ Install Linux→ Start running containers→ Build a Kubernetes cluster You now have a production environment at home. But here's what 90% of people miss: Don't just build it. BREAK it. Create real problems. Solve real problems. Document everything. This is where real learning happens. Start running your own mini-data center, approach it with a professional mindset. You don't need a formal job to get experience. You need to build the skills. ​ The Self-Hosting Rabbit Hole Start hosting applications that add value to your life: • Nextcloud for file storage • Grafana for monitoring • GitLab for CI/CD • Jellyfin for media ​ You'll face the same challenges real DevOps engineers face daily. Network failures. Configuration errors. Resource constraints. This is where the learning happens. ​ The Open Source Contribution Hack Find a project you use. Read the documentation. Submit a PR for a typo fix. Gradually work up to bigger contributions. Now you have collaboration experience with real teams. ​ The Results Speak for Themselves: Eric told me: "The hands-on experience from my home lab was the deciding factor. I could speak from real experience about multi-node clusters, deployments, networking issues." Danil shared: "Talking about my home lab took up most of the interview. I barely got any technical questions."

I’m delighted to share that I’ve recently landed a new role as a Platform Engineer. The journey here wasn’t easy, life brought some tough challenges along the way, but perseverance and continuous learning carried me through. A big part of that learning came from this community. One of the courses offered here not only strengthened my skills but also played a key role in helping me land this opportunity. I’m deeply grateful for the support, resources, and inspiration this community provides. Thank you @Mischa van den Burg and the rest of the people behind for creating a space where growth and encouragement truly make a difference. Cheers!

This is a praise for the paid community because they 100% deserve it. @Mischa van den Burg , @Sammy van den Burg and everyone else involved in building the community should really get the recognition. I am writing this post after getting my first DevOps position. It included a long journey of over a year to facilitate this transition from end-user support/system administration. I could not have done it without joining KubeCraft last October. I was advancing pretty well before but joining KubeCraft was a game-changer, it has paved me the way to compete for positions and being relevant in the DevOps/cloud job market. It is a safe haven, the ultimate place for self growth. In so many aspects, not only in relation to DevOps. I will also highlight the respectful discussions, technical insights, career and professional tips, inclusion, and acceptance. Non of what I have mentioned is taken for granted in our current Internet landscape. I would also like to mention all the wonderful courses in the classroom that improved my soft and hard skills alike and were/are still instrumental in my journey: - The Kubernetes related courses (fundamentals, homelab, and advanced) - get your hands dirty and start building, breaking, and fixing systems over and over again - The Arch Linux course - strong Linux foundations are non negotiable and digging into an Arch installation and transforming it into your daily driver is so beneficial - The devcontainers, Neovim, and config management course - think encapsulation, portability, and allowing collaboration between teams - The DevOps masterclass course - a real gem by @Mischa van den Burg . It helped me understand better modern release management practices and CI/CD pipelines - The interview preparation course - very well constructed. This helped me change my perception and become better during interviews Always remember that hard work pays off! (in the photo - an Arnie and John (Savill) super combo for some inspiration)

Philip joined the KubeCraft Career Accelerator just 2 months ago, and today we can happily congratulate him on his new Senior Cloud Engineer job. Results take time, but sometimes they come fast with the right mindset and approach. After so many wins, I keep seeing the same pattern: - They commit to a full year year. This locks in the right mindset that makes all the difference. No more second-guessing, no distractions, just clear focus, motivation and steady progress. - They stop overthinking and just get started - They stick to one clear system instead of jumping around - They ask questions, get help, and improve fast instead of staying stuck. You don’t have to be perfect. You don’t need years of experience. You just need to start and stick with it. The ones who do? They keep landing real results. It's no longer theory, it's a proven system. Congratulations Philip! 👑