Getting a Cloud or DevOps Job: The Skills You Need and How to Land Your First Role
How Cloud and DevOps roles differ, the core skills you need, portfolio projects, certifications worth considering, and interview preparation.
You might be a system admin who has looked after servers in a server room for years, a developer tired of waiting for the Ops team to deploy, or a new computer science graduate seeing Cloud Engineer listings everywhere without knowing what you need to apply. Cloud and DevOps welcome people from many backgrounds, as long as you know what each role requires and build evidence that you can actually do the work.
What Cloud and DevOps are
Cloud means using computing resources such as servers, databases and storage from providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure or Google Cloud instead of buying your own hardware. DevOps is a way of working where development and operations teams collaborate and use automation to ship software often, quickly and safely. The two usually go together, because cloud systems can be created and changed with code.
Common roles
- Cloud Engineer: designs, builds and maintains cloud infrastructure.
- DevOps Engineer: builds CI/CD pipelines and automation, and enables developers to deploy on their own.
- Site Reliability Engineer (SRE): keeps systems stable, sets up monitoring and handles incidents.
- Platform Engineer: builds internal tools and platforms for development teams.
- Cloud Security Engineer: manages access permissions, security configuration and policy compliance.
Companies use these titles differently, so read the duties in the job description rather than relying on the title.
Core skills you need
Linux and networking
Be fluent on the command line and understand processes, permissions, logs and networking basics such as DNS, IP, ports and load balancers. Interviewers often ask about these before they ask about cloud.
One cloud platform
Learn one provider in depth first and understand the core services, such as compute, storage, databases, IAM and VPC. Once you understand the concepts, moving to another provider becomes much easier.
Infrastructure as Code
Build infrastructure with code instead of clicking through a console. The tool mentioned most often is Terraform.
Containers and CI/CD
Be able to build containers with Docker, understand Kubernetes basics, and build pipelines with tools such as GitHub Actions or GitLab CI.
Scripting
Write Bash or Python to automate repetitive work.
Portfolio projects
In this field, interviewers want to see that you can actually do it. Projects that make good stories include:
- Put a small web app in Docker and deploy it to the cloud with Terraform.
- Set up CI/CD so every code push is automatically tested and deployed.
- Add monitoring and alerts, then simulate an incident and fix it.
Keep the code on GitHub with a README explaining the architecture, why you chose each tool, and what you would improve with more time. Watch your costs: set a budget alert and delete resources once you finish experimenting.
In DevOps, one project that really deploys speaks for you more than several certificates.
Do you need certifications?
Certifications make it easier for your resume to pass initial screening, especially if you are switching careers. Popular starting points are the associate-level certifications from each cloud provider, and the Certified Kubernetes Administrator for those working more deeply with containers. Always pair certifications with real projects.
Interview preparation
- Practise explaining what happens from typing a URL in the browser to the page appearing.
- Prepare a story about a system outage or failed deployment and how you fixed it.
- Practise sketching a simple system architecture and discussing scalability and cost.
How to start
- Build a solid foundation in Linux and networking.
- Choose one cloud provider and learn the core services.
- Complete one real deployment project and write a good README.
- Update your resume to highlight what you can do, such as automation you have built.
- Apply for entry-level roles, or ask for an internal move to an infrastructure team.
Read more on resumes for tech roles and preparing for technical interviews, then search for Cloud and DevOps roles on the job listings page.