Update: Where I am, what I’ve learned
It’s been a while since my first post where I detailed my DevOps learning plan. The grand blueprint for moving from a non-technical career straight into a DevOps based role. At the time of writing that post I had a bit of python under my built and was trundling through Harvard’s ‘CS50: Introduction to Computer Science’. I was laying out an overarching vision for a learning journey I had barely begun.
Since then a lot has happened, I’m much further along. So it’s high time for an update to outline what I’ve learned and where I am now.
HarvardX CS50
Let’s start with CS50. I finished the course in early December, and the first thing I would say is that it was the most rewarding learning experience I have had in my life. It gave me a solid foundational knowledge of computing and programming while also taking me outside my comfort zone and forcing me to think in new ways to solve problems. The course consists of 12 weeks of lectures and problems, finishing with a big final project. Completing this whole course required a lot of weekends and late nights to fit around my job, but I loved it nonetheless!
My CS50 final project was a lot of fun and I will be writing a separate post about it in detail. However, in short summary it was a web app called ‘Bacon Query’ with a Python Flask backend that finds the shortest route between two film stars via their shared co-stars. It was a great mix of object oriented programming, nested dictionaries and recursive functions. In the end a really interesting, vexing, enjoyable and baffling problem to solve.
The project can be viewed on my GitHub if you would like to delve further or try it for yourself.
Linux
After CS50 it was full speed into learning an OS. The most common operating systems found in enterprise environments are Linux based, so in looking to be as employable as possible it just makes sense to learn Linux.
Good Linux memes are few and far between
The resources I used to learn and practice Linux are best saved for their own post. However I made sure to learn a good amount of command line, file system structure and bash scripting. In doing this I wanted to be working towards something, so I also decided to take the LPI Linux Essentials certificate. Luckily over Christmas I had a solid 11 days off, those 11 days bar Christmas Day itself were spent with 7 hours of solid learning. I’ll tell you now that there really is nothing quite like trying to grasp an Awk pipeline with a mild hangover on boxing day. Nevertheless I passed Linux Essentials handily in early January!
I may have passed the exam but this is only the start of my learning I still regularly take time to practice bash and command line. Like a programming language Linux is something you never stop learning. I’m certainly no expert yet!
Azure
But wait there’s more! Once I had a good amount of OS knowledge under my belt it was time to focus on getting a solid foundation in cloud. I know that my best bet in terms of employability is to learn AWS. However with so many businesses opting for multi-cloud I think I made the right decision of learning the basics of Azure first.
There is a lot of overlap conceptually between the various cloud providers so learning one also helps you learn the others. It isn’t in my plan to learn Azure in depth before landing a DevOps role but it is good to have an understanding of more than one cloud provider.
I always like to be working towards something so in this case I opted to take the ‘Azure Fundamentals’ certificate. This required I learn an absolute hoard of information, my 7,000 word Azure Evernote certainly speaks to just how many services the big cloud providers have these days! Like Linux I will go over the resources I used for Azure in a separate post but suffice it to say I cleared the exam by a good margin.
Azure Certified
AWS
Amazon Web Services (AWS) the big one. This is where I’m currently up to - studying for the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam (I just love exams okay). Like Azure I have another absolute beast of an Evernote which goes over the intricacies of AWS and that’s only for only one foundational exam. There’s so much information to learn but I should be able to pass the Cloud Practitioner in short order. Don’t celebrate too early though, we haven’t even met the final boss yet.
Over the horizon looms the Cloud Solutions Architect exam a much more difficult and in depth AWS certification. It will be a good challenge and I’m looking forward to it! Once I have CSA in my arsenal, DevOps can truly begin. It will allow me to put everything together and start focussing on DevOps specific tools like Terraform, Jenkins and Docker. It will be pipeline galore and I cannot wait.
So that’s the update: Python -> CS50 -> Linux CLI & Bash -> Azure -> AWS. It’s been a fun journey so far and I’m looking forward to what’s coming up! I’ll be posting some more in depth writing on the topics covered in this post over the next few weeks. Just got to find time to do it in amongst all the learning!
