Breaking into DevOps from another IT role can feel like entering a whole new world, with a whole new language, full of pipelines, YAML, and unfamiliar tools. But the truth is, you’re already halfway there.
If you’ve worked in IT support, system administration or as a network engineer, you’ve already built some core skills like automation, troubleshooting, and cross-team communication.
Your days were already filled with diagnosing and solving problems, often with limited context. Whether it’s a broken login, a DNS issue, monitoring VMs or a printer rollout, very likely you have seen been the project manager, implementer and QA.
Have you ever written a PowerShell script to automate user onboarding? A Bash script to reboot a server fleet? Or a quick Batch script to maps things and distribute it as a GPO? That’s automation, hence that’s DevOps.
A good DevOps engineer understands systems from the ground up. You’ve already been tracking system health, uptime, disk usage, and more. Your knowledge of operating systems, networking, user roles, and permissions is invaluable.
The move from another frontline IT role to DevOps builds on what you already know, such as system insight, problem-solving, and scripting are solid foundations.
