--- title: From Apprentice to DevOps Engineer: Here's the Exact... description: A junior engineer named Amin shares his journey from failing engineering school grades to landing a permanent DevOps and infrastructure role at Thales,... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/from-apprentice-to-devops-engineer-here-s-the-exact-path-he-took-ccjvugkv9 twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: From Apprentice to DevOps Engineer: Here's the Exact Path He Took | daily.dev og:description: A junior engineer named Amin shares his journey from failing engineering school grades to landing a permanent DevOps and infrastructure role at Thales,... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/from-apprentice-to-devops-engineer-here-s-the-exact-path-he-took-ccjvugkv9 og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/CcJVUgKV9.png og:image:alt: From Apprentice to DevOps Engineer: Here's the Exact Path He Took og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # From Apprentice to DevOps Engineer: Here's the Exact Path He Took **[TechWorld with Nana](https://daily.dev/sources/techworldwithnana)** · 69 min read · 7 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A junior engineer named Amin shares his journey from failing engineering school grades to landing a permanent DevOps and infrastructure role at Thales, building systems for the French army. Key themes include rebuilding a learning system from scratch (stopping at every unfamiliar concept), landing an apprenticeship without the required skills by demonstrating a growth mindset, switching roles internally from test automation to DevOps, and roughly doubling his salary in one month. He emphasizes learning concepts over tools, strict scheduling, investing in structured training, and building a visible portfolio on LinkedIn and GitHub. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### How do I switch from a test automation role to a DevOps engineer role at the same company? Switching internally works best by building relationships with the DevOps team early, demonstrating autonomous learning outside of work hours, and acquiring conceptual knowledge — not just tool familiarity — so a senior colleague can vouch for your readiness. Amin moved from test automation apprentice to permanent DevOps engineer after a senior colleague recommended him to management, who then skipped technical interview questions entirely and focused on fit. _Engineers making that internal switch track the moves that worked on daily.dev._ ### Why is learning DevOps concepts more important than memorizing specific tools like Jenkins or GitLab? Tools change between companies, teams, and projects, so memorizing one tool means starting from zero each time you switch. Understanding the underlying concepts — why a pipeline is structured a certain way, how containers and clusters relate — lets you transfer knowledge quickly. Amin moved from Jenkins-based CI/CD examples in training to GitLab at work and described the transition as 'really easy' because the concepts were the same. _Developers choosing between DevOps learning paths find real-world comparisons like this on daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [From Dev to DevOps: A Roadmap for Landing Your First DevOps Job](https://daily.dev/posts/from-dev-to-devops-a-roadmap-for-landing-your-first-devops-job-i75nejl8i) · Medium · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#devops](https://daily.dev/tags/devops), [#linux](https://daily.dev/tags/linux), [#career](https://daily.dev/tags/career), [#kubernetes](https://daily.dev/tags/kubernetes), [#cicd](https://daily.dev/tags/cicd) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/from-apprentice-to-devops-engineer-here-s-the-exact-path-he-took-ccjvugkv9) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"From Apprentice to DevOps Engineer: Here's the Exact Path He Took","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/from-apprentice-to-devops-engineer-here-s-the-exact-path-he-took-ccjvugkv9","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/from-apprentice-to-devops-engineer-here-s-the-exact-path-he-took-ccjvugkv9"},"datePublished":"2026-08-11T14:37:07.970Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T08:56:25.630Z","description":"A junior engineer named Amin shares his journey from failing engineering school grades to landing a permanent DevOps and infrastructure role at Thales,...","image":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TqWRlxDZkjo/sddefault.jpg","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TqWRlxDZkjo/sddefault.jpg","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"TechWorld with Nana","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"TechWorld with Nana","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/s--k4AAsort--/f_auto/v1728072817/logos/techworldwithnana","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/techworldwithnana"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/from-apprentice-to-devops-engineer-here-s-the-exact-path-he-took-ccjvugkv9","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":7},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"devops,linux,career,kubernetes,cicd","timeRequired":"PT69M","video":{"@type":"VideoObject","name":"From Apprentice to DevOps Engineer: Here's the Exact Path He Took","description":"A junior engineer named Amin shares his journey from failing engineering school grades to landing a permanent DevOps and infrastructure role at Thales,...","thumbnailUrl":"https://i.ytimg.com/vi/TqWRlxDZkjo/sddefault.jpg","uploadDate":"2026-08-11T14:37:07.970Z","duration":"PT69M","url":"https://api.daily.dev/r/CcJVUgKV9","embedUrl":"https://www.youtube.com/embed/TqWRlxDZkjo"}} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"TechWorld with Nana","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/techworldwithnana"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"From Apprentice to DevOps Engineer: Here's the Exact Path He Took"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/from-apprentice-to-devops-engineer-here-s-the-exact-path-he-took-ccjvugkv9#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I switch from a test automation role to a DevOps engineer role at the same company?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Switching internally works best by building relationships with the DevOps team early, demonstrating autonomous learning outside of work hours, and acquiring conceptual knowledge — not just tool familiarity — so a senior colleague can vouch for your readiness. Amin moved from test automation apprentice to permanent DevOps engineer after a senior colleague recommended him to management, who then skipped technical interview questions entirely and focused on fit. Engineers making that internal switch track the moves that worked on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Why is learning DevOps concepts more important than memorizing specific tools like Jenkins or GitLab?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Tools change between companies, teams, and projects, so memorizing one tool means starting from zero each time you switch. Understanding the underlying concepts — why a pipeline is structured a certain way, how containers and clusters relate — lets you transfer knowledge quickly. Amin moved from Jenkins-based CI/CD examples in training to GitLab at work and described the transition as 'really easy' because the concepts were the same. Developers choosing between DevOps learning paths find real-world comparisons like this on daily.dev."}}]} ```