New roles. Higher pay. Real career progress.
KubeCraft members have moved from help desk into DevOps, from military service into a systems-engineering role at a cloud provider, and from experienced infrastructure roles into technical leadership. Others have progressed inside their existing company, won freelance work or built a career that fits their life better.
KubeCraft counts 200+ members who have shared a new job (November 2026). This page documents 90 member stories from 86 people, backed by their original community screenshots. Find a starting point or a goal that looks like yours, and see the work and decisions members describe behind the outcome.
The stories also include member-reported contracts at Fortune 50 and Fortune 500 companies.
Updated . These are selected, member-reported experiences. Summaries are written by KubeCraft; quotations are the members’ own words.
A Fortune 50 contract, a first role, a stronger offer, a major salary step and a leadership position. These stories show different ways a career can move forward.
Dane accepted a 12-month Cybersecurity Engineer contract with a Fortune 50 company, with a possible path to full-time employment. An experienced technologist, he describes the rate as life-changing and the work as exactly what he wanted to do.
“The rate is life-changing.”Dane
Ionut joined KubeCraft without a computer science degree or an IT background, having previously served in the military. He landed a Systems Engineer role at a major cloud provider after completing an interview loop focused on Linux, networking and behavioral examples.
“I have no CS degree and no IT background.”Ionut
Pedro was working in a restaurant and spending three to eight hours a day making deliveries. His next career announcement was a DevOps Engineer I role, the engineering role he had been working toward.
“I am still in disbelief”Pedro
Lourenço signed a Senior Platform Engineer contract at a salary beyond his expectations. His post describes going from no interviews to three offers, with 12 interviews in the preceding 45 days.
“for a salary that's beyond my expectations”Lourenço
Hasnain moved from Linux systems administration into a Platform Engineer Specialist role with more than a 50% salary increase. He brought eight years of Linux experience and used that background in technical discussions covering the command line, troubleshooting and application setup.
“Over 50% increase in salary.”Hasnain
Ciaran joined KubeCraft with more than 15 years of infrastructure experience. He went on to land a Lead Site Reliability Engineer role at a multinational company, helping establish a sovereign cloud operations team in Ireland. He describes KubeCraft as transforming his career trajectory while he worked through the courses and built his Kubernetes homelab.
“transformed my career trajectory”Ciaran
A first DevOps job. An internal move. More technical depth. A stronger salary or a role that gives you more choice.
KubeCraft starts with a private 1:1 call to understand your starting point, your goals and the gaps between them. Your personal roadmap then connects the learning, practical projects and career preparation that matter to your situation, and the KubeCraft team supports you as you work through it.
Choose the starting point or goal most relevant to you.
Your support and operations experience can be a starting point, not a ceiling. These members moved into DevOps, cloud, SRE and other technical work, each building on a different background.
Jakub had worked in help desk, not software development, systems administration or engineering. He kept studying documentation, experimenting with technologies and building projects, then announced his DevOps job.
Aghiles accepted a DevOps Engineer offer after a three-round interview process. His applications were backed by an Azure deployment project using Terraform and Azure Pipelines for automation. He gives particular credit to Mischa, the KubeCraft team and the community for their help.
Lucho used advice from the KubeCraft community to focus his learning on Linux and cloud technologies. He kept practicing and applying the material until he landed a Cloud Engineer role.
Christopher moved from System Support Analyst to DevOps Engineer while bringing an unconventional background: he trained in philosophy and still teaches at university. He describes KubeCraft as extremely useful and says he leaves with extensive notes and project work to keep developing.
Brad moved from three to four years in systems support into a Junior Site Reliability Engineer role. His background included Ubuntu Server, Docker Swarm and regulated, air-gapped systems. The new SRE team supported a SaaS platform used by banks and large organizations for operational runbooks.
Pravin had worked in customer support, help desk and technical support outside the IT industry. He wanted a route into technology and announced his first IT job as a Cloud Engineer.
Josh received a Junior Cloud Engineer offer at an Azure-focused company where infrastructure as code and automation were central. The employer planned further certification development. Five months into the role, he returned to say the move had been everything he hoped for and more.
“everything I hoped for and more”Josh
More posts: 2
Alex was working as a Support Engineer when a recruiter approached him. He completed two interview rounds centered on technical scenarios and received an offer. His ongoing DevOps and Linux studies became part of the conversation and prompted deeper technical questions.
Siim used a technical assignment to secure a position with an Estonian government ministry. A systems administrator since 2020, he brings experience supporting infrastructure across multiple ministries.
After years handling servers, networks and help desk duties, Timmy wanted to move beyond work that had become limiting. He started a new job and shared the progress he was making toward DevOps.
Peter joined KubeCraft wanting to move on from a Unix/Linux sysadmin and database-administration job. In his update, he had started a new role and completed probation. He describes the change in unusually personal terms: he had not felt that good or that free in years.
Luqman received an offer for a customer-facing implementation role that called for his Linux support experience and further Bash scripting development. He describes the opportunity as better than expected.
Aamir moved from supporting medical gas equipment into a support role for pharmacy software. Before the interview, he asked the KubeCraft community for advice and received guidance and reassurance. His follow-up confirms he had completed his first week at the new company.
Your support experience is a starting point. What would turn it into your next opportunity?
Apply now →Not everyone starts in software. These stories include moves from restaurant work, driving, hospitality, design and other fields, alongside graduates entering their first technical roles.
Thomas landed his first IT role as a Cloud Engineer after a background focused on video-game design. The job involves Kubernetes infrastructure built with Terraform and Azure. He specifically credits the Cloud Masterclass with helping him understand how the pieces fit together.
“the Cloud Masterclass really help me understand the big picture”Thomas
After working as an Uber driver, Hendry entered a non-technical monitoring role and taught himself to code. He progressed while working as an outsourced employee, and one of Latin America's largest companies then wanted to hire him directly as a developer and incident manager.
Serhii used quiet hotel night shifts to work through KubeCraft courses and build his Kubernetes homelab. After joining a startup connecting hospitality and technology, the team noticed what he was learning. His post announces the move from hotel night shifts to the tech team.
Adrian secured a DevOps internship at a major cybersecurity company, then progressed into a Junior DevOps Engineer role. A former UX designer without an IT background, he credits the courses, community and member support with helping him start the transition.
Danil signed a DevOps Engineer offer straight out of university, with no previous job experience. He thanks the KubeCraft team for help with his résumé and says his homelab and related projects were the biggest part of his interview process.
After more than a year working toward the transition, Maor announced that he was starting as a Junior DevOps Engineer. He describes the move as one of the best decisions of his life.
Marko secured his first technology job as a DevOps Engineer at a startup while still completing his software-engineering studies. His update came five months into the role, alongside work on his bachelor's project and personal projects.
After a platform-engineering apprenticeship and completing his systems-and-networks master's degree, Anthony had two offers to consider. He signed his first full-time contract and shared the decision with the community.
More posts: 2
Leo accepted a part-time internship at a startup working on automation and application deployment, with a focus on AI and n8n. He had met the director through a hackathon before joining KubeCraft.
Justin wanted his life back after working 72-hour weeks as a catastrophe adjuster and spending months away from home. He landed a Telephony Analyst role that lets him work remotely.
Alejandro landed a Linux teaching role with a public employment-training service in Madrid. He reported moving from €8 an hour on night-shift security work to €18 an hour teaching, on a 22-hour working week.
Alexander landed his first full-time role as a BI Consultant working with Power BI and Microsoft Fabric. His announcement followed more than 18 months of searching and setbacks, and he described the new position as his dream job.
The next step does not have to mean starting from zero. Members have connected their existing engineering experience with Kubernetes, cloud infrastructure, automation and new responsibilities.
Two months after joining KubeCraft, Philip shared a signed Senior Cloud Engineer offer from a US company. The fully remote role involved building Kubernetes Operators. His later updates document starting the job and taking on more responsibility as he continued developing his cloud-native engineering skills.
After almost a year of study, certifications and projects, Joe landed a remote DevOps offer. The role focused on AWS, GitLab CI, Terraform, GitOps, Kubernetes and infrastructure security. He specifically says his homelab helped him make the move out of development.
Kevin moved from semiconductor manufacturing engineering into Site Reliability Engineering. His offer matched the high end of the salary range he had requested. The process took six weeks from initial employer contact to offer, and his later posts document starting the role at a major bank.
Jhonatan moved from OSS engineering into an Integration Engineer role with a technical stack and team he was excited about. He credits the community and later returned to share hiring opportunities with other members.
More posts: 2
Juan landed a Software Engineer position at the local branch of a multinational company. His manager specifically highlighted his DevOps skills because the team lacked that capability, and the role offered room to improve CI/CD and testing.
Prachita secured a Software Engineer role covering DevOps, SRE and AI after developing skills across cloud, Kubernetes, platform engineering and automation. She emphasizes the value of community, networking and referrals, then returns to share opportunities for others.
After three years in fintech and a career working with AWS environments, Andrew received an offer from an AI company using Google Cloud. The move would also give him hands-on work with a large production Kubernetes cluster, expanding both his technical scope and industry experience.
For experienced engineers, progress can mean a larger technical scope, leadership, remote work, a better salary or a role that fits life outside work. These members describe those next steps.
Endrit accepted a fully remote Site Reliability Engineer position that nearly doubled his previous salary. He credits much of the move to practical experience gained through his AWS homelab projects, alongside refining his résumé and pursuing relevant opportunities.
“nearly doubling my previous salary”Endrit
Cian joined KubeCraft with several goals: increase his salary, move back to Ireland and develop skills for future AI infrastructure work. He landed a Member of Technical Staff role and says the job met his goals. He specifically states that KubeCraft contributed significantly to the move.
“Thankfully, this job has met all of these, and Kubecraft contributed significantly!”Cian
More posts: 2
Maciej secured a full-time Senior DevOps Engineer role building an air-gapped, on-premises platform and migrating workloads from AWS. The project connected closely with the infrastructure he wanted to build in his homelab. He says several things that helped him relate directly to what is taught in KubeCraft.
Niels secured a senior cloud infrastructure specialist offer after a successful technical interview. The role involved building a new Azure environment from the ground up. After joining KubeCraft earlier that year, he described a shift in mindset; a later update confirms he had started the job.
More posts: 2
Jatin had faced failed interviews, lost opportunities and a coding test in which he froze. He took a lower-rate contract to keep going, then secured a Lead Software Engineer offer for an identity-migration project. The offer arrived the same afternoon as a 20-minute interview.
Frederick signed a Senior Software Engineer (Consultant) contract that would take him from South Africa to the Netherlands. The opportunity began with a recruiter contacting him on LinkedIn. His post describes how KubeCraft helped during the journey and includes the next steps toward relocation.
Radek already had a well-paid job but wanted more room to grow. After being told to wait another year, he interviewed elsewhere and accepted a new opportunity with a generous salary and the prospect of substantial experience.
Aaron accepted a Senior MLOps Engineer offer through a connection at the company. He emphasizes professional reputation, good work and relationships with former colleagues as the drivers behind the opportunity.
Alessandro announced a return to a major technology company as a technical specialist in AI and cloud-native technologies. He credits the group for contributing to what he learned during the two years away. The move also supported his goals around family time and deeper AI work.
Wesley accepted an Application Systems Senior Analyst offer with a significant raise from his previous position. The role offered professional cloud experience and a path toward his DevOps goals. He specifically thanks Mischa, the KubeCraft team and the community for their guidance and mentorship.
You do not have to start over to move forward. Build a plan around the skills, responsibility and opportunities you want next.
Apply now →A career win is not always a change of employer. These members earned promotions, moved into platform work, secured assignments and turned their expertise into paid opportunities.
Milan changed direction after 12 years in Software Quality Engineering. Instead of starting over with a new employer, he moved into DevOps/Platform Engineering at the company where he had worked for four years.
Matthew accepted a DevOps Engineer position with his existing employer, moving onto its platform engineering team. The work centered on AWS serverless services, including Lambda, SQS, DynamoDB, API Gateway and S3.
Dariusz's company promoted him to Senior DevOps without him asking, telling him that his work was already beyond mid-level. He also completed his master's degree and passed CKAD.
Nick won a major freelance assignment for an energy-monitoring system using Proxmox and Kubernetes. While working through Kubernetes fundamentals and DevOpsOS Part 1, he brought his proposed architecture and delivery approach to the community for feedback.
Shirlene secured the assignment she wanted and credits the community and the KubeCraft courses. She specifically says the DevOps skills she applied in her homelab gave her an extra push in interviews.
“The devOps skills I implemented in my homelab gave the extra push in my interviews.”Shirlene
Todd secured a paid speaking and training engagement helping non-engineers use AI in their work. The two-day event was a commercial opportunity to apply and teach his expertise, with potential for a longer engagement.
Rodolfo faced a potential reassignment to a hybrid role 250 kilometers from home after a client project shut down. Four months after joining KubeCraft, he shared what he called his perfect job. He explicitly credits what he learned in the program with helping him secure it.
“I would not have been able to get it without everything I learned here.”Rodolfo
Experience does not make a job search easy. These accounts show the projects, preparation, persistence and support members describe while working toward their next opportunity.
After more than 100 applications, Erick accepted a Senior Site Reliability Engineer offer following three interview rounds. He gives major credit to the hands-on experience from his KubeCraft homelab. The role was with a healthcare technology organization working on an AI-driven platform.
“the hands-on experience I gained through my KubeCraft home lab setup”Erick
More posts: 2
Erdenebat lost his job with a new baby at home, despite years of infrastructure experience across Japan and Europe. He could reach technical interviews but was not converting them into offers; Kubernetes was one of the gaps they exposed. He later signed a Senior DevOps Engineer contract with a SaaS company in Germany.
More posts: 2
Lennard joined KubeCraft with little confidence in Kubernetes and no clear direction. In two weeks, he built a work-in-progress K3s homelab, grew his LinkedIn network from about 100 to 543 connections and landed a DevOps job. He credits the direction he found and being able to answer a control-plane question confidently.
“Kubecraft gave me direction and purpose”Lennard
Tyler returned to a DevOps Engineer role after almost nine months of applications, interviews, coding tests and rejection. Already experienced in moving from SDET into DevOps, he kept building personal projects and sharpening his cloud and pipeline skills throughout the search.
Austin secured the AI Engineer role he wanted after a layoff from full-stack engineering and nine months of job hunting. His post shares the setbacks and lessons behind the move.
Randall brought more than 15 years of experience with routers, switches, load balancers and firewalls. Following a layoff, he shared a new job opportunity and the sustained study behind his next career step.
Dave received an offer for a Kubernetes Engineer position after a period out of work. His post describes renewed energy and the opportunity to keep his skills current in the field.
After being unemployed since mid-2024, Zameel began 2026 with an AWS certification and a job offer on the same day. The role was outside DevOps, but it was the return to work he had been pursuing.
Rémi joined KubeCraft in January, followed the roadmap and completed almost all the courses. After more than 50 applications and six interview processes, he signed a DevOps Engineer contract in August. His new work involved a modern data platform built around Kubernetes and cloud-native technologies in aerospace.
James signed a Senior Developer contract with a logistics company after more than 50 unsuccessful applications.
Nathan joined KubeCraft feeling stuck. He developed his skills, changed his résumé and received more responses, then worked on interview delivery and questions for employers. After interviewing with three companies, he accepted an offer. He credits KubeCraft with giving him a direction and a path to follow.
“It gave me a direction, a path to follow.”Nathan
A layoff in late April prompted Luka to join KubeCraft. He had not applied or interviewed for some time and wanted a clearer understanding of the market and where he stood. By July, he was sharing a successful job hunt with the community.
Emily lost her job in late May and had started a new one by her August update. She thanks the community and Mischa, including his support on her LinkedIn post about looking for work.
Michael had a long background in datacenter modernization and enterprise IT when he was laid off in 2024. His later post announces a new job and emphasizes the importance of making a plan.
Hervé waited until he had passed his trial period to announce his DevOps Engineer role, four months after starting. His goal had been work with Kubernetes in the cloud.
When another application is not solving the problem, look at the whole picture: your skills, your evidence, your positioning and your interviews.
Apply now →The first practical opportunity matters. These stories distinguish internships, contractor offers and first technical roles rather than presenting them all as the same outcome.
After three months as an intern, Florian received his first DevOps Engineer contractor offer. The company praised his ability to work autonomously and agreed to a fully remote arrangement.
Krzysztof announced his first job in the field as a DevOps Engineer Intern. He thanks Mischa, the KubeCraft team and the community for their inspiration, encouragement and support over the preceding months.
Petr was approached rather than applying and secured a fully remote internship. He points to improvements in his LinkedIn profile as a likely factor. The employer also offered to fund Google Cloud training and certification, giving him both a first opportunity and further development.
Can shared two milestones: a new job and winning a capture-the-flag challenge by writing Assembly. His employer provided training and room to experiment with technology. He credits Mischa and the community's advice and approach as contributing to how he presented himself.
Felix secured a Support and Enablement Engineer position after presenting an application built for a take-home assignment. The brief included Azure and Terraform deployment, which he had not fully completed, and he still received the role.
More member accounts of DevOps, cloud and SRE roles, interview breakthroughs, accepted offers and later career moves. Where a post names what helped, such as homelab work or InterviewOS, the summary says so.
Mykola secured a new SRE job after a month of searching, more than ten interviews and five technical stages. He received two offers and specifically credits the tips from InterviewOS, thanking Mischa and the KubeCraft team for the course.
“During the preparation - used all the tips from InterviewOS.”Mykola
Mykola landed his first Site Reliability Engineering position after more than a year of pursuing DevOps opportunities and roughly 20 interviews. He explicitly credits the KubeCraft community with helping him reach that point and describes showing interviewers how he thinks through problems.
Radek reported that both job interviews he attended that year produced offers. He had changed positions to become a Cloud Engineer and then received another offer. One milestone was completing his first technical interview in English, opening up conversations beyond his usual working language.
A recruiter approached Joe on LinkedIn about a new DevOps opportunity. He started a role focused on Kubernetes and observability, two areas he particularly wanted to work in. This was a later move after his earlier remote DevOps offer.
Karol landed a Site Reliability Engineer role at a large company. His homelab came up several times during the interviews, and he believes it helped demonstrate genuine interest in the work. He specifically thanks Mischa for the homelab course.
Austin started a one-year AI Automation Engineer contract with a US Fortune 500 company. His team uses AI workflows and systems to make SRE teams across the organization more effective. This is a later career outcome than his earlier AI Engineer role.
Israel secured a Cloud Network Engineer role involving datacenter network automation, Juniper, OpenStack and Kubernetes. He explicitly says the community played a significant part. The opportunity also placed him alongside experienced DevOps and SRE colleagues.
Noah landed a Cloud Engineer I position after applying through LinkedIn and progressing through recruiter screening and a hiring-manager conversation. He shared updates with the community during the process, then returned with the job announcement.
Dawid announced that he would start a DevSecOps role in October. He used a point from Mischa's teaching about security being part of DevOps in several interviews, and turned that idea into a LinkedIn post.
David brought a complicated contractor arrangement to the community for advice before deciding whether to accept it. He then took the offer and shared an update after starting his DevOps job.
More posts: 2
Jonathan received a DevOps offer after entering technology through a data-engineering internship. His degree was in management and business analytics, not computer science. He brought the offer and his decision to the community to discuss the trade-offs before choosing his next step.
Levente received a DevOps offer from a telecom IT company. He reports positive feedback from everyone to whom he presented his project, including his manager. He specifically thanks Mischa and the KubeCraft team for their tips, insight and help, and describes the method as a game changer.
After a difficult technical interview, Amha performed strongly in the in-person round and received an offer a week later. He accepted it 23 days into his KubeCraft journey, thanking Mischa, the KubeCraft team and the community for their contribution.
Before he had started the course or built a homelab, Robert was contacted by a recruiter and entered an interview process. His post describes using the homelab idea in those conversations and securing the job.
Francesco started a new job in the Netherlands and credits both KubeCraft and his own determination to develop Kubernetes skills. He also highlights a community member who helped him reach the meetup where the opportunity began.
Practical experience they could discuss. Erick gives major credit to “the hands-on experience I gained through my KubeCraft home lab setup” after securing his Senior SRE offer. Read Erick’s account.
Focused interview preparation. Mykola writes: “During the preparation - used all the tips from InterviewOS.” His later SRE search produced two offers. Read Mykola’s account.
A clearer direction. Nathan describes KubeCraft this way: “It gave me a direction, a path to follow.” He then explains the résumé and interview changes that preceded his accepted offer. Read Nathan’s account.
Project work that impressed people. Levente reports positive feedback on his portfolio from everyone he presented it to and specifically thanks Mischa and the KubeCraft team for their help. Read Levente’s account.
Different starting points. Different obstacles. Specific accounts of the work and support members found useful.
Some members have. Ionut moved from military service into a Systems Engineer role without an IT background. Jakub moved from help desk into DevOps, and Danil signed a DevOps offer straight out of university. Their starting points and preparation differed; a lack of engineering employment is not the same as a lack of technical learning.
No. Ciaran joined with more than 15 years in infrastructure before taking a Lead SRE role. Milan moved from QA into DevOps/Platform Engineering inside his existing company. Other stories include promotions, freelance assignments, salary increases and specialist roles.
The accounts point to different parts of the process. Erick credits hands-on homelab experience. Danil highlights résumé support and talking through his projects. Mykola names InterviewOS. Nathan describes a clearer direction, a stronger résumé and interview preparation. These are the members’ own explanations, not one assumed formula applied to every story.
These stories do not establish a typical time to get hired. Where a member gives a timeline, we identify what it measures. Lennard reports a job two weeks after joining KubeCraft. Kevin describes six weeks from initial employer contact to an offer. Florian describes a three-month internship before a contractor offer. Those are different milestones, not interchangeable program timelines.
No. The page includes DevOps, cloud, SRE and platform roles, alongside internal moves, internships, other technical roles and paid projects. The summaries identify the outcome rather than relabel every career win as a DevOps placement. Some members have shared more than one distinct career move.
Yes. Each summary is paired with the member screenshot used for it. Open the image to inspect the wording. Some screenshots contain only the visible opening of a longer post; a screenshot does not expand the original “See more” text. We use first names in the summaries and retain the supplied redactions in the images.
No. An employer mentioned in a member account is the employer in that individual story. It does not automatically indicate a recruitment partnership or endorsement of KubeCraft.
You may be changing careers, building on years in IT, preparing for an internal move or working toward several goals at once.
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These are selected member accounts, not an audited placement study or a guarantee of another person’s outcome. Individual results depend on prior experience, work completed, opportunities and other circumstances. The page distinguishes offers, roles started, internal moves, internships and paid projects. Timelines and pay changes belong to the individual story in which they appear.
