Mykola, a member of the KubeCraft Career Accelerator, landed his first SRE job at a huge company wanted to share exactly how it happened. “For over a year, I went through 20 DevOps interviews. Each one went well, but the feedback was clear: not enough real Kubernetes experience. So I decided to fix that gap. I built a home lab on my old laptop and kept experimenting. I learned how traffic flows from the client to the pod. I could explain the whole path of a pod from apply to container running. I read Terraform Up and Running and went deep on the basics. And I kept talking about this hands-on experience in every interview. Eventually, a recruiter reached out. The interview turned into a real technical conversation, not just theory. They asked about Kubernetes networking. They asked about Terraform use cases. They wanted to see how I would solve problems. In the end, curiosity and practical skill made me stand out. Twenty minutes after the final round, I got the offer.” 🔥 This is exactly why the KubeCraft Career Accelerator exists. When you stay consistent, learn by doing, and get guidance from people who have done it, you build confidence and stories that make you stand out in interviews. You can watch the full story here in this post. If you are serious about moving from theory to real-world DevOps and Kubernetes skills, you are already in the right place. Keep asking questions. Keep practicing. Keep learning by doing. And when you are ready for more structure, real feedback, and the same kind of support that helped Mykola get his first SRE role, you will find it in the KubeCraft Career Accelerator. What is one thing you will practice to move closer to that next step in your career? 👇 Share it in the comments. We will help you make it real together.

Here's what experienced hiring managers focus on: Strong Linux command line skills and debugging ability are must-haves - they're considered so fundamental that weakness here is often a dealbreaker. Beyond this foundation, successful candidates demonstrate proficiency with system administration, Git, CI/CD, and modern container orchestration using Kubernetes and Helm. Infrastructure automation experience with Ansible and Bash is essential, along with a broad understanding of system design, message brokers, and databases. Note: I don't recommend learning Jenkins myself, only if you know that the company you wish to work for uses it. The nature of DevOps work demands quick thinking and efficient execution. Top performers excel at rapid context switching and getting things done without getting bogged down. Interestingly, many hiring managers place higher value on Linux certification than cloud platform credentials, viewing strong Linux fundamentals as a better predictor of overall capability. These insights come from a hiring manager who has interviewed over 50 DevOps candidates and found these patterns to be consistent indicators of success. So, what are your main takeaways from this? How are you going to take action?

It's Monday right now 🚀 What are your plans for scaling up your DevOps career in the next couple of days? If you don't have any plans yet, come up with one. 💡 💬 Comment below! (My answer will be in the comments.)

Hey all, I took Mischa's Zettelkasten course yesterday and have felt the benefits immediately. I have typically been very easily distracted (YouTube etc), but with his lessons about intentional consumption of content, today has been one of my most productive and focused in a long time. Just amazing, thanks Mischa. And in the spirit of Input ---> Output, here is one of my zettels to share with you all. "An important realisation is that any consumption of content, articles, blogs, videos, courses etc. needs to be planned and considered. The consumption of content should be driven by your goals. 80% should be intentional and 20% can be relaxed (for example at the end of a week to reward yourself)"

On Sundays I like to take some time to review my week, and make plans for the next one. What are your goals for the week?