From SEO to DevOps Via LPI: Adam Stegienko’s Path

My journey with the technology world started not a long time ago but has been extremely intense. Having graduated from non-IT studies, I had my first two jobs in the Finance field. Although some of my responsibilities were close to software development or process improvement topics, I always felt I didn’t have much space to bring in a real change since I lacked technical skills other than simple macros writing in MS Excel VBA.

From SEO to Linux

Everything changed in early 2022 when I got interested in SEO practices and web positioning. I quickly realized that to excel in the SEO market, I need at least the basics of programming. I started with a standard Front-End development course, and at that moment, I felt that the “IT hemisphere” gave me more fun than SEO.

Although I could not get on with Front-End (I felt it was not for me), I continued my programming learning path with Python language. After two months of an intensive Python course, I casually looked through one of the top job boards in Poland and saw something unbelievable.

Develeap (a leading DevOps consultancy company in Israel) opened a 3-month-long DevOps boot camp in Poland to educate and hire talented people. The DevOps topic was completely new to me. Yet, the boot camp admission required only basic Python and Linux/Bash knowledge. One of these I already had, “So why wouldn’t I try?” I thought.

I finished the Python task smoothly, but when it came to the Bash scripting task, I felt that that one would be a bigger problem for me. Before, I hadn’t had any experience in Linux and Bash, so I needed to begin my adventure with Linux from the very scratch in an extreme way. I had just installed Ubuntu Linux on my machine for the first time, given an assignment to write 2 complex Bash scripts. It’s worth mentioning that I hadn’t written a single line of code in Bash back then. It took me three days to read the documentation and submit the “kind-of-working” scripts. Yet to my genuine surprise, I passed and finally got into the complete full-time DevOps Bootcamp! For the next 3 months, Linux slowly started revealing its wonderful possibilities to me…

Playing with (a lot of) tools

Those challenging 3 months taught me how to learn IT topics. I explored documentation of the tools I was trying to learn (e.g. Git, Docker, Jenkins, Terraform, or Kubernetes); I also discovered a wonderful “medium.com” specific channel and a bunch of awesome YouTube channels which focus strictly on DevOps, Linux and programming topics (e.g. “TechWorld with Nana“, “The DevOps Guy“, or “Learn Linux TV“). And last but not least, I learned how to search for answers on Stack Overflow!

I must admit that I have been using all these sources even until today. One of the most important and challenging projects I completed and am proud of was my DevOps portfolio project. It was the last project of the boot camp, required to complete and present to graduate. The project was multi-disciplinary, which is actually normal in DevOps Engineer’s everyday responsibilities. It was a multi-repo project composed of a simple web application written in Python (Flask), dockerized, connected to MS SQL Server database and put behind a reverse proxy (nginx). Moreover, I wrote the Azure Cloud infrastructure code in Terraform and created the Kubernetes configuration for all the application’s services. I put the project to life with CI/CD pipeline using GitHub Actions (for CI) and ArgoCD (for CD – GitOps).

All in all, I spent almost two weeks until I finished the portfolio. Still, it eventually worked, and my changes on the application code pushed to the remote repo got portrayed in a live, internet-exposed production environment in a matter of minutes. The portfolio taught me a lot about the software development life cycle. That experience also gave me the courage to believe I can be a good engineer and give value to my future customers. Happily, I passed with my portfolio and presentation, graduated from the boot camp and finally joined Develeap. Soon I got my first project as a DevOps Engineer.

In my new role, I realized where my low points of knowledge were, and, against most recommendations to go only for cloud certifications, I decided to build up my fundamentals, the true foundation of DevOps and system administration, which is obviously Linux. I went for Linux Professional Institute’s LPIC-1 Linux System Administrator because of its recognition on the market and reliable computer-based tests (CBT).

It took me 2 months to prepare and pass the 101-500 and 102-500 exams, but it was worth the effort! Thanks to the extensive preparation and Christine Bresnahan‘s course on Udemy, I understood the main principles of Linux OS, Filesystem Hierarchy Standard, networking, administration, scripting, and more, which I am using daily in my job right now.

LPIC-1 will definitely not be my last certification from LPI, thanks to the extensive support from Develeap, for which I am genuinely grateful. I strongly recommend LPI certifications for ambitious individuals who want to start with Linux to eventually aim for the stars!