So much has changed/happened since my last post in summer of '22 after I completed Forrest Brazeal's Cloud Resume Challenge! Two months after completing the challenge (through some heavy networking, luck, and perseverance), I was able to secure my first DevOps role at a great small series A startup. It was remote with great starting pay and benefits, with plenty of opportunity to learn and grow.
I was able to quickly put my skills to work, and learned so much from my teammates and others. I designed and built infrastructure, learned how to set up application monitoring, containerized applications, and got familiar with multiple tools and technologies. My new gig was everything I'd hoped and more.
Five months later, my boss (Director of Engineering) was let go (bad sign). There were rumblings about the state of the company, but I kept my head down and learned as much as possible. Things seemed to be steady, but I did have a nagging feeling that things weren't going as well as they could be on the business front.
Three months after my boss was let go, four out of six engineers on our team (including myself and my DevOps teammate) were laid off along with others on the business side (about half of the company). Ouch. I had JUST started to catch my stride in my new(ish) role, and the opportunity just evaporated.
I'm almost two months in with my job search for a new DevOps role. Wish me luck!
Top comments (2)
Hopefully you were able to get letters of recommendation from some of your teammates, so you can add those to your resume… good luck!
Thanks Mike! I was able to get a rec letter from my old CEO, and me and my teammates started a group chat in signal to help each other through the job hunt. I'm optimistic :)