Hello everyone. My name is Alexander.
A few years ago, I worked as a fitter in Siberia, working month-long shifts—far from any city, without internet. One day before my shift, I downloaded a Linux webinar, made a bootable USB drive, installed Linux on my laptop, and went to work. This allowed me to start learning offline. Now I can confidently say that this was my first real encounter with Linux.
This experience taught me discipline and independence. But more importantly, it showed me that I want to create things not only with my hands, but also with my mind.
Today, I'm building a multi-hop VPN infrastructure (AmneziaWG, Xray, Ansible, Terraform, Prometheus) to bypass strict censorship in my region. This is my home lab, my portfolio, and proof that self-study works.
I'm looking for my first junior position—either DevOps or Linux systems administrator. I know I still have a lot to learn, but I'm ready to work hard.
🔗 My project:
https://github.com/alexanderkozariychuk-pixel/vpn-infrastructure-showcase
If you've made a similar transition from a non-traditional field to IT, I'd love to hear your story. What helped you land that first opportunity?
Thank you for your attention. 🙌
Top comments (2)
Keep it rolling, I think this is a good area to start with nowadays. The sole purpose of that ugly censorship machine is to restrict people from getting information, basically from becoming more aware and smart, so this is a natural area to practice your skills against :)
Thanks for your feedback. It really means a lot when people who have been in the industry for years find meaning in what I'm doing. That's truly inspiring.