How He Went From Civil Engineering Graduate from Nigeria to DevOps Engineer in UK (Complete Timeline)
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𝗕𝗲𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗳𝘂𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲-𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗼𝗳 𝗶𝗻 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟲?  𝗜𝘀𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹 𝗱𝗶𝗱 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝘀𝘁𝗿𝘂𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝘁𝗼 𝗴𝗲𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲:
🔗 DevOps Bootcamp: https://bit.ly/4pMkZWH
🔗 DevSecOps Bootcamp: https://bit.ly/3MPHrzJ

Isreal had a big problem. He studied civil engineering in Nigeria, moved to the UK for his master's degree, and his visa was running out. If he couldn't find a job that would sponsor his visa, he'd have to leave the country. He had zero IT experience. He was working night shifts at retail stores just to pay rent. After 9 months of intense learning in our DevOps program, he landed a Lead DevOps Engineer. 

This was about 2-3 years ago. Now he is working as a Lead DevSecOps engineer at a cybersecurity company.

In this interview, we revisit his whole journey - his struggles, the moment he decided to bet on himself, and the exact steps he took to go from complete beginner to landing a leadership role. You'll learn his specific path, how he prepared for interviews, and his honest advice for anyone thinking it's impossible. If you're feeling stuck or think you're too late to break into tech, this story will show you what's possible.

▬▬▬▬▬▬  Thanks Isreal, for being so open and sharing your journey with the community 💙   ▬▬▬▬▬▬
► Connect with him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/isrealurephu/

In this video, Isreal shares:
◼️ Why he chose DevOps (and how it solved his visa problem)
◼️ The mistakes he made with scattered online courses
◼️ The pressure of an expiring visa
◼️ How he studied in our DevOps Bootcamp while working retail jobs
◼️ The exact interview questions that got him hired
◼️ Why companies chose him over CS graduates
◼️ How he got two job offers and negotiated a 25% higher salary

If you're trying to break into DevOps with no IT background, or you're stuck in a career you don't like, this is the roadmap.

▬▬▬▬▬▬ T I M E S T A M P S ⏰  ▬▬▬▬▬▬
00:00 Introduction to Isreal & Overview
01:59 Civil Engineering Background and UK Visa Pressure
10:29 Overcoming the Scattered Learning Phase
20:25 The Learning System
26:58 The Job Hunt
31:37 The Interview & Offer
37:43 Landing 2 Offers
43:36 First Day Reality
48:42 Upgrading Skills to DevSecOps
52:01 Performance Review after 1 year
54:55 Isreal's Advice for aspiring DevOps engineers
58:20 Career Timeline Recapped


▬▬▬▬▬▬ 🎙️ PART OF INTERVIEW SERIES 🎙️    ▬▬▬▬▬▬
Link to playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLy7NrYWoggjzWeggYOnCigkyu4feE_ADd
This series features in-depth conversations with industry experts like Kelsey Hightower and real career journeys, from people who made it happen, sharing practical insights on learning paths, interview preparation, and day-to-day DevOps work.

I capture real transformation stories from our DevOps bootcamp graduates about building a DevOps career. Hear how people learned Kubernetes, prepared project portfolios, landed multiple job offers, and navigate the evolving landscape of AI in infrastructure. Whether you're considering DevOps or already in the field, these conversations reveal what's actually working.

▬▬▬▬▬▬ Connect with me 👋   ▬▬▬▬▬▬ 
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TWITTER                   ►  https://bit.ly/3i54PUB
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TechWorld with Nana

A civil engineer from Nigeria transitioned to a Lead DevOps Engineer role in the UK within 9 months through structured learning, strategic career planning, and hands-on practice. Starting with zero IT experience while working retail night shifts and facing visa pressure, he chose DevOps for its high salary threshold enabling visa sponsorship. After scattered learning attempts, he enrolled in a structured DevOps bootcamp, passed the CKA certification, and built comprehensive projects demonstrating integrated tool knowledge. His deep conceptual understanding of CI/CD optimization, Docker layer caching, and Kubernetes fundamentals helped him excel in technical interviews. He negotiated between two offers, choosing the role with modern tech stack (Kubernetes, Terraform, Ansible) over legacy tools, resulting in 25% higher salary. On the job, he immediately added value by building production Kubernetes clusters from scratch and implementing security scanning pipelines, earning a 10% raise within his first year.

From Non IT to Lead DevOps Engineer | The Exact Roadmap

Honestly sounds like BS.
Employers won’t make someone with only bootcamp experience a lead in any position within 9 months, even if performing really well.
Progress speed depends on many factors:
<ul>
<li>Can you touch at different projects where you work at?</li>
<li>Do you have the possibility to exchange with stakeholders?</li>
<li>How’s your relationship with stakeholders?</li>
<li>Are there opportunities for you to keep learning and improving, or imposing yourself in a certain position?</li>
<li>etc.</li>
</ul>
From my experience, not pretending to know everything, I’ve never seen or even heard of such quick progress when being an employee. Not saying it’s not possible to acquire many skills and a lot of knowledge within 9 months, but having everything that’s required to become a lead and on top convincing management or imposing yourself to get the job within that time, don’t believe it.

I mean everyone starts at 0 IT and then becomes whatever they become. That’s the whole point of skill and career progression.
Most of these types of stories are BS tho. They’re always selling something and got the backstory polished and rehearsed.

Congrats… That feels too quick! 🙃 But cool! Hope I can do that too! 😌

Poor company money distribution…
<ol>
<li>Senior developer gets paid $20k and Devops Junior role = $25k</li>
<li>Ensure you have 10 devs so that your Senior becomes Devops Junior to become senior Devops since the intellect of a Senior dev should be high enough to learn something like this.</li>
<li>Now you have a new Senior dev and you have promoted your Senior dev to a DevOps Engineer instead of hiring some random guy that has 0 loyalty to the company.</li>
</ol>
This only applies if you are hiring a Junior DevOps Engineer it makes absolutely no sense to hire someone at a rate higher than a Senior dev picture me as a cat smacking you with my budget paw on your face stop throwing money away please.