My name is Ricardo Boriba Makuere, and probably as you I strugled to get in to the Tech Industry. Before having the title of DevOps & Cloud Engineer, I tried too many things, like Frontend with Reactjs, Backend with NodeJS, Datascience with python libraries (panda, skilearn, seaborn), and a lot of shiny promising udemy courses. In other words I was completely lost and I still kind of a little bit, because I have never stopped trying new things, technologies and ideas.
At the beginning of my Tech career, I never had a formal Mentor, I just watched the path of a close friend and had some deep conversations sometimes with this friend who was already a DevOps Engineer during that time. Before getting into My mentoring journey in detail let me share with you some key points and insights I learnt from my friend:
- Check out carefully the job description looking for the tech stack they are using. In my case, during that time, the common denominators were Terraform, Kubernetes and AWS.
- Learn as much as you can about the technologies you identified in point one. If you don't have work experience with these technologies a good idea is to get some certifications as I did.
- Apply to the jobs while you are learning as a way to test if you're on track or not. Doesn't matter if you feel you are ready or not, this step will help you refine your learning path, getting rid of what is not relevant and sticking to your goals with what is important.
Until today these 3 key points made a difference in my working as a DevOps & Cloud Engineer today, I hope it makes a difference for you also.
Now let's get into business.
Knowledge Assessment
When you apply to my Mentorship Journey Program, you always have a 7-day trial to test if we are perfect for each other, these 7 days can be extended if you need. I use this time for:
- Have our first introductory call, where I ask you some questions to know a little bit about your goals, aspirations, and why you think you need a mentor.
- After the introductory call, I take 2-4 days to prepare your Learning Paths, I write down your goals and finally, your expectations after we finish the program. I use confluence pages for this, and I also ask my mentees to use the pages to write about their research related to the task I gave to them.
- Then I ask you to fill out some information, I call it The Knowledge Assessment.
- Once these 3 tasks are done we start with the task assignments. I use Jira for this, I create some epics depending on the Learning Paths/Goals and add the tasks to the corresponding epics.
The knowledge assessment, they are some confluence pages with tables where I ask you what you know about some IT topics.
It always depends on what your needs and your requirements are, here I'm trying to explain the most common needs when someone applies to my program. Of course, feel free to come with whatever requirements you may need and we can have a quick chat about how I can help you.
Type of Mentees.
These are the types of people that reach out to me:
- You already working as a DevOps/Cloud Engineer, but you think you don't have enough challenges in your job to improve your skills.
- You already working as a DevOps/Cloud Engineer, but you still lack some confidence working with some of the tools available like Terraform, and Kubernetes.
- You are a Developer, maybe a Backend, Frontend or Data science, but you would like to change your career to a DevOps/Cloud Engineer.
- You are not in an IT role, you have been doing a lot of courses, and you are completely lost
- You are looking for help to prepare for a DevOps/Cloud Engineer Interview
- You are looking for help with CV review or preparation
- You need help to prepare your own portfolio with some DevOps/Cloud Engineer project
Mentoring Plans.
At the time of writing this article, I have two types of plans Lite and Standard, They are the same the only difference is the dedication, the amount of time or attention.
What the Lite Plan contains:
Project help and 2 Calls/month! Oriented to career guidance and support. 2 calls per month (60min/call) | Unlimited Q&A via chat | Expect responses in 2 days | Hands-on support | 7-day free trial! Cancel anytime.
If you are already a DevOps/Cloud Engineer, maybe it is enough with the Lite plan because you already know much of the stuff you only need some small guidance every once in a while.
The reasoning behind suggesting the Lite plan for someone already established in their career is that you likely don't need as much hand-holding or extensive assistance with basic concepts. Instead, you might only require occasional guidance or clarification on specific issues that arise in your work.
What the Standard Plan Contains:
Project help and 4 Calls/month! Oriented to career guidance and support. 4 calls per month (60min/call) | Unlimited Q&A via chat | Expect responses in 24 hours or less | Hands-on support | 7-day free trial! Cancel anytime.
If you are starting your career as a DevOps/Cloud, maybe it will be better to go for the Standard plan, because you will require more projects and work more time in improving your skills.
The reasoning behind suggesting the Standard plan for someone starting their career is that you may require more assistance, guidance, and hands-on support as you learn and grow in the field. The additional calls and faster response times can be beneficial for addressing your questions, providing mentorship, and helping you navigate challenges.
Final words.
In our journey to become the best version of ourselves in any area, we have to get out of the building and interact with others, friends, family, and colleagues. We need to talk, see other points of view and ask for help.
Yes, you read right, there is no shame on asking for help.
If you still have more questions, feel free to reach out. I am here to help you achieve your goals.
Best wishes in your professional career.
Your humble servant,
Ricardo