Too smart, too technical, too overqualified - vague interview feedback

I was laid off from my role at Stage A startup last month. I've been applying, interviewing, learning, studying, etcetra to keep my mind and skill sets occupied. I interviewed for a contract role at a media conglomerate. The compensation was $85/h. There was a single interview (hour long)...they went heavy on K8s and CICD stuff. All my answers were couched on what I had done before and attempted to extrapolate from there. Where needed, I asked to extra context rather than come up with a half baked answer. None of my answers were pie in the sky or hella nebulous. I made sure to ask what their tech debt situation and pay down process looks like, on call rotation, split between project work and firefighting and their open source posture. I heard back from the recruiter and was told that I am too smart, too technical, way too overqualified and detail oriented for this role. I am really not sure how such slappies for hiring managers are allowed to exist. At the risk of sounding conceited, I feel like I'm the catch. This really strikes me as a shop that doesn't know their glutes from their hippocampus.

https://redd.it/1nfe4a6
@r_devops

Jobs Titled DevOps Engineer but want you doing Application Development as well as Infra

Hi all,
I been working in the DevOps field for 7 years now and started looking into new jobs. Recently I have come across a good number of companies that tell me they want a DevOps Engineer to help scale and improve their infrastructure but they then they start talking about wanting you to also be doing Development for Full external services as well. Personally in my career I have done a good amount of internal tools, noscripts, and services but this seems like they want app development as well. I personally have no desire to go into Full Application development as I find the infrastructure end of things far more interesting. Is this a new trend in the market or is more companies trying to smash a DevOps role and a Full Stack Engineer into a single role?

https://redd.it/1nffdzk
@r_devops

Best resource for practical knowledge of k8 and argo CD/workflows

I recently accepted a new job. The job requires kubernetes and argo CD and argo workflows.

I've never used this tech, but I won't over the hiring manager and nailed the tech interviews. The hiring manager is well aware that I will be using this tech for the first time, so I was hired more for me rather than know a specific thing.

Anyway I've some time between jobs, and I want to get a bit of a head start to make my life easier, and also cause its interesting.

I was thinking of watching "Techworld with Nana" crash course on kubernetes and argo. My plan was to then try hold a local cluster on my machine and try and build an automation that will deploy an image of a web app I am working on there and stuff. Just for the learning experience (I am using Vercel for the real website lol)

Nor sure if anyone has any recommendation on quickest and most interesting way yo get familiar?

https://redd.it/1nfej51
@r_devops

Received an entry level Platform Engineer offer and unsure if there is potential in this position

Context:

I'm a Junior software engineer with about 2 years of experience and with no ops experience in my current position (mostly just React and Spring Boot developer work). I have started to dislike development work and wanted to pivot away from it. I'm not really sure at the moment what I want to do, but had an interest in trying for an infra / ops role.

I somehow managed to stumble upon and receive an offer for a "Cloud Engineer" position. Upon learning more about the position the role and research, the role seems to be more suited as a Platform Engineer. Essentially I would be working on the company's Internal Developer Portal (IDP) powered by Backstage helping to research new developer tooling, supporting new pipelines, and helping to modernize and onboard applications teams to the platform. I believe another term for this would be building out a "low code" internal cloud platform

I have no connections that have experience working with IDPs so wanted to take a shot in the dark and seek out any engineers in this area of work and ask the following questions:

1. Am I pigeonholing myself to a certain niche in this kind of role? How applicable does work in this kind of position apply to other DevOps roles?

2. In your experience how difficult has it been getting application teams to transition to this kind of platform?

3. Is this an upcoming way of approaching and accelerating enterprise app deployment or has this been a relatively niche approach to maintaining infrastructure and operations that only certain companies pilot?

Any help on this would be appreciated as I have literally never seen this sort of position even within my current company.

https://redd.it/1nfhcn7
@r_devops

Project Ideas and Suggestions: Please Reply, Don't Ignore

Hi Everyone,

I hope you all are doing well.


I am thinking to create projects for Devops job as fresher

could you please give some suggestions/ideas based on your knowledge and experience.


Note: I know Devops is not for fresher. Please help me!!

https://redd.it/1nfkva5
@r_devops

What’s the best tool for Kanban boards for developers?

We tried Trello but it felt too barebones. Jira is overkill. Monday dev’s Kanban boards are surprisingly really - lightweight and customizable enough for our dev workflow. Has anyone tried Linear or Notion for Kanban?

https://redd.it/1nfqcbe
@r_devops

3 YOE Site Reliabilty Engineer 2026 Grad Struggling to Get Responses from companies

I'm looking for internships in 2026 summer i have applied to 30-40 SRE roles as of now but heard back from none. I know the count is less but could anyone suggest any mistake that i might have done in this.


RQS (Robust Quantum Simulation) | Operations & Site Reliability Engineer Feb 2025 - Present

• Modernized RQS website deployment with GitHub and Netlify, replacing manual CMS updates with automated builds, improving

reliability and speeding releases by 40%, and added Grafana/Slack alerts for quick issue resolution.

• Served on the organizing committee for IBM Quantum Simulation Conference 2025 (280+ attendees), managing registrations, KPIs,

poster sessions, and cross-team logistics, while delivering real-time analytics to directors for smoother event execution.

Verizon (Contract through Prodapt) | Site Reliability Engineer Feb 2023 - Dec 2024

• Led the design and deployment of high-throughput Python micro-services with PostgreSQL, optimizing queries and API latency to

maintain 99.95% uptime for platforms serving 30,000+ employees.

• Partnered with software engineering teams to provision scalable AWS/GCP environments using Terraform, deploy and manage

applications on Kubernetes with autoscaling and cost-optimization policies, and implement Grafana/Prometheus dashboards for

real-time observability by cutting production incidents by 40% and reducing mean recovery time from 20 minutes to under 5.

• Built incident management workflows and chaos-engineering drills with Python, cut P99 latency by 30%, validated disaster-recovery

plans, and improved capacity planning and secrets management for stable performance during surges and migrations.

Prodapt Solutions | Associate Software Engineer May 2022 - Jan 2023

• Engineered and automated deployment and lifecycle management for 100+ mission-critical microservices on on-prem Kubernetes,

ensuring reliability and scaling for 2M+ daily users while reducing manual infrastructure overhead by 40%.

• Built blue-green deployments with Jenkins and Helm (99.99% success, sub-2-minute rollbacks) and created 20+ Terraform/Ansible

modules, reducing onboarding from 3 days to 4 hours.

• Built a full-stack observability platform with Prometheus, Grafana, and Python exporters to reduce MTTD by 60%, and strengthened

pipeline security and access controls for compliance across environments.

https://redd.it/1nfqpzv
@r_devops

Best agile project management tools for startups in 2025?

Our startup moved from Trello to Monday dev because it wasn’t good at scaling once we passed 5-6 devs. Monday dev feels like a good alternative to jira- as its not complex and still structured. Anyone here using Linear, Asana, or other tools for agile workflows?

https://redd.it/1nfw4da
@r_devops

SRE/DevOps with on-prem background — recruiters always ask for cloud, feeling stuck

I’ve been working in SRE/DevOps for over 10 years, with a strong background in on-prem infrastructure, CI/CD pipelines, automation, incident response, and observability. Most of my production work has been in on-prem environments, though I can usually pick up cloud tasks when needed.

Now that I’m exploring new opportunities, I’ve noticed that almost every recruiter frames cloud (AWS, Kubernetes, etc.) as a hard requirement. While I’m confident I can adapt quickly, I sometimes feel like my lack of direct, long-term cloud experience makes it harder to get past recruiter screening.

I don’t necessarily want to move into a “cloud-only” role — my focus is still SRE/DevOps — but it feels like cloud has become unavoidable in today’s market.

For those of you with similar backgrounds:
• How did you present strong on-prem experience so it translated into “cloud-ready” on a resume/LinkedIn?
• Did you find certifications (AWS, etc.) actually helped get past the recruiter filter?
• Any advice on building credibility in cloud without years of production cloud experience?

Would really appreciate hearing how others navigated this. Thanks 🙏

https://redd.it/1nfw8ph
@r_devops

Building a platform for AWS security scans & real-time compliance scoring – looking for feedback!

We’ve been building GuardNine, a platform that keeps an eye on your AWS (GCP Coming Soon) infrastructure 24/7 and flags common misconfigs before they cause trouble.

Demo: [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJvkoY3N93k&ab_channel=KubeNine)
Try it here: guardnine.in

# What GuardNine does

Continuous monitoring of AWS accounts (GCP support in progress)
Pre-built security scan templates
Create custom scans with 100+ checks
Real-time compliance scoring
One-click CloudFormation setup

# Current features

Detects open S3 buckets, EC2 misconfigs, insecure VPCs, RDS, SQS, SNS, and more
Multiple daily scans with severity filtering
Simple onboarding (setup <2 mins with IAM role deployment)

# Coming soon 🚀

Knowledge graph of your cloud environment
AI-powered check suggestions tailored to your infra

We’re still in early development and the platform is completely free to use right now.

Would love feedback, suggestions, or brutal honesty from this community! 🙌

https://redd.it/1nfw9db
@r_devops

Windows heavy Devops/Sre - How to transition to a more typical linux Devops skillset?

Currently I work at a FAANG doing devops type work. With how the job market is right now, I'm very worried that my skillset doesn't really transfer anywhere else.

My work is a mix of operational work managing a massive windows server fleet (servers going down, creating automation for em, writing noscripts for local engineers to execute, etc) and project based work (creating full stack applications in AWS to manage our stuff, such as managing cameras, permissions, various automation for migration related projects, etc). Almost all of the work is done through AWS.

The problem is that because 99% of my work is in the context of managing a huge Windows Server fleet and IP cameras connected to them, I'm worried my skillset doesn't really transfer over to your typical "Kubernetes/terraform/etc" job. A lot of my coding is done in PowerShell, TypeScript, and my python is good enough for writing lambdas. I've also noticed most SRE/Devops listing wants heavy Linux and container experience, which I definitely lack coming from a Windows background

Even my "full stack" applications aren't really too fancy... Just a react website hosted in S3 with some cloudfront distribution, and a backend of various DDB, SSM, lambda, etc resources.

Also, since I work at a FAANG, a lot of our tooling is also internal and I can't actually leverage stuff like terraform, I have to use AWS CDK for IAAS.

Do Windows heavy devops/sre roles like this actually exist? I've actually never seen it outside of my current job. Or should I be trying to cross train much more to your typical devops/sre skillset?

https://redd.it/1nfzr7t
@r_devops

Advice for Devops Engineer II role

Hi Everyone,
I have a technical interview coming up for a DevOps Engineer II role. Can anyone share what kind of questions I should expect? Will it include coding, like Infrastructure as Code, Kubernetes, Linux commands, or noscripting?

Thanks in advance.

https://redd.it/1nfznhp
@r_devops

Thoughts on NVIDIA Certifications

Hello,

What are your thoughts on infrastructure related NVIDIA Certifications?

https://redd.it/1nfwt2u
@r_devops

MVP GitHub Action: Zero Trust checks + compliance proof in CI/CD

I built a GitHub Action that blocks Terraform misconfigs and emits signed attestations. Yes, it’s a simple CNAPP with one important addition: it generates trust documentation. The point is to move past “scan and warn” into verifiable proof that risky changes never hit production.

Why it matters:
- Manual reviews don’t scale, screenshots aren’t proof.
- Tools like Vanta, Wiz, or Chainguard cover parts of the workflow, but there’s no open-source, end-to-end chain of compliance evidence.
- SOC 2 costs run $10k–$80k+ plus hundreds of staff hours — out of reach for teams below the security poverty line.

What it does today:
- Blocks public S3 buckets, open 0.0.0.0/0 security groups, long-lived AWS keys in PRs
- Emits DSSE-signed attestations as compliance evidence
- Built in Go with hashicorp/hcl + Cobra

Usage:

name: Zero Trust Infra Check
on: [pull_request]
jobs:
  security:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
      - uses: miqcie/mondrian/.github/actions/mondrian-check@main
        with:
          generate-attestation: true

Repo: github.com/miqcie/mondrian

Looking for input:
- What misconfigs are the biggest pain in your pipelines?
- How do you balance blocking gates with deploy velocity?
- Anyone chaining compliance proofs into a live trust center?

https://redd.it/1ng4lu7
@r_devops

What are the hardest things you've implemented as a DevOps engineer?

What are the hardest things you've implemented as a DevOps engineer? I am asking so that I can learn what I should be studying to future-proof myself.

https://redd.it/1ng4zvm
@r_devops

I feel I'm doing some greater evil

I set up a decent CI/CD for the infra (including kubernetes, etc). Battery of tests, compatibility reboot tests, etc. I plan to write much more, covering every shaky place and every bug we find.

It works fine. Not fast, but you can't have those things fast, if you do self-service k8s.

But. My CI is updating Cloudflare domain records. On each PR. But of course we do CI/CD on each PR, it's in the DNA for a good devops.

But. Each CI run leaves permanent scar in the certificate transparency log. World-wide. Now there are more than 1k of entries for our test domain, and I just started (the CI/CD start to work about a month ago). Is it okay? Or do I do some greater evil?

I feel very uncomfortable, that ephimerial thing which I do with few vendors, cause permanent growth of a global database. Each PR. Actually, each failing push into open PR.

Did I done something wrong? You can't do it without SSL, but with SSL behind CF, we are getting new certificate for new record in the domain every time.

I feel it's wrong. Plainly wrong. It shouldn't be like that, that ephimerial test entities are growing something which is global and is getting bigger and bigger every working day...

https://redd.it/1ng6vzz
@r_devops

Dev Ops in 2025 for a beginner?

Hey, I've got no real DevOps experience, just Linux basics. Thinking about diving into junior developer or DevOps roles, focusing on Linux and automation, but with AI advancing, is it still worth learning? Are Linux and DevOps skills valuable when AI can do so much? Need advice from experienced devs or DevOps folks!

https://redd.it/1ng6q9m
@r_devops

Am I wasting my time trying to build this?

I’m a DevOps/SRE I’ve had multiple debugging sessions with teammates and worked a lot in slack. I’ve experienced multiple micro-incidents and major incidents. I’m aware of the standard; ALWAYS DOCUMENT! I create tickets and RFOs for the incidents I tackle, with the necessary details and so forth, some times I keep personal notes for easy recall of some specific recurring similar incidents, but when I have to deal with hundreds of incidents, it becomes a hassle, and I lose the zeal to keep documenting. I guess you could say I’m just lazy. 😅

I’ve been thinking about building something that remembers every debugging session and incident engineering teams have ever resolved all in one place, without context switching— well in slack. A tool that can answer questions in natural language “have we seen this incident before?”, then it returns a list of related past resolved incidents. I’m focusing purely on capturing and retrieving knowledge from conversations. No runbooks, no on-call schedules, no status pages. Just “turn my debugging conversations into searchable memory.”

PS: More details can be found here: https://incidly.com

My major concern is this;
- is this worth building? Maybe people won’t care enough about this problem to want to use it?

- Maybe the major players in the incident field will add it as a feature?

- Am I naive to think there’s an opportunity here for me to build?

I’d really appreciate your honest opinions. Thank you very much!

https://redd.it/1nggnwj
@r_devops

I built a sandbox SMTP server for email testing in staging/dev – feedback welcome!

Hey folks 👋

I've been working on a tool called [Mailfrom.dev](https://mailfrom.dev) – a sandbox SMTP server designed for staging and development environments. If you’ve ever had to deal with testing email flows like password resets or onboarding confirmations, you know how messy it can get when you don’t want to send real emails.

[Mailfrom.dev](http://Mailfrom.dev) lets you send emails to a fake SMTP server, where you can inspect everything in a web UI — no emails actually go out to the end users and you can also share everything with you team.

I was frustrated with how expensive or overly complex other tools in this space are.. I wanted something affordable and dead simple to use. Just check the pricing — you'll see what I mean.

I’d love any feedback, thoughts, or feature suggestions.

**Tech stack**:

* Backend: Laravel (Horizon, Reverb, Cashier)
* Frontend: Vue 3 + shadcn + reka
* Infra: k3s on Hetzner, S3 & SES on AWS

https://redd.it/1ngttiq
@r_devops

Is AI coming after DevOps?

As I go through so many new tools and platforms, I have got many questions!

- is AI going to eliminate DevOps jobs?
- will Dev & DevOps be managed by genetic platforms in future?

https://redd.it/1ngv4nu
@r_devops

Need Full Stack Dev for Hackathon

Hey everyone,
I'm working on a hackathon project that's about 50% complete, but the submission deadline is tomorrow. I’m looking for someone with Full Stack experience who can jump in today and help speedrun the rest of the build.

The project is solid so far, just need help finishing up features and polishing for submission. If we win, I’m happy to split the prize.

If you're up for a fast-paced collab and can start ASAP, DM me and I’ll share the details.

Let’s crush this. 💪

https://redd.it/1ngwjdw
@r_devops