My Kubernetes Journey: From Novice to Expert that wrote a book without a Certification
I have never taken a Kubernetes certification, yet I’ve built and operated over a dozen clusters in a little less than a decade… And what’s more, I wrote a book on the subject. Let me share my Kubernetes journey with you.
2017: The Discovery
While I was working as a SysOps at a prominent company in Paris, during a coffee break right after lunch, a casual chat turned into a discussion about containerization. The conversation quickly shifted to Kubernetes and its benefits. A colleague passionately explained how Kubernetes was keeping his mind buzzing, and he was spending sleepless nights trying to set up a cluster. Curious, I started researching the topic myself, drawn in by his enthusiasm.
2018: A Total Void
The hot topic of the year was cloud migration, especially to AWS (six years later, it’s still the trending topic for some). Like almost everyone in tech around me, I jumped on the bandwagon. I pursued AWS certifications and took the leap into freelancing.
2019: The First POC
At the beginning of 2019, after years without contact, I reconnected with an ex-colleague. Guess who it was? The same guy who, back in 2017, had been losing sleep over Kubernetes. And guess what he was talking about now? Kubernetes. That’s when I decided I would dive into the subject as soon as I could.
Fate intervened: two weeks later, I found myself without a project as a freelancer. I used this downtime to build my first Kubernetes cluster from scratch (Master & Nodes). The result? I managed to deploy my first web app — a basic, ugly showcase site. That was enough for me to confidently add “Kubernetes” to my CV, even though I had only scratched the surface.
2020: My First Full Kubernetes Mission
Between creating my first cluster and landing my first Kubernetes project, many months passed. Sure, I found a project working with my usual tech stack, but not on Kubernetes, which had become a staple in 2020.
I was frustrated that I still hadn’t worked with Kubernetes in production. Then COVID hit, abruptly ending my contract and once again leaving me in the unpredictable freelance intermission. But little did I know, this forced break would turn out to be the best thing that could happen. It made me available to start a new project two weeks later — the one that would propel me into Kubernetes for real.
2021: Kubernetes Morning, Noon, and Night
I spent an entire year working on Kubernetes clusters with brilliant, demanding, and passionate people. It was intense and often challenging, but my progress skyrocketed. Observing, analyzing, and asking questions — even seemingly silly ones — helped me build solid skills while learning from partners who were light-years ahead of me. I realized how little I actually knew about Kubernetes, and the limited knowledge I’d gained from my 2019 POC was practically useless.
2022: The Acceleration
After my previous project, I took a major pause — not to stop working altogether, but to focus on redesigning my company’s infrastructure and migrating everything to Kubernetes. At the time, I was managing about a dozen applications and websites, handling both development and system administration on traditional VMs.
As much as I enjoyed playing sysadmin on those servers, juggling both roles was no longer sustainable. I had no breaks, no evenings, no weekends — every free moment was spent manually managing those VMs. Burnout was just around the corner.
In two months, I built my company’s Dev and Prod Kubernetes clusters and migrated all applications. For the first time in ages, I could sleep peacefully and get back to consulting. Kubernetes took care of everything.
2023: Spinning Up Clusters Left and Right
For myself, friends, or clients, I built multiple Kubernetes clusters, debugged improbable issues, and pulled a few all-nighters. Most importantly, I continued to improve. I became convinced that managed Kubernetes clusters (the master node, specifically) are better for production environments.
2024: Confidence and Sharing
I had been publishing content before 2024, but not much about Kubernetes. This year, I shared more of my experiences with Kubernetes. I was invited to an excellent podcast to talk about my Kubernetes journey. And the icing on the cake? I published my first tech book — naturally, on Kubernetes (after my first two novels). You can find it here: https://amzn.eu/d/4R3gf5j