UPSC Aspirant to DevOps Engineer | Akshay Kumar's Tip for Landing a Job in Industry

From UPSC to DevOps: Akshay’s Cloud-Native Journey, Kubernetes Roadmap & Using AI the Right Way. In this episode of Techie Talks with Kuldeep, Akshay Kumar shares how he transitioned from five UPSC IAS attempts and a mechanical engineering background into tech, eventually becoming a project manager at Cognite.ai after roles including NIC and open-source evangelism at Obmondo. He explains how COVID and a final UPSC attempt led to a career switch, supported by Vipassana meditation, self-learning, an unpaid Linux-focused internship, and hands-on DevOps skills that helped him clear the NIC interview. Akshay highlights that certifications aren’t enough, emphasizing community learning through Twitter/LinkedIn, events, mentoring, and building the Growin community. He outlines core pillars for DevOps/platform engineering—Linux/networking, Git/GitHub, Docker, Kubernetes, IaC (Terraform), and cloud platforms—and advises beginners to learn Kubernetes through basics and projects. He also shares how to use LLMs for troubleshooting via step-by-step prompting without copy-pasting, and discusses AI-related entry-level job anxiety, stressing continuous learning and adaptability.00:00 Highlights01:08 Meet the Host and Guest02:43 The Switch Decision04:26 Choosing Cloud and DevOps06:00 Breaking into NIC08:49 Beyond Certifications12:31 Community and Open Source16:17 DevOps Roadmap Basics18:52 Learning Kubernetes Right21:24 Using AI to Learn24:53 AI Troubleshooting Workflow27:19 AI Anxiety and Staying Hireable30:26 Advice for Non Tech Learners32:06 Closing-------------------------------------------------------------------------CONNECT WITH US 🌐YouTube Channel: @techietalkswithkuldeep WhatsApp Channel: https://www.whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb7Q4JHAjPXUt8hBgm2TLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/techietalkswithkuldeepFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61574642927780Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techietalkswithkuldeepFollow Akshay on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/akshayktwt/#devops #kubernetes #cloudnative #techietalkswithkuldeep #techpodcast #technology #futureofwork #ai #careergrowth #professionaldevelopment