[shermanyo]

I love this question! I'm a DevOps engineer who came to my role through a combination of test automation and test network management, and a keen interest in tinkering with technology stacks. I love what I do and can't recommend it enough to new graduates, who may not even know of the role.

To build a portfolio, I would suggest the following:

    - Create a document describing a small tech stack:  

      > Outline the systems (or list of docker containers)  

      > Draw a network diagram showing IPs / subnet(s) info  

      > Describe the OS(s) and base node configuration (ssh, NFS, etc...)  

      > Outline the software stack (on each system), describing connections between nodes (eg. Apache web server with PHP, connecting to Postgres on port 5432)  

    - Create a github repo  

      > add the above document as the README.md file  

      > add a SETUP.md document (or add to the README) with steps to setup a local ansible workspace, and deploy your stack with your configuration scripts  

    - Set up a local (or cloud) environment with your Jenkins pipeline, and document a deployment (with screenshots) showing a working stack configured from a set of clean nodes.  

    - Expand on what you've made (create a new repo for each! think of them as new projects with a different set of requirements, even if they build on what you've previously done). Try to focus on one thing at a time:  

      > SSL everywhere  

      > OS hardening  

      > failover / clustering of the database  

      > failover / clustering of the web/app server  

      > load balancer in front of the web tier  

If I saw the above from anyone, I'd be impressed. If you have any questions, feel free to message and start a conversation offline. Best of luck!