How I ended up in cloud consulting

Again, I’m writing again about a non-technical topic (forgive me), but there are actually two reasons for writing this post now.

First, my bootcamp graduation anniversary comes up tomorrow - for the 5th time. So it’s been 5 years now not only in the IT industry, but working in it as a “tekki”. 🎉

The second reason is something that keeps happening at conferences or events: people tell me how awesome my career change is - and how inspiring. This happened again last week, with the addition: “You should talk more about that - it’s so inspiring for so many people.”

Why I am not extremely talkative about it apart from my intro at conference talks? It kind of feels like there is a red line in my past life that led to this shift. With my background in IT, this always felt quite normal and not so surprising.

Turns out: It seems it’s not - at least for most people. So … here we are ;) Yair, this one goes out for you!

How it all started

I started in HR and tech recruiting in 2008. I was close to engineers, close to technical discussions, but still outside of the systems being built. That distance felt natural for a long time. You learn how things work, you help shape teams, you develop an understanding of what “good” looks like from the outside.

From time to time I thought: “If only I had studied computer science.” Because I had the impression that the job of engineers is way more interesting than mine ;)

I leaned in a lot, trying to really understand the product we were building, the technologies used, and how they interact. It even went so far that people at job fairs were irritated when I said I would check a very technical question with my engineer - from our previous discussions they assumed I was an engineer myself.

How it shifted over time

I didn’t leave HR or recruiting immediately after the encounters I mentioned before. Partly because I had the weird feeling I would throw away years of experience in the HR field. Instead, I moved closer to different parts of the system over time.

I quit employment and started as a freelance HR Manager and Tech Recruiter in 2013, hoping to become more independent. I joined a RailsGirls Workshop in 2015, which I loved - and wanted to continue coding in my free time. Spoiler: not much free time or brain capacity left when you’re a fully booked freelancer with multiple clients. I also worked as a Scrum Master in some projects, quickly realizing this wasn’t a role I wanted long-term.

Instead, I founded a recruiting company, thinking it might give me more time for pet projects like coding. Not surprisingly, it turned out: Starting a company & hiring people while highly pregnant is not the best idea - and I still didn’t find time for those projects.

Getting more and more unhappy in where I had put myself, I started thinking about doing a bootcamp. But at that time, they were only 3 months full-time - not possible while running a company and having a baby / toddler at home.

When Corona hit, bootcamps became remote - and finally, part-time options started to exist 🎉 So end of 2020, I decided to start a 6-month part-time bootcamp and see where it would lead me. Worst case: I’d be really bad at it and stay where I am - but at least with a new skill and a better understanding of my target group. Best case: I might actually shift.

There is no “right time”

The next months were hard. Full-time work at my company, two evenings of bootcamp sessions & homework on the others, plus 8-hour sessions on Saturdays - every week. All of this next to my son, household, life. There was no version of that moment that offered ideal conditions. It was a stretch and I’m still super thankful to my family for how supportive and understanding they were. ❤️

And I think this is where many people stop, and I understand why. We assume this kind of change requires space, stability, and time. But in practice, those conditions rarely appear at the same time. If you wait for them, you often end up waiting indefinitely.

The useful question is not “Is this the right time?”, but “Is this important enough to do it anyway?”

Trying out turns into change

After the first weeks of the bootcamp, it became very obvious: this is exactly my cup of tea.

What I liked most - and still do - is the immediate feedback. In my HR years, I did a lot of active sourcing - meaning looking for interesting people on Github, Stackoverflow, LinkedIn etc., and reaching out to them - most of the time with no reaction at all. With coding, you always get something back - even if it’s just an error message screaming at you ;)

So I told my employees I will close the company, giving them more than enough time to transition. After finishing the bootcamp, I started shutting down operations, worked as a freelance Frontend Engineer at a former client, built some pet projects, and slowly began job hunting.

I landed at superluminar as Junior Cloud Consultant, working with AWS for different client projects. In 2024, I moved on to b’nerd, now working with Kubernetes and the CNCF ecosystem.

I also started speaking, co-founded reher*sal, and at some point realized I wasn’t just “moving into tech” anymore - I was part of it.

What I learned along the way

After all this time, there are a few things that stood out to me. Things that mattered along the way, and maybe they help if you’re somewhere in the middle of a similar path.

Stay curious and keep something of your own going. Try to stay close to curiosity and passion, and if possible, have small pet projects on the side. Not always easy - especially with a full life, work, and in my case also being a mom - but even small things help you stay connected to why you started.

You will feel overwhelmed by how much there is to learn. A friend once told me “The more you know, the more you realize what you don’t know.” After starting in tech, I fully understood what she meant. And it hits hard when you experience it. What helped me was focusing on the next step instead of the whole landscape.

You will feel “not good enough” for a long time. Especially if you were senior before, this is uncomfortable. Imposter syndrome shows up strongly - way stronger than ever before. I chose this shift deliberately, which helped, but the feeling was still there. But the thing is: it doesn’t mean you made the wrong decision! You are there for a reason, even if it doesn’t feel like it yet.

You don’t need to be senior to share what you know. Being junior again doesn’t mean you have nothing to contribute. Speaking can feel intimidating at first, but it’s worth it. You bring a different and valuable perspective - and nobody in the room knows everything. So why should you?

You will question your timing. I often thought I should have started earlier - I would be further by now. But that doesn’t really help. You are not behind some imaginary timeline. You are exactly where your path has brought you.

Ask questions. Ask for help. Don’t be afraid to ask. Just try not to ask the same question twice without learning in between.

Your background is not lost time. Everything you did before does not disappear - it becomes context. I think this is one of the most underestimated parts of career change.

Pair programming is gold. Even though it feels intimidating at first, it accelerates learning massively. You learn how others think, not just what they do. That is incredibly valuable when you are new in a field.

If you are thinking about a similar shift, don’t wait for everything to line up perfectly. It probably won’t.

Start where you are, with what you have, and allow things to evolve from there. It’s 100% worth it!

header image created by buddy Claude