Hey Ala,

Yesterday we learned about containers and why they are important to master.

Quick recap: huge companies, including Google, run everything in containers, and experts project the market will grow from $7 billion to $31 billion by 2030.

Today I’ll show you the step that comes after containers.

First, let me show you how this affected my own career.

After a year of self‑study, I got my first job as a Junior DevOps Engineer at a Dutch government agency.

I was thrilled. I’d landed my first tech job. This was the start of my long and rewarding career.

The team and the environment were great, but it wasn’t very modern.

We were working with containers, but we were doing a lot of manual work, and many of our tasks weren’t automated.

When a developer needed help with deployment, we connected to the server, restarted a container, and hoped that fixed the issue.

It felt very clunky and messy.

Even though I landed my first job, I never stopped studying.

I felt like I had a lot of catching up to do, and I wanted to get as good as my colleagues.

I studied 2 hours a day after work, and on weekends I studied 12 hours a day.

During these studies I discovered Kubernetes.

Kubernetes is a container orchestrator. It’s a system designed to run, scale, and heal thousands of containers at the same time.

The first time I used Kubernetes, I fell completely in love with it. It solved all the problems I had at work.

Excited about this discovery, I shared it with my team. I faced a lot of pushback.

People discouraged me from learning it, saying I was too junior and it was too hard for me.

Whenever someone tells me that I can’t do something, I see that as a challenge, so I set out to prove them wrong.

I kept studying in the evenings and weekends. I managed to pass the CKA exam (which was very tough).

I DOUBLED my salary by getting a Kubernetes consulting role. I had just 1.5 years of experience as a Junior DevOps.

That’s when I knew I had found my golden ticket. After a few years in consulting, I got raises. Then I began freelancing with Kubernetes contracts, earning multiple six figures a year.

I’m not saying that to brag; I’m trying to show you what’s possible.

I went from nurse without any tech background to a successful Kubernetes freelancer.

You can do it too.

Why this matters for you

Maybe you’re thinking:

• “Kubernetes sounds too advanced.”
• “Don’t you need 10 years of experience for that?”
• “That’s for ‘real’ engineers, not for someone like me.”

I heard all of that too. Here’s the truth:

And the market rewards you for it.

Here’s what it looks like right now:

• ~121,000 Kubernetes job openings worldwide
• Average salaries around $170K (tens of thousands more than generic SWE)
• The majority of large enterprises run Kubernetes in production
• AI and cloud growth are all adding more Kubernetes, not less

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Not many people understand this opportunity, but you can be part of it.

You’re already doing the right things:

• You’re doing the Linux course
• You’re building your note‑taking system
• You’re reading and acting on these emails

When you have learned Linux, you move to containers.
When you understand containers, you’ll learn how to run them at scale with Kubernetes.

This is the exact path that changed my life. And you’ve started walking that path too, with me as your guide.

Your action for today

If this lit a fire in you, I want you to see the data for yourself.

I recorded a video called “Why DevOps Jobs Will Explode in 2026” where I break down, with actual numbers, why Kubernetes is the real career lever:

• How I went from nurse on ~$50K to multi‑six‑figure remote Kubernetes engineer
• Why “Kubernetes is overkill” is usually said by people who haven’t read the data
• 100k+ Kubernetes job openings, with average salaries around $170K
• Why AI and cloud growth all point in the same direction: more Kubernetes, not less

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Watch on YouTube: Why DevOps Jobs Will Explode in 2026 (57,000+ views)​

You don’t need to understand everything yet. Just watch it, let the numbers and stories sink in, and then go back to doing the work: finishing the Linux course and taking good notes.

You’re not just “learning Linux.”
You’re walking toward the skill that can fund the next 10–20 years of your life.

Keep reading these mails.

Tomorrow I’m going to lay out the full path towards a six-figure Kubernetes job.

See you there,

Mischa

P.S. Ignore anyone who tells you “that’s too advanced for you.” I was told the same thing. I didn’t listen, did the work anyway, and it changed my life. Watch the video and see why Kubernetes is worth betting on.