Quick, what was the the most dominant technology skill requested by IT firms in 2018? According to a study from job board Dice, Kubernetes skills dominated among IT firm requests, and this news followed similar findings released last year from jobs board Indeed. The Dice report, based on its available job postings, found that Kubernetes was heavily requested by IT recruiters as well as hiring managers. As SDX Central has reported: “Indeed’s work found that Kubernetes had the fastest year-over-year surge in job searches among IT professionals. It also found that related job postings increased 230 percent between September 2017 and September 2018.”
The demand for Kubernetes skills is so high that companies of all sizes are reporting skills gaps and citing difficulty finding people who have the required Kubernetes and containerization skills. That spells opportunity for those who gain Kubernetes expertise, and the good news is that you have several approachable and inexpensive options for getting trained as well as certified.
Certification Options
Certification is the gold standard in the Kubernetes arena. On that front, last year The Cloud Native Computing Foundation launched its Certified Kubernetes Application Developer exam and a Kubernetes for Developers (LFD259) course ($299). These offerings complement the Certified Kubernetes Administrator program ($300). CNCF, working in partnership with edX, also offers an Introduction to Kubernetes course that is absolutely free, and requires a time commitment of only two to three hours a week for four to five weeks. You can register here, and find out more about Kubernetes Fundamentals (LFS2580) and Developer courses here.
The Kubernetes Fundamentals course comes with extensive course materials, and you can get a free downloadable chapter from the materials here. For those new to Kubernetes, the course covers architecture, networking setup and much more. If you are new to Kubernetes, you can also find a free webinar here, where Kubernetes Founder Craig McLuckie provides an introduction to the Kubernetes project and how it began when he was working at Google.
“As Kubernetes has grown, so has the demand for application developers who are knowledgeable about building on top of Kubernetes,” said Dan Kohn, Executive Director of the Cloud Native Computing Foundation. ”The CKAD exam allows developers to certify their proficiency in designing and building cloud native applications for Kubernetes, while also allowing companies to confidently hire high-quality teams.”
According to the Cloud Native Computing Foundation: “With the majority of container-related job listings asking for proficiency in Kubernetes as an orchestration platform, the CKAD program will help expand the pool of Kubernetes experts in the market, thereby enabling continued growth across the broad set of organizations using the technology.”
December’s KubeCon + CloudNativeCon conference in Seattle was a sold-out event that has now ushered in a wealth of free Kubernetes-focused content that you can access. In fact, more than 100 lightning talks, keynotes, and technical sessions from the event have already been posted online, with more information here.
You can watch many videos from KubeCon on YouTube. You’ll find videos sharing basics and best practices, explaining how to integrate Kubernetes with various platforms, and discussing the future of Kubernetes. You can also get hear talks in person at these upcoming conferences:
KubeCon Barcelona, May 20-23
KubeCon Shanghai, June 24-26
KubeCon San Diego, November 18-21
Kubernetes is spreading its reach rapidly for many reasons, including its extensible architecture and healthy open source community, but some still feel that it is too difficult to use. The resources found here—many of them free—will help you move toward mastery of one of today’s most compelling technology architectures.
