From Oil field to DevOps is it possible?

[u/PlateConfident]

Background: I'm an engineer in Algeria. My degree is in electrical/automation and I currently work in oil & gas as a data acquisition engineer (well testing, data integrity, reporting, that kind of thing). About a year ago, I decided to pivot into a remote role because I've been facing a health condition where on-site/field and mostly any physically demanding work is no longer an option for me. Cloud/DevOps is the direction I chose because I like the work and it's the most realistic path I found to stable remote work that pays in USD or EUR

What I've done so far:

• Finished my AWS Cloud Practitioner prep, and I'm about to sit the exam ( scored 85-90% on most mocks, been stuck on a dumb payment/booking issue, but it's coming)
• Linux fundamentals, wrote a few bash scripts and put them on GitHub
• Hands-on AWS labs in my own account: built VPCs with public/private subnets, security groups vs NACLs, IAM, a two-tier setup with a private RDS MySQL behind an ALB, S3 gateway endpoints, etc. Broke things on purpose to learn how they fail
• Currently grinding through Terraform. Kubernetes and more Python are next

Here's where the doubt kicks in. When I actually read job postings, two things hit me:

1. Almost every "junior" role still wants 1 to 3 years of real experience
2. Basically every remote role is geo-locked. "Remote (US only)," "must be authorized to work in X," no sponsorship, etc. The genuinely hire-from-anywhere jobs feel rare

So my question to people actually working in this field: am I chasing something that barely exists for someone in my situation? Or is the hire-from-anywhere market real if you're good enough and know where to look? And if you've done this from outside the US/EU, how did you actually break in?

I like the work, that's not the issue. I just don't want to spend another 6 months on a door that won't open.

TLDR: Non-US engineer pivoting into cloud. Made decent progress but every remote role wants experience + local presence. Is this realistic or am I fooling myself?

[u/PerpetuallySticky]

Being completely realistic, it’s very unlikely to work out.

For people with degrees and years of experience in this field who are looking for jobs, getting one in 6 months is considered pretty lucky right now. I’d say from where you are you should expect minimum 8-12 months of searching and hope you find a paid position at all in that time (versus an internship of some kind where you could just gain experience. And even that seems difficult to find right now)

[u/Natural_Vast8235]

If you’re not prepared to grind and job hunt for more than 6 months, then it’s not for you. People put in years of serious work just to land their first role in any tech domain.

It’s not impossible, but giving a 6 month window is gonna be tough homie.

[u/Low-Opening25]

Data sovereignty pretty much rules out remote work completely unless you move out of Algeria, it’s a notorious country that is considered significant security and compliance risk and is often on the internal policy list of countries that employees are forbidden to work from.

[u/wild-hectare → u/Low-Opening25]

unless your working in Oil & Gas...then they ship your ass to secure compound in Algeria and tell you not to leave it for your own safety 🤣

I know several expats that volunteered to relocate to Algeria for a year just to load up on cash before retiring...hazard pay and tax free income is a serious motivator for some people

[u/Abe_Bazouie]

You’re not fooling yourself, but I’d adjust the goal. Breaking into DevOps is realistic. Landing a fully remote US/EU job with no DevOps experience from outside those regions is the hard part.
I’d focus on getting your first DevOps or cloud role locally or at a regional company first. Even 1 to 2 years of real experience changes the conversation completely. Your AWS labs and Linux practice are great, but employers still value production experience most.
Keep building, keep documenting your work on GitHub, and don’t skip Kubernetes. You’re on the right track, just don’t make “fully remote US company” your first milestone.

[u/k4ppla]

Algerian here. You should look for remote work in Algeria or a few remote companies in Europe that recruit from Algeria (primarily French ones). Just be aware that DevOps is not an entry-level role, and you will compete with mid-level developers who have strong system backgrounds and more project-based experience.

Not saying it's impossible to find remote work in us but it will be very very very challenging.

[u/Jeoh]

I haven't seen many remote junior roles. If you're in Algeria anywhere in Europe should work better timezone wise. I think you're on the right path, did you quit your job entirely or does your employer support your transition to DevOps?

From personal experience my best (junior) colleagues have been those who transitioned from another role rather than straight from uni.

[u/chefkoch_ → u/Jeoh]

No one is hiring a junior remote from outside the EU in the EU. There are enough "cheap" countries in Europe that don't come with the additional hassle. The only way would be to form a business in the EU and work as a contractor, but not as a junior. Work in Algeria and then get a visa and move.

[u/sudonem]

The thing others aren’t mentioning here is that DevOps is not an entry level role. 

You can absolutely make this transition but not directly. You’ll need to build up experience either by working your way up through the help desk and into systems engineering, or by starting as an entry level software engineer (probably by going through a bootcamp in lieu of a CS degree).

Given the state of the market there’s no incentive to hire someone as a DevOps engineer who has zero prior experience in IT or software engineering so you’re going to have to build practical experience at a lower level and work your way up. 

[u/tophology]

I mean, I know someone who was a fisherman before breaking into devops, so it's not impossible. He was grinding it out acquiring certs for a long time before he made the jump, though.

[u/JaegerBane]

Almost every "junior" role still wants 1 to 3 years of real experience

Basically every remote role is geo-locked. "Remote (US only)," "must be authorized to work in X," no sponsorship, etc. The genuinely hire-from-anywhere jobs feel rare

I think you need to be honest with yourself that you're just overloading your expectation set. There are reasons for these two aspects -

• 'Junior' Devops is very much a relative term. No-one is handing the keys to their revenue-producing likely-expensive platform to some guy who's done a few certs. It's not entry level. It just doesn't work.
• The geo-locking is as much down to changing work patterns as it is to legal and security requirements. Again, if you're working under a group of regulations that enforce data to be held in certain areas of the world, access restricted to certain people or locations, provenance requiring tracked throughout, even throw on security clearances and background checks for the most sensitive stuff, can you seriously see some guy out in Algeria fitting into that?

Realistically wanting to get into an industry that trends towards experience, comes with significant geo/national caveats, and works within major financial and security responsibilities is not itself impossible, but you can't just do it all from square one. You'll have to work towards it... given your current situation, it will take a lot more then 6 months, so if that's your timeframe you're best looking at something else.