Career Path

Concrete Learning Path (6-12 months)

Month 1-2: Containerization

• Docker deep dive
• Deploy Kamailio/FreeSWITCH in containers
• Build your own voice lab in Docker Compose

Month 3-4: Kubernetes

• CKA study and certification
• Deploy stateful telecom apps on K8s
• Learn persistent volumes, StatefulSets, load balancing

Month 5-6: Observability

• Instrument a voice platform with Prometheus
• Build Grafana dashboards for SIP metrics
• Set up distributed tracing for call flows

Month 7-8: Infrastructure-as-Code

• Terraform for multi-cloud voice infrastructure
• Ansible/Salt for configuration management
• GitOps workflows

Month 9-10: Programming

• Python or Go for building automation tools
• Build APIs that abstract telecom complexity
• Write operators or controllers for K8s

Month 11-12: Portfolio Projects

• Auto-scaling SIP proxy based on CPS metrics
• Multi-region voice infrastructure with failover
• Internal developer platform for telephony services

Resume Positioning

Reframe your experience:

• "Maintained Avaya PBX" → "Managed high-availability voice infrastructure serving 10K users with 99.99% uptime"
• "Configured SIP trunks" → "Designed and scaled SIP routing infrastructure handling 500K daily call sessions"
• "Troubleshot call quality" → "Performance analysis and optimization of real-time media streams, reduced jitter by 40%"

Red Flags to Avoid

Don't: Just add cloud certs without building things - employers can tell

Don't: Try to jump straight to architect roles without hands-on modern infrastructure experience

Don't: Ignore programming - even infrastructure roles now expect scripting/automation skills

Do: Build public proof of your skills (GitHub repos, blog posts about scaling Kamailio on K8s, etc.)