🗺️ Terraforming My Career – Macro Plan

A sequential roadmap to become Cloud & Platform Engineer with Terraform, AWS, Docker, Kubernetes & Observability

🌱 Phase 0 – Orientation & Setup

  • Install AWS CLI, Git, and Terraform
  • Create and test programmatic access to AWS (Free Tier)
  • Create repo structure & initial notes (terraforming-my-career)
  • Write 01-getting-started.md
  • Complete 02-change-management.md
  • Complete 03-destroy-infrastructure.md
  • Start reading Terraform Up & Running (Third Edition)
  • Maintain reading notes in terraform-up-and-running.md

🧱 Phase 1 – Core Terraform Fundamentals

  • 📘 Finish Chapter 2 of the book
  • Create 04-variables-outputs.md
  • Practice defining variables and outputs
  • Use .tfvars and CLI vars
  • Practice writing clean, parameterized .tf configs
  • Extend with conditional logic and interpolation

🧰 Phase 2 – Modules & Reusability

  • 📘 Read Chapter 6 (Terraform Up & Running)
  • Create 05-modules.md
  • Refactor EC2 & S3 configs into modules
  • Learn source, input, output, locals
  • Create your own root and child module structure

🌐 Phase 3 – Remote State & Workspaces

  • 📘 Read Chapter 7
  • Create 06-remote-state.md
  • Store Terraform state in S3
  • Use DynamoDB for state locking
  • Configure multiple workspaces (dev/staging/prod)

🛡️ Phase 4 – Validation & Testing

  • Integrate terraform validate, fmt, plan
  • Learn tflint, tfsec, checkov
  • Create 07-validation.md with examples
  • Automate checks with Makefile or GitHub Actions

🐳 Phase 5 – Docker Fundamentals

  • Create docker/01-getting-started.md
  • Build custom images (single & multi-stage)
  • Push to Docker Hub or ECR
  • Learn docker-compose

🔄 Phase 6 – CI/CD with GitHub Actions

  • Automate Terraform plan/apply (non-prod)
  • Set up basic pipeline for Docker builds
  • Trigger Terraform via PRs or commits

☸️ Phase 7 – Kubernetes Fundamentals

  • Set up Minikube or K3s locally
  • Deploy simple apps with manifests
  • Use Helm charts
  • Create kubernetes/intro.md

🔍 Phase 8 – Observability & Platform Thinking

  • Deploy Prometheus + Grafana + Loki
  • Instrument simple metrics/logs
  • Create dashboards for EC2 or K8s
  • Reflect on platform-as-product mindset

🔚 Ongoing & Capstone Ideas

  • Track jobs and reflect in meta/job-search.md
  • Design a sample multi-env platform from scratch
  • Write blog posts or project README with architecture diagrams