Career guidance for people building a life in IT infrastructure. Covers the interview questions that actually come up, how to talk about your homelab on a CV without looking like a hobbyist, which certifications are worth paying for versus which are recruiter bait, and how to move from helpdesk to sysadmin to architect without getting stuck. Written from 18 plus years across public sector, consultancy, MSPs, and independent work. The industry changes but the core progression does not. If you want an honest map of what skills to build, what roles to target, and which technology bets to make, this is where we keep it.
The hosting landscape has fundamentally changed in the last three years. If you last looked in 2022, you probably still think the choice is “shared hosting for a tenner a month, or a VPS if you’re technical.” In 2026 there are four realistic ways to put a website on the public internet, and the right
How to Host Your Own Website in 2026: Four Realistic Options Read More »
I posted on LinkedIn this week about building a homelab from e-waste. One laptop, zero pounds, a public webapp at the end. This is the technical write-up that the 3,000-character limit on LinkedIn couldn’t fit. If you want the short version of why, read the LinkedIn post. If you want the step-by-step of how a
Homelab From E-Waste: The Full Build Read More »
In Part 1, we covered the practical side: how to present your homelab on your CV, what to say in interviews, and which projects map to which roles. This is the bigger picture. Why it matters more now than it ever has. And why the engineers who keep building will be the ones who stay
The Training Pipeline Shut Off (But You Don’t Need Permission to Learn) Read More »
Your homelab is not a hobby. It is a professional development environment. I have been building, hiring into, and managing infrastructure teams for over 20 years. I have reviewed hundreds of CVs. The ones that stand out are not the ones with the longest list of certifications. They are the ones where the candidate has
Why Your Homelab Belongs on Your CV (And How to Present It) Read More »
In Barclays’ 2024 CIO survey, 83% of enterprise CIOs said they planned to move at least some workloads back from public cloud. Gartner forecasts worldwide sovereign cloud IaaS spending of $80 billion in 2026. The direction of travel is clear. But direction isn’t capability. I’ve spent 20 years building infrastructure – enterprise, cloud, and self-hosted.
The Cloud Exit Skillset: What Your Team Needs to Leave Read More »
Microsoft just moved the goalposts. Again. On March 9th they announced Microsoft 365 E7 — branded “The Frontier Suite” — the first new enterprise tier since E5 launched in 2015. It goes GA on May 1st at £79 per user per month. I’ve spent 18 years watching Microsoft licensing evolve. Every few years the pattern
All 6 guides are live 6 guides covering Active Directory, PowerShell, Group Policy, DNS/DHCP, and security hardening. Start with Windows Server Basics below, or jump to the topic you need. Want new Windows guides by email? Get notified when new guides drop: No spam. Just a heads-up when each guide goes live. The Enterprise Reality:
Windows Fundamentals | Enterprise Sysadmin Skills Series Read More »
Published on 25 February 2026 | Homelab / Career | 10 min read The Question That Started This I’ve been interviewing infrastructure engineers on and off for the best part of a decade. Mostly Azure and AWS roles – cloud architects, platform engineers, DevOps leads. The kind of people who should know how the internet
Why Your Homelab Makes You a Better Cloud Architect Read More »
Advent of Cyber 2025 24 Days of Free Hands-On Security Every year, Advent of Cyber turns December into a daily, bite-sized security challenge. The 2025 edition kicked off yesterday on TryHackMe, and we’re already into topics like the Linux command line and phishing – exactly the kind of fundamentals that power a serious homelab and
TryHackMe – Advent of Cyber 2025 Read More »
You don’t need a tech degree to get into IT. Many of the skills you’ve already built—problem solving, teamwork, adaptability—are exactly what tech employers need. Learn how to identify and showcase them.
Top Transferable Skills That Translate to Tech Read More »
