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Mischa van den Burg

5 min read

From nurse to DevOps engi. Advocates for LinkedIn posting for signaling:

  • MUST-KNOW LinkedIn Profile Tips for Job Seekers
    • Here are the most actionable LinkedIn tips from the video for job seekers.
    • 1. LinkedIn’s Unfair Advantage Is Now
    • LinkedIn is experiencing a unique moment: posting content gets you outsized visibility because only 1% of users post, but there are 1 billion users. This means your posts can reach a massive audience with little competition. 
    • 2. Optimize Your Profile for Discovery
    • Finish your profile completely: Add a professional photo (14x more views), at least five skills (31x more recruiter messages), and a custom profile URL. - Profile description: Make sure your headline clearly states your current position and top achievements. This is what people see in their feed.
    • Banner image: Use a custom banner to highlight your skills or personal brand. 
    • SEO and quantifiable results: In your experience section, use keywords and show measurable impact (e.g., “reduced deployment times by 50%”). 
    • 3. Recommendations Matter
    • Give recommendations to others to receive them in return. This section is highly valued by recruiters. 
    • 4. The 500 Connection Rule
    • If you have fewer than 500 connections, your visibility is severely limited. Aim to surpass this threshold for a dramatic boost in reach and credibility. 
    • 5. What to Post for Maximum Reach
    • Value posts: Share knowledge, tutorials, news, and technical insights
    • Personal stories: Be authentic—share wins, struggles, and growth
    • Work in public: Document your projects and learning journey
    • Consistency: Post 2–5 times per week, preferably on weekdays for best engagement. 
    • 6. Growth Hacks
    • Use post templates, incentives, and especially comments—meaningful comments on others’ posts can boost your visibility even if you don’t post yourself.
    • *7. Using AI Wisely
    • Don’t let AI write your posts entirely; it can make your content sound robotic and hurt credibility. Use AI as a partner to refine and speed up your writing, but always add your own voice. 
    • 8. LinkedIn Premium: Optional
    • Premium isn’t necessary for growth. Most benefits come from being active and leveraging the platform’s tools, not from paying for extra features. 
    • If you want to shortcut your growth, the video recommends joining communities like KubeCraft for networking, templates, and support, but the core strategies above are universally applicable. [He has a newsletter on DevOps.](Why 95% of DevOps job seekers fail (insider data)) Huge proponent of Kubernetes. the market is exploding from 7B by 2030. Growth rate: 22.4%. Even ChatGPT runs on Kubernetes.

Here’s how you can turn that plan into a practical roadmap for this weekend and the next month:

🔹 Weekend Plan (Kickstart)

Goal: Launch your Linux home lab for $0 and start documenting it.

  1. Watch & Follow the Tutorial

    • Video: Set up your Linux home lab (likely using VirtualBox or Proxmox on your current PC/laptop).

    • Install Ubuntu Server or Debian as your base OS.

  2. Document on LinkedIn

    • Post a short update: “Starting a Linux home lab this weekend with $0 budget – following along with XYZ tutorial. Will share progress + lessons learned as I go.”

    • This signals curiosity + initiative + accountability.

  3. Basic Wins to Achieve

    • Learn ssh, tmux, apt, and basic package installs.

    • Run a simple service (e.g., Nginx web server or Docker hello-world container).

    • Write down what worked / what broke.

🔹 Next Step: Build a Meaningful Project (2–4 Weeks)

Pick something that proves real-world skills. Examples:

  • Personal Kubernetes Cluster

    • Minikube or k3s on your lab → deploy a small app (e.g., your portfolio site or a Flask API).

    • Learn Helm, kubectl, config maps, scaling.

  • Automation Project

    • Bash or Ansible scripts that provision VMs automatically.

    • Show you can replace manual ops with reproducible IaC (Infrastructure as Code).

  • Monitoring Stack

    • Deploy Prometheus + Grafana on your cluster.

    • Show resource usage, uptime, dashboards.

🔹 Apply the Data-Driven Tool Selection

Here’s how you can frame it (and later explain it in interviews / LinkedIn):

  1. Start with Kubernetes → Industry-standard for orchestration, even if you’re not “ready.”

  2. Use Docker where needed → but lean toward K8s-native tooling (k3s, kubectl).

  3. Skip “shiny” tools until there’s a clear need → e.g., don’t learn Terraform until you have infra worth provisioning.

  4. Collect metrics → track what services/resources you actually use and choose tools accordingly.

🔹 LinkedIn Documentation Strategy

  • Week 0: “Starting a Linux home lab from scratch, documenting the journey.”

  • Week 1: “Got my first Ubuntu server running + deployed Nginx via Docker. Here’s what I learned.”

  • Week 2–3: “Deployed my first app in Kubernetes on my home lab (k3s). Lessons on YAML & debugging pods.”

  • Week 4: “Built a monitoring dashboard with Grafana on top of my cluster – now I can see everything at a glance.”

Each post = proof of skill + signals persistence.

👉 Question for you: do you want me to design the exact project (step-by-step, with tech stack + final deliverable), so you can build it out in the next month and have a strong “passion project” for interviews?

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