I currently work as a Junior Web Developer at a medium-sized company and enjoy my job. However, after taking a Distributed Systems course at university, I developed a growing interest in the infrastructure side of technology.

In my search for infrastructure roles, I’ve noticed that cloud-related positions dominate the listings, especially for someone at my experience level. I’m considering a switch to this field but need some clarity to ensure it’s the right decision.

First, regarding certifications, I’m aware there are many options for different experience levels. However, I find the preparation for these certifications to be a hassle. I prefer learning by building projects at my own pace rather than through lengthy theory texts or video courses. Additionally, exams tend to cause me a lot of anxiety. How essential are certifications in this field? Can I pursue a career without them or with only a few to kick-start my early career?

Second, as I said before, I'm very interested in the infrastructure part and... I don't know if I want to stay my whole life working on Cloud, I'm afraid that if I enter this field I'll get stuck with only a few ecosystems (like AWS or Azure), ideally I'd like to work with actual computers rather than with cloud, so would it be possible to make a switch from Cloud to on-prem infrastructure in the future?

A a friend of mine said he could recommend me to a junior DevOps role at the company he works in, but I'm interested mostly in back-end development and DevOps is not really something I like. The question is: could I use experience as a DevOps to later switch to back-end? Edit: more detail