You totally can. If you are a constant scripter, find ways in introduce technology that'll get you more involved with development. Are you a perl / linux prog

You totally can. If you are a constant scripter, find ways in introduce technology that'll get you more involved with development. Are you a perl / linux program master? Switch to doing some administrative chores in python, from the command line. It'll be clunky and take way longer, but gives you an excuse to learn syntax and libraries. Then, when you are comfortable with the syntax, use your free to time read projects / books and do side projects to get your skills up. When you feel comfortable, get into dev ops. At most companies, that means people that can write code and do their own sysadmin work.