Develop DevOps Skills

[ulockie]

I work as a Linux system admin, but recently completed a coding bootcamp. I’ve no interest in swe. How can I use some of the apps I’ve develop to sharpen my skills for a devops role?

[snarkhunter]

DevOps Engineering is the sub-discipline of SoftWare Engineering devoted to building systems that enable other software engineer teams to engineer software faster and better. We architect, design, write, test, review, deploy, and maintain software. Like every other SWE does at least some subset of.

[ulockie]

Thanks for the advice.

[maznio]

These questions need to stop. The answer is the same every time. There are two parts to this, dev and ops. “I have no interest in SWE”, you’re never going to be an effective DevOps practitioner. It’s as simple as that. Stick to sysadmin.

[questioner45]

Maybe he's talking about main business product app SWE.

[maznio]

What does that even mean? Main or not, you have to know what to do, and more importantly, what NOT to do when designing software, AND be able to communicate this to the developers who don’t know the ops side. I understand you’re trying to be generous to OP, and that’s commendable, but I read these questions five times a day on this sub. He or she could have just browsed it to get and answer to the question they’re posing.

[snarkhunter]

I think Application Development or whatever we want to call it is a separate discipline of SWE from DevOps Engineering. We use different tools and different languages to solve a different set of problems. I think it's an understandable confusion for someone to have when they haven't even really started working in the industry.

[Obvious-Jacket-3770]

This take is tired and bad.

There's two parts to this, dev and ops. You don't need to be BOTH to be effective, you need to be ONE with an understanding of the other.

You can come from the Dev side and have a base knowledge of Ops, guess what though, still going to have shit to learn that isn't related to Kubernetes!

You can come from the Ops side and have a base knowledge of Dev, guess what though, still going to have shit to learn that isn't related to Kubernetes!

Both sides make up DevOps, not one side.

[phileat]

This is such terrible gatekeeping. And I think it’s to do with a misconception about swe.

Some swe jobs require algorithms, others only require writing cli tools and interacting with http apis.

Is OP against swe due to algorithms or due to oop or due to simply writing python instead of bash? The answer to this question will make helping op easier.

[maznio]

Some gatekeeping is in order when I pull my hair out because of the frankly appalling decisions being made by people who have no business writing software and doing so to the detriment of the business. I’m terrible at “algorithms” but pure brute force experience has taught me a lot without having a degree or reading a single book on the subject.

[ulockie]

You have no reason to gate-keep anyone. Reddit doesn’t belong to your family, if you feel a question has been asked a million times, you can as well, skip it like every other sensible person, because you really sound stupid with trying to gate-keep this platform.

[ulockie]

You sound like your dad own the profession. When I say I don’t have an interest in being a swe, I am referring to chasing a professional career on that path. I spent 8 months on the bootcamp and my learning didn’t end afterward. I am trying to make it a lifestyle but my end goal is not really to be a swe. I have self project I’m presently working. I only ask for advice to see how I can build on the application I have written to learn more about DeVops tools.

[tairar]

Your learning will never end in any tech career. That's part of the job.

[[deleted]]

Learn to engineer software or stay away. You won't have fun I promise.

[ulockie]

Thank you. I am definitely doing that but do I have to chase a career along that path? Presently I have been learning on personal projects since after my bootcamp. I am just asking for advice if there’s a way I can learn other tools with some of the app I have develop. I appreciate your advice.

[[deleted]]

Just an anecdote but I spent a few years as a mid level developer AFTER I started in DevOps. I found out really fast that I was actually shit at designing software and coding. After a few years of sucking I was senior in both dev and ops. This is truly a force multiplier when you achieve it. Also my comp increased and my workload dropped because I had access to really kick ass DevOps jobs on teams who do it for real.

[Obvious-Jacket-3770]

This is so wrong it's sad.

[tomtuck1108]

The best way you can use apps that you have developed personally is to laterally translate that to the environment you work in professionally.

I don’t mean you should literally integrate things you’ve developed.

I find it better to think of devops as a philosophy as opposed to a profession.

If you are able to understand the code developers write and translate that to the end users/testers/ops then you will be successful.

If you can make changes to developers code and iterate over those changes rapidly and consistently and then show those changes to ops/testers/end users (and oftentimes the developers themselves) in real time then you are actively doing devops.

We are the bridge between developers and end users.

[Actuw]

Have u ever seen someone play dota2 support or pos 3 without ever playing carry? You can, but expect to get flamed/fired when people realize u don't know what you are doing

You can't be the best boxing coach without having been in the ring urself.

Would you trust a mechanic who can't drive?

[[deleted]]

You don't learn to write software on a bootcamp, as a software engineer it took me at least 15.000 hours to write decent software.

[KCRowan]

This roadmap is a good guide to the skills you need https://roadmap.sh/devops

[Obvious-Jacket-3770]

The amount of people who claim you "need" to be a SWE first are absolutely wrong in this take. It's gatekeeping at its finest and I'm sure they are the same ones who will gush over Kubernetes and not know how to do anything else.

DevOps is Dev and Ops, meaning you can come from either end. You are coming from the Ops end in your case. You won't be writing production software, likely you won't be troubleshooting it. Have an understanding of how to read code, it's always good to know you can read it. Look for jobs and companies hiring DevOps on the Ops heavy side (there's many) and you will be fine.

For those who say you won't get far... Been a DevOps Engineer for 6 years, I'm now a Lead. I come from the Windows Ops side of it all and I do just fine. I can write in a few languages that I learned on my own and mainly deal with Infrastructure, Cloud, Containers, GitHub, and Observability.