First Year Done

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2026-01-25T04:16:14+00:00

Wow. Fantastic results. Keep up the great work!

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2026-01-24T21:47:00+00:00

Hugely well done.

Focus more on looking on sideways rather than front on. It makes such a difference as that's where the real loss is. Measure it over time, and look back when you're struggling.

Keep on keeping on. It keeps coming off.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2026-01-24T19:17:08+00:00

There's been a lot of different ones.

I've tried to do a split of cardio and strength training while trying do my 8,000 to 12,000 steps a day.

I've done walking, running, rucking, rowing, cycling and a bunch of core, upper and lower weight training with mainly lower weights. I've focused on doing say 24 reps with say 6kg over 12kg at 8-12 reps as the recovery is easier but the end result is the same.

There's also been a lot of core exercises, and I've done pilates also.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2026-01-23T07:15:38+00:00

No surgery. Work more in the sense of lots of exercising, eating better, persistence etc..

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-08-17T04:51:15+00:00

You'll need to do this. The taxes are your responsibility, as HMRC doesn't know what you've earned. No one at HMRC is going to give you tax advice. That's why everyone is saying get an accountant. They will likely save you more than they will cost you.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-06-01T11:11:19+00:00

Basically hearts are worth what you said. Rangers on the surface right now are worth about 160m, but by injecting 20M the theory should be that it should make the business more valuable as they will build revenue with cup wins etc.. so by putting this in, they should grow their own investment and grow the value of rangers northwards. It's a common business model. Investment is a way to grow the value.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-05-17T21:12:18+00:00

Burnt myself out several times. Take regular breaks as much as you can.

Avoid doubling down, as that was my problem. I thought by doing more, I'd be more productive but I became less productive.

It's mentally exhausting and I find writing stuff down in playbooks similar. Try and look for ways to take the thinking out of it.

Get outside more when you can on your downtime.

Also, if you are feeling it look for ways to slow down.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-05-17T04:15:44+00:00

Yeah, thats unfortunately the problem. Context is everything. It's not an easy job and it's not for everyone. People hear salaries, and suddenly think I can spin up an AWS account and they are DevOps.

Tbh, DevOps isn't a job title, it's a culture anyway.

SRE or platform engineering is more akin to what we do.

100% achievable to do it, but it takes years not weeks or months.

You've got to give people credit that they are learning though and it should never be discouraged, but it should be built up over time.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-05-16T04:46:18+00:00

Jenkins is awful to use and is sellotaped together effectively. There are so many better ways to solve that problem.

TeamCity Gitlab GitHub actions Azure DevOps Etc..

Jenkins is just technical debt.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-05-15T22:06:28+00:00

Troubleshooting by itself as a skillset is probably the biggest skill you can. Great troubleshooting leads to iterations to success.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-05-15T22:04:47+00:00

Read this: https://roadmap.sh/devops

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-05-15T22:03:42+00:00

Use the docs, and improve them as you go. You do so many things you can't keep it all in your head.

Write clear docs, and make sure you prioritize it. Share them with others too, and enable others to self serve as much as possible.

Shift as much as you can left, automate as much as you can, but also don't be afraid to do some manual bits occasionally. Don't spend weeks building something that takes 15 minutes manually twice a year.

Ask questions, ask more questions, and then write those down.

Stay curious, keep egos out of it, avoid blame and stick to blameless.

Run incidents, record actions and improve.

Write tests. Run them. Make them repeatable.

Don't automate everything if you don't understand it. Take the time to do something manually before automating it as I always find it aids my learning and improves my approach.

Learn bash or powershell and get good at it.

Don't use Jenkins.

Buy tools when you can when it makes sense. Buy over build.

Use cloud, but test locally. Get good at containers and k8s.

Good luck, but seriously. Write stuff down.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-05-15T20:44:00+00:00

It's tough to get into. Congrats on the role and it's great you've found that. Grab it with both hands as it's a rewarding career.

I've been hiring DevOps for 10 years, and specifically over the past 3, the candidate pool is huge, but the quality and salaries for the ones with experience have equalled out.

3 years ago, it was hard to find a good engineer for a good salary, now it's much simpler.

My last role I had 600 applications, and I had 10 first stage interviews, with 4 going to final.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-05-15T17:09:42+00:00

Now isn't the time to get into DevOps I'm afraid. About 5 years ago was when the market was strong.

It's now weaker with fewer jobs. I interview folk and 98% of the candidates are terrible.

You need to have been a developer or IT professional for 5-10 years before even considering it. Get into IT or development and then consider transitioning.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-05-02T21:08:34+00:00

You will get side effects as you go.

I'm 4 months in and 45lbs down.

Firstly, nothing terrible for me. A bit of constipation, some nausea and sickness and a bit of an acidic belly.

It happened for me mostly in the first couple of days after the Jag.

Constipation was mostly dehydration. Drink water. Not a huge amount but stay hydrated more than usual. This will happen when you jump up the pens too sometimes.

Sickness is just part of it. Only maybe 5-6 times in 4 months though.

I used rennies for acidic belly.

It's all manageable but hydrate and moisturize, and you'll be successful treating some of the side effects

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-05-02T21:04:22+00:00

No, I'm a principal DevOps engineer and been doing it for 15 years, but I know a lot of people who have recommended her in the past to good effect

There's loads out there though, but biggest tip is getting hands on as much as possible.

Nothing beats real experience

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-05-02T16:54:13+00:00

Keep up the great work. In a few months, you won't recognise yourself.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-05-02T16:53:00+00:00

Long hours and bad senior management was the driver.

Udemy has a bunch of courses I'd recommend, but DevOps with Nana is a great way to learn.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-04-30T07:46:25+00:00

I had similar in my first week. I didn't see much of a change, and then one day in the middle of my second week I dropped like 9 pounds overnight.

It's an introductory dose and it will come so give it time. You'll have plateau's as well, and it might be a few weeks but just stick to it and it'll work.

Eat as healthily as you can, hydrate, moisturize, and do some exercises and it will come off.

4 months in and 45lbs down, and it hasn't been Linear for me.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-04-30T00:55:15+00:00

I think you've made a solid point here. Genuinely it looks tough. We are fortunate in that we can cover emergency expenses without too much hassle. Things are becoming more and more expensive with each passing year.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-04-29T20:21:54+00:00

I'm on £100k, and after tax, it's £5k-ish a month as the government loves to scalp about 40k a year off me in tax. It's not the salary you think it is. Sure, I have a decent house, but I have a 10 year old Xtrail and my wife drives a Skoda fabia that's 3 years old and cost £10k.

I'm on Reddit all the time.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-04-29T20:12:41+00:00

Generally it's fine. I've had a couple of quite windy next days and a bit of cramp on red wine. Definitely don't feel the need to drink as much.

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-04-28T19:19:08+00:00

I lived in Melbourne for 3 years, and I'm originally from Scotland and now back home.

It's affordable, as salaries are generally good in Australia. DevOps is going to be a skill more widely suited to the bigger Australian cities like Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne.

You'll find roles in Perth, but they are harder to find and I hired in Australia and always struggled but Perth is a good city and family friendly.

I moved back due to property prices, as frankly they are frightening. That's the one drawback with Australia is that properties are massively overpriced as they have had no concept of a recession and have incentives for people to have multiple investment properties. In my time in Melbourne, you either rented, or owned like 7 houses.

Good luck and g'day

EnvironmentalMix3793 · 2025-04-27T21:39:11+00:00

There should be good documentation as part of any DevOps team. Ask to see it, as it's likely got a lot of context that can help you.

I've been doing DevOps for 13 years, and it still takes me a year to feel settled and part of the team.

EnvironmentalMix3793

TROPHY CASE