Is DevOps a good Career choice?
Is DevOps a good career choice? Is a question we are often asked. It’s true that these jobs have been popping up more frequently on the jobs boards during the past couple of years.
That said, many tech professionals still don’t understand what they do or even, is DevOps a good career choice? This article will aim to answer all the questions you have about the subject but were too afraid to ask. Hopefully, by the time you’ve read it, you will have a much better understanding of what it is and whether or not it’s a career path worth pursuing.
What the Heck is DevOps Anyway?
To understand what DevOps is, you first need to understand one of the most significant problems in software development.
For a long time in business, there has been a massive gap between the work done by software developers and the time it takes to put that into operation. For example, sometimes, it can take months to push a simple bug fix into the live environment of a mobile app. DevOps is an IT culture shift that questions: How can we make this happen more quickly?
DevOps is a school of thought that brings together agile and lean methodologies and a system-oriented approach to problem-solving. In essence, it empowers people to accomplish more by improving collaboration between the Development and Operations Teams through various tools and technologies available. In doing so, it enables businesses to deploy higher-quality code faster while constantly enhancing cooperation and trust.
Popular DevOps Job titles
DevOps is not a stand-alone job title, rather a new way of doing things. As there is so little understanding around the subject, many tech professionals believe that having job titles including the term DevOps could limit their career options. So if you’re looking for this kind of role, these are the job titles to look out for on the job boards:
- DevOps Engineer
- Platform Engineer
- Build Engineer
- Site Reliability Engineer
- System Engineer
- Cyber Security Engineer
- Product Manager
- Release Manager
- Data Analyst
- QA Lead
- Automation Architect
- DevOps Software Developer… Evangelist… Guru… Rockstar…
What Does a DevOps Engineer Do?
OK, so we’ve already established that people who work in this profession may not necessarily be called DevOps Engineers. However, in an attempt to simplify an already complex topic, that’s what we’re going to call them.
In a nutshell, they enable companies to produce and maintain quality software. To achieve this, their job may include the following daily responsibilities:
- Project management
- Designing and improving the IT infrastructure
- Systems testing
- Benchmarking
- Development testing
- Identifying opportunities for automation
- Optimising release cycles
- Monitoring and reporting
- Maintaining IT security
Technical Tools Used By DevOps Professionals
- Automation tools such as Selenium, LambdaTest or Eggplant.
- Source code management/control, with the most popular being Git.
- Repository hostings such as Azure, Github or Bitbucket.
- Containerisation software, for example, Docker, AWS or Kubernetes
- Configuration management such as Chef, Puppet or CFEngine.
- Monitoring software, e.g. Raygun, Splunk or Appdynamics.
- Communication and collaboration using Slack or Microsoft Teams.
- Project management tools such as Trello or Jira.
Skills Required for a Career in DevOps
DevOps Engineers are IT professionals with a broad knowledge of the topic. Careers in this field often begin in Software Development or Operations. Either way, they will also need a good understanding of coding, infrastructure management, systems administration and toolchains.
Technical Skills
Expert DevOps skills on the technical side include IT Security, the ability to understand and write code and a good knowledge of IT infrastructure. Although they may not be expected to perform all technical tasks themselves, they should be able to have detailed conversations with others who will.
Soft Skills
The soft skills required include communication, teamwork, interpersonal skills, collaboration, decision-making, and flexibility.
So Is DevOps a Good Career Choice?
Tech professionals, in general, are in high demand at present. Although the demand for DevOps professionals is exceptionally high, some say that it will be the most in-demand job of the future.
As far as job satisfaction goes, these roles encompass so many different elements of IT, it’s unlikely you’ll ever get bored in this role. However, some might find so much variety too much of a challenge.
Salary wise, they are among some of the most well-paid tech professionals, with salaries ranging from £50,000 to £80,000. That said, this is not a job you can expect to walk into fresh from university. It is a job you would sidestep into after acquiring extensive experience within the IT sector.
A Few Final Thoughts
This is by no means an entry-level job, but more of a long term IT career goal. That said, if you started your IT career with ambitions of achieving this sought after role, it’s unlikely you would ever be out of a job. Or, for that matter, suffer from career boredom!
Even if you start out on this career path but decide to pursue a different direction, the skills you acquire along the way would make you highly employable. That said, the vast array of skills and work experience needed to land a job like this is enough to give some people major career fear!
After reading this article, we hope that you now know a little bit more about this vast subject and whether or not DevOps is a good career choice for you. We hope you found it helpful, and if so, you share it on social media where others can benefit from its usefulness.
