Hello….
The Mystery of DevOps
I remember when I got my first tech job in 2016. It was sort of the same time that cloud computing was reaching an inflection point and out came a whole industry called DevOps. I’m the type of person who doesn’t like doing the same thing so I need to constantly broaden my horizon otherwise, I will be quite stagnant. So my natural thought process was ‘okay, cloud computing is booming, maybe DevOps is the place to go if I want to make £100k a year?’. But back then, salaries in DevOps were… tragic. DevOps Engineers were getting like £21–23k as starting salaries. So I was put off by that.
Fast forward to 2022, the whole DevOps landscape has changed. DevOps has seen an explosion in demand and now, starting salaries for juniors are £35k and even some cases, £40k starting salary. Those with years of experience under their belt could see very high salaries and £100k a year is not an unfeasible number.
So with the growth in DevOps, it’s only fitting to cover this as the first career path of this newsletter. To help me understand and break down DevOps, I spoke to Mohamed Abukar (https://www.linkedin.com/in/mohamed-abukar/) who currently works as a DevOps Platform Engineer at Capgemini and has built a large following of 8,000+ people on LinkedIn.
So without further ado, let’s get into it.
Questions And Answers
1) What is DevOps?
‘DevOps is a method to deliver your application while splitting the responsibility and workload. For example, let’s say someone who writes code (a developer), their job is to create as many features as possible in the shortest time. And then you have someone who deals with operations/infrastructure, they want the least amount of features as they have to implement each feature and this is considered a change. This change can be risky. Both of these teams have different motivations and goals; which are not aligned. This is where DevOps came into play.
DevOps aims to meld development and operation — Dev + Ops = DevOps. However, some will argue and say that “DevOps Engineer” is not really a thing and say that “DevOps is a way of working”. Technically, they are correct but the term has developed and is now often used freely by many large organisations.
Other role titles related to what a DevOps does are: Platform Engineer, Infrastructure Engineer, Cloud Engineer, and Systems Engineer. Regardless of all this, the opportunities in this field are abundant, with recruiters bombarding your inbox every day.’
2) How did you get into DevOps? What attracted you to it?
‘I moved into DevOps from being a Cloud Architect as I enjoyed doing technical work like using the CLI and playing around with scripts and codes. The opportunities in the market were just crazy so that pushed me more.’
3) What are the challenges in DevOps?
‘Some of the challenges in DevOps is that companies and individuals can sometimes get carried away with the number of tools that exist, there are just too many. DevOps is rather a mindset that needs to be implemented. Once you understand this, tools are just another thing to learn to make work easier.
Another “challenge” that some may say but I see it as an opportunity; the amount of continuous learning, there is always something new to learn every day, week and month.’
4) What is the work-life balance like?
‘This depends on the company, every company has ups and downs. Right now I work 9–5 with a 1hr break, there are no endless team calls. A lot of work is independent, mainly because I’m doing internal work but also because the DevOps team only has about 4 people including me. All my DevOps jobs were WFH, this meant no commuting and I had lots of time for home life.
Mentally I have/had a huge peace of mind and work doesn’t seem like a heavy chore. It’s a blessing being able to do this, I have more time to do things I wasn’t able to do before and I’ve been in work environments where everyone’s on the clock and a small little slip causes major problems down the line and you end up developing this factory line mentally and your home life ends up revolving around your work life. Your work-life takes priority and you end up being burnt out.
Work-life balance is pretty good compared to other industries. Unlike other industries, DevOps can be mostly remote-working so you can get time for family, friends and hobbies. As long as you plan your time accordingly.’
5) What is career progression like in DevOps?
‘Overall, I would say career progression is based on how badly you want to progress and your intention when it comes to learning, what I mean by intention is what do you want to learn? How deep of an understanding do you want of this topic? What will you do with this knowledge? Will you implement it in your work and help others to progress as well? The current state of this sector is changing all the time.
If you network, build experience, learn and stay determined. You will see opportunities appear. You need to take advantage of the situation, the ever-changing sector, the tools used, and the metas. These will help you progress. Career progression is one thing, career progression in DevOps relies on these concepts and methods to progress.
As I said before, progress is based on your determination, your intentions, and how badly you want it. There are a lot of opportunities and the skills in DevOps are transferrable to other areas you can progress to like a Solutions Architect.’
6) What advice would you give to someone trying to get into DevOps?
‘Learn. Practice. Be patient. You won’t be a DevOps expert overnight, I’m not a DevOps “Expert” or a “Pro”, like any sector/area it’s always going to be a learning process. I would say choose a cloud provider, learn what cloud is. Understand what services are used for what requirement, find out why specific tools are so popular like Kubernetes, Ansible, etc. There are a lot of tools in DevOps and many areas DevOps covers.
To keep it simple, learn the basics of cloud computing, sign up for a free trial of a cloud provider like Azure, AWS, or GCP. Spin up some VMs, connect services together, and look at how the infrastructure works, look at CI/CD pipelines, and experiment. It’s a long process and it is always going to be a learning process.’
7) How quickly can you get a 6 figure salary in DevOps? And how do you do that?
‘It depends, everyone progresses differently salary-wise and career-wise. From experience, you get more of a salary increase when joining a new company compared to yearly increases. Again it all depends on the person and the company. If your main and sole aim is just salary and more money, I don’t think you’ll get far. Large salaries exist for a reason. The more senior you get the more responsibility there is. A lot of people I’ve met are so money-minded their aim is money, money, money.
Don’t get me wrong, money is very important, but it shouldn’t be your only aim in DevOps. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t aim for a better salary or position. If you want to progress, learn more, understand more, help others to learn and progress, your salary will follow you. If any 16 year old who just got their NI number could apply and get a Lead DevOps Engineer role which pays 6 figures, what worth does that role and salary have? If you work hard and keep a balance your salary will follow along. It’s not so much about how quickly because it’s different for everyone, it’s about the steps to take to progress.
Try and take on more responsibility, take more part in discussions about projects. The salary matches the role which suits someone who has the experience and can do the job — so find the route to progress. However, don’t forget that there is more to life than just 6 figure salaries. Nothing wrong with it but make sure you’re down to earth and keep a realistic view.’
Let’s Wrap Up!
That’s all we have time for today. Hope you enjoyed a quick overview of careers in DevOps. A few things:
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Until next time!
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