Deciding what to choose as a career is never an easy choice. Many students go through counselling, even giving aptitude tests to understand what kind of career would best suit them.
As one of the biggest technology hubs in Asia, working in the IT industry as a programmer or data scientist is seen as one of the most desirable career options for young Indians. However, in recent years the popularity for DevOps professionals has skyrocketed.
A few of these reasons include the growing demand for skilled DevOps engineers by many tech giants like Wipro, Infosys, Accenture, etc. The opportunities for learning and high-income potential also contribute to the desirability of DevOps as a career.
However, becoming a DevOps engineer in India has its own challenges. The career is demanding and at present there are no traditional means of getting into DevOps.
So, how do you know if DevOps is right for you?
In this article, we will explore what DevOps is, what is needed to become great at DevOps, job prospects, and how to navigate the challenges of becoming a DevOps engineer.
What is DevOps
There are many different definitions of DevOps. People think DevOps is a set of tools, and others, a project. We can explain what DevOps is by going back in time. For many years, the developer team and operations team originally worked in silos, causing a lot of confusion when it was time to push code to production. It would take months, sometimes years, before projects were released. This issue was solved by merging the developer team and operations team.
Thus, DevOps is simply the Devs and Ops team working together for the entire software lifecycle, following lean, and agile principles, to deliver high-quality code fast.
Technical skills needed for DevOps
The DevOps team does the combined work of the developer and operations team. This means they need to have expertise for a broad range of topics. We discuss in brief, the three most important hard skills you should have for DevOps positions:
Cloud services: Today, cloud computing is the center of all tech organizations. This is why you should have knowledge of one or more cloud services. Important ones include AWS, Azure, and GCP.
Pro-tip: You can get certified in Amazon Web Services. It is a globally recognized certification that adds a lot of credibility to your resume.
Understanding of tools: The tech stack of a DevOps engineer differs from company to company, but it is important to familiarize yourself with tools of each type. For example, tools used for containerization, CI/CD, automation, etc.
Linux & scripting languages: Most servers and tools used in the DevOps world are Linux-based. In addition, Linux operates on scripting languages which is why you need to be proficient in them.
Soft skills needed for DevOps
DevOps requires professionals who are enthusiastic, curious, and creative. It is a career that demands a lot of candidates and may not be for everyone. Read on to find out what sort of attributes you need to be a great DevOps architect:
Eagerness to learn: You will need understanding of a wide variety of topics like networking, cloud fundamentals, programming languages, etc. This is because mastering the basic concepts will help you in your responsibilities as a DevOps engineer.
Fluency in English: Most people don’t know that DevOps is a very interactive job role. Engineers often communicate with international clients, meaning they need to speak English fluently. Written English skills are equally important as you will document everything you do.
Collaborative skills: DevOps was created to eliminate the issues caused by the developer and operations team working separately. Collaborating with teammates is a skill you must have to deliver error-free and clean code in a responsive manner.
Job Prospects in DevOps
DevOps is a rapidly growing field with unparalleled opportunities. It is a job role that is needed across all industries but sectors like recruitment, financial services, software products, and IT services in particular, heavily favor DevOps professionals. Here is a list of the most prominent job opportunities offering immense career scope in DevOps:
- DevOps Engineer
- QA Automation Engineer
- System Security Engineer
- Site Reliability Engineer
- System Administration
Challenges
While DevOps as a career has many desirable traits, the challenges for this field are lesser known. A few of them include:
DevOps is self-learning: For India, there are no traditional means by which you can learn DevOps. Colleges lag in introducing skills needed for DevOps in their curriculum. For students from a non-engineering background, DevOps can be hard to learn because of the overwhelming number of concepts. Additionally, there is no defined syllabus detailing what students should study.
Pro-tip: Start with these 8 must-know DevOps concepts!
No work-life balance: A common requirement of jobs for DevOps is the willingness to work 24/7 rotational shifts. This is because engineers have to constantly monitor the infrastructure they’ve built and ensure everything is performing as expected.
Pro-tip: Search for jobs at internationals companies as their working culture is often much better than Indian organizations.
High barrier to entry for freshers: Most DevOps jobs in the market require candidates to have anywhere from 2-8 years of experience. This makes it incredibly difficult for freshers to gain a foothold into DevOps.
Pro-tip: The best way to land a DevOps job with no experience is by getting an internship. Check opportunities here!
Explore further
Choosing DevOps as a career is a decision that takes time and consideration. You should carefully weigh the pros and cons to see if it is the right fit for you. It is not easy to enter this rapidly-advancing field without passion and persistence. However, building a career in DevOps can be highly rewarding and offers plenty of opportunities for learning and growth.
If you are interested in kickstarting your DevOps journey, check out this 3-week training program offered by IAMOPS. You will learn from industry experts and earn a certificate upon completion. To learn more, register here!