Dev || Ops

It's nearly 2020, and by now, you'd think we'd be a bit closer to defining what DevOps actually is. Continuous delivery? Continuous integration? Cloud? Pipelines? Automation? Orchestration? Containerisation? Buzzwords... everywhere!

Regardless of whether or not we can define this, it is an immovable fact that it is incredibly difficult to hire effective resources in this area. It's the Cobol of the 80s and 90s (and ironically, today) - a veritable tech gold rush, where everyone jumps on the bandwagon.

Here's my opinion of the most common types of candidates applying for the role of 'DevOps Engineer':

1) The Ops Expert: this candidate has 15 years experience in various IT fields: storage, networking, virtualisation, security - you name it. They have no scripting experience at all, and to appear more closely matched to the advertised role they've added " / DevOps" to their title. Whilst they were a Network Engineer in 2004, they're a Network / DevOps Engineer in 2019.

2) The Dabbler: this candidate has a few years of web development experience, and a few years of IT related experience - but it's all fairly informal. They've only really worked for small companies, yet taken on titles such as "Head of Engineering" and "IT Director". If you dig a little deeper, you'll find that they haven't really worked in a team setting, but they do have surface-level knowledge of several products you currently use. This ties in perfectly with their CV, which is normally 20% useful, and 80% listing the vast array of skills they have. Jack of all trades.

3) The Hardcore Developer: 10+ years' experience in an established development setting. Familiar with development concepts, knows several programming languages. Can script with ease. Has recent cloud experience, and can find that pesky bug in seconds. The only problem is that this person has absolutely no interest in DevOps, and actually never applies for the role. #comehome #weneedyou

4) You: Ah, I've been looking for you. I've heard you can master new technologies at a rapid rate, and you're also capable of scripting to a level that most would consider competent. You're easy to work with, and value team dynamic and cohesion over always being right and asserting your technical prowess. Your tech knowledge is current, you understand trends, and you sighed at yet another article about DevOps being so bloody hard to define. You're lazy. But that's a good thing, because it means you want to automate everything. You take ownership of your work, you love sharing your progress with others, and you actually don't really care about the whole "AWS vs Azure vs Google" debate, as you're comfortable applying the same fundamental concepts to all of them. You can admit what you don't know, but view it as a learning opportunity rather than a chink in your 'knowledge armour'. My only question is: where the hell are you?

The gist of the matter is: DevOps is an anomaly. It's an overly saturated market, yet incredibly difficult to find good candidates. We've become so focused on people ticking all the boxes that we've forgotten what truly matters. Realistically, most people can adapt to DevOps and any given technology stack, but it's about working together, forming relationships, and quite fundamentally, being able to learn, understand, and apply new technologies at a rapid rate.

If you can relate to this and consider yourself more a #4 than any of the others, I'd love to hear from you. We need you. Drop me a message.