I'm 30 years old and have been working for the past five years. I started out in Linux administration and then transitioned into DevOps. I've always been passionate about Golang and was excited when I got a job where our tech stack is half Go and half Node. However, I haven't had the chance to code seriously in Go and my experience is limited to creating a few custom tools for our infrastructure. I often end up debugging, profiling, and occasionally pushing commits to fix bugs and align the code with our conventions. Given my situation, is a career switch to a Golang Developer feasible right now? If so, what steps should I take? Should I focus on contributing to our Go code or work on building my portfolio?
6 Answers
You don't actually need a portfolio right now. Just keep contributing to the Go services at your company and start applying for developer positions. Practice talking about your Go experience in interviews. Go jobs are rare, but you should find a mid-level role that fits your skills.
You're not exactly in a typical DevOps role. Just be cautious, especially given the conversations around AI taking over coding jobs. But if you think it's a step up for you, definitely go for it!
Ok. Thanks for the input!
You're already closer than you think! Debugging Go, fixing bugs, and writing internal tools count as real experience, even if it's not part of your title. Just apply for Go positions and highlight this work on your resume!
This... Just apply for Go positions.
I guess I can tailor my resume and put those under my experience.
Consider where the job market stands. Dev jobs may see some impact from AI, so look for roles that have more stability. If the pay is better in Golang, it might be worth the switch for you, even if you feel you are slightly overqualified.
If you're capable of doing a real DevOps job, transitioning to a Golang developer role shouldn't be an issue. Just go for it!
I wouldn't call myself smart, but I handle a lot of tasks after developers push code. It gets wild, but I learn a lot!
Honestly, pure Golang developers are pretty rare. Most are involved in DevOps teams and expected to know other skills like shell scripting and cloud infrastructure. You're already leaning more toward a development role, so consider asking your manager for more development tasks while you continue to learn design patterns and advanced topics. If the current devs aren't that great, they might appreciate your help!
The Go team is protective of their code. I suggested moving a microservice to a different router, but they ignored it and did it two months later themselves.
There are quite a lot of jobs being posted for where I am, mostly web backends or IoT, but I don't have professional backend experience to put on my resume.