Hey folks, I'm feeling a bit anxious about making a career change. I'm currently a System Engineer and want to switch gears into DevOps because I'm really drawn to the infrastructure, automation, and problem-solving aspects. However, I have a major mental block when it comes to coding. I have some experience: I'm comfortable with Bash and can write scripts for sysadmin tasks. I know the basics of Python, including if/else statements, loops, functions, and dictionaries, and I can do some log parsing and API calls. But once I hit object-oriented programming, I just hit a wall and lost confidence. I'm also good with Linux, Git, and I'm starting to learn AWS and Terraform. I even managed to set up a basic Jenkins CI/CD pipeline! My main concern is whether I'll be expected to code like a software engineer. How much coding do you really do in DevOps? Is it mostly scripting and glue code? Am I overestimating the coding skills needed for this role? For those who transitioned from sysadmin/Ops to DevOps, did you have the same fears? How did you get past them? And is my current skillset enough for a junior DevOps position? I'm a great troubleshooter and love to tinker, but I worry that I'm not wired for programming. Any advice or reality checks would be really appreciated!
2 Answers
In DevOps, a lot of the work revolves around automation using scripting languages like Bash or Python. You don’t need to be a coding wizard; just focus on getting the basics down. Kubernetes might be a good skill to pick up next!
You’ll be fine! Many engineers in the DevOps space aren’t coding experts. Being strong in troubleshooting is often more valuable than knowing complex coding concepts. You might find that you’ll mostly be writing straightforward scripts for automation rather than dealing with complicated programming. Just hone in on core topics like networking, security, and IAM.
Thanks for the reassurance! That makes me feel a bit better about my skills.