I'm trying to get a better grasp on what level of expertise and depth of knowledge is expected for well-paying DevOps, Platform, or SRE roles, especially in environments with a positive work culture. When I say 'good roles', I mean those that offer good pay, interesting work (like building and designing systems rather than just dealing with alerts), and reasonable on-call duties. I'm particularly curious about the depth of knowledge required in areas such as Linux and OS fundamentals, Kubernetes, AWS and cloud infrastructure, CI/CD practices, and programming in Golang or scripting. Additionally, how do the expectations vary between startups and more established companies? Is the number of years of experience a significant factor, or does having deep skills hold more weight? Lastly, how can experienced engineers tell which teams have a healthy engineering culture and manageable on-call responsibilities? Thanks for any insights!
3 Answers
There's no magic checklist for landing a great job in DevOps. I've seen folks with only a couple years of experience thriving at top companies, while some with a decade might not be able to troubleshoot effectively. Here’s a rough guideline:
- **Linux/OS**: You need to be quite capable—not an expert, but able to dig into issues like using strace to troubleshoot.
- **Kubernetes**: This varies a lot. Some roles will require deep knowledge for complex architectures, while others just need you to install helm charts.
- **AWS/Cloud**: Know networking, IAM, and key compute/storage functions really well. The rest can be learned as needed.
- **CI/CD**: Essential! You should be able to build a pipeline without breaking a sweat.
- **Golang**: Nice to have but not essential; being fluent in Python or Bash is usually more critical.
To find good teams, ask them about their last few incidents, how they handled them, and dive into details about their on-call structure. If they give vague answers, that's a red flag! And remember, choosing between startups and mature companies is more about your comfort with chaos than actual expectations.
You really have to focus on the fundamentals and be curious! DevOps is constantly changing, and if you're just fixated on specific tools without a strong grasp of OS and SDLC principles, you might struggle in this field. Curiosity and the ability to learn new concepts are key, alongside solid fundamentals.
got it buddy !!
For high-paying roles, just knowing how to deploy a Kubernetes cluster isn’t enough. You should also grasp the reasoning behind pod crashes at a deeper level, like understanding kernel issues or debugging networking across zones. It’s all about having that depth of knowledge.
got it buddy !!
got it buddy !!