Hey everyone! I'm currently working as a senior full stack developer with skills in the .NET, React, and Azure stacks. While I enjoy coding and product development, I have a growing passion for building Linux machines, working with Docker and Kubernetes, automating processes, and monitoring systems, especially when troubleshooting production issues. I have prior experience with AWS where I deployed services to an EKS cluster using GitOps with ArgoCD.
I'm eager to shift my career focus to a full-time DevOps role, whether it be as an infrastructure/cloud engineer, SRE, platform engineer, or DevOps engineer. My goal is to move internally since my current company doesn't have a dedicated DevOps team, and the architects currently manage all Kubernetes deployments, IaC, Azure environments, etc. This has become a bottleneck, and while I have support for establishing a DevOps team, I'm worried about being too valuable in my current development role and potentially missing out on the opportunity.
I've also been looking for DevOps roles on job boards, trying to identify the gaps in my knowledge to prepare for interviews. Currently, I'm building a Kubernetes home lab on bare metal and I run a side business hosting client applications on my Linode Kubernetes cluster.
If you've made a similar transition from software development to fully embracing DevOps, I would love to hear how you did it! Also, as I'm learning Go to complement my DevOps skills, do you think it's worth focusing on Python instead considering how popular it is in the DevOps field?
5 Answers
Honestly, I just got lucky! I was hired as a systems engineer right when my company decided to go all-in on Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, and containerization. I had to learn everything quickly as the landscape changed, and though it was challenging, it ended up being the best move for my career.
Look at you now, jumping into a great role after all that hustle!
I transitioned from full stack to DevOps by working at a company focused on HPC clusters. I dived into tools like Docker and Ansible, which helped me stand out, and when I switched companies, I was able to land a DevOps Engineer position. I learned a lot on the job, particularly around Kubernetes and Terraform, but eventually found I missed having ownership over a single project. Now, I approach DevOps as a philosophy rather than a job title.
That’s an interesting perspective! It seems like you maintain a good balance without being boxed into a specific role.
It's great that you adapt your skills rather than tying them to a title! That's the future of work.
A lot of software engineers just fall into the DevOps role without planning to. Often you end up being the only dev who knows the deployment process or infrastructure enough to handle production codes. It's a bit of a sink or swim situation. Just keep pushing yourself to take on those tasks and the DevOps role could easily become yours!
Haha, that sounds just like my experience! I was swamped with deployment tickets just because others didn’t want to handle anything beyond coding.
Exactly! It's all about stepping up when you see an opportunity.
I jumped from backend dev to DevOps a couple of years ago. Honestly, your home lab with Kubernetes is already more hands-on than some applicants. I'd recommend focusing on Go over Python if you're interested in deeper integrations in cloud-native environments. It’s super useful for understanding Kubernetes and building operators.
That’s a good point! Python is nice for quick scripting, but Go feels like a safer long-term investment.
Totally! Always great to have a mix of both in your toolkit.
The 'too valuable on product dev' issue is real. But remember, you already have a strong hand in infra experience compared to many applying for external DevOps roles. To make the switch internally, identify the biggest bottlenecks in deployment or environment provisioning, tackle them, and show how well you can improve the process. That way, when people see your work in action, saying no to transitioning becomes harder.
Solid advice! It’s true, showing results really helps with the transition.
Definitely! Taking initiative is key.
That’s how it goes sometimes. You just have to seize the changes as they come, right?