I've got 5.5 years of experience in DevOps, cloud, and automation with Python and shell scripting. I recently took a role as a DevOps Lead at a product-based company, but within my first week, the product owner who brought me on was laid off. Now, the senior manager, who is also a senior developer, has suggested that I switch to C# and become a backend developer because he thinks DevOps is unnecessary here.
The cloud/infrastructure team has developed their own tool for provisioning and deployments, which connects to the Git repository and allows for single-click operations. If I switch to C# development, I'll lose my DevOps focus, but if I stick with it, I'm concerned I might not have enough responsibilities to justify my position. What would you do in my situation? How can I defend the importance of DevOps in this context?
5 Answers
Consider doing some C# work for the experience but keep participating in DevOps projects. If something breaks or you need to build something soon, they'll likely realize your importance in the DevOps space again.
It might be a good idea to start looking for other opportunities where your skills are appreciated. If a company doesn't value DevOps, you could end up limiting your career growth. Keep your options open and consider interviewing while you're figuring this out.
If you choose to learn C#, try to integrate it with DevOps principles. Focus on observability, deployment strategies, and debugging rather than just feature development. This way, you can still contribute from a DevOps perspective.
Reflect on whether you want to work in an environment that doesn't value your expertise. You’ve invested years into developing your DevOps skills, and switching to C# just to please someone unfamiliar with the field isn't a great path. Consider looking for a role where your skills are recognized.
You should advocate for the value of DevOps in your company. Highlight things like monitoring, security, and incident management that won't be covered by the current tool. Ask questions about their processes to emphasize how much work is still left for a dedicated DevOps role.
Related Questions
How To: Running Codex CLI on Windows with Azure OpenAI
Set Wordpress Featured Image Using Javascript
How To Fix PHP Random Being The Same
Why no WebP Support with Wordpress
Replace Wordpress Cron With Linux Cron
Customize Yoast Canonical URL Programmatically