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SRE/Production Engineering are common terms in the tech industry... How do you come to the conclusion that the author is the one with a "very very small circle"

SRE/Production Engineering are common terms in the tech industry... How do you come to the conclusion that the author is the one with a "very very small circle"?

colesantiago 5y ago
I've been an engineer and manager in a software company in europe and have only heard about what an SRE is. Now "software engineer" is a common term, but not this SRE thing. Perhaps it's only common within silicon valley circles, that being said, the fact that the author didn't define the acronym didn't help either.
- ZephyrBlu 5y ago
  I'm curious, have you heard of any of these: Data Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer (MLE), Staff Software Engineer. I'm surprised you've never come across the term SRE/Production Engineer before (Assuming you meant to say "have only __just__ heard about what an SRE is"). I live in New Zealand and I'm pretty sure I knew what an SRE was before I even joined a big tech company (Not a SV one btw).
  - syntheticcorp 5y ago
    I’ve worked in tech in NZ for 7 years or so, never actually met someone who calls themselves an SRE. Obviously I know the term, but IME we don’t use that title here
- exdsq 5y ago
  Honestly it'd be like explaining what sysadmin means nowadays. It's so common I am surprised there are sectors of the industry that don't use the term yet! But it makes sense that a person who's been blogging about SRE-work for years doesn't feel the need to define SRE. It's been around as a role since the early 2000s. Edit: It's probably been around longer that SDET!
  - NineStarPoint 5y ago
    As a person whose job title is SRE, it’s definitely far less known than sysadmin is (where many non-tech people I talk to know the title) and is still a less known title than DevOps is. Even if the title was created 20 years ago, I don’t think SRE really started spreading as a term until the last few years. That the title wouldn’t be well known in Europe, or fully known in the US isn’t surprising to me. I’d probably expect someone who works in the start up world to know it, and would expect anyone working at the FANG compensation level to know it, but I don’t think it’s super common among the vast middle of companies. (And for reference, I had know idea what SDET meant until I looked it up right now, although I certainly have worked with Software Development Engineers in Test. Probably an even more obscure term?)
    - exdsq 5y ago
      > That the title wouldn’t be well known in Europe, or fully known in the US isn’t surprising to me. I’d probably expect someone who works in the start up world to know it, and would expect anyone working at the FANG compensation level to know it, but I don’t think it’s super common among the vast middle of companies. I guess that's fair. > (And for reference, I had know idea what SDET meant until I looked it up right now, although I certainly have worked with Software Development Engineers in Test. Probably an even more obscure term?) I'm not sure - I work as an SDET and have found work as an SDET in Oxford and London England, remote in other European countries, and am now interviewing for several companies in the Bay Area. It seems pretty universal to me! But again, maybe that's just down to the bubble one is in. FWIW, it just means a software developer who focuses on testing as opposed to frontend or backend, so managing test infrastructure, reporting, writing frameworks for devs to use for testing, etc etc...

SRE/Production Engineering are common terms in the tech industry... How do you come to the conclusion that the author is the one with a "very very small circle"?

colesantiago 5y ago

I've been an engineer and manager in a software company in europe and have only heard about what an SRE is. Now "software engineer" is a common term, but not this SRE thing. Perhaps it's only common within silicon valley circles, that being said, the fact that the author didn't define the acronym didn't help either.

ZephyrBlu 5y ago
I'm curious, have you heard of any of these: Data Engineer, Machine Learning Engineer (MLE), Staff Software Engineer. I'm surprised you've never come across the term SRE/Production Engineer before (Assuming you meant to say "have only __just__ heard about what an SRE is"). I live in New Zealand and I'm pretty sure I knew what an SRE was before I even joined a big tech company (Not a SV one btw).
- syntheticcorp 5y ago
  I’ve worked in tech in NZ for 7 years or so, never actually met someone who calls themselves an SRE. Obviously I know the term, but IME we don’t use that title here
exdsq 5y ago
Honestly it'd be like explaining what sysadmin means nowadays. It's so common I am surprised there are sectors of the industry that don't use the term yet! But it makes sense that a person who's been blogging about SRE-work for years doesn't feel the need to define SRE. It's been around as a role since the early 2000s. Edit: It's probably been around longer that SDET!
- NineStarPoint 5y ago
  As a person whose job title is SRE, it’s definitely far less known than sysadmin is (where many non-tech people I talk to know the title) and is still a less known title than DevOps is. Even if the title was created 20 years ago, I don’t think SRE really started spreading as a term until the last few years. That the title wouldn’t be well known in Europe, or fully known in the US isn’t surprising to me. I’d probably expect someone who works in the start up world to know it, and would expect anyone working at the FANG compensation level to know it, but I don’t think it’s super common among the vast middle of companies. (And for reference, I had know idea what SDET meant until I looked it up right now, although I certainly have worked with Software Development Engineers in Test. Probably an even more obscure term?)
  - exdsq 5y ago
    > That the title wouldn’t be well known in Europe, or fully known in the US isn’t surprising to me. I’d probably expect someone who works in the start up world to know it, and would expect anyone working at the FANG compensation level to know it, but I don’t think it’s super common among the vast middle of companies. I guess that's fair. > (And for reference, I had know idea what SDET meant until I looked it up right now, although I certainly have worked with Software Development Engineers in Test. Probably an even more obscure term?) I'm not sure - I work as an SDET and have found work as an SDET in Oxford and London England, remote in other European countries, and am now interviewing for several companies in the Bay Area. It seems pretty universal to me! But again, maybe that's just down to the bubble one is in. FWIW, it just means a software developer who focuses on testing as opposed to frontend or backend, so managing test infrastructure, reporting, writing frameworks for devs to use for testing, etc etc...