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I'm a generalist and I've had a bunch of DevOps jobs where I had to come in to fix what the complete mess the kubernetes devops specialist left behind. I think

I'm a generalist and I've had a bunch of DevOps jobs where I had to come in to fix what the complete mess the kubernetes devops specialist left behind. I think the question is more who a generalist markets to. Some people have multiple resume's depending on what they apply for, they come in through one angle and then build some trust and take over more. Or it's a startup that needs help, but doesn't really know what they need help with. The fundamental mistake is that people think that just because someone is specialized on a topic he's also good at it.

jhoelzel 4y ago
Absolutely true, but those are two different things. I -AM- a generalist and it's also a requirment for being actually any good in devops, but I position myself as Freelance Sr. Engineer with Kubernetes / DevOps / Golang Focus, because thats what I like doing and also what I am good at. There is a whole longtail of skills that are required to do any of this, also quite a few that are not even tech related, like proper communication or empathy. But yeah, if you require assitance, I am definitly the kubernetes-dude that you can call and it should be as simple as that.
trashtester 4y ago
I happen to think that "DevOps" is one of those fields that really require some kind of generalist to do well, from the hardware (and virtual hardware) level and a fairly deep understanding of networking to how to build and optimize the kinds of apps and services that will run in the infra. Many get the title "DevOps" who are basically Ops people with a new toolkit. One of the problems with the DevOps stack, though, as working in the infra-as-code needs a dev mentality to be done right. Many traditional ops people will "program" the infra-as-code using pretty bad quality code. (often using way too much cut&paste for stuff that could be generalized.) On the other hand, when devs switch to "devops" they often fail to have the attention to detail and sense of responsibility found with many traditional ops people. So finding good candidates for DevOps roles is really hard, and often those positions are staffed with people who are not really suited for the paradigm.

jhoelzel 4y ago

Absolutely true, but those are two different things. I -AM- a generalist and it's also a requirment for being actually any good in devops, but I position myself as Freelance Sr. Engineer with Kubernetes / DevOps / Golang Focus, because thats what I like doing and also what I am good at. There is a whole longtail of skills that are required to do any of this, also quite a few that are not even tech related, like proper communication or empathy. But yeah, if you require assitance, I am definitly the kubernetes-dude that you can call and it should be as simple as that.

trashtester 4y ago

I happen to think that "DevOps" is one of those fields that really require some kind of generalist to do well, from the hardware (and virtual hardware) level and a fairly deep understanding of networking to how to build and optimize the kinds of apps and services that will run in the infra. Many get the title "DevOps" who are basically Ops people with a new toolkit. One of the problems with the DevOps stack, though, as working in the infra-as-code needs a dev mentality to be done right. Many traditional ops people will "program" the infra-as-code using pretty bad quality code. (often using way too much cut&paste for stuff that could be generalized.) On the other hand, when devs switch to "devops" they often fail to have the attention to detail and sense of responsibility found with many traditional ops people. So finding good candidates for DevOps roles is really hard, and often those positions are staffed with people who are not really suited for the paradigm.