How to Become A DevOps Engineer

Pursuing a DevOps engineer career path can be a great option for people who are interested in information technology (IT). In this article, we explain what DevOps is and what engineers in this field do, plus offer tips on how to become a DevOps engineer.

What is DevOps?

DevOps is a fusion of Development and Operations, it is a workflow that emphasizes communication between software developers and IT professionals managing production environments.

It means that traditionally, the developers (people who create software) had incentives that were vastly different from operations (people who run software).

Who is a DevOps Engineer?

A DevOps engineer is somebody who understands the Software Development Lifecycle and brings software engineering tools and processes to solve classic operations challenges.

What do DevOps Engineers do?

A DevOps engineer uses a DevOps workflow to manage software development for computer and web applications while handling the software development process.

The engineer must balance a number of different roles, including coding, integrating, and testing, with the goal of improving collaboration and speeding the development process.

Some of their major roles includes:

• Using programming languages such as JavaScript, Python, C and C++ to build managerial tools for software development projects.
• Maintaining computer systems and networks.
• Spinning up and automating infrastructure
• Providing platform and infrastructure recommendations and advice to development teams.
• Working with management to make any necessary changes to maintain an environment suitable for developing high-quality software
• Supporting tests and deployment of software products

How are become a DevOps Engineer?

Becoming a DevOps engineer involves mastering a few skills

Develop DevOps skills

Linux fundamentals and scripting knowledge
Linux is an open source operating system (OS) that is based on Unix. Linux and all the open source resources available for it make learning operating systems and how they work easier.
Good hands-on knowledge of various development, testing and deployment technologies. A good example is git which is a distributed version control system for tracking your code changes that is widely used by all software engineering and operations teams

Good understanding of concepts like Infrastructure as Code

Infrastructure as code is a practice by which you create, configure and update your infrastructure by writing code and applying it.

Knowledge of Cloud Platform Fundamentals such as AWS, GCP, Azure

We recommend starting out with GCP as it is intuitive and easy to use. Azure is also a good choice if you prefer a Microsoft environment to work on.

Continuous Integration (CI),Continuous Delivery (CD) and Continuous Deployment

CI/CD pipeline is the production line in a company that does software engineering. A CI pipeline builds and tests the code to ensure it is ready to be integrated in your main branch, and a CD pipeline is an extension of that to ensure it can be deployed.

Develop soft skills which includes

Agility, communication and people skill.

Write an effective DevOps resume

A properly written resume with an effective format can make a big difference during the hiring process. Because DevOps engineers are required to have specific hard and soft skills, an ideal resume showcases these through work experience.

Research companies’ hiring requirements

It is best to understand what most employers require in terms of education, skills and experience. Make a list of the qualifications you’ll need to become an ideal DevOps job candidate and make an effort to work towards achieving it.

Tips for New DevOps Engineers

• Don’t get overwhelmed by trying to learn everything
• Be proactive
• Embrace change
• Document everything
• Be good with and to people

If you’re considering becoming a DevOps Engineer, now is your sign because this career path has a positive job outlook due to the impact the DevOps workflow has on the software development process in terms of speed, quality and reliability.