Is DevOps A Good Career? Our verdict

Helpful Summary

Overview: In this article, we explore DevOps as a career option, looking at what this subset of the IT industry is all about, including its salary range, benefits, and challenges.
Why you can trust us: Instatus creates tools and solutions that help DevOps practitioners, SaaS providers, and Developers monitor and spot issues before their users notice them.
Why this is important: Knowing the pros and cons of a career will help you decide whether or not you should dedicate your time and resources to it. It will prepare you for the challenges ahead, and help you persevere till you get the benefits.
Action points: Use the insights here to decide whether DevOps is a good fit for you. No matter your choice, Instatus is here to help you monitor your software and web development projects. Get a free Instatus account.
Further research: Visit our blog and read these related articles to help you throughout your web and software development journey.

Are you wondering if DevOps is a good career choice?

Whether you're an undergrad considering which career path to take, or a seasoned IT professional looking for a career switch, this is for you.

This Instatus post will answer all your burning questions, including salary, requirements, and more!

Why Trust Us?

Our solutions make it easy for organizations to follow the DevOps approach as they develop software and various web solutions for their customers.

For example, professionals at companies like Podium, a tech company that develops cloud-based software for messaging, customer feedback, selling products, and requesting payments, use tools from Instatus to monitor their WebApps and spot issues that may hinder uptime or affect functionality before anyone else.

What Is DevOps?

DevOps is a newer model of software development that enables the development and operations teams to continuously work together towards a shared goal.

As a result, they increase efficiency, speed, and innovation, without sacrificing quality and stability.

Traditionally, before any software is released into production, the development team has to work separately, write the code, and then send it to the quality assurance team for assessment, before it's passed on to the operations team for deployment.

But that approach created a communication gap and slowed down the whole software development process. Getting feedback and developing better solutions in a short time frame was a challenge.

That challenge led to the DevOps approach which is fast becoming the mainstay of software development. With this method, software development and operations teams work hand in hand throughout the development lifecycle to innovate faster and deploy stable products for consumers.

This approach has helped companies like Netflixdevelop new features to meet customers' needs at a faster rate.

What is the job description of a DevOps Engineer?

Job description

A DevOps professional has one job, that is to say, to bridge the gap between development and operations teams, and ensure that your software runs smoothly. To achieve this, a DevOps engineer focuses on automating and streamlining the software development lifecycle (SDLC) processes, from code development and maintenance.

Education

As seen on Indeed, most DevOps roles usually require a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.

Additionally, employers could ask for certifications in various IT and cloud concepts. It’s common to see certifications like AWS Certified DevOps Engineer as part of the requirements for DevOps roles.

Experience

Employers typically ask for 2 to 5 years of work experience in software development, systems administration, or a related role. In addition, people seeking to work as DevOps professionals should have hands-on experience managing CI/CD pipelines, automation, and infrastructure, and should be able to handle large-scale projects using DevOps practices.

Increasingly, employers are raising the bar and also asking for additional experience in integrating security practices into the DevOps workflow. This is called DevSecOps.

Roles and responsibilities

- Automation: a DevOps engineer is responsible for implementing and managing automated build, test, and deployment pipelines.

- Collaboration: a DevOps professional facilitates communication between development, quality assurance, and operations teams to ensure a seamless workflow.

- Monitoring: as a DevOps professional, you will set up and maintain monitoring and logging systems to ensure that applications function optimally and reliably. Speaking of monitoring, Instatus is a tool that helps you set up a status page to monitor the performance of your applications.

- Configuration Management: a DevOps engineer manages infrastructure as code using tools like Ansible, Puppet, or Chef.

- Continuous Integration/Continuous Deployment (CI/CD): a DevOps professional ensures that code changes are automatically tested and deployed to production environments.

- Security: the DevOps workflow requires engineers to ensure that applications are secure.

- Performance Optimization: identify and resolve performance issues in infrastructure and applications.

Why Is DevOps Important?

As technology advances, customers believe businesses should keep up with cutting-edge solutions, software applications, and websites. They expect companies to create fast, secure, and high-quality software and web applications. Any business that doesn't keep up loses customers to their better-performing competitors.

DevOps makes it possible for businesses to keep up with demand, producing valuable software faster, without sacrificing quality, uptime, and stability. According to research conducted by Atlassian, 99% of respondents who have implemented it say their organization was impacted positively.

DevOps increases a tech team’s capacity to innovate and create better experiences for customersby continuously monitoring released products, incorporating feedback, assessing quality, and fixing errors at every stage of software development and deployment.

This ensures feature release timelines are met, and that products are always stable, and a pleasure to use.

Is a DevOps Career Worth It?

The short answer to the question “is DevOps a good career path?” is a resounding yes. Below are some reasons why.

High Demand

Businesses are looking for DevOps practitioners to fill various roles as it is now the most used software development method.

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Because it is a relatively new field in the IT industry, it is in high demand since there's a skills gap in the job market and a shortage of DevOps professionals.

At the moment, there are over a thousand job postings for DevOps roles in the United States alone.

Competitive Salaries

Landing a DevOps role means you'll be one of the highest-paid individuals in the IT industry.

Indeed shows that, on average, DevOps Engineers in the United States earn around $122,771 per year.

Growth Opportunities

There's much room for growth as a DevOps professional because many companies have not adopted it fully in their processes. You can capitalize on this gap.

Research from Polaris shows that the DevOps market has a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 21.20% and is forecasted to reach $58.8 billion by 2032.

In addition to the financial rewards, you'll be working with the latest software development tools and techniques, alongside the people who lead innovation in the tech world. Hence, you'll pick up invaluable skills that will be relevant in the job market for years to come.

Best Practices To Consider

While it's clear that working in a DevOps role is rewarding, there are some bumps along the way. Here are a few things to consider before diving in.

Fast-paced Environment

Most jobs in the Information Technology Industry are fast-paced, but DevOps is one of the most stressful. One word you must get used to is “continuous.” Almost everything you do is continuous.

Continuous Development
Continuous Integration
Continuous Testing
Continuous Deployment
Continuous Monitoring
Continuous Feedback
Continuous Operations

That means you'll work against tight deadlines and occasional increases in workload.

Skills Needed

To land a role and handle your job successfully, you'll need to be proficient in a wide range of skills and tech tools cutting across software development, IT operations, and security.

There's a steep learning curve and it can sometimes feel overwhelming. But with patience and the right attitude, you can make it work.

Continuous Learning

As with every other tech role, you'll need to learn different tools and techniques on the go. Even more so in DevOps practice, as it's rapidly evolving, with new problems springing up. You should be open to changing your tools and techniques every now and then.

Take On The Challenge For A Rewarding Career In DevOps

If it sounds exciting to work in an environment where new product features are released on the fly, then DevOps might be a rewarding career path.

It is challenging, but equally rewarding, as you'll be paid handsomely while you create solutions that make life easier for customers and colleagues alike.

No matter the career you choose in the IT industry, Instatus is here to help you with continuous monitoring as you grow.

Instatus makes it easy to create beautiful status pages that keep everyone in the know (without having to fork out thousands of dollars).

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