I had been focusing on back-end with Java and MySQL, but months ago I moved towards Docker, Kubernetes, Jenkins, Ansible, Linux servers, and I honestly find those way more interesting (AWS is on my list)
But I began second guessing my choice because I mostly hear people talk about front-end and back-end, I hardly ever hear anyone mention DevOps, at all.
Is DevOps a decent career path to pursue compared to back-end?
Thank you :)
Top comments (3)
The best career path is the one you like the most. This is my take away from over 12 years of being in this business and this would apply to anything really. If you cannot singularly focus on something to get really good at, you'll find it hard to reach mastery.
I've done several things in my career and as a result im not a master at any of it, which in hindsight i regret. It's those with the best skills that will end up with a better career generally speaking but with the caveat, do what you like and feel passionate about (if possible!)
To answer your question, if you like Development operations, deployments, infrastructure. go ahead and just do it and see if you like it.
Personally i think that it is as fulfilling as back-end although building infrastructure does sound more fancier than 'building & integrating business logic'. A valuable career for me is one where in a team you can make the most impact. As both devops and back-end engineer, I feel that is most valuable than focusing on a single aspect. Besides, starting as a back-end engineer means you have both under your belt, which is great atleast.
As with many things with life, find what you love and it will never be a chore.
I'm aware that many people don't have that choice, or maybe aren't exposed to a lot of variety when they start.
I've been lucky enough to have senior managers, leads and mentors that really pushed the envelope with exposing newbies to absurd amounts of variety, sometimes just for learning purposes without actual project or company benefit.
I'm really grateful that happened and I model my coaching of junior devs after that.
More specific to your case, I see that the market is very welcoming of junior profiles on the devops space, especially the ops part of it, and if the person is particularly geeky on unixes the better.
My advice is to try and find your path early, but also to diversify with other things to keep you on the edge, especially the ones you don't like.
It's never a zero sum game, you can be a jack of all trades and master of one or a few of them and that will go a long way further down the road.