DevOpsChat

Accessing DevOps Talent
Q&A with Automation Logic's Leadership Team about connecting businesses with scarce DevOps talent.
Automation Logic
Q4. Which Games of Thrones character personifies the best and/or worst DevOps recruit?
Chris Phillips
Best: Ned Stark - calm, patient, honourable. Worst: So many to choose from...
Xavier Thomas
Samwell Tarly - Constantly learning and can apply that knowledge effectively
Fazan Habib
Ah I thought I was doing well up until this question. I don't watch Game of Thrones. Brings back unwanted memories of my childhood - a question I'll have to skip :(
Norm Russell
A Song of Ice and Fire. Winter is coming = DevOps is coming ?
Maria Khoury
I'm going with Arya Stark! She has so many skills and faces, she can adapt to any situation - FAST!
Norm Russell
Jon Snow - aims to do what is right, collaborative, for the greater good, servant leader. Probably the best DevOps advocate.
Norm Russell
"That's what I do. I drink, and I know things" -- Tyrion Lanister
Abdul Wahid
Jon Snow - When all hope is lost, he always finds that small glimmer of hope to inspire and motivate everyone around him!
Fazan Habib
I miss the days when everyone was hooked on "Friends", but like DevOps we must embrace change and with that in mind... I will start watching Game of Thrones.
Norm Russell
Worst: Joffrey Baratheon - It's about him, doesn't care about anybody or anything else. Was anybody sad when he was written off?
Abdul Wahid
Sansa as the worst - always whingeing !
Automation Logic
Q2. How has demand for DevOps resources grown over the past few years and what factors are exacerbating the skills shortage in the IT market?
Fazan Habib
IT Job Watch shows that the number of Junior DevOps vacancies in the UK have more than trebled between 2015 – 2017 but we don’t need the stats, we’ve seen this from experience.
Chris Phillips
Gartner’s Market Trends now state – ‘digital business makes the adoption of DevOps essential’. Many companies see DevOps as core to their digital transformation plans.
Norm Russell
Today high performing organisations want to deliver quality software faster, more efficiently, in a safe and secure manner. Finding people with the sense of community, culture, and competency to enable is hard.
Chris Phillips
Businesses need to take a sustainable approach to building new capability so they have the right skills not just for today but for tomorrow.
Norm Russell
For @AutomationLogic product development, a blend of junior and senior skilled engineers is the best fit. “Growing our own” with an Academy has been a rewarding way of instilling the necessary values, processes, culture, and technical competency.
Automation Logic
Q7. What key skills make for a successful DevOps Engineer?
Chris Phillips
An open mind, a willingness to learn, a willingness to teach - an appreciation of the ‘big picture’.
Fazan Habib
Acknowledgment DevOps is about people and process, just as much as it is about technology. A book titled “The Phoenix Project” is the perfect representation of this - highly recommended
Matt Peperell
With 15 years in the game, I’ve seen many changes - and no doubt more will come. I’ve recognised that understanding ideas and concepts is more useful than specific technologies.
Matt Peperell
So although specifics matter, it’s better to hire for a candidate’s aptitude to learn and grow rather than an un-nuanced list of technology skills.
Fazan Habib
From a technical standpoint, generalist skills across a broad range of technologies from automation tools (chef, puppet..) to cloud (azure, AWS…) to continuous integration like Jenkins…
Chris Phillips
An ability to not spoil Game of Thrones episodes for those who aren't so up-to-date...
Chris Phillips
A desire to always be learning new things, not to be satisfied with the status quo
Norm Russell
Skills can be learned. Values at important: Curiosity to always be learning, humility to consider other points of view, integrity to speak your mind and do what's right, collaboration in a blame-free working style.
Maria Khoury
From my experience, a broad technical background with a consultative attitude, able to explain technical concepts to any audience.
Automation Logic
Q1. What is the biggest challenge with sourcing DevOps skills today?
Chris Phillips
Experienced engineers may not have the time or space to upskill in their current roles. Automation in tech should help create the space to learn new skills.
Norm Russell
DevOps is still relatively new, but becoming very topical in the IT industry. Over 750 of the fortune 1000 companies are expected to adopt DevOps by 2018. Demand is outstripping supply.
Fazan Habib
Agree with the above. Demand is soaring and supply simply hasn’t caught up. DevOps skills are still few and far between in today’s market. Salaries and daily rates are increasing, training internal staff is (very) costly…
Abdul Wahid
Because DevOps is so new, graduates fresh out of university have never heard of the field DevOps. It has only been about app/web development, but never about deployment.
Automation Logic
Q8. Although DevOps is creating new jobs, some fear it’s also taking some away. How can organisations tackle this?
Fazan Habib
It’s always best to embrace change. New ways of working are inevitable. Despite fears that Robots will rule the world, UK unemployment (overall) is at its lowest since 1975. There have been many technological advances since then...
Chris Phillips
Automating mundane tasks leaves room to take on more exciting and complex challenges.
Norm Russell
Automation is a key element to achieving the benefits of DevOps. Fear of automation and job loss is always very topical in the media. This must be addressed head on. Communication and training are key. Get on top of the wave, not under it.
Chris Phillips
Also, expect the fear of change on any such activity - plan to address it proactively with good communications
Xavier Thomas
Re-skilling or up-skilling employees is something organizations can do. Both to preserve jobs and to do more with the same number of employees, due to increased productivity as a result of automation.
Maria Khoury
Proactive upskilling, keeping ahead of the changes and giving employees a chance to learn and grow with the lightning fast pace of the world of tech.
Automation Logic
Q5. How can organisations look to address the skills gap to have the right capabilities for the future?
Chris Phillips
Ok, real answer... Hiring is often not the best route to skills acquisition, especially when skills are scarce. Organisations need to look at new ways to secure the right talent.
Fazan Habib
Clients can explore re-skilling existing staff but this can be timely and costly, a trainer would also need to be sourced with the right level of skills.
Fazan Habib
DevOps tooling is not presently taught (to my knowledge) as part of the national curriculum at the moment. Organisations need to adopt new methods to bridge the gap for graduates seeking to enter the industry.
Norm Russell
we found it difficult to recruit people with the appropriate skills and alignment to a collaborative culture, community, and sense of curiosity (always be learning). So we decided to “grow our own”.
Fazan Habib
Using a tried & tested recruitment process is critical to make new hires share company values & have the right profiles to succeed. AL has experienced a v.high success rate and means we have the confidence to take those who graduate on FT
Norm Russell
Given years of experience in the field and knowing what @AutomationLogic needs, we created a course syllabus that aligns to our values, collaborative nature, and skills competency.
Automation Logic
Q9. Is DevOps a silver bullet to paying down technical debt?
Norm Russell
DevOps and automation go hand-in-hand. Automating the mundane activities to “deliver quality software, faster, more efficiently, in a safe and secure manner” allows DevOps teams to focus on continuous improvement opportunities -- reducing technical debt.
Chris Phillips
No. Automation of tasks such as testing should lead to better quality deployments reducing the risk of human error and poorly designed code. But DevOps alone won’t eliminate technical debt - it must be planned in and accounted for.
Xavier Thomas
There are no silver bullets. However DevOps, if done right, can help with turn around times and free up resources which could be reused to pay down technical debt.
Fazan Habib
From my understanding most technical debt is down to "unplanned work" which disrupts actual work from being completed. DevOps alone can't tackle this problem, but it does help to reduce technical debt via its collaborative approach
Automation Logic
Q6. What makes an attractive place to work for a DevOps Engineer?
Abdul Wahid
Working with latest technologies!
Fazan Habib
Arcade Games & a fully stocked Beer Fridge ;)
Maria Khoury
A place they know they can make a difference and actually put their own ideas into practice.
Chris Phillips
Complex challenges. Variety. Empowerment. Blame-free cultures.
Matt Peperell
As an engineer, flexible working, good working relationships with peers and management, a high level of autonomy and interesting challenges, are all important to me. Automation Logic offers me all of this.
Fazan Habib
Typically, engineers want to work hard and be challenged. Communicating the goals and impact of DevOps roles makes a difference.
Norm Russell
I believe everybody needs to feel they’re making a difference; contributing to the mission. We all want to be part of the solution for the greater good. This must be fostered in any workplace.