Ask HN: DevOps Career Advice for an Oldy

It would do some good to learn modern CICD. Take a look at CircleCI and see if you can wrap your head around it. These days the tolerance for a developer that can't build/deploy their own code is getting low.

Also while it's a good idea to learn Docker/Kubernetes, its primary use-case will become making older applications easier to manage on cloud providers. The demand for people who know Kubernetes is still increasing however the skillset is becoming a commodity.

The current trajectory for new development work is leaning towards solutions like App Engine and other cloud-specific solutions. As a python developer I'd pick up any python-centric offering from AWS and GCP and make a weekend project out of it.

Here's some general tips from the business side:

- When you are struggling to compete, differentiate yourself and find a smaller, more specialized audience. Don't attempt to compete head on unless you believe you have an upper hand.

- There are skillset that are always subject to the whims of the day but there are also skillsets that do not: among them are (1) the ability to sell yourself and (2) the ability to manage and motivate others. These two skills have stood the test of time and if you commit yourself to at least getting better at them, so will you.

I'm a developer in my 30s who retrained after being a lawyer. I flat out tell people I'm not that great a developer. I have never gotten a job from having to prove my technical skill and have not yet needed to. I rely on my network, find a specialized niche market (startups that have just figured out how to make money but don't yet have a product orientated tech leader), and I impress upon them non-coding abilities (I ask them a load of questions about their business and operations and talk about strategy, product, organization challenges - things they don't get from a typical developer candidate). You should not adopt the same strategy but maybe think about what non-technical skills makes you differentiated and where those skills might be needed most.

1 - Contract is ending soon and I'm scouring for a new one or FTE role while wading through strange interviews and lots of recruiters. This sort of gives me a sense.

2 - Outside of work is fine! I already spend 3-4 hours a week on personal tech reading. The issue is, you can read Docker all you want - companies want to see it in production. What do they ask?

"How many years of experience do you have in production with AWS/Docker/Kubernetes"

3 - A fair amount of risk

4 - Pay the bills! For the next 5-10 years.

No, it's helpful. Thank you.

.. there's a startup boom in NYC. And I think startups prefer young, dynamic types on the cheap? A buddy of mine from California says this is the Silicon Valley mindset creeping in. I'm not so sure, but there is something about startups and not hiring too many older folks.