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School of SRE: Curriculum for onboarding non-traditional hires and new grads

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Re: School of SRE: Curriculum for onboarding non-traditional hires and new grads

#51

Post by NineStarPoint »

dzonga wrote: post #12

with cloud being the talk of the industry these days. how pervasive are SRE roles. I would wager a good system admin | SRE can save a company thousands if they provisioned their own hardware i.e colo instead of cloud instances etc

Well, given how expensive cloud services are compared to provisioning hardware, a good SRE can save a ton of money in just utilizing cloud services more effectively.

The decision for where the hardware will exist may be advised by SREs, but is generally not exactly in their wheelhouse. SREs tend more towards lowering the cost and maximizing the utilization of whatever methods the company as a whole decides to use.

Re: School of SRE: Curriculum for onboarding non-traditional hires and new grads

#52

Post by vsareto »

johnnujler wrote: post #13
nickthemagicman wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oddly, the Linked-in SRE interview is more challenging, than this.

Although the degree of difficulty w.r.t a question may differ, I think being proficient in these concepts can get you a job. It’s just that most of us struggle with solving problems(in an interview). I think these concepts cover pretty much everything a SRE would need to know.

That's another thing that was bugging me: this is pretty easy level stuff for an SRE position from what I know.

The other surprise was new grads being directly hired to SRE positions and it was my impression you needed professional skills in another area (at least sysadmin/cloud or programming) to transition over. That means there's a whole isolated career track for SREs now, but maybe LinkedIn hiring new grads for SRE is an anomaly.

Re: School of SRE: Curriculum for onboarding non-traditional hires and new grads

#54

Post by treeman79 »

TheHypnotist wrote: post #46
pm90 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic software chicken and egg problem.

It's an amazing phenomenon. In order to get industry experience using a tool/skillset you need to be part of that industry using that tool/skillset. It's becoming more apparent to me that in order to pivot in IT, you need to do something (ie a project) on your own time or just lie.

Build some personal projects. Try and use various popular tools and frameworks. Build an app. Doesn’t need to be good. Just show initiative to improve.

I normally won’t hire a jr. But I have made exceptions if they have clearly worked through a lot of code exercises, koans, etc.

My daughters boyfriend thought he was hot stuff for getting a masters degree. After a friendly chat, I informed wife that boy was going to have a bad time getting anything. This is someone that had a lot of connections.

A year later and he sells mortgages.

Re: School of SRE: Curriculum for onboarding non-traditional hires and new grads

#55

Post by treeman79 »

vsareto wrote: post #52
johnnujler wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Although the degree of difficulty w.r.t a question may differ, I think being proficient in these concepts can get you a job. It’s just that most of us struggle with solving problems(in an interview). I think these concepts cover pretty much everything a SRE would need to know.

That's another thing that was bugging me: this is pretty easy level stuff for an SRE position from what I know. The other surprise was new grads being directly hired to SRE positions and it was my impression you needed professional skills in another area (at least sysadmin/cloud or programming) to transition over. That means there's a whole isolated career track for SREs now, but maybe LinkedIn hiring new grads for S…

Can almost be better not to transition.

Newer Devops / SRE is about be declarative, letting them system build itself up.

Mindset of old sysadmins is more tribal knowledge. You can get stuff done crazy fast are are awesome. But heaven help anyone that needs to mess with it.

Re: School of SRE: Curriculum for onboarding non-traditional hires and new grads

#56

Post by 908B64B197 »

igotroot wrote: post #49

As a non-developer whose code would probably make your average SRE's brain implode, how competent would this 'course' make me? I started my IT career 2 years ago and my programming isn't that strong. I got pinged for a SRE job recently (my background so far is very much Linux based so I must have matched some filter) but I'm not strong in development, k8s (or even containers), or all of the other cool stuff I see on…

It's a good recap but it's all things I expect a college grad to just know or be able to grok pretty fast.

Also why not Google?

Re: School of SRE: Curriculum for onboarding non-traditional hires and new grads

#57

Post by treeman79 »

6gvONxR4sf7o wrote: post #43
qntty wrote: post #10

Can someone decode the term "non-traditional hire"? I'm sure I knew what this meant at one point but forgot.

Traditional = CS degree

20 years traditional often meant dropped out of CS to join/start your company. Gain useful skills.

Well placed like MIT were actually good

Re: School of SRE: Curriculum for onboarding non-traditional hires and new grads

#58

Post by joshuanapoli »

TheHypnotist wrote: post #46
pm90 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Classic software chicken and egg problem.

It's an amazing phenomenon. In order to get industry experience using a tool/skillset you need to be part of that industry using that tool/skillset. It's becoming more apparent to me that in order to pivot in IT, you need to do something (ie a project) on your own time or just lie.

It is easier to pivot to a new job within an organization, where you already have trust and a good reputation. Supporting these lateral moves was part of LinkedIn's motivation in putting this resource together.

Re: School of SRE: Curriculum for onboarding non-traditional hires and new grads

#59

Post by bxji »

yellow_pen wrote: post #45

a quick search for LinkedIn SRE jobs returns: - Senior SREs - Staff SREs - Manager, SRE - SRE Intern assuming senior, staff and manager roles would not accept non-traditional candidates...so this applies to interns?

We hire entry level SREs (new grads) as well. The job listing might have been closed already for this year, though. I also saw a couple junior SRE listings (as in not new grad but not senior level either).

Disclaimer: work for LinkedIn

Re: School of SRE: Curriculum for onboarding non-traditional hires and new grads

#60

Post by igotroot »

908B64B197 wrote: post #56
igotroot wrote: post #49

As a non-developer whose code would probably make your average SRE's brain implode, how competent would this 'course' make me? I started my IT career 2 years ago and my programming isn't that strong. I got pinged for a SRE job recently (my background so far is very much Linux based so I must have matched some filter) but I'm not strong in development, k8s (or even containers), or all of the other cool stuff I see on…

It's a good recap but it's all things I expect a college grad to just know or be able to grok pretty fast. Also why not Google?

I'm just not there from a skills perspective. I feel like being a SRE at Google is the top of the food chain which I'm no where near.

Not trying to bring myself down but trying to be realistic :)

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