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I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

infisical.com

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Re: I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

#11

Post by falloutx »

ikjasdlk2234 wrote: post #2

My path went from engineering-aligned (math) to engineering management back to engineering to product to program management to solutions engineering to account executive. Honestly I had a negative connotation about sales for most of my career, but turns out I really love it. The exposure to different problems every day is awesome and more like a puzzle than work to me. I feel a bit of reverse imposter syndrome though…

Sales is amazing but if your companies sales people require engineering to build POCs a lot of the times or always have to sell some custom solutions, then it wastes a lot of resources and it usually indicates the company is losing product market fit.

Re: I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

#12

Post by vmatsiiako »

maxaw wrote: post #6

Wow, I think I’d love this job. Nothing more interesting than learning about lots of different unique problems from different industries. And totally get the fear of losing technical edge

Apply here :) - https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/infisical/2ef2e211-9332-4e68-bd86-e... - https://jobs.ashbyhq.com/infisical/73b79555-8b3f-486b-84fa-8...

Re: I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

#13

Post by ikjasdlk2234 »

falloutx wrote: post #11
ikjasdlk2234 wrote: post #2

My path went from engineering-aligned (math) to engineering management back to engineering to product to program management to solutions engineering to account executive. Honestly I had a negative connotation about sales for most of my career, but turns out I really love it. The exposure to different problems every day is awesome and more like a puzzle than work to me. I feel a bit of reverse imposter syndrome though…

Sales is amazing but if your companies sales people require engineering to build POCs a lot of the times or always have to sell some custom solutions, then it wastes a lot of resources and it usually indicates the company is losing product market fit.

That is true. My current work is in bespoke environments with mainly non-technical buyers who have been burned in the past. Our POCs are pretty minor lifts to build credibility and have worked extremely well.

If you're working in SaaS or commodity products and have to run POCs a lot, you're totally correct.

Re: I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

#14

Post by nickjj »

I'd still classify what they're doing as DevOps type of work. It just happens to be a wider spectrum of things vs their usual "write YAML" in that 1 role. Sounds like the original poster found a more enjoyable role with the same title?

I do a ton of different things every day and have been for the last ~10 years, all in the neighborhood of DevOps'ish type of tasks. I've written about 120+ of those tasks at https://nickjanetakis.com/blog/120-skills-i-use-in-an-sre-pl.... I do agree, it is fun to mix it up in your day to day (IMO).

Re: I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

#15

Post by NoSalt »

I am a software developer. I went to college to learn software development. Two years ago, they tried to tack DevOps on to my job description. I told them "no thanks", then had to find another job. I found one and am MUCH happier not having to do that DevOps crap. No offense, but it a soul-draining undertaking, and I like writing code ... ONLY!

Re: I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

#16

Post by grvdrm »

ikjasdlk2234 wrote: post #2

My path went from engineering-aligned (math) to engineering management back to engineering to product to program management to solutions engineering to account executive. Honestly I had a negative connotation about sales for most of my career, but turns out I really love it. The exposure to different problems every day is awesome and more like a puzzle than work to me. I feel a bit of reverse imposter syndrome though…

I love hearing this.

My story: mostly business analytics (2005-2022), sales engineering, sales (both at same tech start up), and now running a solo consulting business.

I also really liked sales. Updating a CRM, not so much. But sales allowed me to spend my day talking with people about problems. No day the same, and lots of focus on finding different/better ways to communicate.

In what industries did these roles happen? Same industry/domain or have you changed that as well?

Re: I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

#17

Post by jpollock »

NoSalt wrote: post #15

I am a software developer. I went to college to learn software development. Two years ago, they tried to tack DevOps on to my job description. I told them "no thanks", then had to find another job. I found one and am MUCH happier not having to do that DevOps crap. No offense, but it a soul-draining undertaking, and I like writing code ... ONLY!

I have a different opinion. :) DevOps is great feedback to the engineering team.

Too many alarms or alarms at unsocial hours? The engineering team should feel that pain.

Too hard to push? The engineering team should feel that pain.

Strange hard to diagnose alarms? Yep, the engineering team should feel that pain!

The feedback is very important to keeping the opex costs under control.

However, I think the author and I have different opinions on what DevOps is. DevOps isn't a full time role. It's what the engineer does to get their software into production.

Re: I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

#18

Post by bobanrocky »

jpollock wrote: post #17
NoSalt wrote: post #15

I am a software developer. I went to college to learn software development. Two years ago, they tried to tack DevOps on to my job description. I told them "no thanks", then had to find another job. I found one and am MUCH happier not having to do that DevOps crap. No offense, but it a soul-draining undertaking, and I like writing code ... ONLY!

I have a different opinion. :) DevOps is great feedback to the engineering team. Too many alarms or alarms at unsocial hours? The engineering team should feel that pain. Too hard to push? The engineering team should feel that pain. Strange hard to diagnose alarms? Yep, the engineering team should feel that pain! The feedback is very important to keeping the opex costs under control. However, I think the author and I…

The only folks who like devops are those that haven’t touched anything else, or are scared to move out of that molehill. Try it once .. is my advice

Re: I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

#19

Post by Joel_Mckay »

NoSalt wrote: post #15

I am a software developer. I went to college to learn software development. Two years ago, they tried to tack DevOps on to my job description. I told them "no thanks", then had to find another job. I found one and am MUCH happier not having to do that DevOps crap. No offense, but it a soul-draining undertaking, and I like writing code ... ONLY!

DevOps is secretly spiral development.

Great if billing by the hour, and mostly unsustainable for products =3

Re: I spent 5 years in DevOps – Solutions engineering gave me what I was missing

#20

Post by bobanrocky »

nickjj wrote: post #14

I'd still classify what they're doing as DevOps type of work. It just happens to be a wider spectrum of things vs their usual "write YAML" in that 1 role. Sounds like the original poster found a more enjoyable role with the same title? I do a ton of different things every day and have been for the last ~10 years, all in the neighborhood of DevOps'ish type of tasks. I've written about 120+ of those tasks at https://ni…

Nope. Devops != any sort of pre-sales/post-sales/solution engineering.

It requires a more holistic, generalist view, and a degree of customer understanding, empathy, management and conversational skills well beyond typical devops.

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