With 38% of tech companies stating they face difficulties finding skilled developers in 2023, employers need to understand which traits to nurture in incumbent employees to help them transition to a DevOps career and fill skills shortages.
A panel of DevOps specialists from STX Next, Toptal, Atos and The One Questio, has identified the qualities displayed by successful DevOps engineers, including a willingness to learn, analytical and strategic thinking and transferable skills.
Transferrable skills and specialisation are the keys to plugging talent gaps, according to DevOps experts from STX Next, Toptal, Atos and The One Question
There is still a chronic lack of talent in the DevOps sector, with 38% of tech companies stating that they face difficulties finding skilled developers in 2023, and naming DevOps as the number one area for shortages. As a result, businesses should ensure they are prioritising and nurturing the right skills when building DevOps teams, to avoid missing out on top talent.
Below are five qualities, picked out by a panel of DevOps experts, that businesses should look for when hiring DevOps engineers, along with tips they can apply to internal procedures to get the most out of existing employees.
1. Willingness to learn
The DevOps sector is constantly evolving, and businesses should look for staff who embrace the challenges that accompany this change.
Emil Krawczak, DevOps Engineer at STX Next, commented: “To achieve success as a DevOps engineer, you need to have a will to learn, develop, and be very persistent. This sector of IT is developing so quickly that you cannot easily stay on track with everything new. It is not enough to learn at work, you need to show engagement after hours, as well.”
2. Analytical and strategic approach
As important as system administration or development skills are, they are of little use if developers cannot see the bigger picture. Therefore, organisations should view project strategy and careful analysis as indispensable skills for DevOps engineers.
Piotr Pawłowski, DevOps Specialist at The One Question, said: “The key to success in DevOps is to have an analytical and strategic approach. You have to analyse the project first and decide what tools and approaches will fit best. You can know tools and cloud solutions, but without knowledge of when to use them, you will not be a successful player in the DevOps space.”
3. Combining practice and theory
What employees learn from books and research should be supplemented by practical experience if they’re to become a well-rounded DevOps professional. The ability to put theory into practice is where true progress is made.
Mariusz Tomczyk, Senior DevOps Engineer at STX Next, stresses the importance of versatility and points to Python as a stepping stone in DevOps engineering: “In DevOps, Python is a huge bonus in the automation process. Everyone interested in this path of development should understand a broad range of tools and specialise in at least one area of Dev or Ops. It is not especially surprising to say that personal success is mainly determined by the link between exercise and practice.”
4. Joining development and operations in experience
Employers should look for closely-related skills that could help a candidate make the jump to DevOps. For example, experience in SysOps or a programming language will come in handy when switching their focus.
Krawczak said: “DevOps unites the world of admins (SysOps) with the world of programmers/developers (Dev). The easiest way to enter the sector is to have experience in both disciplines. As an admin, you can build upon your experience in scripting, and as a developer, your experience in setting up local infrastructure for testing.”
5. Focus and clarity of specialisation
Marcelo Grebois, Senior DevOps Engineer at Toptal, says businesses should promote simplicity when establishing their DevOps approach: ““Try to make things easy. Always think about automation, keep all infrastructure as code, and stay up to date.”
Roman Kamiński, Cloud System Architect at Atos, agreed: “Using automation tools such as Ansible and Terraform stops developers getting left behind, while helping them adjust to an ever-changing industry.”
