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Comment by readonthegoapp | Hacker News Reader

conjecturing here...

i would think part of it would be -- just pick something?

then...

try to get a job doing that something. or train until you can get a job doing that something.

that said, if you're wanting to potentially keep being a generalist, and only thinking about specializing because you can't find a new gig as a generalist, i would suspect there are a billion jobs out there for what you do -- devops -- contracts, full time, etc.

maybe i'm not getting what your background really is, etc.

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Interesting. My background is actually Electrical and Computer Engineering. However, I technically have a CS degree in there, so I can do _some_ programming (been a while since any _real_ programming).

My work-background is basically all IT work. I spent a few years as a manager of an IT team, but apart from that, Linux server builds, automation, standing up services, planning and building small data centers (e.g. less than 100 racks), networking, virtualization, scripting. I have built a few openstack on prem clouds with 5-7 servers (manually). Getting specs on and building out desktops, workstations, GPU boxes.I have a pretty good amount of experience with on-prem wiring, worked for an electrician at one point, so I know theory/hands on, which helps a lot in the data center. Eh, that is about it, really.

IT team need to be a generalist. Maybe upskill yourself to management by becoming the COO of the IT team

my devops friend says your bg can def do his job -- sr devops role -- site reliability -- whatever label -- according to him, success in the role is mostly about hard work / caring, as opposed to specific skills -- much of which you just need to pick up along the way -- whether it's cloud-specific, or company-infra-specific, etc.

Look for startup positions. In my experience, while startups are in growth mode they need people who can pitch-in and do whatever is required. Your many skills would suit that kind of environment well. Once in, maybe you could pivot to specializing in managing DevOps where your building & configuring skills could be applied to streamlining the org's development pipeline.

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