Comment by penguinlinux | Hacker News Reader

Comment by penguinlinux | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

I have a recommendation, If you are good with Linux and setting up servers why don't you become a DevOps/Sysadmin.

You can find a job in that field, Here are some of the skills you will need.

1.-Linux know how to write scripts, bash. python, 2.-Learn to automate server setups with Chef,Puppet, Ansible 3.-Learn how to deploy software using Capistrano, Jenkins, Maven 4.-Learn how to help developers setup Dev Environments.

I am a sysadmin been doing this job for almost 12 years and I am not old but I not a spring chicken either, but I have job offers all the time. I have a great salary and I come home and learn more stuff everyday on my own. I get paid to do what I love.

It doesn't matter how old you are, if you are trying to compete with young developers that might be hard but I can tell you that developers hate setting up systems or debuging issues and that's where Devops engineers come in handy.

I have a few books i can send you if you are interested.

Cheers

Thanks for the recommendation. If I could use a bad analogy I'd compare the two world, setting up servers and engineering software to selling marble and being a sculpture.

Part of what drives those of us who write code is that we use that code as a creative outlet. I'll generally extend that to the process of designing products, be it hardware or software. Mechanical design isn't about setting up the CNC machine but rather about the creativity and the designer's expression of interesting ideas. I've walked away from designing sheet metal parts with a huge sense of, yes, artistic and creative accomplishment. Designing something that is beautiful and well done in your eyes are the highs that drive some of us. Software or electrical engineering have similar embodiments of the same concept.

I can do Linux at a reasonable level and know most of the tools you listed, some superficially and others reasonably well. However, setting up servers isn't something that appeals to me as an occupation. At some level it would be dishonest to go work for someone knowing that I would not bring a degree of passion to the job. As an entrepreneur I would feel cheated if an employee took a job with me just to get by and not to knock it out of the park. There's a huge difference between a business where everyone is really engaged and one where nearly everyone thinks "it's just a job". Perhaps the canonical example of this is the contrast between a rocking startup and a large, stratified and somewhat stagnant company with tens of thousands of employees. There's a huge difference between what both of those can accomplish given the same time and resources.

I am not diminishing what you do. You seem to be passionate about supporting servers and that's fantastic. Those of us who prefer to create software products need people who can provide us with solid systems on which our software can run reliably and efficiently.

A long way of saying: It's not for me.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com