If you’re at the crossroads of switching from being a DBA to a DevOps engineer, being aware of these challenges will help you reduce your therapist bills and ease your anxiety.
Okay. The therapist bill part may not apply for you. But it’ll definitely help you to tame the survival brain of yours.
This is not about the skills I had to learn to work as a DevOps engineer. That’s a topic for another time. By the way, I recently connected with a DevOps guru, who’s about to launch a live 8-week Kubernetes cohort.
Five years ago, I was you. When my manager told me about an opportunity to work on Cloud and DevOps engineering stuff, I jumped into it without thinking twice.
I had been a seasoned Oracle DBA for 12 years when I took that decision. I was ready to take on some new challenges. I knew I had to learn a ton. But little was I aware of the psychological warfare I went through (and still have) in that journey.
Here, my intention is to share about the insecurities I had to deal with. So that, when it comes up for you, you will know you’re not alone and that’s okay. So, I’m going to get a little bit vulnerable today.
To avoid this whole essay from being just a rant, I’m also going to give you a different, empowering perspective or reframe of each problem, which have helped me.
Let me get my cup of tea and settle down.
Here we go. My challenges:
- Who am I?
Don’t worry. I am not going to explore any spiritual stuff here.
Once I got used to doing DevOps for a few years, I started having an identity crisis. Because my original job title did not change at all. My title is still “Database Engineering Staff”.
So, am I a DevOps engineer or a Database engineer?
There’s another thing I have realized. Your role can be whatever, especially for individual contributors. We all have to do whatever it takes to finish the projects. That is what tech companies expect these days.
Sometimes, I build pipelines, create the automation that’s required to provision the infrastructure resources, deploying the services etc. Basically, doing typical DevOps tasks. At other times, I code in Python or Java (in Spring Boot) to build new features, fix bugs and what not. That’s what software engineers do. Isn’t it?
Now, am I a DevOps engineer, a Software engineer, or a Database engineer?
What am I going to introduce myself as, in the future interviews?
Reframe:
I could just pick any one of them and move forward. I’ll be okay. I’ll figure it out. At the end of the day, you need to do whatever your customer or your company needs. I need to focus more on how to serve them than self. And I can worry about the interviews if and when I’m crossing that bridge. No point thinking about them now.
- It kind of sucks most of the time (imposter syndrome)
I was an Oracle DBA for a long time. I was very comfortable doing the job. I calmly handled very challenging situations such as a slow running query or an Oracle bug driven unexpected behavior or whatever it was.
But since I stepped into this new DevOps role, I have always felt like I have no idea about what I’m doing. When I work on any task these days, I go through the following steps in no particular order (sometimes, multiple iterations):
- Spend significant amount of time going through (imperfect) documentation and try a few things first.
- Review other people’s code.
- Reach out to a bunch of people and seek their help to figure things out.
- Post on Slack support channels and wait for their response.
That’s how I am able to figure it out and keep my job. I know. Exhausting. Right?
Reframe:
When I shine the spotlight on the following things, I feel much better.
- Most engineers, regardless of their experience or level, go through a similar process like the one I mentioned above. It’s not just me. One doesn’t just know how to do something immediately.
- All of this pressure I feel is self-generated. This awareness empowers me because I have the power to change it. I can create a feeling of ease whenever I want. I’m capable of that.
- Promotions or the lack thereof
Every now and then I get stuck in this stupid narrative. That I am behind in my career. That I should have been promoted by now. Someone I know is now two levels above me, and we used to be in the same level etc.
It’s like I enjoy torturing myself with such thinking, for no good reason. I don’t know how it is conceived as threats in my mind.
Why do I give so much weightage to someone passing thoughts, if at all they are judging?
Reframe:
Mark Zuckerberg is only 40 years old at the time this post was written, and he’s already one of the richest guys in the world. I don’t compare myself with him and get depressed about it.
I am relatively new in this DevOps career. I am not going to be good immediately. It’s going to take some time to learn the tricks of the trade. I am not going to be able to deliver a highly impactful project right off the bat.
As long as I’m learning, working hard, stepping into uncomfortable zones, and contributing consistently, eventually, everyone will see me for who I have become and can’t help but promote me. Even other opportunities might become available to me, as I gain more skills. Comparison only makes you feel awful.
—
Don’t get me wrong. I faced these challenges and many more. But my career is way more interesting as a DevOps engineer than it would have been if I continued to be a DBA.
I learnt so much more in the last 5 years than in the 12 years prior to becoming a DevOps engineer. It has not been comfortable for sure. But I’m proud of the growth I have achieved in these 5 years.
If you don’t want to experiment too much and continue to be a DBA, as long as a DBA career allows you to be, that’s okay too. Nothing wrong with it.
It’s my opinion that Oracle footprint will reduce drastically in the next 5 years. Hence, I hopped into a different career that I thought was interesting and lucrative.
If you’re with still with me and ready to take on a similar challenging path to the one I mentioned above, please DM me. I’ll be able to provide some good resources for learning.
Thanks for your time. Peace out.
