My first Information Technology job came during my final year of college. The position was a contract computer operator position scheduled to run during the holiday season with a possibility of extension. I decided to quit my job in retail to accept the job and start acquiring I.T. experience. The job might have only lasted for about two and a half months, and therefore I would be shortly unemployed, but that was a risk I was willing to take!
The operator position, which also included help desk, actually lasted for roughly a year and a half until I accepted a software developer position at another company. That position actually started out in the software tester space, as it was company protocol to put developers through a tester role to learn the applications developed and support within the company, and to instill the habit of testing of one’s own code! During my tenure at this company, I performed the roles of tester, developer and build and release engineer.
Fast forward several years to my current employer, and I have been mainly a build and release engineer, though during this time the term DevOps gained traction, so you could also apply the term DevOps to my duties too.
Outside of my job history, I have kept an interest in web development. That included maintaining my own site or updating or creating websites for small businesses and nonprofit organizations. The updates varied. Examples included adding simple PHP code, creating a JavaScript calculator form, and creating simple, easy-to-use sites.
My current focus is DevOps. Prior, my intent was to return to doing more software development. However, I have realized the scope of what DevOps entails, that it goes beyond building and deploying applications, dealing with a lot of post-deployment and infrastructure responsibilities. Also, with certain tools that have been released in recent years, that could have made my build and release engineering jobs a bit easier, that makes sticking around with DevOps a bit more enticing. I do like to keep my foot in development to some extent, which includes learning a new programming language or expanding on a language I have already worked with. This helps to keep me familiar with the types of applications that I may need to work with someday.
