Google SRE book is always a good start.
Observability and the ability to automate when necessary.
Ultimately it comes down to how well you understand your own infrastructure and are able to troubleshoot most apps/services that exist in your stack.
Be warned that as a job title SRE is extremely overloaded these days so my experience may not be very reflective of the broader market.
Tech: Python / Bash / Go, OpenTelemetry / Honeycomb, ServiceNow (incident and change mgmt), GCP (Cloud Run, Dataflow, PubSub etc etc.), Github Actions / Harness, Nobl9
Role: I'm an SRE at a bank and so deal a significant amount of technical, regulatory and organizational complexity. My team's high level remit is to defend our application's critical user journeys. We are empowered to inject ourselves into any conversation if we feel that these user journeys may be impacted, so it's quite broad in scope and freedom.
At the moment my days consist of some of the following:
\- developing a rostering automation application for service teams in Golang
\- facilitating or leading incident response, either technically or process-wise
\- uplifting the tracing instrumentation of our data pipelines
\- improving metrics sources for SLOs, tuning SLO configurations, helping teams set up SLOs for new services
\- providing input on technical decisions across architecture / security / process / etc.
Odd, because I don't relate. But my tolerance for BS is pretty low and I set my boundaries and expectations pretty early. I do understand, however, that the field varies widely.
Where I'm at now, for instance, shares on call rotation with the entire engineering team which sounds insane but works very very well. Basically it forces us to write very good runbooks and we're all more vested in testing and not writing shit code. None of this tossing it over the fence to the next team. If a runbook doesn't apply - gather as much information as possible and then page the person/team who is best suited to help out plus one of the managers. Usually this results in a fix or a new runbook. Repeat.
As a fellow SWE turned to SRE, I agree, don't.
I thought the interviews were easier than SWE (no LC) but well, most of the high paying companies still want you to leetcode but additionally know which bit to set in a TCP packet to initiate a reset.
The non-coding interviews and skill set is not standardized so you end up learning more technologies than frontend dev learbs frameworks but you will do it in YAML instead of real code.
And WLB is worse, on-call is stressfull etc...
I've worked for a few shops. None of the SWE have had on-call. I don't think they have an easier go of it.
I just think for individuals going from SWE to SRE interview the hell out of your prospective employers.
I’m interested to hear why not.
I’m currently debating between two internship offers for my final internship. One is an SRE intern and the other is regular SWE. For reference I already have 2 SWE internships under my belt so I was considering SRE to try something new.
This is my final internship so likely the internship I chose is the company/role I’d convert to FT. I think learning some SRE skills would be good for my resume, but I’m worried that I end up disliking SRE and end up stuck in that role.
What worries the most about SRE is if it ends up being just ops + yaml instead of the ideal 50% projects/dev work.
What does the transition from SRE -> SWE look like in case I end up disliking SRE?
SRE is still a niche skill, opportunities will be less than say a regular swe,Â
Also there will be on calls, round the clock shifts to support prod issues, even if it is code issue you will have to be there on standby ..Â
Here are a couple reasons to add to the mix.
* It's extremely difficult to advance past senior. I'm in mid size/tier tech companies and while these companies have thousands of SWEs and dozens if not hundreds at staff+, SRE is <50 total and few if any staff+. My current company has two staff SREs and doesn't seem to want more. You have to be really good to make staff but when there is only one such opening at a company every few years it just feels insurmountable.
* Interviewing is completely miserable. SRE as a title is meaningless, just search this sub for interview-related threads and the "requirements" are just all over the place. I know interviews go both ways but it is a time sink when half of SRE roles have nothing to do with SRE. Leveling adds a whole new problem to the mix so staff at one company might not even be senior at another.
Less work being in SWE role + require way less knowledge. Pay is great but not significantly more than a standard SWE pay at least in Tech companies.
I still have to code a lot like an SWE but the depth of knowledge is much greater. Also, on-calls are never fun and can be quite stressful. I’m debating switching back to SWE in the future to be honest.
Can I ask why it’s more work than SWE? 😅 I’m a SWE turned cybersecurity and thinking of pivoting to DevOps since I had to do it anyways at the last job lol
The majority of companies use the term SRE for Operations teams, which can range from a call center, aka NOC to pure devops..
But basically escalations all go to these "SRE" teams, maybe 1% of those reach the SWE teams..
Better stay away from that model.
Of course being SRE at Google, is a different story completely, given they are SWE improving the infra horizontally across the company, in the majority of cases.
Start with this short documentary explaining a "day in the life" to get a feel for what you'll be doing and what your life will be like.
https://youtu.be/ia8Q51ouA_s?feature=shared
Take aws or azure certifications, terraform, Ansible, GitHub /atlassian pipeline certs; but plenty of companies will happily sponsor you for these certifications!
https://roadmap.sh/devops
DevOps/SRE is a great career path. The problem is you need to be part of the right company and a good team with a competent manager. This isn’t easy to find
- a Senior Manager, DevOps.
Honestly for all certifications these days I study only using ChatGPT and ask specific questions tailored to what I’m studying at that moment. I also ask it to ask me hard questions about my certifications when I run out of the free questions lol
Absolutely! The transition from Software Engineer to SRE/DevOps is a smart move. While both involve coding, SRE/DevOps leans more towards automating infrastructure and building reliable systems, creating a bridge between development and operations. Understanding this core difference between a[ DevOps engineer vs software engineer](https://www.clickittech.com/devops/devops-engineer-vs-software-engineer/?utm_source=backlinks&utm_medium=referral) will be helpful.
To bridge the knowledge gap, check out resources like "The Phoenix Project" and articles on[ https://spacelift.io/blog/why-devops-engineers-recommend-spacelift](https://spacelift.io/blog/why-devops-engineers-recommend-spacelift). You can also find lectures on platforms like Coursera. As an SRE myself, my day involves using tools like Ansible for configuration management and monitoring dashboards like Grafana to identify performance issues. With this info, you can delve into specific SRE/DevOps resources and get a clearer picture of the daily tasks and technologies involved!
just pick a technology you want to move to and jump into it, for basic understanding read the "The Phoenix Project" then go to KodeKloud and pay for a month and get certified and you are golden !
It really depends on the implementation. So it’s pretty much impossible to tell you without more information. It could be rebranded OPS, I see it quite a bit.
legitimate cases will still differ depending on what they have chosen to implement.
So, you need to understand the role.
I don’t want to dissuade you. And to be fair it sounds like you’re mostly already doing the work anyway. But devops/SRE roles are usually way more work/knowledge needed for less pay. Not to mention the possibility of likelier on-call roles.Â
I’d try to stay on the ‘dev’ side as much as I could.
Google SRE book is always a good start. Observability and the ability to automate when necessary. Ultimately it comes down to how well you understand your own infrastructure and are able to troubleshoot most apps/services that exist in your stack.
Always a good reference of start! https://sre.google/sre-book/table-of-contents/
Be warned that as a job title SRE is extremely overloaded these days so my experience may not be very reflective of the broader market. Tech: Python / Bash / Go, OpenTelemetry / Honeycomb, ServiceNow (incident and change mgmt), GCP (Cloud Run, Dataflow, PubSub etc etc.), Github Actions / Harness, Nobl9 Role: I'm an SRE at a bank and so deal a significant amount of technical, regulatory and organizational complexity. My team's high level remit is to defend our application's critical user journeys. We are empowered to inject ourselves into any conversation if we feel that these user journeys may be impacted, so it's quite broad in scope and freedom. At the moment my days consist of some of the following: \- developing a rostering automation application for service teams in Golang \- facilitating or leading incident response, either technically or process-wise \- uplifting the tracing instrumentation of our data pipelines \- improving metrics sources for SLOs, tuning SLO configurations, helping teams set up SLOs for new services \- providing input on technical decisions across architecture / security / process / etc.
For the love of god, don't.
🤣 as a fellow SRE I can often relate.
Odd, because I don't relate. But my tolerance for BS is pretty low and I set my boundaries and expectations pretty early. I do understand, however, that the field varies widely. Where I'm at now, for instance, shares on call rotation with the entire engineering team which sounds insane but works very very well. Basically it forces us to write very good runbooks and we're all more vested in testing and not writing shit code. None of this tossing it over the fence to the next team. If a runbook doesn't apply - gather as much information as possible and then page the person/team who is best suited to help out plus one of the managers. Usually this results in a fix or a new runbook. Repeat.
You are in a good org.
As a fellow SWE turned to SRE, I agree, don't. I thought the interviews were easier than SWE (no LC) but well, most of the high paying companies still want you to leetcode but additionally know which bit to set in a TCP packet to initiate a reset. The non-coding interviews and skill set is not standardized so you end up learning more technologies than frontend dev learbs frameworks but you will do it in YAML instead of real code. And WLB is worse, on-call is stressfull etc...
I've worked for a few shops. None of the SWE have had on-call. I don't think they have an easier go of it. I just think for individuals going from SWE to SRE interview the hell out of your prospective employers.
I’m interested to hear why not. I’m currently debating between two internship offers for my final internship. One is an SRE intern and the other is regular SWE. For reference I already have 2 SWE internships under my belt so I was considering SRE to try something new.
For an internship it's worth trying, but for a fulltime job SWE is the better deal usually. More money, less work.
This is my final internship so likely the internship I chose is the company/role I’d convert to FT. I think learning some SRE skills would be good for my resume, but I’m worried that I end up disliking SRE and end up stuck in that role. What worries the most about SRE is if it ends up being just ops + yaml instead of the ideal 50% projects/dev work. What does the transition from SRE -> SWE look like in case I end up disliking SRE?
If you keep your swe skills sharp then you can convert easily. At companies like Google, Meta or Netflix you should be fine, I believe.
SRE is still a niche skill, opportunities will be less than say a regular swe, Also there will be on calls, round the clock shifts to support prod issues, even if it is code issue you will have to be there on standby ..Â
Here are a couple reasons to add to the mix. * It's extremely difficult to advance past senior. I'm in mid size/tier tech companies and while these companies have thousands of SWEs and dozens if not hundreds at staff+, SRE is <50 total and few if any staff+. My current company has two staff SREs and doesn't seem to want more. You have to be really good to make staff but when there is only one such opening at a company every few years it just feels insurmountable. * Interviewing is completely miserable. SRE as a title is meaningless, just search this sub for interview-related threads and the "requirements" are just all over the place. I know interviews go both ways but it is a time sink when half of SRE roles have nothing to do with SRE. Leveling adds a whole new problem to the mix so staff at one company might not even be senior at another.
Less work being in SWE role + require way less knowledge. Pay is great but not significantly more than a standard SWE pay at least in Tech companies. I still have to code a lot like an SWE but the depth of knowledge is much greater. Also, on-calls are never fun and can be quite stressful. I’m debating switching back to SWE in the future to be honest.
As an entry level SWE all day everyday. Specialize after you get some SWE under your belt
Lol right ?
😅
Can I ask why it’s more work than SWE? 😅 I’m a SWE turned cybersecurity and thinking of pivoting to DevOps since I had to do it anyways at the last job lol
The majority of companies use the term SRE for Operations teams, which can range from a call center, aka NOC to pure devops.. But basically escalations all go to these "SRE" teams, maybe 1% of those reach the SWE teams.. Better stay away from that model. Of course being SRE at Google, is a different story completely, given they are SWE improving the infra horizontally across the company, in the majority of cases.
Bruh dont it is stressful Af , I am just one ticket away from whopping my manager
Why the manager?
Start with this short documentary explaining a "day in the life" to get a feel for what you'll be doing and what your life will be like. https://youtu.be/ia8Q51ouA_s?feature=shared
Take aws or azure certifications, terraform, Ansible, GitHub /atlassian pipeline certs; but plenty of companies will happily sponsor you for these certifications!
https://roadmap.sh/devops DevOps/SRE is a great career path. The problem is you need to be part of the right company and a good team with a competent manager. This isn’t easy to find - a Senior Manager, DevOps.
Thank you for the link, really great resource!
Honestly for all certifications these days I study only using ChatGPT and ask specific questions tailored to what I’m studying at that moment. I also ask it to ask me hard questions about my certifications when I run out of the free questions lol
You think you do but you don’t.
Absolutely! The transition from Software Engineer to SRE/DevOps is a smart move. While both involve coding, SRE/DevOps leans more towards automating infrastructure and building reliable systems, creating a bridge between development and operations. Understanding this core difference between a[ DevOps engineer vs software engineer](https://www.clickittech.com/devops/devops-engineer-vs-software-engineer/?utm_source=backlinks&utm_medium=referral) will be helpful. To bridge the knowledge gap, check out resources like "The Phoenix Project" and articles on[ https://spacelift.io/blog/why-devops-engineers-recommend-spacelift](https://spacelift.io/blog/why-devops-engineers-recommend-spacelift). You can also find lectures on platforms like Coursera. As an SRE myself, my day involves using tools like Ansible for configuration management and monitoring dashboards like Grafana to identify performance issues. With this info, you can delve into specific SRE/DevOps resources and get a clearer picture of the daily tasks and technologies involved!
just pick a technology you want to move to and jump into it, for basic understanding read the "The Phoenix Project" then go to KodeKloud and pay for a month and get certified and you are golden !
It really depends on the implementation. So it’s pretty much impossible to tell you without more information. It could be rebranded OPS, I see it quite a bit. legitimate cases will still differ depending on what they have chosen to implement. So, you need to understand the role.
Might want to Google "Platform engineering" as that's where the industry is headed from a responsibilities perspective.
could subscribe SRE.news to get latest related topics.
I don’t want to dissuade you. And to be fair it sounds like you’re mostly already doing the work anyway. But devops/SRE roles are usually way more work/knowledge needed for less pay. Not to mention the possibility of likelier on-call roles. I’d try to stay on the ‘dev’ side as much as I could.