Soft Skills for a DevOps Engineer

Why a DevOps engineer needs them

This time I'd like to touch on the topic of so-called soft skills — that is, the ability to communicate with people.

Perhaps for DevOps engineers this is even more important than for developers. That's because, as part of the job, DevOps engineers have to talk to very different people in different roles and specializations.

• Tasks are far from always stated clearly, and you often have to go through several people to understand what the task actually is before you can start working on it. Then you realize you don't have all the data needed to complete the task, and you have to reach out to colleagues again.

And believe me, it's not always a stereotype that IT folks are introverts — that really does happen. There's nothing wrong with it; it's just that, to get your work done, you need to find an approach to each person. For some, a message is enough; for others, you need to set up an online meeting.

Yes, teamwork is like that — 50% of the time is communication in one form or another.

The hardest part is tracking down the right person when you don't know exactly who you need. You ask one person, and they say, "that's not my area, ask Kolya." And Kolya passes you on to Tolya.

You have to be ready for this, because communication is part of the job too, whether you like it or not.