Passing the Console: Fostering the Next Generation of Ops Professionals

Where does one go to learn ops? There are no sysadmin degrees or operations bootcamps. We learn our trade like dark witches, through varied and arcane means: books, talks, hands-on experiences, real-life outages, and backchannel lore. But tech is a thriving industry, ripe for eager new ops professionals and ideas. You have very likely met the person or people who will follow in your footsteps. So, how do we pass on our craft?

This talk will explore what it means to be in operations and how to pass on that unique skill set. We will discuss what tools and culture define our field, who to pass this knowledge onto, and how to do this effectively. Believe it or not, you are capable of contributing to the greater ops legacy in a variety of ways.

Come learn how to pass the torch—or console—and prepare the next generation of ops.

Transcript

1. PASSING THE CONSOLE
   Fostering the Next Generation of
   Ops Professionals
   Alice Goldfuss @alicegoldfuss
   

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2. Hello! I’m Alice.
   I’m an SRE with
   too much free
   time.
   

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3. Operations
   

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4. Operations
   Software Engineer
   

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5. Operations
   Tech Support
   Software Engineer
   

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6. Film
   

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7. “Expert” ->
   

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8. Questions for
   the Audience
   

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9. Dev
   

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10. Dev
    

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11. Dev
    

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12. Dev
    

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13. Ops
    

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14. Ops
    

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15. Ops
    

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16. Ops
    

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17. Why?
    

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20. #serverless
    #NoOps
    

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21. Options
    1. What should we teach?
    2. Who should we teach?
    3. How should we teach?
    

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22. Options
    1. What should we teach?
    2. Who should we teach?
    3. How should we teach?
    

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23. Tools Culture
    

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24. Tools
    

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29. Your tools don’t matter
    

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33. Culture
    

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35. LOL
    

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36. BEWARE OF BOFH
    

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38. Be curious
    

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39. • What’s this log message mean?
    • How does this protocol work?
    • Who is this user on my system?
    

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41. Build strong systems
    

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42. • What if we need to failover
    the database?
    • What if the cron job fails?
    • What if we get a spike in
    traffic?
    

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44. Serve your users
    

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45. • Keep things patched
    • Work with them on dev goals
    • Build automated infrastructure
    to take yourself out of the
    equation
    

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46. • Protect them from themselves
    

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49. “No, because” -> “Yes, but”
    

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52. 1. Be curious
    2. Build strong systems
    3. Serve your users
    

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55. Options
    1. What should we teach?
    2. Who should we teach?
    3. How should we teach?
    

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56. Options
    1. What should we teach?
    2. Who should we teach?
    3. How should we teach?
    

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57. Dana Lawson
    

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58. Kelsey Hightower
    

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59. Charity Majors
    

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60. Support
    

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61. • Good troubleshooters
    • Fast learners
    • Familiar with different systems
    

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62. Bootcamp dev
    

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63. • Already know the basics
    • Mutually beneficial
    • Worst case: sympathy
    

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64. IT
    

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65. • Understand systems
    • Understand users
    • Can seem *too* easy
    

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66. Look farther
    

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67. Be curious
    Build strong systems
    Serve your users
    

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68. Tinkerer
    

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72. Organized
    

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73. r u
    ok?
    

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75. Service-oriented
    

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77. “Force push to master!”
    

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80. Carol
    

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81. Nuala
    

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82. Options
    1. What should we teach?
    2. Who should we teach?
    3. How should we teach?
    

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83. Options
    1. What should we teach?
    2. Who should we teach?
    3. How should we teach?
    

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85. • One to One
    • One to Many
    • Many to Many
    

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86. Apprentice
    

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87. Mentee
    

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88. Intern
    

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89. Give a talk
    

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91. Write docs!
    

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92. Ops School
    www.opsschool.org
    

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94. Share them
    

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96. Options
    1. What should we teach?
    2. Who should we teach?
    3. How should we teach?
    

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97. Options
    1. What should we teach?
    2. Who should we teach?
    3. How should we teach?
    

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98. Tools Culture
    

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99. Options
    1. What should we teach?
    2. Who should we teach?
    3. How should we teach?
    

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100. Support
     IT
     Bootcamp dev
     

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101. Tinkerer
     Organized
     Service-oriented
     

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102. Options
     1. What should we teach?
     2. Who should we teach?
     3. How should we teach?
     

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104. Ops
     

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105. Thanks!
     @alicegoldfuss
     

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106. Credits
     Font -> kreativekorp.com
     Art -> pixabay.com
     Pixels -> piskelapp.com
     Ops Engineer -> #WOCinTech Chat
     

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107. Thanks!
     @alicegoldfuss
     

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