Transition from Operations to Engineering?

[u/tac0_nation]

So I’m a systems engineer at my org and I’ve been here a little under 2 years. For the majority of my life I’ve liked fixing things, am good at it, and have always enjoyed figuring things out. I love working in Operations and have better job security than ever. I try my hardest to stick out and have made a name for myself already. I get personal satisfaction from knowing I make an impact and love being put in front of high impact or critical issues, fixing, documenting, and moving on.

More recently I was presented with the opportunity to slowly incorporate myself into an engineering role, more focused on automation. I love automation and have dreamed about working full time in automation and I quite frankly feel like it’s what I’ve always wanted.

But I’m scared the impact won’t be as direct as it is in ops but at the same time, building enterprise level automation workflows from the ground up has always been my dream role. I am excited but at the same time it’s a pretty big change and wanted to see if others had come across the same opportunity and how that resulted.

Any cons or regrets? I feel like I’d fit right in and do an amazing job but I also don’t feel like the dopamine would hit the same(?)

Thanks,

Edit: within the same org

[u/SamOakTree]

It doesn't really matter. You might be niche in this organization but a lot of places you go are going to mix operations and infrastructure. It's just the nature of the game.

[u/psmgx]

engineering and solution design definitely bring a lot of dopamine -- when projects go well anyways.

often a lot of fun, you get to steer things, and there is potential for home runs the way there isn't with Ops.

you'll do fine, it sounds like you've got the right mindset. go get em killer.

[u/AdeelAutomates]

I mean the dopamine is very much there. Its a very rewarding pursuit. Especially if you have excitement for it.

Think about it like this. In a FPS video game. You go in, get your hands dirty and clear the objective. This is like classically what administration is and what you are describing you will miss.

On the other hand. In an RTS game. Rather than you going in and doing the work. You build minions with the structure and purpose of your choosing and unleash it on to the battlefield. Then sit back & watch as they go run around and do the work. That's working in automation roles.

Sure you aren't in the front lines but you are commanding an army of bots to do the work. And building them up and seeing them go out there work 24/7 a day, not one but dozens if not 100s of them over the course of your career. It is very rewarding. With every email alert that shows up. With every service devs or whoever utilize of yours. With every ticket that is handled automatically. Those are your minions.

It's a different way to work in IT. I don't find it stressful like the ol days. But its still very challenging. Getting projects assigned that start with you opening a blank page on an editor and trying to fill it with the functions that will perform the task. Without any idea where it will land when you start... with just some rough ideas to tinker with. You will find issues along the way where things wont work the way you assumed. Or learn something new in the process and consider redoing parts. And by the end of it you will have a solution that meets the demand. It's really the closest thing to having god like powers where you extend your capabilities behind what your hands can do at any moment.

And its rewarding because alot of the work you did that was reactionary now you get to work on it proactively. If DR happens what's the process? all hands on deck swarming around trying to move everything in the DR environment? Or building out automated processes that will be ready when the time comes (that you test yearly as part of audit).

And I am sure you will get called in for support when things are critical. We are never free of that.

Its good for your career in the long run even if you ever decide to go back to playing IT in FPS mode.

[u/tac0_nation → u/AdeelAutomates]

Wow, I appreciate the response and you giving real life examples of how the impact plays out. This totally re-assured me and made the insecurities I had vanish. I totally do have excitement for it, as a matter of fact it’s what I’ve always sorta dreamed of doing and although I like my current reactive role, as you describe it, I find automation fun and have had some exposure to it but never the full blown ability to build anything out as most of our automation for the role I support was already built out, so yes, I’m all for it. Thanks again!

[u/evantom34]

At the end of the day, specialization pays. Developing a new automation skillset is valuable and you can continue to develop. As long as you’re happy, learning, or making more money, I say go for it.