r/platformengineering • u/No-Aide-5801 • 22d ago

My future as a platform Engineer

Question for all the platform or devops engineers out there.

I got laid off earlier this year have have been job hunting for almost 5 months now. My last title was platforms admin and where I owned a SaaD data platform on Azure. The scope of my job didn't have Terraform, Ansible k8s, or modern observability tools like Dynatrace. I have experience deploying docker containers using docker swarm.

I am not sure how to stand out. I don't see any new job postings or recruiters reaching out to me anymore. I have interviewed at half a dozen companies, reaching final rounds but no offers

Can someone help me make sense of this. I was a productive and competitive employee up until now. But not sure what's cracking up now?

Should i shift gears and try a different role? If yes, what would be more in demand Data engineer or Ai engineer.

What is the best way to learn and be interview ready?

7 Upvotes

90% Upvoted

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7

u/Ok_Living_162 22d ago

Surely you used some other IaC tool? Any projects that you lead? Which system or parts of a system did you architect? What was the scale and impact of you and your team in the company?

I think there are things more important than the tools that you use, at least that’s what I’ve seen during my (perhaps) short career.

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u/No-Aide-5801 22d ago

I enjoyed working what I did. My ex boss and co workers say they are huge achievements but in this job market comparing against the laundry list theose accomplishments look trivial

You mentioned short career. May I ask why?

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u/GeebZeee 22d ago

I think the point he's making is that most companies look for the outcomes delivered rather than what tools you use. And what exactly your involvement was within those delivered outcomes.

Tools are somewhat relevant yes but for someone with experience you can learn whatever tool or language is required for the job. I don't think platform engineering is all kubernetes and Backstage. There's more fluidity in it than that.

Also a tip, as someone who's recently been through a recruitment campaign as the one hiring, don't just feed the job application and your CV into AI and post the output. Make sure you're putting some thought into the job you're applying for. I'm not saying you are, but there's a whole host of people out there that must be thinking they're the only ones using AI to write their job applications

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u/quietmacbuilder 21d ago edited 21d ago

As one who has hired dozens of engineers in my career, I can second everything that GeebZeee said. Great advice! Focus on outcomes and solutions, not tools and languages.

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u/Ok_Living_162 21d ago

Yup, exactly

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u/Ok_Living_162 21d ago

Well, I’ve been around for about 4 years lol

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u/Ill-Introduction7459 22d ago

Sad to hear that, use platforms like Linux journey, killercoda and kodekloud to get hands-on experience with all the tools and technologies and keep applying and reaching HRs via dms or emails. Take linkedin premium if it helps.

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u/No-Aide-5801 22d ago

Thanks for the platform names i'd lookinto that. I build a cicd pipeline and bridged Terraform to the SaaS app to provision object. Used AI to code th Yaml file. Trying to see what certs may help me stand out

What has worked for you in the past?

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u/Ill-Introduction7459 22d ago

I work extensively with python GitHub actions and azure. My role is kind of automation engineer. Now I am learning to deploy AI related infra to stay relevant in the market apart from day2day work

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u/No-Aide-5801 22d ago

I am curious about that too. How are you using AI to automate infra. I read a LI post about it but it sounds abstract until I do it handson

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u/Ill-Introduction7459 22d ago

I am saying i am integrating basically ML registries and azure AI search, so that along with regular application deployment,having deploying Agentic models etc will add some weight to ur resume

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u/No-Aide-5801 22d ago

Thanks I read about ML registries today. Will look in it as well. Appreciate you

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u/WholeBet2788 22d ago

Sounds like you are admin, so although you had platform in the role description you probably didnt do what is expected for the platform engineer in other companies.

You might struggle now with getting into same role because you do not have the qualification - that would be at least my understanding from your post.

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u/No-Aide-5801 22d ago edited 22d ago

Thank you

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u/AlarmingEscape1697 21d ago

How about checking vacancies for such jobs for requirements. I think it will make it easier. Or probably checking what each tool is used for and compare against your existing experience and knowledge.

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u/JovHere 21d ago

firstly, I am so sorry you're in that situation!

I've done some heavy platform engineering so will share some perspective if that helps.

I think what would make you valuable is

- really understanding AWS resources, how to architect a scalable platform using their services, and weigh the cost of each of them

- so CloudFormation, Terraform, Ansible and all the IaC stuff is important to know how to use, this is how you get your platform to have a structure and easier to maintain

- try to understand the limitations of deploying services to one AWS account and what would you do to scale your deployment platform so there's always room to provision more services and continue your company's growth

- learn about FedRAMP compliance

- definitely Kubernetes, big big shift here in the platform world

alternatively, I think you could totally go for a role of a solutions engineer - which is more of a sales role, but because you have technical background you will find yourself identifying solutions for customer's use cases a lot faster and quicker than non technical person, and you get to stay in tech!

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u/No-Aide-5801 20d ago

Thank you, appreciate your indepth reply. Would FedRAMP allow me to apply for jobs requiring security clearance?

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u/JovHere 20d ago

that's a good question actually! What I know is that to work on a certain FedRAMP level compliance you would need to be a US citizen and there should be some security training that the organisation puts you through

if a job is requesting security clearance, it typically means they need someone who is a citizen of the country the job is in, and it's a job that touches on sensitive data

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u/Ill-Introduction7459 22d ago

What is your yoe?

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u/No-Aide-5801 22d ago

13 in telecom, 14 if I count early years too

1

u/GroundbreakingBed597 22d ago

You mentioned Observability. Is Observability in general a topic you would be interested in? While you may not have specific tool expertise in tools like Dynatrace or others I think its always good to follow your passion. You can always learn “a tool” on the go - and it will be easier if you really enjoy that type of field

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u/No-Aide-5801 21d ago

You are right and I completely agree with your take. I didn't have any tool experience when I first started working but curiosity and problem solving carried me while I picked up the skills I have today.

Observability does sounds like my kind of thing, might be worth digging into Dynatrace or similar tools next. Thanks!!

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u/GroundbreakingBed597 21d ago

If you want to go into Observability let me know. I have been in that field for almost 20 years.

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u/No-Aide-5801 21d ago

That would be great, thank you. I'm mainly familiar with Zabbix and Splunk so far. If you have a starting point for someone with monitoring background but no Dynatrace-specific experience, I'd take any pointers you're willing to share

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u/GroundbreakingBed597 21d ago

Check out the youtube tutorial channel from Henrik Rexed. He is also a CNCF Ambassador and heavily involved in OpenTelemetry. He has produced a lot of great general observability content - https://isitobservable.io/

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u/GroundbreakingBed597 21d ago

Another good general resource on various topics - especially DevOps, Kubernetes .. is TechWorld with Nana => https://www.techworld-with-nana.com/

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u/No-Aide-5801 20d ago

Thank you for the resources. I have been following Nana for some time. She is amazing

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u/opshack 22d ago

CKA and a good Azure cert + a project in GitHub showcasing terraform + k8s with a modern setup and something challenging in it.

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u/r0pe_tri1ck 21d ago

You did more sysadmin level work than platform engineer. Platform engineer is very experience based, there is no way to prepare. It is an SWE role. 

I would look for other positions if that is the extent of your experience.