Career Path: Becoming a DevOps Engineer

A technology enthusiast since a young age, Mitja Hofer is a DevOps engineer. Ever had a friend who would single-handedly configure a Minecraft server for everyone to play together? When he was 12, Miha was that friend. His story at Celtra started over three years ago when he joined the team as an intern. How has his role changed since then? What are the biggest challenges he faces daily, and how does he overcome them? Don’t miss this edition of the Class of 2024!

Q: When did you decide to pursue a career in the field of DevOps, and what steps have led you here?

I can trace my career path back to when I was twelve and wanted to configure a Minecraft server for my friends to play together. This was the first time I came across IP addresses and ports. It was pretty cool to be able to set up a Minecraft server for my friends and me, but now that I actually know what I was doing, I would absolutely not recommend opening your home router to the internet to run some beta version game server.

This little adventure introduced me to Linux since it was better to run a server on it. That’s where my story with Linux and scripting started. I even bought a Python programming book to create something useful and try my hand at solving problems presented there. Then, I started tinkering with Python and attended a Java class in high school, organized by some university students. I was running Linux the whole time because it worked much better on my slow, already-old-when-I-got-it laptop.

I ended up at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and was always a bit more drawn to networking than anything related to actual wires and electricity. During my first student years, I worked at a research institute, where I handled some IT operations for the researchers and implemented CI pipelines for my project. That’s when I came across a DevOps intern position opening at Celtra and applied. The rest is history.

Q: What do you think are 2-3 character traits that are crucial to DevOps engineers?

This position requires a very broad knowledge of software development, networking and also people skills since one needs to handle requests from all sides of the organization and keep the operations running smoothly, securely, and efficiently. I would say that most important is the ability to adapt to change and learn new ways of working, as well as the ability to pinpoint root causes of issues quickly and decide when a works-well-enough solution is acceptable or a proper solution needs to be implemented. There is always a new challenge on the horizon that requires one to learn something completely new. 

Q: What does a typical day look like as a DevOps Engineer at Celtra?

Ideally, a normal day for me is very similar to that of a software engineer. I’ll have a daily standup and then try to work on my current project with minimal interruption. Some days can get a bit hectic, though. 

When there are issues in the production environment, we’re the first to respond and one needs to make a diagnosis promptly to find an efficient solution for the problem at hand. This means sometimes you’ll have meetings with the team to solve production issues even before morning coffee, but the good thing is you’re never dealing with problems alone. 

As the owners of the production environment, we sometimes need to jump on a call with a customer if changes are needed there. At the same time, we’re often the first team that developers turn to for advice. One must be a connecting link between teams, people, and the production environment. Our team is also responsible for access and security of the platform, so we get many individual requests as well.

Q: What are the toughest challenges you face daily, and how do you overcome them?

The toughest challenge is probably handling tight deadlines while ensuring the reliability of solutions in the production environment. We need to make sure that the process of rolling out changes is traceable, transparent, and resilient. Every time a request is made, we need to triage the request, assess all risks associated with it, and communicate with project owners, whether we will grant the request or push back to prevent incident risks. That’s for daily challenges. Then once every couple of months, you’ll come across a new production issue that requires in-depth, innovative thinking and workarounds. That’s where getting help from more senior engineers is essential. 

Q: You’ve been at Celtra for over 3 years. How has your role changed from when you started?

I started as an intern in May 2021. At first, I began with miniature tasks and was assigned simple tickets. 

In October 2023, I started a full-time position as an engineer in the DevOps team and gained access to the production environment, starting my on-call duties. This was a great responsibility and an invaluable learning opportunity, where I learned how our products function, how things can go wrong, and what steps to take to prevent incidents from happening in the first place and remediate in case of an emergency. These are all things that are part of my daily responsibilities now. 

While my role can still be challenging at times, I know my team is always just a phone call away, which makes for a great environment to grow and get familiar with all aspects of our software stack and the development process. Plus, there’s always a new exciting project on the horizon. For example, recently, I’ve had the opportunity to work on s a brand new solution, where I set up the infrastructure stack and the CI/CD pipeline to bring it to production. All in all, I feel like my story at Celtra is just getting started.

Q: What is your favorite aspect of your job, and what makes working at Celtra special?

While I am still at the very beginning of my career, my favorite aspect of my job is having enough space to learn and getting a gentle yet consistent push from my coworkers to keep growing. I love working with the DevOps team and all related engineers who are all extremely technically proficient. I always get the support I need from everyone I turn to in the company, and I can say that this is definitely the best aspect of working here. Everything feels like a team effort and that is for sure the special ingredient of Celtra.

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