On a new path as a Cloud Engineer

Starting June 2022, I left my former company where I was working as a Systems Engineer for a new one where I’ve taken on the role of a Cloud Engineer.

I left my previous job not because I did not like it anymore but rather because:

• Being a father I felt the need to spend more time with my daughter, which I couldn’t have done properly with weekend and bank holiday shifts. This was definitely a major bummer.
• Some other changes internally precipitated the decision to go and look for something else.

I absolutely loved that job, though. I continued to learn new things almost on a weekly basis and it never became boring. Maybe it would have had I stayed longer but we’ll never know.

The point was that I needed something new and a former colleague told me about the open position for the job of Cloud Engineer, telling me I might like it. I applied upon his recommendation and got it.

It wasn’t an easy decision to actually accept it but there were definitely some pretty good advantages to the job. I did and probably still do see it as a natural career evolution from being a Systems Engineer.

After being on the job for 2 full months, I have somewhat mixed feelings about it:

As far as the positive stuff is concerned:

• It’s an interesting job and I do learn a lot almost every day. Kubernetes is a pretty interesting piece of software and coupled with some of the other tools we use, I can probably safely say that there’s never a dull day.
• The company seems fairly solid. As much in terms of what services it’s offering as in terms of financial status. That’s always a good point. I never really identified with the software my previous company was developing.
• The team in which I find myself in is honestly pretty good. I’m working with people having much more experience than me in IT which means that I have an opportunity to learn a lot from them.
• The people I’ve been working with so far, be it in my team or outside, seem professional and have reassured me that the word documentation is one they know very well.

On the more negative aspects:

• It feels to me now that I sometimes spend more time on pushing for my changes to be applied in repositories I don’t manage than I do actually working. I think this is a wrong impression but it still leaves me frustrated when I feel like this. I was, after all, used to a very small team where if I want to make changes I mostly could just do them. That was a benefit from a smaller company.
• I find it currently difficult to see how my contributions look like in the bigger picture. I have my tasks, I know I can contribute to making our workflows more efficient within our team but I’m maybe for now missing the bigger picture.

It isn’t easy to find the perfect job. It also doesn’t exist and it’s all just a balancing act where you try to find the best job for what you’re looking for.

It’s definitely too early to tell whether I’ll actually want to stay here or if I’ll start to actively look for something else in a near future. What is certain however is that my interest in IT is still very much alive and kicking.