According to Linkedin, Site Reliability Engineer has been among the top 25 job titles that are in high demand for the last five years. This trend will continue. According to the bureau of labor statistics, the job growth rate for site reliability engineers will surge to 28% by 2028. The median salary for a site reliability engineer in the US is $102,103 per year. These are encouraging statistics and might even encourage some system administrators or software developers to change courses or encourage fresh graduates to choose site reliability engineering as a career path.
Before you jump into the site reliability engineering industry, it is better to understand the roles and responsibilities of a site reliability engineer so you know exactly what is expected of you. This will make it easy for you to make a great first impression by fulfilling all the expectations. Some of the responsibilities of a site reliability engineer include:
- Working in conjunction with software development and operation teams
- Analyzing software tools and other resources to ensure they are working properly
- Improving the efficiency of on-call processes and
- Documenting everything so you can refer back to it when needed
- Embedding coding automation in your site infrastructure
- Anticipating future issues and fixing current ones
- Performing reviews after incidents
- Mentoring and guiding site reliability engineers who are new to the industry
If you do, you might come across challenges such as ensuring high availability for applications and networks, establishing the right KPIs for performance tracking the system performance and identifying and fixing issues quickly before they can endanger your business continuity. So, how would you cope with all these challenges and succeed as a site reliability engineer? That is exactly what we will discuss in this article.
In this article, you will learn about proven tips that will help you succeed as a site reliability engineer.
How To Be A Successful Site Reliability Engineer?
Here are six steps you can take to increase your chances to succeed as a site reliability engineer.
- Reporting Preparation
The IT department is usually at the forefront when it comes to your digital transformation initiative. Similarly, IT operations are usually in charge of keeping all your applications hosted on the cheapest dedicated server hosting and network resources fully functional. Despite the adoption of standard processes, automation, and best practices, the complexity of today’s IT environments is tough to manage.
The complexity of the IT infrastructure of Vps Singapore and the ever-growing attack surface means can occur at any time from anywhere. This makes the job of site reliability engineers even more difficult. They not only have to ensure reliability but also the security of all digital assets. Their goal should be to deliver the best user experience to both employees and customers.
For this, you will have to constantly keep optimizing and monitoring your applications and network resources. Even when you have just stepped into the industry or joined a new company as a site reliability engineer, you will be an important team player to ensure that the business continues to deliver value to its customers without any interruptions.
- Make The Most of Analytics Tools
Monitoring and managing today’s sophisticated IT infrastructure manually is almost impossible. That is why most enterprises use automation and analytics tools for this purpose. ITSM is one of the most widely used tools by site reliability engineers. It not only enables site reliability engineers to handle service requests and manage issues but lets you automate many tasks.
The analytics tools provide you with useful insights into your entire IT infrastructure. This lets you track whether all your systems, applications, and services are running as planned or not. With these actionable insights, site reliability engineers can make decisions that will ultimately improve the user experience and improve service quality.
- Level Up Your Development and Operations Skill Set
If you want to succeed as a site reliability engineer, you need to learn both development and operations skills. If you already have any one or both of these skills, polish them so you can get better at what you do. Your job requires you to continuously enhance the reliability of your IT systems and troubleshoot issues before they turn into a serious concern for your business.
This might include creating processes, establishing procedures, and implementing best practices in order to integrate self-healing mechanisms into the applications and network. This makes your applications and network more robust and delivers better reliability.
- Stay Engaged and Powered Up
Work-related stress and employee burnout are real issues in the IT industry and most IT professionals can relate to them. This slowly demotivates them and their engagement starts to nosedive. They don’t have the same passion and energy they once had when they initially entered the industry. If you experience any warning signs such as poor productivity, low engagement, or failure to contribute in team meetings, then you should meet that individual in person to identify what’s wrong. Think about ways to help them get back on track. Support them in solving any issues they are facing.
- Expand Your SRE Knowledgebase
The acute shortage of site reliability engineers and ever-growing demand for these professionals makes life tough for businesses. In fact, the majority of businesses are still struggling to find site reliability engineers with the right skill set. If you are a site reliability engineer, you can cash in on this opportunity. Businesses are ready to pay top dollar for site reliability engineers with the right skill set.
You can become more sought after as a site reliability engineer if you hone your skills. This can be achieved in multiple ways. You can sign up for an online course, attend conferences, workshops, and seminars, and indulge in continuous learning. Build a community of like-minded site reliability engineers and work collectively with them to solve the biggest problems your industry is facing.
- Explore The Unexplored
Just because you are working in a company as a site reliability engineer does not mean that you should stop looking for external opportunities. For instance, if you are a system administrator or system engineer, moving to a new role such as site reliability engineer can entitle you to more financial perks.
If you happen to be someone that has a better grip over the operations side of things, adding engineering skills to your portfolio can increase your worth manifold in the eyes of recruiters. Businesses are usually looking for candidates with a diversified skill set and individuals who can wear multiple hats at once and fill in multiple roles.
Which is the best tip you have received as a site reliability engineer? Share it with us in the comments section below.
