The Best DevOps Engineer Resume
Wednesday, 7 September, 2022
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DevOps Market is HOT!
DevOps has already gone a long way in the IT world, from a trendy buzzword to a solid specialization. More and more organizations undergoing digital transformations introduce DevOps departments and compete with each other, trying to hunt for the brightest DevOps engineers. The global DevOps market exceeded $7BN in 2021 and is expected to grow by 20% yearly during the next six years. The market is hot, and the demand for a highly skilled DevOps engineer has gone through the roof. So, whether you are just doing your first steps in this profession or already a seasoned and successful DevOps engineer – you shall keep your resume updated at all times and be ready for the next great opportunity.
Fig. 1. The demand for DevOps engineers continues to grow
General Advice
There are unnumbered hiring-advice articles on the Internet, so we will not cover general topics on which platform to apply or how to crack an interview. We encourage you to develop resume-building and interview-cracking skills like any other skill that may help you land your dream job. Instead of going through general recommendations, we will focus on what is relevant for preparing an impressive DevOps resume that will stand out. We hope these tips might help you get your dream DevOps role.
Audience
It is a well-known and studied fact that, on average, a recruiter spends no more than 30 seconds skimming through a CV and makes the first yes/no decision. A poorly prepared DevOps engineer resume, even of a strong candidate, can be filtered out after a first glance, and the chance is lost immediately. So, it is crucial to understand who will be reading your CV and structure it so that the most relevant details will be visible and could be spotted even with one quick look. Usually, your resume must pass at least two major barriers – a recruiter and a hiring manager. Of course, different organizations have hiring processes specific to them, but, generally, you shall expect that one non-technical person will perform a basic job-fit check based on how your CV matches the DevOps engineer job descriptions (JD) they’re looking for.
The first tip is – each time tailor your resume for a particular job description and highlight the most applicable parts of your experience and relevant skills.
Fig. 2. Carefully write your DevOps engineer resume
Perfect Structure & Perfect Content
There is no single correct format for an ideal resume; you can use resume-builders, templates of your preference, or a sample DevOps engineer resume to make your CV nice-looking, but make sure you place the most relevant information first and focus on what the company is looking for in the first place. For this, incorporate keywords from the posted DevOps engineer job description and try to map them to your skills, work experience, learnings or, at least, your future development plans. Job descriptions sometimes are also not well-prepared and might not contain all information; it makes sense to do your research and check the company’s website, and look at GitHub and LinkedIn profiles of employees to understand better what tech stack and way of working to expect.
The DevOps world evolves extremely fast – new tools, concepts, and approaches on software development emerge every week, and it is almost impossible to keep up with all of them. It is perfectly normal not to match JD requirements 100% and know all the technologies listed by heart – you can indicate some similar technology you have used or express willingness to learn the one your potential employer needs. When listing your skills (you better place them in the beginning or on the side of the first page and make them visible), make sure you categorize them and place the most fitting ones on the top. You can illustrate how well you are at each category or skill with stars or a progress bar.
Fig. 3. Use stars or ratings to better define your skill level
Technologies undoubtedly matter; knowing them is an integral part, but it is not enough. As we mentioned many times, DevOps is not about applying some specific software tools but rather a philosophy, way of thinking and set of principles to follow. So, do not rely on knowing tech aspects only. You shall demonstrate that you do not just know about continuous integration, configuration management, and other systems used in DevOps practices but rather that you understand, share and use in your professional life all the essential DevOps principles.
Meaningful Actions & Impact
When describing your previous roles, a rule of thumb is to place your jobs in chronological order: recent to old from top to bottom. However, you shall be concise, and it is advised to spend more lines of text for the most relevant work experience. Some well-defined frameworks dictate how to describe your achievement and responsibilities and answer related questions, such as STAR (situation-task-action-result) or PAR (problem-action-result). It is up to you what technique to use and how to structure your experience description; just make sure it is aligned with fundamental DevOps principles and contains some meaningful impact. It does not have to be a real business value with dollars and cents attached to it, especially if you are just starting your career – it can be related to some measurable metrics that make sense and can bring real monetized benefit. Explain how your actions led to the achievement of some valid use case, what technologies you used, what approaches you followed, how your impact can be measured in the number of manual actions reduced, the %% of time saved for some process, decreases in time of incident response, application deployment, etc. Mention how your company, colleagues or/and your clients have benefited from your actions. Do not exaggerate your contribution – remember that you might be asked about it, and you will have to explain it in detail, but also do not belittle it on the other hand.
Fig. 4. Your resume should tell how you can positively impact the company
For those who do not have real production-grade work experience and who just started their professional journey, it is perfectly ok to mention study practice projects and participation in DevOps Bootcamps (such asDarey.io). You still need to describe the purpose of the training project and what you have solved and achieved when completing it.
Motivation
This part must be the most intricate topic to advise on and, at the same time, something that cannot be overestimated concerning the impression these few lines will have on you. It is a very personal and individual part. Still, one thing we can recommend with a high level of confidence – you shall express strong passion and willingness to extend your expertise in the DevOps domain and commitment to its core principles. On which particular principles to put the extra emphasis on is entirely up to you.
Certifications and References
There is no consensus in the professional world on whether vendor or service provider certifications can be a valid confirmation of one’s knowledge and a proof of skills. We are not going to bring up this controversial topic here. One thing is assured, some companies take into account certifications; if you have some – it is worth mentioning them, but if you do not have – no reasons to worry. Even if it is clearly stated in the JD – an absence of a particular certification might not be the blocker, so you shall apply anyway.
In general, you do not have to provide references upfront in your resume – it is also something not carved in stone. It is just a matter of courtesy to your referees; imagine if you send out dozens of resumes, and each & every potential employer would like to call and verify your information.
Conclusion
Of course, writing an exceptional resume is just a first step, but it is also a key to the next gate in the hiring process – the interview. You better have your key properly forged – it will increase your chances of not being ghosted or silently rejected, but rather help you get into a conversation with recruiters and hiring managers. Then, in the following steps, you will have an opportunity to show yourself the best you can – this topic is worth a separate article.
If you want to know more about DevOps practices, tools and concepts – stay tuned for future updates on our blog. We’ll provide a DevOps engineer resume example that can help you write a better CV. Better yet, sign up to our Project Based Learning Platform at DAREY.IO and we’ll guide you to not only writing a great DevOps engineer resume but also landing your dream DevOps job.
written by
Dare Olufunmilayo
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