Infrastructure As Code

Getting feedback from a manager is different than having a mentor, even though some of us are lucky enough to have had managers who acted as both.

The managers who mentored me went beyond evaluating my performance. They helped me put words to the unknown unknowns and guided me towards solving my own problems rather than handing me answers.

I remember pivoting from senior software engineer into the DevOps world. I love the concept of collaborative culture, knocking down silos, and putting an end to the "tossing code over the wall" practice between dev and ops teams. But I didn't really understand the concerns that operations felt day-to-day. I didn't even have the words.

Back then, I knew about configuration management. But through a mentor, I learned about a newer term in the DevOps world at the time called Infrastructure as Code.

That might sound small, but it changed a lot. It allowed me to have meaningful conversations with ops folks where we could both speak the same language in code. I went from an outsider with good intentions to someone who could collaborate as a peer.

Good mentorship gives you the language to unlock doors you didn't know were there.

#MentorMonday #DevOps #CareerGrowth #SoftwareEngineering #Leadership