DevOps is a relatively new paradigm introduced in 2008 that aimed to break down the barrier between developers and ops engineers. However, the role as a DevOps has evolved drastically as the area matures. Presently, DevOps emphasizes the importance of being a jack-of-all-trades, while considering development, operations and business stakeholders. As a computer science or engineering student you may learn the theoretical aspects of computing and algorithm design that lends itself nicely towards a career in software engineering. However there is a gap left in education about operations, that is, networking, highly available and distributed systems, database design and administration. It is a daunting task to teach a student these wide breadth of skills. We would like to provide some insight from the students perspective as to how to make the transition enjoyable for both parties. In this talk we will address the challenges of on-boarding, training, mentoring, managing and promoting DevOps to students in general. We will further discuss the types of skills that will help students to bridge the gap from classroom to their first job.

1. How to Onboard Entry
Level Talent to a
DevOps Culture
Angel Tian @TheAngelTian
Sophia Castellarin @sophcastellarin

2. Who Are We && Why Are We Here

3. Entry level talent
We are
➔ ELT with internship experiences
➔ New grads that are freshly out of
school

4. Sample audience
➔ Survey results @ https://1drv.ms/f/s!Ammivs745z_ac_Y91FM9r2l0lBk
➔ Surveyed approx. 80 students in Computer Science and Engineering from
SFU, UWaterloo, UofT, UBC and McMaster
➔ 94.7% had internship experience

5. What do they know about DevOps
➔ 79% have heard of DevOps
◆ From friends, co workers, employer info sessions
➔ Some people had a good understanding of what DevOps is and others:
◆ “Setting up servers”
◆ “Very fancy term for sysadmin”
◆ “I cannot”
◆ “Infra stuff”

6. What we know exists…. But how ?
➔ Tools
➔ Linux
➔ New & Cool things
➔ Practical networking
➔ Infrastructure
➔ Communications

7. Bridging the Gap

8. Before starting a project
Set up for success
➔ Tour of the office && meet other people
➔ Tutorials && blog posts
➔ Team wiki/ documentation
➔ Buddy up
➔ QA & Debugging tasks

9. Set clear expectations
➔ What is the ELT's technical, interpersonal,
financial goals?
➔ What does the company want from the
ELT?
➔ How will progress be tracked?
➔ What happens if the ELT or employer do
not meet expectations?

10. During training and project work
➔ Invest time
➔ Embrace failure
➔ Celebrate victories

11. Mentorship
➔ Opportunity for both parties to grow
➔ Impressionable
➔ 1:1
➔ Pair programming
➔ Healthy dosage of boring mundane tasks and challenging/exciting work
➔ Value time

12. What students want
➔ DevOps internships
➔ Mentorship
➔ Courses at school
➔ Tech talks/meetups/hackathons
◆ HackerNest, MLH

13. THE END
BTW we are for hire ❤