During the last year or so, we've interviewed approximately 30 people for a number of roles related to devops, and couldn't find even one to stand up to our requirements. We've also heard of many (many) bad questions and wrong decisions made by interviewers, that prevented them from getting the right person for the job. In this session we’ll discuss the common misconceptions about devops hiring, touch on why it’s so hard to get the right people, and why interviewers should stop looking for "DevOps" and start looking for "Good, Technical People”.

1. Devops Hiring
(But Also Some Generally Applicable Advice)
Uri Cohen
Head of Product @ GigaSpaces
@uri1803

2. What's Wrong With This?

3. Or This?

5. 5th Anniversary of Devopsdays

6. Let's Talk Problems

7. Problem #1:
"We can't find talent"

8. "There's no talent shortage!"
Andrew Clay Shafer

9. Do We Know What to Look for?

10. "5-7 years of devops experience"???
"Practical experience with most if not all AWS
components"???
"Hands on experience with monitoring tools,
intrusions detections mechanisms…"
And it goes on...
What's Wrong Here?

11. You're Looking for a Super Hero

12. "Operations Engineer" is
a new profession

13. "Operations Engineer"
is a new profession
Design
Maintain
Analyze
Monitor
Build
Automate
complex, large scale, highly
available production
environment

14. Of course you'd rather find and pay
someone who knows everything than
5 who know something.

15. But can anyone be a real expert in all
of these in just 3-4 years???

16. (You convince yourself that)
You want the Best and Willing
to Wait for It

17. "I'm looking for candidates with a
degree from a major university"
Is there an institute in which you can
learn how to monitor a system?

18. I want someone with at least x years
of experience in…
4 is better than 2?
Can't someone be really bad with 5
years or experience?

19. What's the Right Answer to These
Interview Questions?
● "How do you configure a GRE Tunnel in
Junos"?
● "Which port does Kerberos require"?
● "How do you move a zone file between DNS
servers"?
● "How do you configure an F5 load balancer
to route traffic to the least busy server"?
● etc etc etc

20. "Give me a laptop and I'll
tell you!"
You'd do it yourself…
And you want them to do it too!

21. Now It's Not All Your Fault...
Some of it has to do with job seekers, too

22. What's Wrong with This CV?
(assuming there's someone who can actually
learn all of this in less than 4 years)

23. Does It Indicate If the Candidate
Can:
● Apply the right tool to a problem?
● Learn a new tool when it's needed?
● Solve a problem, any problem?
● Identify there actually IS a problem?

27. Look For:
● Passion and willingness to learn
● Problem solving mentality
● Self motivated individuals
● People that are fun to work with
Tools and experience are important, but are not
the only, and certainly not the most important
factor

28. Problem #2:
"We can't
grow and retain
talent"

29. This Is Michael Ducy
and besides being one of the smartest
people I know, he says your engineers are
kinda like goats

31. Goats Are Intelligent

32. Goats Are Multi Purpose

33. Goats Are Multi Purpose

34. Goats Are Multi Purpose

35. Goats Are Multi Purpose

36. Goats Are Multi Purpose

37. Goats Are Multi Purpose

38. Improving Goat Production

39. Improving Goat Production
● Foraging Crops
● Frequent Continuous access to water
● Improved Housing
● Buck Exchange/Rotation

40. Recap
● Plant the seeds to allow your goats to graze
● Give access to the water goats need
● Improve their housing to make happier goats
● Rotate your goats to keep them fresh

41. Big Thanks!

42. References
● There is no talent shortage - Andrew Clay-Shafer - http://goo.gl/B7EhHz
● A Culture of Innovation - Patty Mccord - http://goo.gl/PVDdb7
● DevOps Hiring - Dave Zweiback - http://goo.gl/bU9h8C
● The Puzzle of motivation - Dan Pink - http://goo.gl/bBgQBi
● Stop Hiring DevOps Experts (and start growing them) - Jez Humble - http://goo.
gl/JG8ykx
● Fast Delivery - Adrian Cockcroft - http://goo.gl/AHQTGd
● Engineering Your culture - Oren Ellenbogen - http://goo.gl/7UO9Kd
● Netflix Culture - http://goo.gl/iAfn
● Rich Jones - How to hire DevOps - http://goo.gl/qUc289
● Tim Lockwood - How to hire a DevOps Engineer - http://goo.gl/nMjhVm
● Volker Will - Do not hire a DevOps Engineer - http://goo.gl/Zpz6jx
● Improving goat production - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frTJynGPeeU