DevOps Engineer - 02/03/2022

Projects

I worked mainly on two projects. In the first one, I developed an application for deploying pipelines in AWS (using codePipeline), in Azure DevOps and in GCP in a centralized way. In addition, I was able to work with a multidisciplinary team and start learning about agile methodologies. In the second project, I worked for the ministries of the Netherlands, especially for the ministry of foreign affairs. Although it was a challenging experience, I was able to work with skilled professionals on an international project using Kubernetes in a highly available product environment. To dig deeper, my work on this project consisted of maintaining the infrastructure deployed on the highly available Kubernetes cluster, deploying development pipelines with Gitlab CI and Jenkins, and helping to develop documentation following the C4 model (https://medium.com/news-uk-technology/c4-model-a-better-way-to-visualise-software-architecture-df41e5ac57b8). In addition, I had to deploy and manage the EFK (ElasticSearch, FluentBit, Kibana) for log monitoring.

Technologies used

During the course of my duties, I made use of many technologies at Capgemini. The most outstanding ones are: Kubernetes, Helm, Docker, Rancher, Gitlab CI, Jenkins, the EFK Stack, Bash, Terraform, AWS, GCP and Azure DevOps.

Personal opinion

In my personal opinion, this period of my life was enriching, but exhausting at the same time. It was the first time I worked as a DevOps Engineer, and after the first interviews, they saw that I already had enough knowledge to work and they omitted the proper Onboarding.

With hardly any introduction, I had to work with the whole team. Being given a lot of tasks from day one (and on top of that starting in a position of responsibility) was a great challenge, I must admit.

Fortunately, I had wonderful colleagues by my side in every project who advised me in every possible way, and I was given the opportunity to train extensively with tools widely used in the industry.

Rating: 4/10. If I had to recommend someone to work for this company, unfortunately, I would not. The working conditions are deplorable, meaning the hours are grueling and the pay is miserable no matter where you live in Spain.

Why I no longer work there

Well, there are several reasons:

The first is that while I like being able to manage teams, infrastructure and the devops methodology, performing a large number of tasks per sprint at the same time was exhausting. I had to take care of helping the development staff, while maintaining the kubernetes cluster that contained the infrastructure of the ministries in the Netherlands. It was too much responsibility for the minimum wage.

While the second one…

One day, while having coffee with some friends, it was suggested to me to look for a job where I could enjoy my duties. To put it simply, I was looking for a job that would fulfill me as a person and allow me to develop as a professional.

That’s when I was recommended to send my CV to the startup Bemyvega. When I finally had the meeting with the CEO of the company, I knew I wanted to work with him. It was a huge opportunity! That day I decided to leave my time at Capgemini behind.