What A Site Reliability Manager At Google Wishes They Had Known Before Entering The Tech Industry
David, a Site Reliability Manager at Google, advises aspiring professionals that while coding is essential, "the actual value is making impact and organizing the effort to build products," not the coding itself; experienced professionals prioritize impactful work over coding.
Coding, Project Management, Leadership, Impact, Organization
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
David Fayram
Site Reliability Manager
University of California, Santa Barbara
None
Computer Science
Energy & Utilities, Technology, Advertising, Communications & Marketing
Cyber Security and IT
Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School, LGBTQ
Video Highlights
1. Coding is a valuable but not the most crucial skill in Site Reliability Management (SRM). Impact and organization are more important as experience grows.
2. Experienced professionals in SRM often spend less time coding than expected, focusing more on impactful work and team organization.
3. The most interesting aspect of SRM is often beyond the code itself; it involves making an impact and organizing efforts to build reliable systems.
Transcript
Q9: Wish I'd known before about the industry.
What have you learned about this role that you wish someone would have told you before you entered the industry? Coding is an essential skill for this industry, but it's not actually the most important thing.
The more experienced you are, you'll consistently find that people you look up to don't get to code as much. This is because the actual value is in making an impact and organizing the effort to build products, software, systems, or infrastructure.
Often, the code itself is the least interesting part of that process.