A Trip Down Memory Lane

Ah, 2021. Those were the days. Back then, we were simply concerned about Kubernetes-certified pets and sysadmins who might confuse a container with actual shipping equipment. Fast forward to 2025, and the pauperization machine didn't just keep chugging along—it got upgraded with turbo boosters, a shiny AI makeover, and yes, a subscription model. We've successfully transformed sysadmin work into the IT equivalent of ordering at a drive-thru. Care for some Helm charts with that automated chaos?

In our 2021 observations, we shared some concerns. We made some predictions. Did the industry take note? Well, let's just say the industry decided to double down on the philosophy that enough buzzwords can solve any problem—kind of like putting a "Serverless" sticker on a mainframe and declaring victory.

Hiring Philosophy at Kalvad – Or How We Try Not to Hire Button-Pushers

At Kalvad, we've always taken an interesting approach to hiring, mainly because we still believe in the quaint notion of understanding your work. In 2021, we noticed the industry was producing sysadmins and DevOps engineers who seemed more like enthusiastic button-pushers than problem-solvers. Fast forward to 2025, and things have gotten... well, let's say "more interesting."

We still lean toward hiring juniors. Why? They're like fresh notebooks—unmarked by the gospel of "cloud-native" buzzword bingo. They haven't yet been initiated into the sacred order of Kubernetes or converted to the church of DevOps-as-a-Service. They're enthusiastic, motivated, and—crucially—they still remember that learning how things work is part of the job.

But here's the plot twist: finding these unicorns has become trickier than a Kubernetes networking issue. Universities continue producing graduates who view Docker as mystical and believe the cloud is just someone else's computer that operates purely on good intentions. And bootcamps? Well, that's a conversation for another day.

The Interview Process: Separating the Wheat from the Chaff

Remember our memorable interview process from 2021? The one where we'd explore candidates' understanding of Docker, Prometheus, and networking basics? We've had to evolve our approach because, surprisingly, the standards have somehow become more... flexible.

Here’s how it goes down now:

1. The CV Deep Dive: We examine the CV, and whenever we spot a buzzword—Kubernetes, Terraform, AI-driven DevOps—we ask a straightforward question: "Could you explain this to someone new to tech?" Plot twist: Many struggle with this. If you've listed "Kubernetes wizard" on your CV but can't describe what a pod does, well, you might be contributing to an interesting trend.
2. The Practical Challenge: We still present candidates with real-world scenarios. Remember Umami from 2021? We're still using it, and candidates continue finding creative new ways to approach it. This year's memorable moment: someone attempted to deploy Umami using a GitHub Helm chart complete with hardcoded secrets and no backup plan. When we asked about their choice, they said, "The AI suggested it would be fine!"
3. The Philosophy Discussion: We explore what candidates think about DevOps culture. If their response centers around "shifting left" or "AI-driven everything," we have a friendly chat and usually part ways. Real DevOps involves collaboration, understanding, and—dare we suggest—the ability to manually configure a server when needed.

The Rise of the Button-Pusher 2.0 (Now With AI!)

In 2021, we noticed sysadmins treating infrastructure like a magical vending machine: insert Helm chart, receive "production-ready" cluster. Well, hold onto your keyboards because now we have AIOps—where the buttons operate themselves! Need to troubleshoot a struggling microservice? Why bother understanding the issue when you can ask your LLM to generate 47 random YAML files and cross your fingers? Who needs expertise when you have automated confusion?

Exhibit A: The modern DevOps interview.

• 2021: “What’s a container?”
• 2025: “Can you prompt an AI to generate a Terraform script that sort of works 60% of the time?”

Exhibit B: The cloud provider’s new slogan: “Why learn BGP when you can just click ‘Enable Global Accelerator’ and hope for the best?”

We used to joke that a golden retriever wearing a Kubernetes t-shirt could land a DevOps role. Now, that golden retriever might actually be doing the DevOps work—courtesy of GitHub Copilot and a healthy Stack Overflow habit.

Certifications—Because Who Needs Skills?

Remember when certifications were... let's say, viewed with skepticism? Well, the tables have turned. The market now features "AI-Enhanced Cloud Virtuosos" who've never seen a command line but could recite cloud architecture principles in multiple languages. Need to deploy a database? There's a certification for that. Security concerns? Just enable "AI Magic Detection" and call it a day. It's like handing a toddler a complex tool and calling them a specialist.

Hot Take: If your resume includes the phrase 'Leveraged generative AI to optimize cloud spend,' you’re not a DevOps engineer—you’re a prompt engineer with delusions of grandeur.

The Death of Operational Excellence (RIP)

In 2021, we missed sysadmins who could compile kernels or debug network stacks. In 2025, we're nostalgic for sysadmins who can read error logs without having existential crises. The modern definition of "expertise" includes:

1. Deploying a Helm chart discovered on social media
2. Attributing failures to "cloud gremlins"
3. Composing blog posts about "resilience" while notification systems sound off continuously

Recent Example: A candidate shared that their disaster recovery strategy was to "delegate to AI." The AI's plan? Restart everything and maintain optimism. They didn't join our team, but they're now a "Senior Cloud Resilience Architect" somewhere.

Platform Engineering and the Buzzword Apocalypse

Let's discuss the latest terminology sensation: Platform Engineering. Don't forget its equally enthusiastic relatives: DevSecOps, DevFinOps, and DevAIOps. It's as if someone took DevOps, ran it through a buzzword generator, and declared it revolutionary.

Platform Engineering: Ah, Platform Engineering—the art of repackaging familiar infrastructure concepts with fresh branding. Suddenly, we're meant to believe that building the "perfect" platform will solve all our challenges. Reality check: if your platform resembles Kubernetes clusters held together with Helm charts and optimism, you might be more artist than engineer.

DevSecOps: Security matters, right? So much so that we've integrated it into DevOps workflows and called it DevSecOps. But instead of teaching engineers secure coding and infrastructure practices, we've decided to automate security! Because nothing says "secure" like trusting scripts to handle vulnerabilities.

The DevSecOps "experts" who think vulnerability scanning equals comprehensive security? Well, let's just say that's an interesting approach.

DevFinOps: Thought DevOps was just about code deployment? Think again! DevFinOps has arrived because apparently, we need real-time cloud cost optimization during deployments. Nothing says "efficiency" like turning your deployment pipeline into financial software.

Here's the twist: many companies embracing DevFinOps continue spending enthusiastically on over-provisioned resources because their "FinOps specialists" might not recognize cost-effective architecture if it introduced itself personally.

DevAIOps: Finally, DevAIOps—the crown jewel of buzzword creativity. Why have humans manage infrastructure when AI can handle it? Never mind that many AI tools have the reliability of a magic eight-ball. But it certainly sounds impressive in meetings.

Let's be realistic: AI is a tool, not magic. Like any tool, its effectiveness depends on the person using it. If you're using AI to generate Terraform scripts because you haven't learned to write them yourself, you might be creating interesting challenges.

Who’s to Blame? (Spoiler: Everyone)

• Cloud Providers: For transforming infrastructure into a subscription-based adventure. "Surprised by that $50K bill? Must be an AI miscalculation."
• Bootcamps: Now featuring "Master DevOps Architecture in 3 Days (AI Included)!" Day 3 is reportedly devoted to Kubernetes spelling lessons.
• Management: Who still view DevOps as a department rather than a philosophy—or as we sometimes call it, "that thing we delegate to chatbots."
• Us: For not burning it all down and moving to a farm. (Though, to be fair, the farm probably has better Wi-Fi now.)

The Future—Or Lack Thereof

At Kalvad, we're still hoping for that Linux User Group in Dubai, because apparently we enjoy interesting challenges. But realistically, the future of DevOps might be a single "Deploy" button supervised by an AI that critiques your serverless choices.

Final Observation: If you're reading this thinking, "This doesn't describe me—I use Ansible!" (or better yet, PyInfra), congratulations, you've joined an exclusive club. Welcome to the preservation society.

Ready to be part of positive change?

Want to make a difference? Let’s move beyond the buzzwords and focus on what really matters. Understanding your systems can be incredibly rewarding. And remember, we're not against using AI to help with tasks—it's a fantastic assistant when you know what you're doing. Ever considered picking up a book or two instead of rushing through another online bootcamp? It might just be the refreshing change you need!

If you have a problem and no one else can help, maybe you should’ve hired Kalvad in 2021.