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Thats exactly what I was about to ask. I just got off from phone with an old colleague. We were talking about the same point. This may be a career advice suggestion, but still, is it worth to be as a Citrix engineer? Do we have a future as Citrix engineer going forward? There is lot of hype on the market for DevOps. If we have to move to DevOps which path should we go to? I mean, we got Terraform, Jenkins, Ansible, Packer, Vagrant, Git, what not.. I understand some are CI and some are CD. But for a Citrix engineer background, which one suits us more? I remember, I used to read @Jarian Gibson and brian madden's articles and @Webster Webster scripts.. Looks like most of them already moved (not everyone) to cloud or DevOps etc.. Another point, lets say if we fix for DevOps career with Terraform and Jenkins (just example). We don't get jobs on this particular role right away. Should we look for an opportunity in the same company and then move to another one after few years? Any suggestions on the career path?

I am going down the path of modern management. I do like automation and scripting and it is important as a Citrix admin/engineer. However IMO modern management has more in common with a classic Citrix admin than a DevOp. There is both Windows and application management with modern management the same goes for scripting and OS and application customization. For me the learning curve is too steep going the DevOps route.

I have made this exact jump. Found love in automating EUC environments and transitioned fully probably about 2 years or so ago. I had the benefit of staying in the same company and able to change teams (EUC --> Automation\Cloud Mgmt). I find the path semi unique since a lot of my colleagues have Linux backgrounds while I come from Windows (get some interesting reactions when I suggest PowerShell :)). But the technologies learned in EUC such as DNS, LB, AD, DB etc is extremely valuable to a lot of the work I do now. Happy to answer anything I can.

@Chai wow seeing Brian Madden's name sparked nostalgia during my starting years in MetaFrame (only PS4, sorry I haven't experienced XP...). I am subscribed to a weekly google alert of "Citrix jobs" and I usually get 7-10 listings mostly Level 1-2, and maybe once a month (or 2) I would see an L3-4 which I believe is my current level. Comparing that to "Cloud" or "DevOps" jobs where the listings are consistently around 3x more. I don't know if that's just the case in my area (hint: Southeast Asia) but the difference in job opportunities is not exactly my main motivation of moving on from Citrix so it doesn't bother me that much. Sometimes I think that having Citrix specialization is good because it's kind of a niche technology compared to other IT or even EUC solutions. From what I've read so far lateral move seems to be the best option, but in my current company for example they only wanted to hire engineers with at least 2 years experience in Cloud (hard requirement of a higher up from what I heard), and that also seems to be the minimum requirement for most Cloud/DevOps job openings outside unless you are ok with a major pay cut. I hope I can say that I don't mind the pay cut but it's simply untrue.

I am still on a learning curve with modern management. With my current skills I just think the DevOps/Cloud learning curve is steeper, also I have found that I care more about the user experience than automation/scripting/DevOps. So modern management was kind of a no brainer for me

@Ryan Butler Thank you and (late) congratulations on the jump! Did you have solid programming/software engineering skills before jumping in? How were you able to choose a DevOps route, or was that what your current team is already using?

Scripting proficiency for sure. Software development fairly low. So I'm in consulting so devops means different things to different people. Most of the time the crux of the project is "I need to automate X"

@Kasper Johansen Unfortunately for me user experience is one of my least favorite things, though I do love it when everyone is happy/quiet but the constant struggle between user experience, tech limitations, costs/budget etc. is oftentimes not fun. I do know that wherever I go in IT chaos will always be there, but I might as well be doing something I enjoy more.

Thats very valuable feedback @Ryan Butler. For engineers like us, who are already working on some technology, when we try to change company with a new tech like any devops tools etc, they consider as fresher. In the currrent company, move to a different project on devops or other technology, grab some experience and then switch to a fulltime devops engineer role outside the company. Other good point you've raised is, adding devops tools to citrix/EUC stuff so that we keep the show running in citrix and we can also say that we have experience on that particular tool.

@Ryan Butler Oh so is it more like automating IT, as in Infrastructure as Code? If yes, I'm always thinking "how would I be able to automate something that I didn't have experience doing manually"? Have you already encountered that challenge?

I've learned Git and jenkins in the same way. I store all my citrix scripts in Git. I automate scripts with Jenkins, so that I get knowledge on both. Again, it may not be huge but I have basic idea on them.

all the time. This is where understanding concepts vs technology becomes critical. Many things operate in similar fashion.

@Ryan Butler so Citrix engineers already have the advantage since we have always been in the middle and have to learn a little bit of everything, right?

Totally

@Ryan Butler do you still get to work on anything Citrix-related?

very little. Some random automation projects with ADC/Netscaler but that's about it. Haven't installed a DDC for quite awhile 🙂

Keep your skills broad and you will be employable anywhere. Most companies will screw up DevOps. We are already starting to see that in the marketplace. It's a cycle with new technologies and technical practices. Learn what you can from it and find out how to apply it to whatever path you choose.