How IT professionals work. Andrey Domas - the leading system administrator in the social network "Odnoklassniki"

On November 7 and 8, the HighLoad ++ 2016 conference was held in Skolkovo. More than 200 experts made presentations on high-load services, problems of working with them, administration, and much more.

At the site, we were able to communicate with different experts. Most of them write code, or they wrote it in the past. They told us about their mode of work and rest, their professional habits, the tools they use, and much more.
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We interviewed everyone in a blitz survey format. It will be interesting to find out what unites these IT professionals and what they are similar to. Perhaps their answers will help to identify some general patterns, useful tips that will help many of us.

Our guest today is Andrei Domas. Lead system administrator in the Odnoklassniki social network

What do you do in the company?

I am engaged in production - everything except iron and the monitoring process. We have several groups of system administrators in the company. I am the leader of a group of Moscow system administrators.

One word (phrase) that best describes how you work.

Pain - Debag - Changes.

How many hours a day do you spend on work?

The work is not normalized. 8 hours never happens.

How many hours do you sleep?

Approximately 6 hours. Rarely more.

How do you have breakfast?

Little yogurt. And sometimes I do not have breakfast at all.

What are you doing on the way to / from work? A lot of time goes on the road?

Listening to radio or audiobooks. I go by car. Approximately 2 hours one way. Sometimes a little less.

What kind of manager do you personally use?

None Only the head.

What kind of task manager do you use / issue tracker / repository?

Like most - JIRA. Repository - Git.

What is your working environment? Framework, other third-party products?

Admins write to us in Python. Someone for this uses IDE PyCharm, someone - Vim. In general, we have no restrictions on the use of tools. Who wants what, then uses.

Are there any internal projects in the company and why were they created?

Yes there is. If we talk about the department of system administrators, we are pretty flexible. Each of us is engaged in the direction in which he wants to develop. Sometimes interests change. In this regard, administrators have different competencies: someone has projects in the field of deployment, someone has it in Hadoop, others have Linux tuning for high loads.

What annoys you most when you work?

When I think for a long time that everything is going according to plan, and then it turns out to be wrong. The world is crumbling around. But this, fortunately, happens rather rarely.

What professional literature would you recommend?

Is that reading the documentation. I myself practically do not read professional literature.

What do you prefer: electronic reading rooms or paper books?

I would like paper books, but they are heavy, and I don’t have time for them.

What equipment and platforms do you prefer?

Computer - Linux. Phone on Android OS.

Which life hack allows you to be more efficient?

I once had a problem, but she decided over time by herself: without any training, I began to remember more, think and spin more quickly. I do not know how it happened to me. Probably, the load grew, and I eventually adapted to it.

Do you listen to music when you work?

Yes.

Right in the process of writing code? Does it help?

Yes Yes.

What applications and services can you do without in your work or in your personal life?

I would find a substitute for anything. Perhaps it would be more boring to live. There is nothing critical.

What professional advice from the past could you give yourself?

I always advise you to be yourself and do what you do.

What would you recommend to a person trying to go the same way?

Guys, be bold, ambitious, do not be afraid. If you see some kind of authority, do not think that he is smarter than you. Do not be afraid to "kick his ass" and show that you, too, do not miss.