Where next - Dev or Ops?

Question

Career in IT

Good afternoon! Need advice on choosing further development in IT.
I am 32 and I work as an administrator in a regional telecom. I want to develop, and the current salary does not suit me. Now I am faced with a choice:
1) move towards an infrastructure engineer in development (the same DevOps) - study Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Cilium, etc.
2) forget about your admin background and learn to become a Java/Python programmer in a year.
Technologies that I currently use: Linux / FreeBSD (Zabbix, DNS, Postfix, Ansible are running on them), Networking (TCP / IP, MPLS, OSPF, BGP and other routing), I wrote several scripts for myself in Python.
Engineering attracts me because it is still closer to the administration, I studied the same Ansible with pleasure and use it, but it is not clear how much it is actually needed on the market. There is a feeling that a normal developer can set up CI / CD for himself even without OPS. Plus, it seems that more and more platforms are moving to virtualization / outsourcing (PaaS, SaaS, managed Kuber, etc.) Am I wrong?
At the same time, programming seems to be more promising - there is more work, and the market is clearly expanding, but this is completely starting from scratch.
I'm gathering information to make a decision. If anyone can give me some advice and share their experience, I'd be happy to.

Answer 1

There is a feeling that a normal developer can set up CI / CD for himself even without OPS.

can of course. only:
- there are much more abnormal virgins than normal ones
- a normal virgin already has more tasks than time

it seems that more and more platforms are moving to virtualization / outsourcing (PaaS, SaaS, managed Kuber, etc.)

and there is. only this does not in any way negate the need to have a person (s) capable of steering it.
oops isn't going anywhere. except in small charades, for the sake of economy, they will shift it to the virgins.

Answer 2

Yes, everything goes in the direction of Kuber and Qi
Cai Ansible is less than
Kuber more

Answer 3

If there is an opportunity to go to the developers - go to the developers.
mid developers are much more in demand than mid devops.
The concept of junior devops is not very clear at all, and although junior dev is highly competitive, there are many positions.
If you want to go into ops, then immediately expect that you need to decently understand and look for larger projects, because medium and small skills are often needed in small projects, where an individual person is rarely assigned to this business.