The telecom industry is changing rapidly.

Ok, maybe not that rapid as telecom is often years behind other IT disciplines, but it’s safe to say that it’s starting to catch up. Because of this, the skills required by voice engineers are also experiencing a change.

I’ve mentioned the need to know a programming language a few times over the past three years, but that’s’ not enough. You need to also understand concepts such as Infrastructure as Code, DevOps, and Scrum/ Kanban. Trust me, these are all slowly sneaking in your world.

The books in the following paragraphs are a great starting point to learn these concepts.

Automate The Boring Stuff With Python

You really can’t go wrong with a book from No Starch Press. I’m a big fan of the style that all of their books follow, and “Automate the Boring Stuff” is a great book to start digging into Python. It goes far beyond the boring “Hello World” scripts and has you start searching for files, and slicing up excel files.

You can find the second edition of this book on Amazon for about $36. Click here to check it out.

Network Programmability and Automation

This book covers a lot of material. I ended up reading it cover to cover during my flight from Minneapolis to Amsterdam when I moved. This goes into programming but also talks about tools such as git, Salt Stack, and NetMiko. If you happen to manage a lot of systems, you really can’t go wrong with this book.

You can find this on Amazon for usually $25ish.

Infrastructure as Code: Managing Servers in The Cloud

While it’s less likely to see a large amount of telephony application servers sitting in the public cloud, this is a book that you should still read. As the title says, it covers Infra as code, which is something that every engineer needs to understand in 2020.

The DevOps Handbook: How to Create World-Class Agility, Reliability, and Security in Technology Organizations

This book doesn’t dig far into the hard/technical skills related to your job. It focuses on concepts such as the organizational culture processes and the tools that are needed to build a successful DevOps organization.

Check this book out on Amazon for about $30.

Kanban: Successful Evolutionary Change For Your Technology Business

While I am a Scrum Master for my department it doesn’t change the fact that I find Kanban a better methodology. Specifically for those working in an operationally focused department.

This book is written by the individual that really introduced the concepts of Kanban to the IT world. It’s a few years old, but still one of the best (if not THE best) book about the topic.

Find it on Amazon for roughly $40.