GIVING BIRTH TO NEW OPPORTUNITIES

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Employee highlights shares the story of how their personal experience and professional journeys go hand in hand at Pixellot.

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I joined Pixellot in 2017. Just four and a half months later, I discovered I was pregnant. I was in a dilemma. Should I share this news already with my new employer, or should I wait? I decided that openness was the best policy and to my relief, Pixellot is the kind of workplace that appreciates that there is life outside of the office (or in this case – inside my belly).  

In February 2018 I took a short maternity leave, and then quickly returned to my QA position, after assuring that my baby would be well taken care of in my absence. I was quickly promoted and exciting new tasks were added to my plate, as I was added to the cloud team and started developing QA methodology for our cloud operations. 

Delivering results 

One year later, in February 2019, it happened again. I was pregnant! Naturally, instead of taking it a little easier, I added to my workload by privately taking a course in DevOps, which always interested me. (More about DevOps in a minute). 

In July, I told my boss that I was taking this course in DevOps and explained how beneficial the process was for companies who are engaged in development and how I hoped to get involved in this direction professionally. In September, I successfully completed the course… 

Growing up quickly  

…And barely a month later, I was back in the delivery room with baby boy #2! After a short-but-sweet four-month maternity leave, in February 2020, I was back at work – surprise-surprise – straight into my hoped-for DevOps position! (Thank you Pixellot!). 

March 2020. Covid-19 hits the planet. A lot of questions. Much more work from home. Many new challenges… Fast forward a year and a half… September 2021. I am appointed head of Pixellot’s DevOps team. A lot of responsibility. But also, a lot of satisfaction. 

The attraction of DevOps 

I got to DevOps by chance. I attended a MeetUp on the subject of Terraform and asked a lot of questions and got a chance to talk with many people, one of whom really sold me on the importance of DevOps which aims to shorten system development by combining software development and IT operations. 

Here’s a story to illustrate how it works; 

When I was in QA, one of the things that CLOUD got stuck on was the need for a lot of Pixelot machines (computers + cameras) to test different kinds of scenarios for different sports, etc. We would have needed about 60-90 systems! With DevOps, we used Docker which accelerates development workflows by simplifying the complexity of app development, and were able to run all the tests using a single computer! In my role as a QA engineer, I did not have the knowledge and understanding to do it more efficiently.  

Not a cry baby 

Because of the Corona regulations, many people were out and I had to do a lot of work alone – research, forums, consulting with people, etc., but the challenges were accompanied by a lot of satisfaction.  

I’m really glad I made the move to DevOps. In this role, I solve problems (while creating new ones!) and make sure that the product is always in its most ideal state.  

I have to cite that the support I get from my colleagues which is amazing. It makes all the difference in the world knowing that you are valued and have support if you need it, especially in times that are sensitive on a personal and professional level. 

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Rotem Birman is a DevOps Team Leader at Pixellot, the global leader for AI automated sports video & analytics.

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