Diversify with Atlassian skills.

[Ubaid Eusuf Zai]

Hi,

tl'dr; what kind of certifications/technology platform one could learn besides Atlassian that gives one more leverage as an employee.

I am new in service management field and have no background whatsoever in IT. I love Atlassian and have done the three major Atlassian certifications (ACP120, 420, 620). The next step is to do the Confluence certification to achieve ACE level.

I am working as Atlassian consultant and it seems I need to diversify my skills to be more attractive to employers; since just having Atlassian certifications doesn't help.

Reaching out to experts who can guide me to next step without going too deep into programming.

Regards,

[Rilwan Ahmed]

Hi @Ubaid Eusuf Zai ,

Atlassian Jira, JSM and Confluence administration itself is a great skill and is in demand in the market. Along with it, you can learn Linux administration or any cloud like AWS, AZURE etc where usually these application are installed. 

Along with it, learn Groovy scripting.  Adds more weightage on your resume. 

[Ubaid Eusuf Zai]

Thanks @Rilwan Ahmed for quick reply. 

I'm inclined towards Azure: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/certifications/

What role (in above link) would you suggest I should follow if I want to go towards cloud and not too much scripting/programming.

[Rilwan Ahmed]

I would suggest to start with fundamentals and the move towards Administrator or Devops as per your interest. 

[Darryl Lee]

Hi @Ubaid Eusuf Zai - based on what you said, I would recommend learning more about low-code development.

These tools are intended to help users without an IT/Computer Science background to automate tasks in Jira and and Confluence, and even more powerfully, connect those tools to other applications like Microsoft Office, Slack, etc.

I would start by learning Jira Automation, taking a courses like this:

• Jira Automation for Admins 
• Jira Automation 

And if you're Microsoft-minded, then you should definitely also look at Power Apps, which has connectors for Atlassian and many many other tools.

Another low-code tool worth learning/experimenting with is Zapier.

[Ubaid Eusuf Zai]

Thanks so much @Darryl Lee for your input.

I have taken these courses already and know how automation works. I am practicing getting better at it.

Do you think by learning Zapier or Power Apps together will make me more valuable?

From diversify I mean som skills that I could learn beside Atlassian JSM, JSW, Confluence etc as compliment, compare to learning a totally different tech stack altogether.

Hope it makes sense.

[Darryl Lee]

Yes, if you're not interested in getting into programming or writing code, I think Power Apps and Zapier can be very valuable, and I think there is a lot of demand for skills like this.

Another similar tool that is free and fun to play with to learn more about low-code environments is IFTTT.

[Kelley Rouda]

I'm in a  similar spot. Currently working on the ACES cert, hoping to finish that off by early q4. Deciding between AWS sys-admin, k8s, and terraform next. Microsoft Azure is also a good choice - honestly, I'd look at some of the startup grants out there and try and get experience / certs covering the whole package. Atlassian admin is a big role, and particularly in a quickly scaling or just starting out org there's a LOT to the job, but it does feel like there should be some complimentary skills out there to package together with it. Plus no point in pigeon holing yourself.