how do you become top 0.1% in devops that gets paid 200k+? (US market)
For context, I've been doing DevOps for about 4 years. Every time I join a new company, they're running a completely different stack, different cloud, different CI/CD, different infra tooling. And every time, it feels like starting from the beginning.
Talked to some coworkers and they feel the same way, like they never know "enough."
For example with developers, it feels more clear, you can go deep on a single framework or language and build a reputation around that. Does that kind of specialization exist in devops?
Is it depth in one area (Kubernetes internals, networking, security)? Is it breadth? Or is it something else entirely, like systems thinking and being the person who designs the architecture everyone else builds on?
Would love to hear from people who've worked with or consider themselves top-tier earners in this field.