10 Things I Wish I Knew Before Becoming an SRE (2025)

Stepping into the world of Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) is exciting, but like many others, I wish someone had handed me a roadmap before I began. SRE is more than just DevOps on steroids—it’s a mindset, a culture, and a critical business function. If you're planning to become an SRE or are early in your journey, this SRE career guide is exactly what you need. Here are 10 things I wish I knew before becoming an SRE in 2025 — insights that could save you time, energy, and frustration. 1. it’s Not Just About Uptime Many people think SREs just sit around watching dashboards. In reality, you're expected to build, automate, and manage systems to ensure reliability at scale . It's not just firefighting — it's proactive engineering. You’ll need a deep understanding of software development , infrastructure, and business impact. Visualpath’s SRE online training emphasizes this balance with real-time projects and hands-on learning . 2. SLOs an...