[paulbjensen]

This article pretty much resonates with my experience, except that my employer (a 4 person established company) can't afford to hire a QA and sysadmin alongside my role as developer.

The bad side is that doing this DevOps role across multiple projects at the same time can lead to burnout, and I think I came close to that in the last few months.

The good side is that I've learnt a great deal about how to architect and deploy distributed web systems, how to do end-to-end testing, and how to effectively run the ops side of the business.

It's a mixed bag, and the burnout is the worst aspect of it, as well as the case where people are forced into situations where they are way in over their head.

[caoilte]

Nothing wrong with burnout. You'll go get yourself a better job once you wake up from it. Established mom/pop shops are the best way to break into an industry but a terrible dead end for your career.