Esther Yébenes

Meet Esther, Site Reliability Engineer (SRE) at Tappx, a curious tech mind who got into the programmatic world by pure chance, and never looked back. Whether she’s testing new tools, building proof of concepts, or making the Infra rollercoaster run smoothly, Esther brings a love for systems, clever automation, and a healthy dose of humor to everything she does. Just don’t take away her terminal or browser tabs… she needs them.

Question: How did you get into the programmatic industry?

Answer: I’d say by accident; I worked at a consultancy firm, and I was recruited for Tappx, and that’s how I started to learn about the industry, which was totally different from any other industry I had been working in.

Q: What is the best part of being an SRE / DevOps?

A: Getting to play with new technologies is really fun: trying to find use cases for new tools, building proofs of concept, and checking what a new tool can achieve. And, at least in my case, that moment when everything fits, and you can even hear the different pieces adjusting. Chills!

Q: Could you list some tips for becoming a good SRE / DevOps? What are the essential skills needed in your job?

A: The most important skills are being a person who enjoys dealing with operative systems and applications, and being curious and lazy; why lazy? Because you’ll make sure to do your best to automate processes and make your environment more stable, so you are not so busy. Oh, almost forgot: and able to sleep at night when you are on call!!

Q: How do you organize your day? What tools do you use, and which are your favorite?

A: I try to organize my day at the end of the previous day, taking a couple of minutes to write down what I have done and what’s left for the next day; if the next day I can focus on it, perfect, but if I can’t, I will still know where I left off next time I am able to continue. To keep track of that, I use Notion. Besides that, since we are also an incidental department, you can’t schedule your day as other departments do… working in Infra is like a 24/7 roller coaster!

Q: What is the app you use the most in your daily life?

A: Definitely the browser! I have a ton of open tabs and increasing! And besides the browser, the command line. Those two tools account for around 85% of my work time.

Q: What is the first thing you do when you disconnect from work?

A: Stand up, stretch up, and pet my cat and my dog if I’m home.

Q: What would you do if you won the lottery?

A: You gotta win lots of money for being able to retire, so I’d probably continue working as I do now, and definitely improve some aspects of my life, like travelling. But very likely things won’t change a lot.

Q: Tell us a fun fact about yourself