Documentation
I've been consistently called the "King of Documentation" by my coworkers. I shadow your technicians and engineers then create how‑to documentation that anyone can follow with the right access.
Examples:
Welcome to DevPops Inc — The Official Site of Vic Phan
I'm a DevOps Lead 🦂 in Fullerton, CA 🍊 unlocking freedom, peace and health through faith, fitness and engineering.
Troubleshooting
I enjoy collaborating with your technical teams to solve problems that improve your business. I perform root‑cause analyses and create resolution plans so issues can be resolved much faster if they return in the future.
Automation
I write code to automate time‑consuming processes and resolve technical issues to improve the efficiency of your organization.
Examples:
Training
I have experience training technical teams across different industries in modern DevOps practices and am available to work with your teams.
Speaking
I have 14 years' experience teaching higher education (Fullerton College 2007-2016 and California State University, Fullerton 2014-2021) and am available for speaking engagements on modern DevOps practices.
Contact
The best way to reach me is via LinkedIn. I’m available for documentation, troubleshooting and automation engagements.
Blog
My Journey from Filmmaker to DevOps Engineer
Life Before DevOps
People I meet at tech events marvel whenever they learn of my unique and unlikely path into DevOps. I don’t have an education in computer science, or any other STEM degree, since I was a professional filmmaker for 15 years before embarking on my journey to become a full-time DevOps Engineer.
I knew I wanted to make an impact on the world as a kid growing up. My first career aspiration was to become a comic book artist since comic books had the biggest impact on me growing up. They taught me character, the importance of living for something bigger than yourself, and the imperfections of navigating gray areas. I realized comic books didn’t have the same impact on others as much as movies did during my teen years. That began my journey to become a filmmaker.
My late father’s best friend just so happened to be a filmmaker in the Vietnamese community, so he hired me to work on set in the summer after graduating high school and got my foot in the door. My mother was an electrical engineer and wanted a safer path for me than the one I was setting out on. I took a computer class in my first semester at Fullerton College to keep that door open, but I solely committed to becoming a filmmaker after bombing the database portion horrendously.
The first 10 years of working on films was a lot of fun because it wasn’t my only source of income. I was a full-time Information Systems Coordinator in the avionics industry and taught two screenwriting classes at Fullerton College after finishing my undergraduate degree, so the film gigs were my side hustle. Things didn’t go sideways until I was laid off from my I.T. job in 2010, which made filmmaking and teaching become my main sources of income. That’s when life unraveled.
Things went from bad to worse as my health declined during the last 5 years of my filmmaking career. I woke up in the emergency room at my lowest moment and knew that I needed to make a change, or this would be the end of my story. That’s when I remembered my late mother’s wish of a better path for me. I started applying to I.T. roles while I was contracting at Riot Games and was hired as a Junior Network Engineer at a Managed Services Provider called CLEAR in Anaheim, CA. I was back in the game, fell in love with technology, and utilized it as a platform to impact the lives of others.
Transition to DevOps
I was working as the I.T. Coordinator at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church and Schools in Orange, CA when I was presented with a life dream of working with the major sports leagues. I accepted the role of Systems Administrator at Deltatre, a software company in Playa Vista, CA that builds apps and streaming platforms for the NFL and MLB, among other leagues. I poured my heart and soul into the role since sports was a huge passion of mine.
The Senior Vice President of Technology sat me down and said I.T. was too easy for me and she could see me fitting perfectly into DevOps. I didn’t know what DevOps was at the time, so I Googled it and was amazed that it combined software development and I.T. operations. I told her I was interested and started attending the software meetings where I volunteered to be the notetaker, so I would have a written record of every concept that I didn’t know. I studied each concept late into the night, woke up, went to work, and kept learning while performing my I.T. duties. The company then hired a Director of DevOps who took me under his wing and assigned me DevOps tasks that would gradually grow my skills.
I was working as the Information Systems Manager at Mater Dei High School in Santa Ana, CA years later when I landed my first official full-time DevOps role at L3Harris Technologies, a defense company in Anaheim, CA. Life rapidly ascended from there and I landed at CCC Intelligent Solutions, an auto-insurance software company based out of Chicago, when they went public on the New York Stock Exchange.
The DevOps Life
I started at The Parent Company in Silicon Valley, a cannabis company where the superstar Jay-Z was the Chief Visionary Officer, on my 40th birthday. My DevOps skills reached new heights there since that’s where I met the best engineer I’ve ever seen, who still mentors my growth to this very day.
I formed my own company called DevPops Inc. in Fullerton, CA when I decided it was time to venture on my own. Today, I consult for Scorpion Computer Services — the real-life genius-for-hire company that inspired a CBS show. I’m grateful every day for DevOps, and for the kind souls who believed in me, for a life I never thought possible for a former filmmaker. My hope now is to pay it forward by loving technology and using it to impact the lives of others.