I am aware that all the DevOps definitions are fairly vague, and this question is subjective, but it’s still something I couldn’t find an answer to.
Is there any difference, prestige-wise, between DevOps and Software Engineers? Is the experience interchangeable? Are N years of DevOps experience interchangeable for N years of software engineering experience?
Or do I even view the question in the wrong light?
I don’t DevOps and Software Engineers can be directly compared.
Software Engineer is job title, and doesn’t tell you very much about the type of projects you’ll be working on.
DevOps is a type of project, and doesn’t really say much about what position someone works in.
It’s very possible to be a Software Engineer working on DevOps projects, or if you work for a company that creates DevOps tools, you could work “in DevOps” as a market annalist.
As you rightly said DevOps is vague term, therefore it depends on the “implementation”. In companies that drive DevOps as a culture, the Software Engineer becomes a DevOp. Other companies/organisation have special DevOps teams (e.g., CERN) whose tasks are a mixture of classical IT administration and software development.