"If these values ever differ from what's currently in etcd, then my Django app will send a signal to cause uwsgi to gracefully restart the Django app, so that it can reload itself with the new configuration"
You could probably avoid the restart/reload by using skydns (https://github.com/skynetservices/skydns), it is a local dns service built on top of values in etcd. You can configure your django app to access the other service containers by dns name and it will be translated to the correct ip all the time.
I found this article very interesting. It provides great insight on other people's interview process.
I totally agree with this article's negative view on recruiting firms effectiveness in finding quality DevOps candidates.
However the proposed antidote, finding good people by attending local meetups isn't a silver bullet ether.
From my experience going to meetups can be a good way of increasing your chances of meeting good candidates, however it can't be the sole strategy.
I think that a buzzword can be a nice way of communicating the expected role/output between an employee and the employer.
When you advertise that you need a DevOps engineer, you are actually saying that you need someone with a good knowledge of configuration management, cloud operations, good coding skills, etc... (I noted only the tech skills, but the same goes for cultural traits too).
As a "DevOps professional" I unfortunately see that this buzzword is currently being overused. I hope that it is a temporary phase...
You could probably avoid the restart/reload by using skydns (https://github.com/skynetservices/skydns), it is a local dns service built on top of values in etcd. You can configure your django app to access the other service containers by dns name and it will be translated to the correct ip all the time.