3 ms·

I just turned 40 and just got hired. I think the big difference between now and my last hiring in the oughts is that I was able to take a much more active role

I just turned 40 and just got hired. I think the big difference between now and my last hiring in the oughts is that I was able to take a much more active role in my own career-path decisions (this one is interesting, that one used the word "rock star" so I won't bother, etc.). Part of that is because I'm now married and somewhat more financially secure, but, hey: that in itself is part of being older. Now, I'm not a coder, except to the extent that every sysadmin is, and my field's definition of "output" is different (and for that matter ops in general is grayer than dev). But just personally I feel a confidence in my skills and experience that I didn't have even a decade ago at 30. And also I seem to have a longer attention span than I used to (9am HN commenting notwithstanding). I have a much better sense of how long an implementation will take, what its blockers might be, etc. IOW I'm liking work at 40, at least personally.

dpina 10y ago
Good to see another sysadmin input on this thread. Any bits that you would advise us younger (not that much, 30 yrs old) sysadmins about what to expect from the future?
- bandrami 10y ago
  So my biggest bit of advice is to get out of the tech sector as much as possible. One of the great things about ops is that there literally is not an industry that doesn't employ us. I've worked for non-profits, education, farms (you'd be amazed some of the data needs agribusiness has), and now aerospace. I've even gigged for food service (a local brewery paid me in beer...) The advantage of this is that gets you out of some of the myopia that the tech sector has a tendency to instill, as well as broadening your geographical opportunities beyond the few tech hot spots. It also teaches you the three most important words a sysadmin has to learn to say: "I don't know". A sysadmin who can't say that immediately when it's true is going to have problems (after all ops is about 85% reading documentation), and figuring out how to get data from a barn to a datacenter will teach you to say it quickly. Another piece of advice: if you haven't already, work in a datacenter, at least once, for at least a year, before you quit in disgust (everybody does). No datacenter sysadmin is happy, but it's a huge resume buff and it teaches you a lot.
  - detaro 10y ago
    > No datacenter sysadmin is happy, but it's a huge resume buff and it teaches you a lot. Why is that? What kind of valuable experiences are you thinking of?

dpina 10y ago

Good to see another sysadmin input on this thread. Any bits that you would advise us younger (not that much, 30 yrs old) sysadmins about what to expect from the future?

bandrami 10y ago
So my biggest bit of advice is to get out of the tech sector as much as possible. One of the great things about ops is that there literally is not an industry that doesn't employ us. I've worked for non-profits, education, farms (you'd be amazed some of the data needs agribusiness has), and now aerospace. I've even gigged for food service (a local brewery paid me in beer...) The advantage of this is that gets you out of some of the myopia that the tech sector has a tendency to instill, as well as broadening your geographical opportunities beyond the few tech hot spots. It also teaches you the three most important words a sysadmin has to learn to say: "I don't know". A sysadmin who can't say that immediately when it's true is going to have problems (after all ops is about 85% reading documentation), and figuring out how to get data from a barn to a datacenter will teach you to say it quickly. Another piece of advice: if you haven't already, work in a datacenter, at least once, for at least a year, before you quit in disgust (everybody does). No datacenter sysadmin is happy, but it's a huge resume buff and it teaches you a lot.
- detaro 10y ago
  > No datacenter sysadmin is happy, but it's a huge resume buff and it teaches you a lot. Why is that? What kind of valuable experiences are you thinking of?