5 ms·

Not trying to hijack here. Just showing a bit of the other side of the coin, to those that may be interested. It's symbiotic. Without us, their ecosystem is shi

Not trying to hijack here. Just showing a bit of the other side of the coin, to those that may be interested. It's symbiotic. Without us, their ecosystem is shit, without them, our pretty hardware just wastes clock cycles. To anyone considering a Systems Admin role, be aware, you have a lot of work ahead. SysAdmins are commonly generalists. We don't go super vertical in a lot of things, but we do go wider every day. There comes a point where it's really hard to keep up with the breadth of tech, UIs, concepts, some jackass's better mouse trap that isn't any better but uses a shit UI, etc. Most SysAdmins pick a few things and specialize. Then there are the crazy people like me that try, and I emphasis try, to keep up with it all. smh. Generalists are needed. We're usually the best at integration, since we've likely seen/worked on something with similar concepts or the systems involved, before. We usually sight read (borrowed term from music) UIs better than most and once we have enough time in, we realize that it's really all syntax. Whether its NTFS or CHMOD, we're still determining read, write, execute, modify, etc. Both are rewarding and whichever you choose, remember, without the other half, you're mostly useless. ;) o7 Coders!

andrewflnr 3y ago
Where do I find these generalist jobs? Everyone seems to want a specialization I don't have.
- ChatGTP 3y ago
  The jobs find you once you’ve worked on a huge range of different problems. Elect yourself next time some obscure problems comes up at work or school or whatever and keep doing that.
  - sonicanatidae 3y ago
    Jobs don't fall out of the sky, but generally, agreed. I have 30+ years of IT in my resume. The skillset sheet is a whole 2nd page, by itself. This isn't because I'm Wile E. Coyote, Supre-genius, but after 30+ years, if you're not an moron, you pick up a wide variety of skills. As a simple example of OSes I know or have worked in, to various levels, *nix, all versions of Windows, OS/2 WARP, Novell 3.x-5, Motorola AIX, SCO Unix, VAX VMS (just a touch), Cisco IOS, and many obscure IoT CLIs, like Microtik, Sophos XG, or more obscure stuff like the AT commands to open and close valves on an LCMS (an instrument used to analyze compounds) and I'm likely missing some. As you may be able to tell, I started a long, long time ago, in a world where 110/300 bps access to another computer over phone lines was the internet and Compu-serve is where the chatrooms were. In fact, I still remember my compu-serve ID and password, not because it's useful, but the weirdest shit sticks sometimes.
- sonicanatidae 3y ago
  Typically we start as Tier 1 support people. We answer calls, we solve issues. Tier 1 is where you "cut your teeth", learn the basics of general systems troubleshooting, and demonstrate customer service. CS is much more important than most think. Once you have a year or 2 under your belt in environments that provide training wheels (not insulting, we all started somewhere and noobs need training wheels), you can move on to a higher support tier, or leave and go work for a non-IT company, in the IT role. The next step is commonly small companies that only have the FTE budget for 1 technical emp, but need someone in-house. This person will spend their time addressing any and all issues for an entire small company, and farm out the things that require specialties. This is a great learning experience, imo. You get to touch damn near everything, from firewalls, to PCs, to printers, etc. After that, assuming you picked up the info, apply it well, deliver good customer service, etc. you have many more options. As far as where to look? I'd start with small computer companies (break/fix shops), MSPs or similar also often need more Tier 1s.

andrewflnr 3y ago

Where do I find these generalist jobs? Everyone seems to want a specialization I don't have.

ChatGTP 3y ago
The jobs find you once you’ve worked on a huge range of different problems. Elect yourself next time some obscure problems comes up at work or school or whatever and keep doing that.
- sonicanatidae 3y ago
  Jobs don't fall out of the sky, but generally, agreed. I have 30+ years of IT in my resume. The skillset sheet is a whole 2nd page, by itself. This isn't because I'm Wile E. Coyote, Supre-genius, but after 30+ years, if you're not an moron, you pick up a wide variety of skills. As a simple example of OSes I know or have worked in, to various levels, *nix, all versions of Windows, OS/2 WARP, Novell 3.x-5, Motorola AIX, SCO Unix, VAX VMS (just a touch), Cisco IOS, and many obscure IoT CLIs, like Microtik, Sophos XG, or more obscure stuff like the AT commands to open and close valves on an LCMS (an instrument used to analyze compounds) and I'm likely missing some. As you may be able to tell, I started a long, long time ago, in a world where 110/300 bps access to another computer over phone lines was the internet and Compu-serve is where the chatrooms were. In fact, I still remember my compu-serve ID and password, not because it's useful, but the weirdest shit sticks sometimes.
sonicanatidae 3y ago
Typically we start as Tier 1 support people. We answer calls, we solve issues. Tier 1 is where you "cut your teeth", learn the basics of general systems troubleshooting, and demonstrate customer service. CS is much more important than most think. Once you have a year or 2 under your belt in environments that provide training wheels (not insulting, we all started somewhere and noobs need training wheels), you can move on to a higher support tier, or leave and go work for a non-IT company, in the IT role. The next step is commonly small companies that only have the FTE budget for 1 technical emp, but need someone in-house. This person will spend their time addressing any and all issues for an entire small company, and farm out the things that require specialties. This is a great learning experience, imo. You get to touch damn near everything, from firewalls, to PCs, to printers, etc. After that, assuming you picked up the info, apply it well, deliver good customer service, etc. you have many more options. As far as where to look? I'd start with small computer companies (break/fix shops), MSPs or similar also often need more Tier 1s.