Need some career advice.

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DistributedBen

Limp Gawd
Joined
Mar 26, 2004
Messages
227
Hello everyone. I am in need of some career guidance and advice. I apologize in advance if this post is a little long. :)

I’m currently a sysadmin for a small school (5 servers, 200 desktops) and I’m finding myself in a bit of a rut. Where I work I am the only technical staff, so I manage our servers as well as provide all the break/fix and desktop support for users. While being “on my own” as far as the tech department goes has provided me with some great hand-on experience, I also haven’t had the benefit of working with a senior admin with more experience. I’ve also never received any formal training other than the books, etc I pay for myself. The only certs I currently have are A+ and Network+ that I did many years ago.

I mention this because I feel that after 6 years it is time to move on, and my limited experience has left me a little overwhelmed when trying to find out what area of IT I want to focus on in the long term. Since the servers I setup pretty much run themselves, outside of the usual maintenance, I spend most of my time maintaining the desktops and assisting users. While the desktop stuff isn’t bad it has become very repetitive over the years, and I’m more interested in the server/network side of things.

Technology wise, I’m really interested in content (audio, video, messaging, and conferencing) and applications delivered over the network and Internet. When I visit sites like flickr or youtube.com, I’m always curious about the networking and servers that help deliver this content. I’m not talking about the programming, but how the bandwidth is managed, what kind of servers run these apps, etc. Security interests me as well.

This interest has me looking at positions (for reference at this point) at webhosts and datacenters to see what kind of work is done there. I’ve enjoyed my (limited) experiences when setting up IIS, Apache, Exchange so something like that may be a good fit. I’m also interested in the physical network (switches, routers, firewall, etc) side of things, but don’t have any really experience in that area. I was thinking of working towards the CCNA, but since I wouldn’t be using the equipment currently it took a backseat to other priorities. Now that I have more time, I may look into it again to see how much I like that aspect of networking.

I’m just wondering what kind of positions there are out there for someone with my interests. Am I on the right track? Any advice on specific technologies to look at? Do most IT pros work on both the servers and the network, or is it split up in larger organizations? Is not knowing programming going to hurt me (I hate to do it)? What about not having a tech related degree - I have a BS in Journalism.

Sorry for the rambling. I do appreciate any advice I can get.
 
You might find work in SANs interesting. I did it a few years ago and it was quite enlightening. There's a lot of creative work that goes behind building a solid SAN.

Another route you might take is getting on with a company that does a lot of consulting and installations; rather than getting stuck in routine maintenance as you are now, you would be designing and possibly installing solutions, then leaving them in the hands of other support personnel. That would have the added benefit of giving you access to probably several more experienced professionals whose work you could learn from.

I see by your profile that you're in Texas...PM me, let me know specifcally where, I might even know a company or two you can try. I've got a lot of contacts around.
 
DistributedBen said:
Technology wise, I’m really interested in content (audio, video, messaging, and conferencing) and applications delivered over the network and Internet. When I visit sites like flickr or youtube.com, I’m always curious about the networking and servers that help deliver this content. I’m not talking about the programming, but how the bandwidth is managed, what kind of servers run these apps, etc. Security interests me as well.

This interest has me looking at positions (for reference at this point) at webhosts and datacenters to see what kind of work is done there. I’ve enjoyed my (limited) experiences when setting up IIS, Apache, Exchange so something like that may be a good fit. I’m also interested in the physical network (switches, routers, firewall, etc) side of things, but don’t have any really experience in that area. I was thinking of working towards the CCNA, but since I wouldn’t be using the equipment currently it took a backseat to other priorities. Now that I have more time, I may look into it again to see how much I like that aspect of networking.

I’m just wondering what kind of positions there are out there for someone with my interests. Am I on the right track? Any advice on specific technologies to look at? Do most IT pros work on both the servers and the network, or is it split up in larger organizations? Is not knowing programming going to hurt me (I hate to do it)? What about not having a tech related degree - I have a BS in Journalism.

Sorry for the rambling. I do appreciate any advice I can get.
Click to expand...

I agree that it is time to move on. Your skills probably aren't growing, and I always look to move when I feel I am starting to stagnate.

The interests and prior enjoyable work you list (Apache, IIS, exchange) lend towards an SA type of job. The other set of interests obviously point towards network engineering. Now in a smaller company you could end up doing both, so if you want to try to do some of each I would look at smaller to midsize companies. I work for a huge company, and in large IT orgs even those jobs are subdivided. We have SAs that just do Windows, SAs that just do Unix, SAs that work with specialized different platforms. So if you would prefer to specialize and get really good at one particular thing, go for larger companies (note this is a generalization - it may not be true across the board but so far i have found it to be accurate).

Now for the problem: You generally can't just walk into an SA or Network Ops type of job, at least without a solid resume and years of experience. However, you can work your way in. I would try to get any sort of IT job you can with a mid to large sized org and let them know what your eventual goals are. While it may say 2-3 years experience on the job req for a Network or Admin type of posotion, that goes out the window if the managers know that you have done good work. A good manager (in my experience) will want someone they know is hard working and dedicated over someone in off the street.

If you want to go into networking get your CCNA, and make sure you know it well. You almost certainly will have a technical interview with people who have alot of experience. And even if you don't know the answer exactly, show how you would try to figure it out. That's often more important anyway.

I don't think the lack of programming knowledge will hurt you. Most SAs and Network engineers I work with don't know anything about coding, some know a little scripting - that's about it generally.

The degree won't hold you back if you can prove yourself. I have a BA in Business, no one has ever seemed to care that I don't have a CS or engineering degree.
 
Have you ever checked out Content Networking/Content Delivery? That sounds like it'd be something you would find very interesting.
 
Thanks everyone for the great information. Right now I think I'm going to continue to focus on the systems administration area, since it is what I have access to on a day to day basic and the most experience with. I can learn more about the networking on the side to learn more about my options and build up a solid foundation. We do have some nice Cisco equipment on our network that I didn't setup and has never needed to be touched. Learning more about that will certianly come in handy even now. I'm thinking I could then move to a more midsize company, hopefully where I could be exposed to both.

The only way to find out if I wanted to specialize in one or the other is to give them both a shot and do what I can with what I have. I had already started studying for the MCSA, so I may go ahead and follow through with that and then learn more about Cisco after that.

Thanks for the advice on Content Networking/Content Delivery. Is there a good resource to learn more?

I'm currently reading thorugh a redbook from IBM on SANs, and it is pretty interesting.

I also may attend the Interop expo and free sessions coming up in LV just to kinda learn more about what is going on in the industry.

Thanks again.
 
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