Service Desk to Systems Administrator - moving up!!

Barone

Hi guys,

Recently I've been made more acutely aware of the potential to move up and/or around in the new company I am with (4 months). I've been primarily in the Service Desk/Desktop Support Role for about 15 years now. So I'm experienced with ICT, good with people and solid with trouble shooting IT issues. I'd really like to try and begin shifting into a systems administrator role or at least preparing to move into one if I cannot get any opportunities at work.

Needless I'd like to develop and improve my skills.

The major issue I have at the moment is that I'm rather vague on what the basic functions a system administrator does on a daily/weekly/monthly/quarterly/yearly basis....advice in this area would be appreciated

I'm currently studying a Certificate IV in Frontline Management; I've also got some study material on Active Directory and Powershell to go through before I settle down to do my MCSA 2012. I have a Diploma in Network Engineering.

Advice appreciated....:)

Barone

Seriously no one has any suggestions?

jibbajabba

Trouble is, job titles nowadays are meaningless .. System Admin means powershell in one company, resetting passwords in another.

The best advise I can give you is to talk to potential peers in the department you'd like to get into. Talk to them, ask questions. I had a colleague even asking me to shadow me for a day to see what's going on ...

One company I worked for had System Admins dealing with everything - Windows / Linux / Patching and so on. In my current company we have System Admins for each technology - Windows and Linux .. and a third team dealing with VMware (me) ..

Each company is different so there isn't a definite answer which works for "all" System Admins ..

Or even better still, check internal / external job adverts for your company and see if there is a job spec somewhere .. You could probably even ask HR for previous job descriptions so you see what you would have to know etc.

Danielm7

I agree with jibbajabba, find out what they are actually using at your new company. If you go for your MCSA 2012 and find out the entire back end is in Linux, it won't do you a lot of good in that company. And yes, "systems admin" can mean anything really. I've seen jobs posted with that title where you are basically helpdesk, or someone who swaps backup tapes, all the way up to the guy that handles everything with a plug. One thing that I've seen people here mention many times, is being in the same sort of role without growth for so long, be ready to explain either why you did desktop work for 15 years or why you want to move up now. Some companies will just feel like you're a mature worker and looking to grow, which is great, and some others only want to see people who take on a higher level role every few years.

tkerber

Systems Administrator is by far and large the most vague title in IT. A year ago I was a higher end help desk tech for a large marketing company and we had another location in some small little town in Pennsylvania. The Systems Administrator would always call me and ask ridiculous questions because she was little more than a PC installer / hardware monkey. She had a diploma in 'Systems Administration' from a for-profit diploma mill and was hired because in a town of 1,000 people, she was the only one they interviewed who could turn on a PC.

Then on the other hand I know a friend of mine who is also a 'Systems Administrator' who is on a team that manages an entire data center for a large health services provider.

So I think first of all you should find your niche in IT. What is it that you like doing the most? Focus on that and the jobs that surround it and go from there. But also being in the same place for 15 years could definitely be a drag. I think networking yourself out is one of the best things to possibly do. Go to luncheons, ask if you can shadow another department or someone in a department you're interested in.

jibbajabba

tkerber wrote: »

Systems Administrator is by far and large the most vague title in IT

.. it is now ... I was System Admin in 1999 and there was only one guy doing "computers".. Hell even in ESX 3 days most companies used just that - ESX 3, license server and vCenter .. now look at VMware - you need a supercomputer as a brain to know all products

kriscamaro68

In the end I think you more or less want to work with servers as far as the Sys admin title is concerned. Is that a fair assumption? If so you would probably need to decide if you want to go down the *nix path of MS path. You can always learn both but would probably want to master one and focus more on that. In choosing the path there is also a new wrench to throw in the gears when choosing this path. That is Virtualization. You could be a complete MS shop but use VMWare, Citrix, or Hyper-V. Its not just managing physical servers anymore. There are still physical servers but then there is the virtual layer and then the OS.

I just happen to be a Windows System Engineer and we happen to be a Windows shop and we happen to use Hyper-V for all the Windows servers. In the end I manage all of it and its rather easy. Most shops though will probably be Windows/*nix mix and using VMWare. So in the end If Windows is your thing then I would say look into the MCSA/SE and VCP as this will probably get you some great knowledge to take to any Admin level job.

That's my thoughts on it anyways.

Barone

Thanks for the feedback guys.

With my old company I learned most of the systems and got certified in a few to help operations run more smoothly. I put my hand up on more than once occasion for more responsibility and more work but kept getting passed over. I will not make the same mistakes I've made in the past.

I'll basically get certified in what I interested in learning and look for a role in that are if my current employer doesn't have anything like it.