Best way to gain XP for Server Admin roles?

InfoTech92

Hi everyone,

Looking to know what's the best way to further myself and break into a Sysadmin/Server Admin role. Currently I'm;

- Working as a Jr. Sysadmin/Engineer.
- Studying for my MTA: Server Fundamentals (job paid for it).
- Doing projects at home from GPOs to setting up FTP within IIS, creating sites, permissions, ect.


For you other server admins, what did you do to get to that Sr. level?

Magmadragoon

CCNA, MCSA, VMware, Citrix

xenodamus

I moved from desktop support into an admin role. During my time as a desktop tech, I proved myself to be the rockstar on my team. When I walked into an admins cube/office it was to tell them what I needed, not to **** a problem in their lap for troubleshooting.

I took tickets as far as I possibly could, and then suggested that if they'd give me a few more admin rights I could take some work off of them.....

Get friendly with the server/network admins and be a rockstar. Ultimately you need someone to take a chance on you and let you touch their servers without formal experience.

Edit: Just realized you're already working as a Jr. Admin. At this point in your career you've got your hands on the technology.....you just need to become an expert. Work on your certifications as mentioned above. CCNA, MCSA/E....differentiate your self from the crowd.

Verities

It sounds like you're going the Microsoft route, so I would agree with Magmadragoon on pursuing the MCSA, specifically the Windows Server 2012 certification. Networking and virtualization are also components you want to be very familiar with, so if you can compliment your MCSA with those, you'll be a rock solid systems admin.

For me to get ahead I put in a lot of extra hours of effort and labbing at home. I also tried to take on as many problems as I could, which really leads to more experience and more opportunities for growth.

InfoTech92

Verities wrote: »

It sounds like you're going the Microsoft route, so I would agree with Magmadragoon on pursuing the MCSA, specifically the Windows Server 2012 certification. Networking and virtualization are also components you want to be very familiar with, so if you can compliment your MCSA with those, you'll be a rock solid systems admin.

For me to get ahead I put in a lot of extra hours of effort and labbing at home. I also tried to take on as many problems as I could, which really leads to more experience and more opportunities for growth.

Yeah, I agree. After my MTA, I'm going to try and get a solid foundation of the CCNA. I don't really do a lot of the networking stuff, so that's my weak point right now.

Verities

InfoTech92 wrote: »

Yeah, I agree. After my MTA, I'm going to try and get a solid foundation of the CCNA. I don't really do a lot of the networking stuff, so that's my weak point right now.

Best of luck to you!

kurosaki00

Farm Stockade and VC

ypark

kurosaki00 wrote: »

Farm Stockade and VC

I was gonna say RFC and WC.

For The Horde!

InfoTech92

ypark wrote: »

I was gonna say RFC and WC.

For The Horde!

It's cute we're talking about WoW, but this was more or less a real discussion on improving myself.

DigitalZeroOne

InfoTech92 wrote: »

Hi everyone,

Looking to know what's the best way to further myself and break into a Sysadmin/Server Admin role. Currently I'm;

- Working as a Jr. Sysadmin/Engineer.
- Studying for my MTA: Server Fundamentals (job paid for it).
- Doing projects at home from GPOs to setting up FTP within IIS, creating sites, permissions, ect.


For you other server admins, what did you do to get to that Sr. level?

I think the general answer is to keep learning more and more, and to try to take on more responsibilities at work. You may have to apply for roles outside of your company if you don't think you're advancing. Remember to be patient, since it could take years to really build up your skill set.

If possible, you should ask one of the senior admins if they would show you some general information. I have someone that I work with, and I could tell that he was eager to learn. When he asked me some questions about VMware and our environment, I was happy to explain it and show it to him.

For me, I basically worked my way up. Customer Service (billing then technical support) > Desktop support (applied for higher level positions at company, but didn't get them) > Server Admin at new job > Senior Admin and now a contractor.

Always learn as much as you can.

DigitalZeroOne

DigitalZeroOne wrote: »

I think the general answer is to keep learning more and more, and to try to take on more responsibilities at work. You may have to apply for roles outside of your company if you don't think you're advancing. Remember to be patient, since it could take years to really build up your skill set.

If possible, you should ask one of the senior admins if they would show you some general information. I have someone that I work with, and I could tell that he was eager to learn. When he asked me some questions about VMware and our environment, I was happy to explain it and show it to him.

For me, I basically worked my way up. Customer Service (billing then technical support) > Desktop support (applied for higher level positions at company, but didn't get them) > Server Admin at new job > Senior Admin and now a contractor.

Always learn as much as you can.

Forgot to mention. I did earn certifications along the way. I start out with the A+, and I still have an old MCSE for NT 4, but I don't include it on my resume. At this point, I'm only interested in a cert if I it's directly related to maintaining my job, or if it's needed for a new job.

Certifications are nice, and they can help you learn, but the market is saturated with them, and now every employer wants you to have every certification.