How much should you diversify?

Hello Everyone,

I'm trying to plan my future studies, and I am looking for feedback on what would be considered the ideal amount of diversification in regards to IT knowledge. I'm not looking for answers such "Do what interests you." (I'm genuinely interested in everything, which is why that wouldn't help.) I'm looking for more of a practical answer.

My main concern is that I will ultimately spread myself too thin. The quote, "Jack of all trades, master of none," comes to mind. With the completion of my MCSE in sight, I'm coming to realize just how much I don't know. I am constantly coming across advanced topics that are simply glossed over because they're beyond the scope of the resource I'm using. Essentially, I'm torn between achieving a mastery level of a single discipline, MS in this case, and moving on to *nix and/or Cisco studies.

Also, as far as practicality is concerned, how realistic is it that you will be actively involved with multiple disciplines, especially once you obtain professional or expert levels of expertise? For examples, Does a CCIE with an MCSE really spend a significant portion of his or her time administrating Microsoft networks, or did he or she just tack on the MCSE for fun?

I'm curious to hear about the experiences of people who work at a professional level or higher in multiple disciplines, such as MS, Cisco, *nix, etc.

TIA.

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Comments

sprkymrk

In small shops the network admin may also have to play desktop support, cable runner and policy maker. In very large shops you might have several people just managing the email servers or firewall. The bigger the shop, the more specialized you can be. The samller the shop, the more diversified you will probably need to be.

I'm in a medium shop that's all MS/Cisco so it's handy for me to have both skills. Our firewall is a commercial product that runs on a linux kernel so it's also handy for me to know the linux cli for advanced troubleshooting and fixes.

We have about 400+ workstations/laptops and 30 some servers, plus a few routers and several dozen switches.

Mishra

I think some solid facts might help you. I will list off previous roles I've seen people in in previous/current jobs and let you figure out your own answers.

My first job included these kinds of people
1) Windows Linux Cisco high level
2) Cisco CCNP
3) Cisco CCIE
4) Cisco CCIE
5) Cisco CCIE
6) Cisco CCNP
7) Cisco CCNP

Cisco Voice
10) Linux Cisco Windows (me) low level
11) Cisco Windows low level

My second job included
12) Windows medium level
13) Windows (me) medium level

My third job included

14) Windows Linux (me) high level
15) Windows Linux Unix high level
16) AS400 Windows Linux high level
17) AS400 high level
1

Unix Linux high level
19) Unix high level
20) All Cisco guys were Cisco only. One of them used to do Windows/Cisco but dropped the windows side

My fourth job includes (all basically higher level)

21) Windows and possibility of Linux (me)
22) Windows
23) Windows Linux
24) Windows
25) Windows
26) Windows Linux Unix
27) Linux
2

Cisco
29) OpenVMS

That gives you an idea what is usually paired with what from my experiences. I'm not listing what people knew... I listed what they were primarily responsible for. For example, I did a tiny bit of Unix work in one job but never really got anywhere with it.

Turgon

dynamik wrote:

Hello Everyone,

I'm trying to plan my future studies, and I am looking for feedback on what would be considered the ideal amount of diversification in regards to IT knowledge. I'm not looking for answers such "Do what interests you." (I'm genuinely interested in everything, which is why that wouldn't help.) I'm looking for more of a practical answer.

My main concern is that I will ultimately spread myself too thin. The quote, "Jack of all trades, master of none," comes to mind. With the completion of my MCSE in sight, I'm coming to realize just how much I don't know. I am constantly coming across advanced topics that are simply glossed over because they're beyond the scope of the resource I'm using. Essentially, I'm torn between achieving a mastery level of a single discipline, MS in this case, and moving on to *nix and/or Cisco studies.

Also, as far as practicality is concerned, how realistic is it that you will be actively involved with multiple disciplines, especially once you obtain professional or expert levels of expertise? For examples, Does a CCIE with an MCSE really spend a significant portion of his or her time administrating Microsoft networks, or did he or she just tack on the MCSE for fun?

I'm curious to hear about the experiences of people who work at a professional level or higher in multiple disciplines, such as MS, Cisco, *nix, etc.

TIA.

Nobody expects you to know everything but a lot of variety can only help you in the long run. Too many people get locked into the infrastructure they have around them and often if you want to get on you need to look at learning something new. Take cisco just as one example. In 1999 I completed MCSE in NT 4.0 supporting a growing NT environment at headquarters. Then I went at the CCNA passing it by the year end. I had no cisco support duties in my position at that time but I wanted to explore it. I got bitten by the Cisco bug then. Once the CCNA was clear I spent the early part of 2000 reading the CCO papers like the WAN technologies guide etc with a view to embarking on the CCNP. That paper is still on CCO and was read by very few CCNP candidates at that time. I got an interview for another post and a big pay hike, landed the job and spent the next couple of years running a Cisco network hands-on. The shop was non corporate but that gave me lots of leeway to get experience on the job and within a couple of years I was doing BGP peering on 7206VXRs and designing new datacentres and WANs for the company.

Try new things, if they fly for you, stick at them. You don't have to do whole study tracks, sometimes a taste is enough. Certainly if you intend to move into real design and consultancy work that awareness can really pay off, helping you compare techologies better when you need to recommend the 'best' solution. This was primarily why I did Microsoft and Novell. I wanted to see for myself what these products had to offer rather than bashing Novell or bashing Microsoft because all I knew was the other side. New things are good to learn even if there are no certificates to be had. Anyone Riverstone or Foundry certified on this forum? Didn't think so. But I have had to work with Riverstone switch routers and Foundry FastIrons and ServerIrons on one infrastructure for a few years now. Knowing Cisco IOS helped there somewhat.

While learning, do your own research. Find people who really know a few things and learn from them, don't just rely on study tracks. There are learning opportunities everywhere but they are often passed up. Case in point, I know one MCT who set about repositioning himself as a security consultant but he was way off the pace in terms of network theory and security fundamentals. He got a break with a professional security outfit and I thinked that helped him realise just how much he had to knuckle down and learn. He had no idea about PuTTY or SSH, OpenBSD, Exim, or mailers in general, proxies or firewall experience or DNS in depth because he was MS NT 4.0. He would posture about the benefits of AD vs Novell when he had neither Novell certification or Netware experience. He then went through a phase knocking MS security because it was passe in his new security circles not to. Unfortunately he had no deep understanding of alternatives or hardening approaches. All operating systems can be breached if they are insecurely designed and deployed, it's not an MS problem in itself. He learned a bit about pen testing and then set about learning as much as he could from those who knew more than he did. Those were the two key points, realising there was much to learn and paying attention to those who could teach him things he needed to learn. Expertise comes with ability, time, exposure to difficult things, effort and succeeding at them.

DMin

sprkymrk wrote:

In small shops the network admin may also have to play desktop support, cable runner and policy maker. In very large shops you might have several people just managing the email servers or firewall. The bigger the shop, the more specialized you can be. The samller the shop, the more diversified you will probably need to be.

I'm in a medium shop that's all MS/Cisco so it's handy for me to have both skills. Our firewall is a commercial product that runs on a linux kernel so it's also handy for me to know the linux cli for advanced troubleshooting and fixes.

We have about 400+ workstations/laptops and 30 some servers, plus a few routers and several dozen switches.

To expand on this, it depends greatly on where you work and live, too. If you're near a highly urbanized area, there will be many more opportunities for specialized jobs. The further away from the city you get, the more tech jobs turn into IT generalist positions.

BeaverC32

Align your studies with what you currently do, will be doing in the near future, or what you want to be doing in the next 1-2 years. Do you have any form of career development plan? I have one at work that my manager and myself have created that lists certain tasks/responsibilities I will have as I gain more experience, and also how I will reach those goals. Certain items on that list involve familiarity with our environment, our business processes, etc. Other items are "technically" oriented and can be obtained through training (certification).

What do you do currently, and what additional skills would help you at your current position?

If you want to expand your current role, which additional skills will allow you to do that?

"Jack of all trades, master of none" is a phrase used too often. I prefer to see it as having a diverse skill set. Strive to be a "master of few" rather than a "master of none"...while still being a "jack of all trades"

Whoever said you can't be an expert in some areas, while only having an average level of knowledge in other areas? It's better than being left in the dark completely.

dynamik

The problem is that I currently administer an network of only about 30 users in addition to performing various other tasks for the business, so my position here really doesn't provide me with any direction. There's simply no need for any *nix or Cisco equipment here, so my options are wide open. I'm hesitant to get involved with too many new disciplines because I have a little bit of OCD, and I know that once I get started with Linux, I'll set my sites on that RHCE, or the CCIE once I get into the Cisco. For the time being, I'm going to work on adding on that CCNA and a couple of Linux certs as well as getting some experience with Exchange. I believe that the next logical step is to find another position that allows me to grow and further develop my skills.

As always, I appreciate everyone taking the time to respond, and I thank you for the great advice.