Should I keep going up?

Hi All,

I am in need of advice from people who been in the industry for a bit or just general advice.

I started working for HP a year ago as a Help Desk Technician which the role was responsible for troubleshooting software issues and hardware for a user base of 300 + I was also responsible for VTC equipment and scheduling VTC's. I performed very well and in 5 months a System Administration position opened up and they promoted me to SA.

As an SA I am responsible for 7 servers (btw I am on a team of 4 other SA's), stability on our Non Secret network and SIPR (Secret network), System backups, Audit log backups, Updates on user machines and servers, Project design (network diagrams, and tech refresh we are going through right now).

Now there is another System Administrator position opening up on another side of our building and its just a one man job. The current man in the position will be leaving for 6 to 9 months and before that the main SA their will be mentoring another SA to take his spot while he was gone (possibly me) for at least 3 months.

In this position I will be a full blown SA. I will be maintaining my own Images, my own EPO Server (MCafee product), SAN (which I was told they rarely touch), VPN Concentrator, Cisco ASA firewall, and roughly 30 to 40 users on the development of this application.

I want to keep growing in IT and I know some of these products I do not have much experience in but I am willing to learn and since the individual will be teaching me for at least 3 months I volunteered to take the position.

Since I will be following this guy around (he is a very nice person) for 3 months before he goes I Think it would be a great time for me to grow in the IT industry and get experience I would never be able to get.

Do you think its smart to keep growing at this pace? I guess its not a bad idea. My current skills I have 2 years of Windows 2003 experience, 2 years of Networking experience and I am on the way of getting my CCNA and then going for my Window Server certs, 2 years Active Directory experience too.

What would you guys do? I am very excited and I want to grow and keep growing. The only downside to this position is that I will be the only SA. I can ask for help from the previous SA's who took on this position before getting a different job if I get stuck (the one SA told me this when I was asking him about it).

I guess the point is I do not want to be jumping into a pot of fire! I think I can do it especially since I will be getting trained from the other SA for 3 months. Now if it was not for that three months I would not be ready.

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Comments

mattlee09

That sounds like an awesome opportunity man - one of those once in a million chances (especially in as friendly of an environment as you describe it, with an awesome mentor).

Definitely go for it! TE is also always here to back you up too

geek4god

On the plains of hesitation, bleach the bones of countless millions, who, at the dawn of victory sat down to rest, and resting, died...

Go for it!!!!!

higherho

Thank you very much for the kind words and I do love TE. Solved many issues because of the members here.

I will keep everyone posted on how this goes!

MickQ

I know a guy who worked in srervers for HP. From what I learned of the place from him, you should definitely try for it. You are capable of working with it, right?

instant000

Take the offer and run with it.

rogue2shadow

As the others have stated, this is a great opportunity. Naturally the phrase "you never know until you try" comes to mind; you never know where this could lead (lead SA in the future, PM, more money, etc). Make sure to be honest with yourself and with your trainers during the whole training process (in regards to the pacing). If there's a certain process you're having difficulty with making them aware. Take the opportunity to ask just about any question that comes to mind as after the training period, its most likely assumed you will be "up to speed" with the operational scope and efficiency rate established by the guy whos leaving.

higherho

rogue2shadow wrote: »

As the others have stated, this is a great opportunity. Naturally the phrase "you never know until you try" comes to mind; you never know where this could lead (lead SA in the future, PM, more money, etc). Make sure to be honest with yourself and with your trainers during the whole training process (in regards to the pacing). If there's a certain process you're having difficulty with making them aware. Take the opportunity to ask just about any question that comes to mind as after the training period, its most likely assumed you will be "up to speed" with the operational scope and efficiency rate established by the guy whos leaving.

I agree, I will be asking any question that comes to mind so that I feel comfortable with the system I am working with. I figured I will never get an opportunity to learn some of the tools that I will be working with in a production environment unless I had experience with it. So for this to come up I was very excited.

stiltner

If they have come to you about this, that means two things:

They trust you in that position and they want you in that position.

If you don't do it, you're probably going to regret it. Risk it, the rewards
and benefits are there.

westward

You said they have a SAN and rarely use it.

I think in your new position you should find ways the company can use it, since they paid for it! That'll make you look useful.

higherho

stiltner wrote: »

If they have come to you about this, that means two things:

They trust you in that position and they want you in that position.

If you don't do it, you're probably going to regret it. Risk it, the rewards
and benefits are there.

Good point. I do not want to regret it later in the future. I think this will pad the resume quite well and allow me to put technologies down that I could not have before.

westward wrote: »

You said they have a SAN and rarely use it.

I think in your new position you should find ways the company can use it, since they paid for it! That'll make you look useful.

Well they do use it, its just that the SA's that been in the spot told me they rarely had to touch it. I agree with you I will see if we can use it in ways that will improve the backend.

Thing is most of the SA's say you need at least two people in the position to really take full advantage of what we have but sadly they only employ one person so its quite the task.

higherho

So our team management had a meeting today. I been getting the vibe they have been talking about the other SA position among other things. I should know something by May.

Right now I support our servers / services but I could learn so much more from the other SA position. I am very excited to learn more thats for sure and what better way to learn from a mentor and keep going? I took notice that I did not say the amount of servers he manages 30 (they are trying to make most of these virtual) to be exact (he even stated to me that its to much for one guy and he basically says that you do what you can and do the important things first).

I look at the ceiling cap of my current position and my future. This can push me very far ahead and I keep thinking that what other company near me would take the time to give me a mentor? I know I can learn more about AD, Server 2003 / 2008 past the group policies, security measures and network administration. I work in a secret environment which makes things more interesting.

The Epo server has me really excited! Especially Rouge detection and HIPS.

I will keep you all updated.

higherho

Update:

So yea started today in the new department. Still part of the old department at the same time for now until the current SA in the new one leaves for a bit.

28 servers, a san, epo server, asa firewall, vpn concentrator, some layer 3 switches. The servers are broken up but they have a test bed for code / patches before it gets approved into production (two phases of test servers so a majority of that 28 are that and two domain controllers for each test bed). I am very excited because I feel that I can learn so much from this position and I think I will have 4 to 5 months with the SA before he goes (I will find out more tomorrow). Also supposed to go through a tech refresh (hopefully before he leaves ) and migration to 2008!

I'm excited and I think this will help me achieve some Microsoft certs (regarding the exp).