Learn Exchange! (And Other Career Advice)

Let me first start off by saying that I've never been fond of working with Exchange. I had to work with Exchange 2003 a little bit at two separate jobs, and I created a few mailboxes here and there on an Exchange 2007 infrastructure for the last full-time job I held. Aside from that, though, I've managed to steer clear, telling myself that I'd 'learn more about it at some point', but secretly hoping I could just ignore Exchange altogether and get by on my Windows admin and networking skills alone.

All that came back to bite me yesterday, during a phone-interview for a part-time, project-based gig that would have been the perfect job for me while I'm in school. After about half an hour of grilling me with technical questions - ranging from Active Directory and Exchange to Cisco networking and Linux administration - the IT director for this company told me that he had primarily mail-related projects that needed taking care of and said the following,

"With your current skillset, I could pay you $25 - $30 per hour and throw you some work every once in a while, maybe a few days a month. If you knew Exchange, though, I could give you $50 per hour and guarantee at least 15 hours a week."

Ow. . . my pride.

We'll have to see how it goes, but I'm not holding my breath. Suffice it to say, I'm going to start watching those 70-662 CBT Nuggets today. Hopefully, this can serve as a lesson to anyone out there who has a skill they know they should learn or a project they should do, that they know will help their career.

Don't put it off, don't assume you'll always have time. . . if you know you need to get it done, GET IT DONE.

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jamesp1983

Slowhand wrote: »

Let me first start off by saying that I've never been fond of Exchange. I had to work with Exchange 2003 a little bit at two separate jobs, and I created a few mailboxes here and there on an Exchange 2007 infrastructure for the last full-time job I held. Aside from that, though, I've managed to steer clear, telling myself that I'd 'learn more about it at some point', but secretly hoping I could just ignore Exchange altogether and get by on my Windows admin and networking skills alone.

All that came back to bite me yesterday, during a phone-interview for a part-time, project-based gig that would have been the perfect job for me while I'm in school. After about half an hour of grilling me with technical questions - ranging from Active Directory and Exchange to Cisco networking and Linux administration - the IT director for this company told me that he had primarily mail-related projects that needed taking care of and said the following,

"With your current skillset, I could pay you $25 - $30 per hour and throw you some work every once in a while, maybe a few days a month. If you knew Exchange, though, I could give you $50 per hour and guarantee at least 15 hours a week."

Ow. . . my pride.

We'll have to see how it goes, but I'm not holding my breath. Suffice it to say, I'm going to start watching those 70-662 CBT Nuggets today. Hopefully, this can serve as a lesson to anyone out there who has a skill they know they should learn or a project they should do, that they know will help their career.

Don't put it off, don't assume you'll always have time. . . if you know you need to get it done, GET IT DONE.

Exchange is not too difficult to learn. Do a few installs and you'll have a good feel for how it all functions (especially if things go wrong during your installs. That taught me a lot about Exchange). You'll have it down in no time with some hands on and those videos.

Are you sure you want this job considering the fact that it seems like you didn't want to work with Exchange?

Everyone

It's not for everyone. Learning it just because someone told you they could pay you a little more probably isn't a good idea. If you don't enjoy working with it, forcing yourself to learn it isn't going to change that. There are plenty of other technologies you can focus on that can make you just as much, if not more. Pick one that you're good at and enjoy working with.

I know from my job search experience earlier this year, that Exchange skills have been highly in demand lately, which worked out great for me, since that has been my specialty for the majority of my career. I'm one of those few oddballs that really enjoys working with it though.

Now let me touch on the flip side of it. I've been on the other side of the interview table, looking for people who know Exchange well. It's obvious when someone has Exchange experience because they were forced to work with it at some point in their career. When they don't enjoy it, they lack the knowledge needed. Taking an exam or getting a cert doesn't change that. It's easy to tell that they're desperate for a job and only applied for this Exchange position because of that desperation. Even with the cert, these types of candidates get passed over.

Bottom line, it won't help you or your career if you really aren't interested in it.

Slowhand

I'm not really in a position to say no to something simply because I don't have a love for learning the product. Picking up and working with Exchange is something I know I should have done years ago, but I kept putting it off. Like a lot of other things I've worked with, once I learn more about it and get some experience under my belt, I'm sure I'll like it just as much as I like working with Windows Server or with anything else I'd be managing. I wanted to share this particular story with the forum as a learning experience that I hope to spare others.

CodeBlox

I think I'll start learning about MS exchange after I finish my CCNA. I've had a few problems with outlook that I THINK are related to exchange but lack the technical know-how to fix it. Bear in mind, I'm a tier 1 on a Helpdesk so there's only so much we're allowed to do.

Tackle

I took an Exchange class in college, been supporting it for a year and a half now, and a couple weeks ago I started setting it up at home. (I have outbound working, but not inbound yet, dang ISP).

It isn't something you can learn over night, but I can see the benefits of knowing it fairly well. I can't wait till I can slap something about it on my Resume.

Best of luck to you!

Everyone

Slowhand wrote: »

I'm not really in a position to say no to something simply because I don't have a love for learning the product. Picking up and working with Exchange is something I know I should have done years ago, but I kept putting it off. Like a lot of other things I've worked with, once I learn more about it and get some experience under my belt, I'm sure I'll like it just as much as I like working with Windows Server or with anything else I'd be managing. I wanted to share this particular story with the forum as a learning experience that I hope to spare others.

What makes you say you think you should have done it years ago? What are your career goals?

Environments that are small enough for a Windows Server Admin/Engineer to also have a need to know Exchange, are moving away from having Exchange on-premises, which eliminates the need for the Windows Server Admin to know Exchange.

Just scratching the surface so you can say you have some Exchange knowledge/experience, isn't enough. More and more places are looking for people with real in-depth knowledge and experience, and less and less for generalists.

CodeBlox wrote:

I think I'll start learning about MS exchange after I finish my CCNA. I've had a few problems with outlook that I THINK are related to exchange but lack the technical know-how to fix it. Bear in mind, I'm a tier 1 on a Helpdesk so there's only so much we're allowed to do.

Researching those problems and how to fix them would probably be more valuable to you, at least in your current position. If a career in Networking is your goal (just guessing since you're working on your CCNA), learning Exchange is almost as far away from that goal as you can get while still being IT related. Don't get me wrong, it is always good to learn new things, but you can't let them distract you from your goals.

Hypntick

jamesp1983 wrote: »

Exchange is not too difficult to learn. Do a few installs and you'll have a good feel for how it all functions (especially if things go wrong during your installs. That taught me a lot about Exchange). You'll have it down in no time with some hands on and those videos.

I'll second this, our Exchange guy said the way he picked it up is by doing installs on his home lab. The only reason I know any of it is because he's not always in the office and sometimes i've got to fix the issues myself. I'd love to get an install going at home myself, still trying to learn just the server 08 r2 stuff for now.

jmreicha

Everyone wrote: »

What makes you say you think you should have done it years ago? What are your career goals?

Environments that are small enough for a Windows Server Admin/Engineer to also have a need to know Exchange, are moving away from having Exchange on-premises, which eliminates the need for the Windows Server Admin to know Exchange.

Just scratching the surface so you can say you have some Exchange knowledge/experience, isn't enough. More and more places are looking for people with real in-depth knowledge and experience, and less and less for generalists.

Researching those problems and how to fix them would probably be more valuable to you, at least in your current position. If a career in Networking is your goal (just guessing since you're working on your CCNA), learning Exchange is almost as far away from that goal as you can get while still being IT related. Don't get me wrong, it is always good to learn new things, but you can't let them distract you from your goals.

Excuse me if I'm getting off topic here. Could you elaborate on some of the Exchange things that are important for potential employees to know when you're hiring for them? I have been doing Exchange stuff in my current environment and feel comfortable with most of it but I guess it would be good to have some guidance or know what to be focusing on.

Slowhand

Everyone wrote: »

What makes you say you think you should have done it years ago?

The reason I say it is because I have literally never been to an interview where I wasn't asked if I knew Exchange immediately after talking about my experience with Windows Server. In my area, recruiters and hiring managers will assume Exchange knowledge if you're a Windows admin, that's just the way it is. I knew it in 2005 when I was working helpdesk, I knew it in the following years when I was a sysadmin.

And, again, please don't confuse my reluctance to have tackled the task of learning Exchange with disliking Exchange, itself. It's a different type of software than I've learned in the past, and circumstances just so happened to work out that I didn't really spend as much time as I think I should have to learn it; it was no fun to work with because I didn't really understand it all that well. The real point of this thread was to share an experience of having paid the price for procrastination, so let's not get too hung up on examining the individual trees while we're walking through the forest.

pham0329

Yea, I think that if you're looking for work on the server side, Exchange is a must. You may not have to know it inside out, but you should still know all the basic interworking of it, and what's required to get an organization up and going on it. While it may seem boring to you, learning Exchange will help boost your career.

Everyone

jmreicha wrote: »

Excuse me if I'm getting off topic here. Could you elaborate on some of the Exchange things that are important for potential employees to know when you're hiring for them? I have been doing Exchange stuff in my current environment and feel comfortable with most of it but I guess it would be good to have some guidance or know what to be focusing on.

How to install an Exchange server.
Common causes of information store/database dismounts, and how to fix them.
How to troubleshoot mail flow issues.
Common causes of queues backing up, and how to fix them.
Know the Exchange services what they do, and how to troubleshoot them if they fail.
How to publish forms to the organizational forms library.
How to troubleshoot the GAL.
How Exchange ties into AD.
How to troubleshoot ActiveSync and OWA issues.
Understand how permissions work.
Know how to do message tracking.
Know how to recover a mailbox for a deleted account.
Know how to move mailboxes between servers and databases.
Understand policies.
Know what protocols Exchange uses and how it uses them.
Know how different client types connect to the Exchange server, and how to troubleshoot connection issues.
Know how Public Folders work, what relies on them, how they're replicated, etc.

Each of those are slightly different depending on the version of Exchange.

Some 2003 specific stuff if the job requires it:
Understand routing groups and connectors.
Know the limitations of storage groups and databases.
Know what RUS is and does.
Understand Administrative Groups.

Some 2010 specific stuff:
Know what each of the 5 server roles are, and what they do.
Know what a DAG is and how it works.
Know what a CAS array is and how it works.

That's only just getting started, there's still quite a bit more. What you need to know depends a lot on what role you have to play. An Admin doesn't need to know as much as an Engineer. An Engineer doesn't need to know as much as an Architect, etc.

Claymoore

Slowhand wrote: »

The reason I say it is because I have literally never been to an interview where I wasn't asked if I knew Exchange immediately after talking about my experience with Windows Server. In my area, recruiters and hiring managers will assume Exchange knowledge if you're a Windows admin, that's just the way it is. I knew it in 2005 when I was working helpdesk, I knew it in the following years when I was a sysadmin.

I agree. I was interviewing a candidate for an infrastructure consulting position a couple of years ago who was a very strong candidate but did not list any Exchange experience on his resume. I asked him about it during the interview, wondering how he could have been working around servers and AD as long as he had without touching Exchange. His response is that he had some Exchange 2000 experience but it was limited and long ago, so he left it off his resume so that he would not mistakenly be considered for Exchange admin positions. We offered him the position.

We could keep going down the road of MS products, "You know XP, any experience with SQL?", because most of us have been in those interviews before. Right now, without expsosure to any type of virtualization software, your chances at a server admin position are dead. I don't care the flavor (I prefer Hyper-V), just pick up a platform. I originally started studying virtualization to make sure my Exchange servers were being virtualized correctly. There are advantages and some gotchas for every service when it is virtualized, and just a little reading can go a long way to making sure your application is set up correctly.

jmreicha

Everyone wrote: »

How to install an Exchange server.
Common causes of information store/database dismounts, and how to fix them.
How to troubleshoot mail flow issues.
Common causes of queues backing up, and how to fix them.
Know the Exchange services what they do, and how to troubleshoot them if they fail.
How to publish forms to the organizational forms library.
How to troubleshoot the GAL.
How Exchange ties into AD.
How to troubleshoot ActiveSync and OWA issues.
Understand how permissions work.
Know how to do message tracking.
Know how to recover a mailbox for a deleted account.
Know how to move mailboxes between servers and databases.
Understand policies.
Know what protocols Exchange uses and how it uses them.
Know how different client types connect to the Exchange server, and how to troubleshoot connection issues.
Know how Public Folders work, what relies on them, how they're replicated, etc.

Each of those are slightly different depending on the version of Exchange.

Some 2003 specific stuff if the job requires it:
Understand routing groups and connectors.
Know the limitations of storage groups and databases.
Know what RUS is and does.
Understand Administrative Groups.

Some 2010 specific stuff:
Know what each of the 5 server roles are, and what they do.
Know what a DAG is and how it works.
Know what a CAS array is and how it works.

That's only just getting started, there's still quite a bit more. What you need to know depends a lot on what role you have to play. An Admin doesn't need to know as much as an Engineer. An Engineer doesn't need to know as much as an Architect, etc.

That is awesome information, thank you!

Everyone

Slowhand wrote: »

The reason I say it is because I have literally never been to an interview where I wasn't asked if I knew Exchange immediately after talking about my experience with Windows Server. In my area, recruiters and hiring managers will assume Exchange knowledge if you're a Windows admin, that's just the way it is. I knew it in 2005 when I was working helpdesk, I knew it in the following years when I was a sysadmin.

This is becoming less and less common. This is also thinking small. If you ever want to move into bigger environments (and it's ok if you don't, some people like the SMB arena), you have to specialize. Even in the smaller environments, specializing brings the higher salaries.

Like I eluded to in an earlier post, the days of businesses needing a Windows Server Admin that also knows Exchange (or you could say SharePoint or whatever other application technology that rides on top of Windows) are coming to an end. This is the area that "the cloud" (I still hate that term) is gaining the most ground in.

If a career in Messaging Systems was your goal, then yes you certainly are paying the price for not taking the time back in 2005. If a career as a generalist in the SMB arena was your goal, you really haven't hurt yourself much at all.

It doesn't do you any good to look back and say "Crap if I had learned that 6 years ago, I'd be able to make more money now." Focusing on capitalizing on the strengths that you do have will get you better opportunities than trying to fix any weak areas you may perceive.

I've been in the same boat. I've had several interviews where they wanted me to know SQL and SharePoint in addition to AD and Exchange. SQL and SharePoint, I had touched both many years prior, and knew a little about them, but not much. AD and Exchange were my strong points. I was offered the job for 1 out of the many like this. Why was I offered this one and not the others? Because this one needed someone like me with the AD and Exchange experience more, the limited SQL and SharePoint knowledge was a bonus. The others were the reverse, they needed someone with SQL or SharePoint more. You'll run into this no matter what technologies you're strongest in. I could have stopped after the first couple of rejections and said "Well I guess I better go learn SQL and SharePoint if I want a job", but I'm glad I didn't. If I had done that, I wouldn't have the career I do now. In fact, that would have been more like a reset, and kept me at the entry to mid level longer.

SteveLord

Specialize as right. The highest paid guys in my state are all on teams. Server, Messaging, Networking, Security, Web apps, Database, etc. They also have the most enterprise like environment, since they support critical government functions in addition to being able to provide any kind of IT support to agencies that lack IT staff.

I'd like to learn Exchange, but it won't benefit me at all unless I take one of those positions. I have a pretty good gig right now as a JOAT and I am still young at 27, so I'll stick with it for a little while longer. In the mean time, I've been getting to know all the gurus.

Slowhand

Everyone wrote: »

This is becoming less and less common. This is also thinking small. If you ever want to move into bigger environments (and it's ok if you don't, some people like the SMB arena), you have to specialize. Even in the smaller environments, specializing brings the higher salaries.

Like I eluded to in an earlier post, the days of businesses needing a Windows Server Admin that also knows Exchange (or you could say SharePoint or whatever other application technology that rides on top of Windows) are coming to an end. This is the area that "the cloud" (I still hate that term) is gaining the most ground in.

If a career in Messaging Systems was your goal, then yes you certainly are paying the price for not taking the time back in 2005. If a career as a generalist in the SMB arena was your goal, you really haven't hurt yourself much at all.

It doesn't do you any good to look back and say "Crap if I had learned that 6 years ago, I'd be able to make more money now." Focusing on capitalizing on the strengths that you do have will get you better opportunities than trying to fix any weak areas you may perceive.

I've been in the same boat. I've had several interviews where they wanted me to know SQL and SharePoint in addition to AD and Exchange. SQL and SharePoint, I had touched both many years prior, and knew a little about them, but not much. AD and Exchange were my strong points. I was offered the job for 1 out of the many like this. Why was I offered this one and not the others? Because this one needed someone like me with the AD and Exchange experience more, the limited SQL and SharePoint knowledge was a bonus. The others were the reverse, they needed someone with SQL or SharePoint more. You'll run into this no matter what technologies you're strongest in. I could have stopped after the first couple of rejections and said "Well I guess I better go learn SQL and SharePoint if I want a job", but I'm glad I didn't. If I had done that, I wouldn't have the career I do now. In fact, that would have been more like a reset, and kept me at the entry to mid level longer.

While it's true that specializing in one or two areas is ideal, the reality of the job-market is that you must have practical knowledge in a lot of areas, particularly when it comes to technologies that are considered related by so many employers. In the past three months I've spoken to 37 different hiring managers in companies ranging in size from 50 users all the way up to several thousand regarding mid to senior-level sysadmin jobs in the Bay Area of California. All but two of them asked me if I knew Exchange, in addition to asking about the topics I mentioned in the original post.

In addition, over the course of the past 6 years, I've spoken to countless others while looking for work at different times and the same issue came up. The fact of the matter is, in my area, a Windows admin needs to know Exchange; the particular manager in question didn't feel comfortable handing me Windows-based projects since I didn't have what he considered was essential knowledge. I've had ample time to learn in the last few years but I never capitalized on it and now I ended up losing out on an ideal opportunity that would have allowed me exceptionally flexible hours for pay that I could actually live on while I'm going through school.

And, once again, you're focusing heavily on my particular example, as opposed to the broader message my original post conveys. Perhaps my choice of being a bit tongue-in-cheek with the title was confusing, or perhaps I didn't go into enough detail about my background in laying out the precursor to the phone interview. Either way, let me clarify: the point of my sharing this experience was to illustrate that I potentially lost out on a great opportunity because I chose to procrastinate on learning something that I knew to be important. I chose to ignore good opportunities that were presented to me, and now I'm seeing a consequence.

Everyone

Slowhand wrote: »

And, once again, you're focusing heavily on my particular example, as opposed to the broader message my original post conveys.

Not at all. I think you're confused on what the broader message you've conveyed is. "Don't procrastinate" is a good message, and may be what you meant, but not what you're getting across. Try and look at things another way. You're focusing on the past and missed opportunities. It's not practical to try and be an expert in everything. Lets say that you had chosen to focus on Exchange 6 years ago when you had the chance. There would be something else you neglected in favor of learning it. Now instead of Exchange being where you're lacking, it may be your Windows Server skills or Networking Skills, or whatever your strong point is today, that is where you'd be lacking instead. Unless you're telling everyone that during the last 6 years you didn't learn ANYTHING else, you were supposed to be learning Exchange, but instead you played video games. I really don't think that's what you did.

Slowhand wrote: »

Either way, let me clarify: the point of my sharing this experience was to illustrate that I potentially lost out on a great opportunity because I chose to procrastinate on learning something that I knew to be important.

What you're doing is placing importance on to something. If it wasn't important back then, why is it important now? Because you are chasing opportunities that may not be the best match for you?

It's a classic glass half full vs half empty. You think you've missed opportunities based on not being able to land a job in a very local market. You think lack of Exchange knowledge/experience is the reason for this because the interviewers asked about it. The reality is that may have had very little to do with it. Your glass is half empty. Try thinking about the areas you have excelled in, and the opportunities you didn't miss. See the glass as half full and seek out the opportunities that align with your strengths.

In the interview process, if I'm interviewing you for a Windows Server Admin role, I'm first going to ask you to tell me about your Windows Server experience. Then I'm going to test your knowledge a little based on what you just told me. If you do well, I want to know the limits of your knowledge. It seems you know Windows Servers pretty well, so I may ask you about Exchange. I may not have a need for the position I'm hiring to know Exchange at all, I may already have a full time Exchange admin working for me, but maybe it'd be nice to have someone who can help him so he can focus on a project. You could substitute Exchange for any other technology. I could ask you about AD, SQL, SAN, Linux, whatever. When you tell me you don't know something, I know I've hit your limit, and there's no need to ask you any further questions on that topic, time to move on to another.

Slowhand wrote: »

The fact of the matter is, in my area, a Windows admin needs to know Exchange;

That's your opinion, not a fact.

Slowhand wrote: »

the particular manager in question didn't feel comfortable handing me Windows-based projects since I didn't have what he considered was essential knowledge.

Your core competencies are what were lacking then. Any application that runs on top of Windows is a secondary consideration. If he told you he didn't feel comfortable handing you a Windows-based project, not knowing Exchange had nothing to do with it.

If I'm an IT Manager, and I give one of my Windows Server people a box for an application that says "Bob's Extreme Angling Pro 2000", he should be able to setup a Server to run that application without ever having heard of it before, then hand that server off to the person who does know that App. Knowledge of another App isn't going to help, it's knowledge of setting up (and troubleshooting) a Windows Server that he/she needs.

it_consultant

I make my money on the back of Exchange 2003/07/10. It is easy to do simple tasks but it quickly gets tricky when you start getting errors, if you have to use the MFCMAPI tool to go "under the hood" of an email account to wipe out a recurring appointment that can't be deleted, chasing logs when people swear someone sent them an email, certificate errors, publishing calendars to the web, federation etc. The best is when you walk into a poorly implemented environment where you have to fix the stuff while it is still up.

The ONLY way to learn exchange to the level I have (I am somewhere between a maharishi and a special forces ninja) is to jump in head first where others have failed. Call MS if you have too, set up test environments, experiment, don't give up until you fix it. Do a couple of recoveries and migrations from 2003 to 2010 too.