Systems Administrator - What's Next?

I'm having a bit of trouble trying to figure out what type of position would be best for me to move to next. I know nobody is going to be able to tell me what I will enjoy but I would like to know what opportunities you think I may be qualified for.

A bit of background:

I worked in Desktop Support for 3 years while obtaining my MIS degree. I then completed a MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Support for Windows 7 and moved to a contract Jr. Systems Administrator role that lasted 6 months. After that I moved to my current position as a Systems Administrator where I'm in charge of all kinds of different systems to the point where I can't focus on any one of them as in depth as I would like to. Some of these include all of our AD infrastructure, Exchange, file servers, web servers, vSphere cluster running ESXi 5.0, enterprise SAN devices, CUCM phone system, videoconferencing equipment and servers, building security system, SCCM, and the list goes on and on. I am recently VCP-5 certified and starting to work on a CCNA in my free time.

Where I'm at now is a smaller company that offers no room for advancement, little pay and as of recently management in my department has been less than favorable to put it nicely.

I feel like it may be beneficial to try to move on in the near future but can't for the life of me figure out what to do next. Given this information what types of positions would you guys think that I should be looking at and what education can make that next move happen?

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Comments

kriscamaro68

If you want out quick I would just start looking at a Sys Admin job for a bigger company or look for a Sys engineer position.

ptilsen

How long have you been in your current position?

Your next step could be more of an "engineer" role, doing project work rather than break/fix and maintenance. Still, without deep experience in a particular area, it will likely still be a generalist type role.

I would focus on certs rather than education at this point. A graduate degree might be in your future, but not right now. CCNA and MCSA: Server 2008 would be better bets for now. It sounds like your experience is way ahead of your certs. I can relate, although being under-certified has never slowed me down that much.

VCP could help a lot if you really want to move into virtualization as a specialty, but it isn't as valuable in the more generalist roles, IMO, which is why I say keep pushing on CCNA and Windows server certifications.

That being said, I would definitely start applying now. If you play your cards right, there's no reason IMO that you can't get by without certs.

Apollo80

Just make sure that next job is "engineering", as in design and implementation work. Many administration jobs are mis-represented.

Akaricloud

I've been in my current position for about a year, which I understand isn't that long, but still feel like a move would be a good choice. I would love to move into virtualization as a speciality but the only positions I see open in my area all require 6+ years of experience with VMware which I don't have. I did actually interview for one but they truly were looking for someone with more experience. I'm not sure how to "break in" to the virtualization field with only a year of experience and a VCP.

I'm working on the CCNA now because networking is one of my weak points and ties in with everything else that I do. After that some of the Microsoft Server certifications may be useful but in a way I feel like they're only going to help solidify my current position, not help me move onto bigger and better things.

I'm not quite at the point where I'm willing to make a lateral move but it's starting to sound better every day.

ptilsen

Even a lateral move in terms of responsibilities can at least come with increased pay. Consider it if things are bad enough.

I think the Windows cert issue is big. Experience means a lot, but if I'm running a shop where we care about certs, the lack of any Windows server certs is a red flag. At my previous employer, an MSP, we would almost never interview a candidate without MCSA, MCSE, or MCSITP:SA/EA. That's extreme, but there are still plenty of shops that look highly upon Windows server certifications. Similarly, CCNA was a bonus for us, but not a must-have by an means.

It really depends on what you want to be doing, but to get into a more generalist server role, be it admin or engineer, MS certifications are big.

blargoe

I don't think you have enough experience to get a "pure" VMware job, or a "pure" design/engineering job, but you can certainly land another systems administrator job at a bigger company where someone else handles the networking, storage, phone system, security, and so on. Most VM experts seem to come from server administration first, dip into virtualization, and as they learn more about it, may wind up making it their specialty. In your case, if you can get in with a company that is big enough for you not to have to deal with the other noise (the phone system, security, etc), but small enough where the admin team also has input directing/recommending/designing the technology solutions themselves, you could be well on your way. You are still at the point where you're going to have more luck finding a job that is still generalist in nature, but you should easily be able to narrow the scope of what you are responsible for and develop skill in areas that benefit you.

How do you feel about working with storage? This is a critical adjacency that can differentiate you from the crowd.

RouteMyPacket

You are working as a generalist, unable to focus in depth on any one avenue of technology. What do you want to be doing? That is the question you must ask yourself. You are recently VCP 5 certified, ok so you want to be a virtualization engineer right? Well, then you say you are working toward CCNA. Hmm! VCP and CCNA are two completely different paths and that tells me you want to continue being a generalist, just one with certifications.

It doesn't sound like you have much experience behind your certs, so that could be a factor but at some point you need to make the decision "What do I truly want to do? Do I want to be a focused Cisco Engineer, Virtualization Engineer, MS Architect?" then make that turn.

I like you have been a generalist for over 7yrs, handling full blown CUCM/Routing/Switching/AD/SCCM/ESX/XenServer/Exchange/SAN environments all by my lonesome. With that said, my skillset is extremely wide and diverse and you rarely run into a solid generalist.

It is only within the last 4 months I was offered a focused Cisco role. It is definitely different and while I was working with Cisco the entire time, the grey areas have reared their head but it's been going well and I am now actively studying the Cisco certification track.

I would honestly suggest moving to another company with more opportunities. It just so happened I came to my current company as a sole Sr. System Admin and it was cake compared to handling everything before then I did some routing/switching work for the Director when he couldn't find his Network Engineer, needless to say a week later I was offered to transition to the Sr. Network Engineer role, a challenging prospect and interesting one so I jumped at it and I think you will find something similar, just with another company.

Good luck

Akaricloud

Ptilsen: I guess a lot of the reason I tend to not want MS certifications is I don't want to get stuck being a MS server specialist, although a lateral move may be quite beneficial at this point.

blargoe: I would definitely agree with everything you've said here. Bigger company would give me more opportunities to get in depth as well as move up in the future. I love working with storage but in my current position our storage needs aren't that huge which has left me with a limited amount of experience. It's not something I would really be qualified to go into at the moment but is definitely a path to look at.

RouteMyPacket: A CCNA compliments VMware and SA roles quite well. I see all too often people are unable to understand or effectively communnicate about even networking requirements from these types of roles and I want to avoid that myself. Additionally it opens up new doors in other directions but I agree that this mentallity may leave me a generalist for some time. As far as what I want to do I guess I'm still not 100% sure and finding it hard to devote my time to any one area especially while still having to deal with all of them on a day to day basis.

Making a move to a larger company seems like it may be the best of ideas for me at this point. It would likely come with better pay, new opportunities and hopefully the ability to focus into an area more specifically.

RouteMyPacket

Akaricloud wrote: »

Ptilsen: I guess a lot of the reason I tend to not want MS certifications is I don't want to get stuck being a MS server specialist, although a lateral move may be quite beneficial at this point.

blargoe: I would definitely agree with everything you've said here. Bigger company would give me more opportunities to get in depth as well as move up in the future. I love working with storage but in my current position our storage needs aren't that huge which has left me with a limited amount of experience. It's not something I would really be qualified to go into at the moment but is definitely a path to look at.

RouteMyPacket: A CCNA compliments VMware and SA roles quite well. I see all too often people are unable to understand or effectively communnicate about even networking requirements from these types of roles and I want to avoid that myself. Additionally it opens up new doors in other directions but I agree that this mentallity may leave me a generalist for some time. As far as what I want to do I guess I'm still not 100% sure and finding it hard to devote my time to any one area especially while still having to deal with all of them on a day to day basis.

Making a move to a larger company seems like it may be the best of ideas for me at this point. It would likely come with better pay, new opportunities and hopefully the ability to focus into an area more specifically.

A move to another company is really your option. When you do make the move you will find your CCNA will NOT compliment your VCP simply because they are two separate functions and large companies tend to segment their IT/MIS departments. You will have System Admins (your VCP goes here), Network Engineers (CCNA goes here), Storage Group (SAN and Storage Engineers here).

I have seen VCP/Storage blend but what I am getting at is that at some point you will need to find what you want to do and those opportunities are more possible with a move to a large company.

So many variables at it really won't "hurt' you at the end of the day carrying a CCNA with your VCP.

ptilsen

That depends how you define "big". I work for a company with 3000+ employees, 20-30 locations, $500M market cap. My previous employers have generally been in the SMB realm, so to me, this is pretty big. At my employer, IT infrastructure roles are not siloed in this manner. The admins are responsible for maintenance and break/fix of all systems -- network, servers, storage, backup; the helpdesk is one large team supporting all PCs; my team ("systems engineers") handles all new infrastructure projects.

I also interviewed for a virtually identical role at Blue Cross/Blue Shield, an even larger company. They wanted networking, storage, virtualization, Windows servers, Linux servers, and even Novell was a bonus. General Mills has a similar position called "infrastructure analyst," which they pretty descriptively advertise as a generalist role (without actually using that word).

I'm not saying this is the standard. I've also seen tons of positions for large companies that were clearly very specialized roles. They are probably more common (at least here, due to the relatively high concentration of Fortune & Forbes 500s), but the jobs I just described are not uncommon. There is still room in this industry for a true generalist.

Even outside of that, I'm sure there are plenty of companies that don't totally separate their storage from virtualization and networking. I'm sorry, but SANs + virtualization are just not that complicated that you need three or four different people (or teams, at that) to work on that particular solution. It is not crazy to me that even a larger organization would have one person (or one team) configure the entire virtual cluster right down to its network and storage. I've done it myself before, and while I'm far from an expert in any of those subjects, I didn't see so much depth that most organizations would need or even want multiple SMEs to get the job done. With that, I think CCNA does compliment virtualization because properly configuring the network is arguably the most critical and difficult aspect of delivering a highly available virtual infrastructure.

TLeTourneau

Well it does depend on size and culture. My company is pretty much completely segregated. Design, maintenance, virtualization, application (citrix), network, telcom and others are each seperate teams and seperate units in some cases. My compay has 58,000+ employees at several locations and ~$8B in revenue.

Akaricloud

I just wanted to thank everyone for the replies in this thread and provide a quick update.

I've accepted a Systems Engineer position in charge of big data systems. It'll be a refreshing change of pace, comes with a 40% pay increase and is truly the opportunity I've been looking for.

Essendon

40% hike + bigger systems! Done well there mate, make the most of it.

dave330i

Congratulations. Sounds like a nice step up.

Psoasman

Congrats! Nice move.

gbdavidx

Akaricloud wrote: »

I just wanted to thank everyone for the replies in this thread and provide a quick update.

I've accepted a Systems Engineer position in charge of big data systems. It'll be a refreshing change of pace, comes with a 40% pay increase and is truly the opportunity I've been looking for.

Seems like IT comes easy for you

Akaricloud

gbdavidx wrote: »

Seems like IT comes easy for you

I've just put in a lot of hard work and managed to take charge of a few opportunities.

lsud00d

Congrats Akari! Hard work pays dividends

Keener

Awesome! Cingratulations on the jump!

TLeTourneau

Congratulations!

ptilsen

Congrats!