where to start

programmer24

After of weeks of doing soul searching as to figure what type of IT career I want to pursue, I decided to pursue a career in network/database administration. The reason of pursuing a career in network/database administration because I am very interested as to learn more about installing, configuring and troubleshooting networks and databases. Right now I am currently studying A+ and to me I feel that it is easy because some of the networking stuff that I learn was in school. also I did troubleshooting my computer and did an internship at my school for the summer. Also I am still looking to get my feet wet in IT even if it is helpdesk or something that is entry level where I can gain experience. The question I want to ask since I only had up to one year experience should I apply to jobs and also do they provide on the job training just in case if there are any additional stuff I need to know

RoyalRaven

Just from what I typically see, your best bet might be a systems administrator path first. In larger organizations, networking and database folks are usually on different teams. If you do one or the other exclusively, you'll get extremely good at one, but likely less exposure to the other. Smaller organizations you can do both, or potentially get more exposure to both depending on how many people are in the department.

System administration will build the fundamental core items you need to understand both. If you want to do database installations, it’s often someone who has the infrastructure background of a sysadmin as you’re going to be dealing with the operating system heavily. If you really love database work, it’s not hard to move from a sysadmin role to a full DBA role and you would likely have the knowledge to build the system from the ground up. I can’t tell you how helpful it is for the DBA to understand the OS their database is running on! With sysadmin work, you’ll also get a decent exposure to how the networking side works. Not routers and switches directly, but you’ll get your feet wet. It’s a good way to find out if you like networking without going full-on. Many sysadmins move directly into networking too after seeing more about it.

The thing I've read about on here and seen myself is that DBA work is often something learned a couple of years later after you learn/master a couple core IT roles. It's requires understanding of operating systems and some programming, but it ultimately comes down to understanding business concepts and applications. Databases are very "business heavy” and make a heck of a lot more sense once you understand it from the non-IT side. Getting a solid understanding of how applications interact with databases will make the job easier. It just takes time to build that level of comprehension, so DBAs are often grown as business analysts or programmers first, then move into the database work. (I did a bunch of database/business classes and learned a little code with college classes – definitely didn’t start cold!)

Either way, being a sysadmin will give you flexible options and you won’t be locked into a single area of IT...unless you truly would not enjoy any server work or diving deeply into the operating system functions....then I say try either networking or db straight on, but expect it to be a higher learning curve initially. Hopefully this gives you another avenue to think about moving forward... The path to sysadmin work is often helpdesk then junior admin role then system administrator. If you’re a bit luckier, you might find an organization that is willing to train you directly into sysadmin work and let you grow into it slowly, but likely you will have a few years of other work building up to that point....so just keep learning what you can at a pace that suits you. The journey will take a long time, but keep working on it and you'll get where you want to be.