Path to a SysAdmin???

CCNTrainee

I always been somewhat of an IT guy when I was growing up as a kid, I started with hooking up cables for my family's TV, VCR/DVD, Game Console, Antenna. As I became a teenager, I would recycle old hand me down laptops and desktops that still ran on Windows 95, 98 and ME, and screw around in the operating system. As an Adult, I looked at Networking in my area of focus and got kind of lucky with the Military by getting sworn in as a Network Technician. Networking is what I want to primarily do for the next decade or so but I also want to broaden my experience and skill set. I don't know much about running a server but I would like to know what is a path to take for someone that is interested in becoming a Sys Admin?? Is getting MSoft certs a common thing for a SysAdmin, is that a good starting point?? I am not looking to become a SysAdmin master, but I am looking to be an all around technician in the IT industry and be a pretty effective maintainer. Thank you for any advice.

CodeBlox

For me, the way was through the helldesk gauntlet, then leaving that company to work at another company on an awesome helpdesk only to be promoted half a year later to sysadmin.

DevilWAH

CCNTrainee wrote: »

interested in becoming a Sys Admin?? Is getting MSoft certs a common thing for a SysAdmin, is that a good starting point??

Step one above Be interested and ready to work at it.

Step two is playing around with servers and networks, not as individual devices by how they connect and work together in a corporate environment. Using Vmware/virtual box/GNS3 to emulate and virtulise whole networks on a single desktop if you cant get your hand on real world equipment.

Step 3. Continue until you understand the basic interconnection of all the main areas of a working network. AD, Exchange, Servers, DNS, DHCP, switchs, routers, etc. Expect to spend your own time doing this if you want to fast track past your fellow help-desk engineers.

Step 4. Here you have a number of options, get some certs? Talk to management and demonstrate you have taken it upon your self to learn and want to get involved is some project (don't be surprised if the first one or two are boring, do them well and expect better things to come. Or alternately look for a new job, this is where the certs will really help making the step from help-desk to system engineer when moving to new company.

Just be realistic most companies only train people to do the jobs they are paying them for. Some might fund training to move up, but they wont push you to take it up. My way was to take some spare kit and build the entire company network from scratch in a lab environment. then spend the next 6 months playing with it, breaking and rebuilding it till I had a complete upgrade project fully tested and planed out. As a helpdesk engineer I then went to my boss and showed it to them and explained the benefits it would bring, what we needed to do, approx costs, etc. With in a few more months, after taking it to the senior management and having it looked over by a network support company, (for a sanity check seeing as I had no experience or qualifications in networking at the time) I had a network refresh and upgrade project to manage.

At work, work on your job. In your own time work on getting knowledge in the areas your interested in. Do both well and you soon have a reputation as a good worker and knowledgeable. Which pretty much sums up they kind of person people want as there sys-admins.

The Technomancer

Alternately, learn Linux, get a start on the data center end of things where both your OS skills and network skills will be used, customer contact is minimal outside of a ticketing system, and progress into systems administration from there. If there's one place where the Linux career path beats the crap out of the Windows one, it's that paying one's dues doesn't tend to involve an extended stint at helldesk or internal office IT administration. Data center tech -> Jr./mid level production operations or network administration is very common in Linux land.