Take on new job at same company? Risks?

Hi all. I have been a sysadmin for about 7 years after undergrad, and that's literally the only experience I have in IT full-time. I have worked for three different companies and currently find myself working for an excellent company with great benefits, good pay, etc.

I currently perform a typical large company sysadmin role -- projects, builds, decoms, maintenance, incident response, patching, etc. I am very happy where I'm at and have an incredible team and have a very decent work-life balance despite the typical 24x7 on-call rotation you'd expect from such a role.

That being said, I often wonder if I'm limiting myself by never branching out away from this one very specialized role. I am very good at my job, respected, and will likely receive a promotion to the next paygrade this upcoming year. Even though the team dynamic is great, I understand that all of this can change in an instant (new leadership, team member quitting, reorg, etc).

I was recently tapped to assume a role on a different team that would have me performing an entirely different job function. Instead of system administration work, I would be more of a SME and consultant enterprise wide for the direction of UNIX infrastructure and security in our environment. I would be the guy who learns about new technologies, networks with vendors, negotiates contracts, and researches and builds new technologies within a lab environment to test for viability into our enterprise.

This would be a promotion paygrade-wise to the next level (which I would still reach in my current role), but would take me out of the loop for any production related sysadmin work. I would no longer be on-call, and could see this improving work-life balance dramatically.

All of that being said, do you think that would be a smart move? It's a risk, I understand that; however, I'm hoping that this is a logical step forward into progressing my career and opening up new opportunities.

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Comments

networker050184

What is the risk? Seems like a nobrainer to me. I'd definitely be ready to move out of ops after seven years personally. You get to move forward in your career, get a pay raise, learn new technologies and make decisions that impact the business. Sounds great!

DatabaseHead

Different take here....

And I quote

"I am very happy where I'm at"

You like your current role
You are very good at your current role
You are assured (it seems) a promotion

Assuming the pay is near the same I would personally stay. You get an in-line promotion without the stress of learning a bunch of other stuff.

That's an easy one for me, stay.

You'll get other opportunties down the road if and when that time comes.

Mike7

Are you still learning anything new in your current sysadmin role? Can the operations be further automated, outsourced or moved to cloud? As you mention, everything can change.

By moving, you are stepping out of your comfort zone. In return, you get a pay raise, learn new things and expand your portfolio. How big is the risk?

RHEL

I see both sides, as you all have mentioned, which makes it quite the difficult decision.

Looking at it overall from a career progression and future progression perspective, the new opportunity does seem like a higher level role that will expose me to a lot of new skills -- contract negotiation, proof of concept building/testing, RFPs -- while still allowing me to stay current in an area that I love (UNIX). I have also been on some sort of 24x7 on-call rotation for the past 7 years, so dropping that is a major perk.

For my current role, I do not think that I have to fear getting outsourced, laid off, etc. But... who knows? The bigger fear is that a key player will move on (quit or retire), and the wonderful dynamic as I know it will change. I very much like my team, manager, and day-to-day responsibilities... Though, I also fear I am much too young in my career to get caught up in the comfort of a routine that I simply do very well.

I think either way:
1) I'll see a slight pay bump soon
2) I'll still be at my company, so I'll still work with the same people and maintain the same great perks and benefits
3) I'll receive plenty of training in both roles -- I think I received 4-5 weeks of paid professional training this year alone. The new role will also likely let me take whatever training/conferences I'm up for taking

Seems like it's not too bad of a situation either way I swing it. I think I need to be patient, get a better understanding of what the new role would mean as well as the details for transitioning, and then make a feeling based on what feels like the best move.

I hope by then, the right decision becomes a bit more clear!

Russ5813

Sounds like you're very comfortable in your current position-- probably a sign you need to move on. And like you said, you may not be at that company forever. Invest in yourself and take the opportunity to beef up that resume as job security for the future.

DatabaseHead

It's impossible for us to give you advice better than you are capable of coming up with, assuming you are reasonably sane and competent. I am making the assumption you are.

Only YOU know what objectives you want to achieve. Without those it's impossible for any of us to provide good advice.

Without presenting your objectives who knows.....

UnixGuy

Yes you are very comfortable in your new role and this means it might be time to move on

Which is exactly what you're doing now ==> accepting a new role within the same organisation.

as networker said, it's a not brainer to me either. You will gain new skills and move up from sysadmin

congrats!! you've done a great job!