Shane Yoder wrote:
> Hello,
>
> I just recently joined LOPSA and have contacted the LOPSA Mentor
> Program about becoming a LOPSA Protege. I'd like to request some advice
> from professional Sysadmins regarding my education and career path as
> I'm working on transitioning into a career as a Sysadmin.
(SNIP)
Hi Shane,
I can't answer all those questions specifically, as there just won't be a
single best answer. I have been a sysadmin
for quite a while, and have had the distinct pleasure of hiring sysadmins, so I
know what *I* look for in a candidate,
and what characteristics I've seen in successful sysadmins. AT work and at
conferences, I've had the opportunity to see
some of the best in the business.
In general, no two syadmins have taken the same career path. There are as many
paths as there are people.
These are sweeping generalizations, and there are many exceptions to these
rules (who will all speak up!).
First, more education/training is better, especially when you are starting.
That education doesn't have to be formal,
or a 4 year degree, but *I* believe that many people will get broader
experience faster with training and education
(perhaps combined with work) than *only* on the job. What I've seen is that
people who have exclusively learned "on the
job" know what they've needed to learn to keep the lights on, unless they can
generate a fair amount of free time to do
a lot of independent study.
This education can come from formal education (leading to a degree), training
(leading to certifications), or the school
of hard knocks (experience). More is better. More breadth, more time in the
pilot's seat. You learn by a combination
of gathering knowledge and doing.
Build systems and networks and tinker! Read books, like Theory and Practice of
System and Network Administration
(TPOSNA). Read blogs, such as Everything Sysadmin, The Lone Sysadmin, and
Standalone Sysadmin (and the LOPSA blogs).
Note, however, that I've seen an amazing number of successful sysadmins with
degrees in history, music, psychology, or
languages. But the one thing that these people had in common (from what
they've shared with me and what I've seen) is
great mentors and great sysadmins to learn from and a deep curiosity and
self-motivation to learn and do new and cool
things.
Smart people know smart people. That's often how they got that smart :-) If
you get into a job situation where you can
learn from your co-workers, that will be a huge win. You can learn an amazing
amount about sysadmin from the people you
work with and the entire sysadmin community. Ours is a culture of
storytellers. We pass a huge amount of information
through oral tradition. Read (and post) in mailing lists and forums. Read
(and post) in IRC (#lopsa). Visit local
sysadmin groups wherever possible. Get your company to send you to LISA and
perhaps SANS. Learn to network at the
"people" level as well as at the packet level.
(You're already off to a great start by getting involved in the mentor program!)
At the earliest points in your career, you will probably want more breadth of
knowledge than uber-deep depth. For
example, you will probably learn a *lot* about the basics of several OSes,
networking, security, backups, storage, IT
processes. As you progress, you will probably find yourself becoming more
interested (or at least more involved) in a
fewer number of areas, but to much greater depth. That's when sysadmins focus
on security, storage, large-scale
installations and automation, to the point that they become an expert in a few
fields while still increasing their
knowledge in all aspects of the field.
As to which operating systems.. Whichever ones you need and whichever ones
interest you! Why only be a Linux/UNIX or
Windows (or Mac, or network or storage or database) admin? Integrating clients
and servers from all three of the major
OS families with networking and storage (and databases and...) is often
needed. Consider Windows clients with
applications on Linux or Solaris servers. Linux-based storage used for Windows
and Mac clients. Windows + IIS as an
internal intranet server with Windows and Mac clients. You never know what
you'll encounter or what you'll need to
build yourself. Be a sysadmin, where "sys" means most any operating system, or
networks, storage, databases, etc.
I've literally forgotten how many operating systems and programming languages
I've used over the years. Each one taught
me some lesson that I could universally apply later in my career. It's the
lessons I learned that are important, not
where C puts the "{", or syntactical differences between Perl4 and Perl5, or
the difference between some specific system
call in Linus and Solaris. It's the lessons and the problem solving skills
that mattered in the long run.
Welcome to LOPSA and welcome to the profession. I look forward to seeing your
blog, and someday reading your books and
contributions to the field.
All the best,
--tep
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