Lum, What you described is a good admin, i.e., one who keeps the lights on and no one notices when he does "stuff". If that describes any of you then your 80% there. What separates the great ones from the 80% is the ones who can;
1. Think long term and strategically 2. Able to communicate technical concepts and solutions to a non-technical audience 3. Budgeting (capEX and opEX) 4. Capacity planning 5. Project management 6. Leadership\Coaching of subordinates Personally, I hate being viewed as a mechanic, as there is much more than IT than break\fix\patch. My $.02 Shook From: David Lum [mailto:david....@nwea.org] Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2009 1:01 PM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: Our job description of sorts... Random yet relevant post for the day... I was asked by a fellow employee what I do here I came up with this. I changed it from "I" to "we" for posting here, but figured it pretty much described any sysadmin... The stuff we do is only noticed if we don't do it, and even then in some cases we'd have to neglect it for a very long time for anyone to notice. Our job is not for someone who needs constant feedback on how they're doing. Some stuff we do isn't noticed by ANYBODY but us, yet it's stuff that needs to be done. Think of us as a mechanic that does regular maintenance on your car without you ever taking it in. You don't notice it as long as the work is being done, but you notice it if it ISN'T being done... One thing I didn't mention is they can't tell when you have a bad sysadmin unless you have a good one to compare it to, and even this it's not always obvious to the uninitiated. Which brings up the question, how do you guys tell a good admin from a great one? What do they do differently? David Lum // SYSTEMS ENGINEER NORTHWEST EVALUATION ASSOCIATION (Desk) 971.222.1025 // (Cell) 503.267.9764 ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
