On Thu, Aug 27, 2009 at 10:00, David Lum<david....@nwea.org> wrote: > 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?
This description is good, as far as it goes. We are noticed when we fail, but we are also noticed when we implement new systems, and upgrade old ones into new ones, and thereby introduce new functionality, which users tend to fear or sing hosannas. The stellar sysadmin is one who plans ahead, is a good teacher of end-users, works well with the customers to implement the new functionality, and communicates really well when things go wrong. Kurt ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
