Sysadmin-ing, and how to get into it

[eddy_qw]

Hi everyone,

I figure this is the best place to ask the following question: how would one best get one's foot in the door, if they'd like to be an IT systems admin one day? What sort of qualifications would be in order?

As a little background:
- I've always been interested in technology
- I have a soft spot for 'big' systems (don't we all :P)
- I play around with as much of as I can afford to on my own time (iSCSI, vLANs etc)
- I work in IT support (just the basic 'ok, go to start->run, type cmd, type ipconfig/flushdns, and try again for me?' sort of stuff unfortunately)
- I spend a considerable amount of time during said IT support shifts bothering the sysadmin with questions about the setup here, what he wants to do next, what he'd do if the budget allowed it, etc
- I'm halfway through a B. of Eng. (Computer Science)

How much of the above is actually relevant to getting a job in this area? Where should I look?

[infiltraitor]

Originally Posted by eddy_qw

- I spend a considerable amount of time during said IT support shifts bothering the sysadmin with questions about the setup here, what he wants to do next, what he'd do if the budget allowed it, etc

stop bothering him and see if he wants any help

[eddy_qw]

I probably shouldn't have put it that way - I meant 'bother' in the sense that when he isn't busy, I ask questions so I understand the systems that are in place. That way when things go wrong and he isn't here, I at least know where the problem is, even if I can't fix it.

Unfortunately there really isn't enough work for him to have an full-time assistant =\

[NSanity]

Are you in a capital city?

If so, go work for EDS, Volante, IBM, CSC or any of the other managed service providers. Push to start as a Desktop Tech (not call centre work) and cut your teeth there. Do well and someone eventually will promote you to NOC work.

Once you're doing NOC work - You're pretty much there.

[othy]

I imagine you'd have to do something pretty naughty to be punished to a life as a sysadmin.

--

othy

[jcorney]

read the faq on alt.sysadmin.recovery .

think real hard about if you really want to make a career out of being paged by PC's at 3am

[checkers]

I started working as a sysadmin just over three months ago. Previously, I had been working in call centers (Hellstra Bigpond and another company that places outsourced their IT department to) for about 6 months. Previous to that, I spent two years doing two semesters of BEng(Software Engineering) not really liking it all that much.

I play with lots of *nix stuff in my free time, and a lot of what I do now is what I've played with before (load balanced apache servers, database backend with live failover, samba, post mail servers with spamassassin, dns, backups, etc etc). It's a pretty sweet job

How did I get this job? I read seek.com.au & careerone.com.au every night for three weeks applying for every sysadmin job that I met the minimum requirements for and most of the ones I didn't as well. It was at least 30mins of time every night spent customising my cover letter & resume details for each application, but it was work it

[Dave31]

Show some initiative and apptitude!!!

As a young bloke I was doing Desktop Support and got sick of it, I noticed the Server Admin guys were doing 'more technical' work. I sat with them in my times of low work and asked the questions about what they are doing... I got to 'drive' and do some of their admin work.

I think due to showing an interest and learning (not just annoying and a question asker who doesn't retain knowledge) I was fortunate to get a temp position with the server admin team doing the lowest of low work that an admin could do (account management/creation/modification) But it was a good start to learn some basics.

Now that I've moved on considerably, I have the mentality that I will help those who help themselves. If you show to me that you are eager to learn and have some ability about you, I will take my time to teach you what you want to know.

If you happen to be one of those people who just want the quick few answers so they can regurgitate that in an interview, I will drop you like its hot!


clift notes: Show interest, Show skill, Show apptitude and SELF STUDY! (impress the guys in the current role)

[TehCamel]

where do you live ??

[eddy_qw]

I'm in central Melbourne.

Thanks for all the advice so far - most of it makes a lot of sense

[seamer]

Tradey skills come in handy too. There's an international building maintenance group that also contains systems as part of the agreement (the servers control things like cameras/dvrs/HVAC). They even write and maintain their own software for performing tasks within the building (doors, ac), that stuff is so niched it's a no-brainer as a skillset once you figure it out.

Them's being Honeywell.

[Fishmaster]

As said by others, show interest and willingness to learn, not to mention try and do some of it in your free time. One of the big parts for some sys admins is that work is there 24/7 and it will sometimes get you at the worst points (got to love those 4am phone calls). And as always keep an open ear to positions opening around your job or even through friends in other jobs, word of mouth of your skills and interest can help you a long way.

[metamorphosis]

You may find the following article helpful, or interesting:
http://blogs.techrepublic.com.com/hiner/?p=546
m@

[Tony]

find another career

i tell everyone i play piano at a whorehouse

[ewok85]

Originally Posted by othy

I imagine you'd have to do something pretty naughty to be punished to a life as a sysadmin.

Love reading my email on a monday morning and seeing what the NOC guys have been up to - usually some minor disaster in the wee hours that keeps them nice and busy

And from the FAQ -

10.) The pay in IT is good compared to many other professions, but since they pay you well, they often think they own you

Which includes having to do home PC support for the boss on a Friday night until 9am to do something retarded (like install parallels on a Mac so he can use Outlook - why use a Mac you ask? Because "it looks cool")