On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 8:41 PM, Edward Ned Harvey <[email protected]>wrote:
> > From: [email protected] [mailto:discuss- > > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Martin James Gehrke > > > > I do try to grow professionally as a sysadmin on the younger side, but is > this > > something I should be worried about? > > I agree with the advice given so far; it is confirmed by my own experience. I became a sysadmin in 1988 after spending a couple years as a manufacturing engineer. I stuck with it over the years, while having 2 children and moving several times for my husband's job. I've been laid off twice. This has sometimes caused gaps in employment where I forgot most of what I knew and had to learn it over again when I went back to work, plus all the new skills. Now the internet and open source has made it possible for me to maintain and develop tech skills between jobs. I told my husband he should think of my job as if I'm a musician, sometimes I'll have a gig & sometimes not, so don't plan for a steady income. But over the last several years I've gotten smarter about staying ahead of the layoff curve. I figure, there are always jobs to be had, and there's going to be less competition for the most advanced ones since there are fewer people able to do them. So, I have to always be trying to learn more and take on the kinds of responsibilities at work that are kind of outside my comfort zone. It's tough, because I thought that when both my kids went to college I would suddenly have the free time back that I had before kids; it hasn't actually been that way, plus my current job is pretty demanding in itself. But as time goes on, I feel like I'm on the right track, getting just that much more ahead of the layoff curve. If you have that mindset from the beginning, so much the better. You have to think of job security differently too. I never did develop the courage to be a freelancer, but my idea of job security now is always being able to find work when I need to, and I feel like I have that now. I appreciate the concept of networking better now, too - before, when I left a job, I didn't keep in touch with my coworkers, I don't really know why. I never had a role model to demonstrate any other way, maybe. It is getting easier with practice, and I'm pushing myself to find out when there are technical meetups in my area, and I've even attended a couple so far. I attended my first LISA conference last year, which was fantastic. When I was in college, one professor said a half-life of an engineer is 17 years. That was around 1981. I think it is just a few years for sysadmins. The bulk of the technical knowledge I've acquired in nearly 25 years of Unix sysadmin work, is obsolete, strictly speaking. And some of the "special" skills I picked up, would no longer be considered special, or even interesting - like being good at setting up modems, or getting documents off the internet using gopher or archie. As time goes on, you just have to let go of that old stuff, and stay curious and excited about the new stuff coming along that you can learn to do. I've found, in an interview, it counts for a lot not to be afraid of being put into a role where you don't already have the expertise, especially with a track record of rapidly getting up to speed in new things. As you get into more "Senior Sysadmin" roles, there is so much more to it than just technical skills. It's what we used to call soft skills, that we looked down on and avoided - definitely I did, since I didn't want to get pigeonholed doing clerical work. But if you can get good at that type of thing, too - it can make you a more appealing candidate when you look for work. See this talk by Adam Moscowitz here: http://static.usenix.org/multimedia/lisa10moskowitz/ "The Path to Senior Sysadmin", and this booklet by Mark Burgess and Carolyn Rowland https://www.usenix.org/lisa/books/sysadmins-guide-navigating-business-world. I still love this work, and the people I work with. It just keeps getting more interesting! -- Debbie Wazir [email protected]
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