The video seems to be broken, at least to me. I agree w/ most of what's been said on the thread. It's not easy, but part of the job (and part of the fun) is constantly pushing yourself to learn new things and tackle new technologies; as long as you still enjoy that part, it's a worthwhile profession. When (if?) you get to the point where that's not a positive thing anymore, that's when you run into trouble. I think as long as you do that - and maintain a decent resume, and make sure you don't work yourself into a corner (i.e. get so specialized on a specific vendor/ technology that you get to the point where you're only employable by one or two companies), job security will remain decent. The profession itself certainly isn't going away anytime soon, and the skills may change, but the benefits of experience (as long as you're flexible in the application of that experience) will outweigh the fact that some of your skills may be stale.
When I hire a senior admin, I'm hiring the sensibility, the mindset, the "been there, done that" experience, the ability to work independently, the ability to mentor younger admins, the ability to remain cool under pressure... all of those sorts of things, and most of those come w/ time and not w/ any specific training. A good senior SA will learn the skills they need quickly, but some of the scars you get from experience can't be replicated any other way - you have to have been through the firedrills and the emergencies and all of the rest of that. So I guess the summary is: the specific skills may have a halflife, but the experience does not. Assuming you learn and grow over time and don't remain stagnant. ;) Nicholas On Mon, Apr 23, 2012 at 9:35 PM, Deborah Wazir <[email protected]> wrote: > > > 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] > > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators > http://lopsa.org/ > >
_______________________________________________ Discuss mailing list [email protected] https://lists.lopsa.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss This list provided by the League of Professional System Administrators http://lopsa.org/
