While it's nice to be in an environment where you can specialize in one area, you run the risk of that technology becoming obsolete (we don't make very many buggy whips anymore). Although too much diversity in administration can be a bit challenging, having another specialty under your belt could help keep you employed. As an example, with PowerShell becoming more prevalent, Windows and UNIX don't see to be as foreign to each other as they once were.
From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Tanya Pinetti Sent: Monday, May 20, 2013 3:04 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [Exchange] Exchange On-Premise - Dying Skill? So I'm in this part of my life where I'm trying to decide if I should start looking at another IT skill to be a subject matter expert at. I'm not a Master level in Exchange like some of you, but I think I can rate my Exchange skills as above average. After all, I've been working on Exchange since the 5.5 days. With Office 365 really catching on and Microsoft heavily promoting it, I'm starting to feel that the Exchange on-premise skill is a dying skill. I took a look at the TechEd 2013 tracks and they're favoring Office 365. I then searched around the job search sites and could hardly find any Exchange jobs. If I were an IT manager, I would choose Office 365 as well as it just makes more sense than having on-premise hardware and maintenance. I went to a local workshop and by a show of hands, the majority of the attendees were either on and going to Office 365. I might be just paranoid, but I'm starting to think I should start looking at another IT skill. What are your thoughts about this?
