Question for any sysadmins out there.

[luciusad2004]

How do you get in to your line of work? What sort of program do you take in college? I'm in Comp Sci at the moment (well, I was but that's on hiatus for a bit) and i haven't really learned anything other than programming. I love comp sci but I always found working w/ hardware interesting as well and wondered what you have to do to get in to this line of work. Anyone know of any website were i can find out what sort of stuff is involved w/ your jobs? I was just curious about the other options out there in the tech world.

Thanks for any replies.

[simon275]

I am not a sysadmin per say but I do some of the work involved.

What year of your degree are you in?
What other experience do you have?
Knowing a few Linux derivatives inisde out(Debian, Redhat, etc.) and Sever 2003 is good. Also same basic networking is a plus for trouble shooting.

I know some people start out doing help desk stuff and doing basic work like changing passwords and such and then move on from there and either go into implementation or maintenance.

[luciusad2004]

I am not a sysadmin per say but I do some of the work involved.

What year of your degree are you in?
What other experience do you have?
Knowing a few Linux derivatives inisde out(Debian, Redhat, etc.) and Sever 2003 is good. Also same basic networking is a plus for trouble shooting.

I know some people start out doing help desk stuff and doing basic work like changing passwords and such and then move on from there and either go into implementation or maintenance.

Honestly I don't have any real experience, thats why i was asking because i wasn't really sure how to get in to it. Most of the stuff my school offers seems to be more oriented towards programming. I've always been sort of interested but I'm not currently in an environment to learn much except what i can read online. But i find i learn better when i can practice stuff vs just reading about it.

I'm in my second year of my degree but I can't go back to school until I finishing paying off my debts (currently have it down to $2700, I work at walmart and generally have 300-400 a month to give the school towards payment), Once that is payed I'll probably do a semester of part time work at a community college just to get back in the groove and catch back up with my math (review.)

I'm not asking so much how to get in to the industry but more, were to start out w/ gaining the necessary knowledge. I'm just really confused about how you get started down a path towards this sort of career.

Its probably a dumb question lol, i just thought i would ask because i seem to recall their being a few sysadmins floating around.

[Datech]

I guess I qualify somewhere between Sysadmin and IT manager right now, so I'll pipe up.

First step: Check and see if any of your local or preferred colleges have a Co-operative Education (co-op) program or an Internship program. A lot of times these programs aren't pushed too hard, but they are there, especially at colleges that offer technical degrees like Computer Science. Most of the time local tech firms will employ students from local colleges in order to 1. pay them less because they don't have a full degree, 2. snag a good technical employee early before they start swimming with bigger fish.

To those that don't know, co-op is usually just a paid internship, and an internship is just working while you are in school for little or no money. I am a student at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and their co-op program is structured like a contract. You are obligated to work at least three alternating semesters, and you work/school year round by alternating work and school semesters (or quarters depending on the school. I.E. I am working this semester from Jan-May, then schooling summer semester from May-Aug, then working Aug-Dec, schooling next Jan-May, and so on.

I recommend you pursue co-op positions while you are still in school to the fullest extent. Most will pay between $10-20 an hour, and if you are a CS major then you will most likely get picked up for an entry level IT position at some local tech firm. That is exactly what I did, and I am a Computer Engineering major (basically low voltage hardware design), and in my second semester of working I am already the company's IT manager for a 100 person tech firm. Right now I handle everything IT for the company, servers, laptops, repairs, troubleshooting, networking, etc, and next semester I have the choice of continuing as the IT manager and developing the IT department, or moving over to Solution Development and working with a in-house development program. If that path is what you are interested in, then by all means pursue the co-op or internship program NOW.

And having said all that, I come to the other first step: If your college situation doesn't offer the opportunity of co-op or internship prospects I would recommend consulting a temp agency. These days everyone wants to be high end IT gurus and be the be all to end all sysadmin. That leaves many companies searching for competent technical employees to do the dirty work, i.e. entry level positions that stingy managers don't want to pay more than $40k a year for. The medium sized businesses will usually contact a Temp firm to fill the entry level positions, and the small businesses will post ads on Craigslist and the like. I'm not entirely sure how the temp agencies work, but a foot in the door is a foot in the door, stubbed toes or not.

Hope this helps, and just keep developing your skills and you'll eventually get picked up. Don't let employers scare you with the skills that you don't have. 90% of my job skills have been learned through on-the-job training. You can and will learn a bunch of BS in school that you will never need, and honestly upwards of 80% of everything you will ever do at any entry level job will have been learned through on the job training.

[luciusad2004]

Thanks for the input, I'll have to flip through my schools catalog and see what they offer. I don't remember reading about any co-op programs but i could have missed it. It would honestly love to work co-op. That's more than i make right now at Walmart and probably at least a little more enjoyable.

[thrash]

I agree with datech. I am a technology administrator/network admin at a school district. I am 22 and I have been working here for 3 years. I started off at a local community college, taking MIS classes to be a entry level tech. I loved the courses and worked hard for my instructor, when he took notice he got me this job at age 19. I started off at 21k per year, and now i'm at 31k per year.

Education is a BIG plus in getting a job, but i'm here to tell you that if you put the work into it anything can happen. If you are interested in hardware/networking, do some free work for businesses around your area. Once they get your name out for fixing their problems, you will get some very nice clients. For example, I have a real estate agent that pays me about $500 per visit. Sometimes I spend 1 hour, and sometimes it takes 5 hours. Either way, its amazing money for the time spent.

[halcyonforever]

It can be a hard field to break into sometimes. For me, what got me into it was a skillset combination. I know IT/computers on a casual basis with the minor certifications but no dedicated study (degree in media). I went to work for a credit union just as a job, but focused on learning the buisness model and processes. Then when a credit union needed an IT position, I applied not just having IT knowledge but knowing how their particular systems worked and buisness needs. It really clenched the job for me and has been very useful everyday to know how my users actually do their jobs, so I can make it work that much better for them.