IT Career

JonM33 said:

Oh, I got to communicate with people as a system admin. I'd send off an e-mail to them to let them know whatever security groups I made, network folders I secured, distribution groups I added, etc. But that was about it. I'd usually get a reply of "Thanks" or get a question on how to add members to the distribution group, etc. At that point I'd just send pre-made instructions that I would copy and paste into a reply. The requests came in as a ticket, I would make the changes on the servers and send out an e-mail to notify them of completion. That was about it, day in and day out. I sat at my desk 99% of the day and the only friends I had worked in IT.

Compare that to when I did technical support for the last company I worked for. Everyone knew me and most people skipped calling the help desk and would call my Blackberry directly. I had a LOT of friends outside of IT simply because I got to get out and socialize while working on user's problems. I consider myself shy but I also need social interaction.

I have to laugh, I fair bit of that still goes on and email is the media of 'choice' .... if I had a dollar for ever new user I've had to create.... or every time I've typed mmc......*sign* :) But it looks like you made the move that suited you best. In the companies I've worked for the System Admin has been an integral part of support team call escalation, thus very sociable (or maybe it's just me? ) and involved with the clients high end solutions. The fact that two of my customers are now my references is proof enough of this for me. I think the company culture has a lot to do with it. If they're going to treat an admin as a button pusher then job satisfaction won't be high and nor will internal development as the support team misses out on an prime resource.

@Nano3 - Two fundamentals here mate. "Team Fit" and "Company Culture fit", they are perhaps more important to your career and development then choosing the right classes to study.

JonM33 said:

TimStitt said:

I have to laugh, I fair bit of that still goes on and email is the media of 'choice' .... if I had a dollar for ever new user I've had to create.... or every time I've typed mmc......*sign* :) But it looks like you made the move that suited you best. In the companies I've worked for the System Admin has been an integral part of support team call escalation, thus very sociable (or maybe it's just me? ) and involved with the clients high end solutions. The fact that two of my customers are now my references is proof enough of this for me. I think the company culture has a lot to do with it. If they're going to treat an admin as a button pusher then job satisfaction won't be high and nor will internal development as the support team misses out on an prime resource.

I think a lot of it has to do with Sarbanes-Oxley (aka SOX). Because of that a lot of IT departments have complete separation of powers. It's more so in large corporations than smaller companies.

Good for you that you have 2 users as references. When I left the last company where I did tech support I have about 200. All of the executives (CEO, CFO, COO, CAO) knew me. A lot of the companies directors, vice presidents and department managers did as well. I think it was the best job I ever had. Too bad I had to leave due to relocation.

You asked over 200 'clients' for a reference? It must make your resume more than a little voluminous to carry around. .

I don't agree the attributions to SOX, it's only publicly listed companies, began in 2002, not world-wide and definitely far from Asia (where I am) both culturally and logistically. In fact, without a doubt I have an entirely different view of it to that your nations past Government and perhaps yourself. However and Importantly, this thread is about helping Nano3 and offering advice and I don't think we should get off track. I've sent you a friend request so that we can compare admin war stories, talk politics or whatever away from the focus of this thread.

-Timo

@Nano - Apologies for our conversation getting carried off thread . I've put it back on track. Good luck with your studies and feel free to ask me any questions (if you have them )

We are having a SOX audit in my company in August.. EEEK!!

Hi Nano3,

I found an ICT Road map in my Uni files. You may find it interesting in choosing an IT study path.

With the exception of the XP and Server 2003 Roads being no longer available, I'm not aware of any changes in it.

- Timo