[TriLUG] OT - home work assignment

[Magnus Hedemark]

On Sun, 7 Mar 2004, Merle Watts wrote:

> My son is going to UNCC and has a paper he has to write.  He is supposed to interview network admin type people and write  a report directed at people looking at system administration as a career.

Shouldn't your son be doing his own homework?

> Just wondering if anyone could answer a couple of his questions. 
> He doesn't know of any administrators that he can ask.
> 
> Onlly has 2 that he has thought of.
> 
> 1. What do you do an a daily basis?

I sit on a team with three other system/network administrators under a 
very technical manager who also gets his hands dirty from time to time.  
We serve a community of about 500 internal customers.  A little over half 
are employees and the rest are contractors/consultants.

When I come in every morning I review my system logs & reports from the 
previous 24 hours (which of course is a big job monday morning).  I 
address any abnormalities in the logs either right away, or for minor 
issues I add a support ticket to my own queue to address after the 
customer problems are handled.

I have a support queue that I watch that is comprised of several types of 
trouble tickets.  I am the first and last (and only) line of defense for 
Linux issues as we are primarily a Windows shop with a strong Linux 
minority.  This only consumes about half of my support time.  I also help 
with Windows support tickets as well.  These may be server access issues, 
remote access issues, hardware trouble, etc.  Whenever there are system 
warranty issues, I handle that for my end users.  I also spend a bit of 
time every day handling Human Resources requests to add and remove user 
accounts.   Lastly many of the IT/IS related purchase requests go through 
me for approval and ordering.

In the course of my work I might find an area where we're not doing things 
as efficiently as possible and I spend a little time automating those 
tasks with shell scripts.  I have almost fully automated the process of 
Linux workstation/server deployment and package maintenance, but there are 
always ways to improve it further.

I have to be ready to response to other issues as well.  Sometimes we have 
problems with people using the company Internet connection inappropriately 
(like listening to streaming music, or surfing porn) and I'm the guy that 
has to figure out who is doing what and address it appropriately.

Theoretically I should be spending a lot more time than I do on server 
maintenance but because of a lot of work spent on automating things, I 
usually head off most problems before they occur and the servers are 
pretty trouble free.

> 2. Whats the difference between a network administrator and a system administrator.

The line has been blurring the last few years.  But more historically a 
network administrator deals more with network infrastructure components 
like routers, switches, CSU/DSU's, leased lines, network connectivity, 
bandwidth issues, Quality of Service issues, VPN, VoIP, etc.

A System Administrator, more typically, deals with servers.  This can 
include setting up and maintaining user accounts and access rights, 
managing disk quotas, making sure that servers are spec'd out correctly 
and scaling as projected, applying software patches, automating common 
tasks with shell scripts, helping the desktop support guys with problem 
escalations, etc.

My job title is "Linux Network Administrator".  I'm not sure who came up 
with the title.  I don't think it's terribly appropriate, as my skillset 
is more in the System Administration side of the fence.  But I definitely 
do partake in the Network Administration as well.  I'm pretty much the guy 
they come to with security or network abuse issues.  I am empowered to do 
a lot of the router & switch configuration here, though that takes very 
little of my time right now (though that will change as I am to get my 
Cisco cert this year and become more active in Network Administration).

If your son is learning the "old" (i.e. from five years ago or so) job 
titles, UNC might be a little out of date.  These days, except at very 
very large companies, the lines have blurred between System Administrator, 
Network Administrator, DBA and Desktop Support Specialist.  These days 
you're expected to do a little of everything.  And I do.  If you work 
somewhere huge, like IBM, you can still be a specialist and even be 
discouraged from doing any kind of work outside of your very narrow job 
description.  Today's IT specialist needs to be a jack of all trades, and 
master of several.

I'm only half kidding when I say my job title should be changed to "Sr. IT 
Geek".  Does it sound ambiguous?  It should.  These days I even handle 
issues involving cell phones, voice mail, photocopy machines, fax, etc.

I think another interesting question for your son to ask before he invests 
himself fully in this line of work is: "How many hours per week do you 
work on average?"

I say this because the 40 hour work week has disappeared into mythology 
for most of us in this field of work.  I am probably averaging about 50 
hours in the office now, plus time spent at home handling some issues 
remotely.

Another worthwhile question to ask: "How long do you stay at a given 
company, on average, before taking a new job?"  I remember reading a few 
years back that the average duration of an IT job is about 2.5 years.  I 
think that number dropped sharply a few years ago but might be on the rise 
again.  It wasn't uncommon at all to see people bounce every six months, 
but I think somewhere between a year to two years would be more common.  I 
don't know the answer to this myself, and think it would be valuable to 
hear from others.  The guys who work for big universities are going to 
skew the numbers as they are notorious for staying at the same place for 
decades. :)

It would be interesting to see a plot, also, of the average salaries for 
IT geeks over the years, and extrapolate an hourly rate figuring in the 
actual hours averaged each year (taking into account the decline in 
vacation time offered by many shops, and the increase in hours expected).  
I think the results would be valuable to see, but probably depressing for 
those of us in denial about the state of the profession.