So you want to be a Systems Administrator? Part 3
October 29th, 2007 by James HicksPart 3 - Breaking Down the Door
So you’re faced with a paradox.
For a Systems Administrator, the most valuable thing on his or her resume is experience. People without experience simply cannot compete for a job against people who have it. This field is completely hands-on and practical - most of the skills and knowledge you use, you will learn on the job.
So how the hell do you break in?
del.icIo.us
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So you want to be a Systems Administrator? Part 2
October 28th, 2007 by James HicksSo I got pretty well to the top of my field - without going overboard and becoming a super-specialist / cranky old 20 year veteran, before I got promoted out of the field a few weeks ago.
Before the memories fade too far I wanted to write down what led to my success - and mistakes I made that others could avoid - so that aspiring sysadmins could take advantage of my past few years work too. Especially aspiring sysadmins who have what it takes (See part 1 of this series to find out if you have what it takes) because in my new job, I need more of you guys around!
Part 2 - What course to do?
del.icIo.us
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So you want to be a Systems Administrator? Part 1
October 27th, 2007 by James HicksWho am I?
So I’ve been a systems administrator in varying capacities for ten years. Things got really serious in 1999 when I became the main linux guy for an ISP, and went on from there into a small and medium business consulting/outsourced IT dept style business, on into a startup (yucky!), then to a large local government, then a large telco/ISP, and now a small/medium internet infrastructure company. I’ve worked on a range of operating systems in a number of different environments, but I ended up specialising heavily on Linux, obtaining an RHCE in 2004 and using it to leverage myself into big business.
Except as of a few weeks ago, I’m not a Systems Administrator anymore. I’ve been promoted to production support manager at my current workplace, and on reflection I better write down some of my knowledge and attitudes fast, before I forget it all. I’ve also been hiring them lately, so the quality of applicants - and the qualities I look for - have been on my mind.
del.icIo.us
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New Site
October 27th, 2007 by James HicksI wrote three articles on my old blog about ‘So You Want To Be A Systems Administrator’ - and the flood of incoming hits brought my old webserver down - twice. An athlon 500 with 384meg of RAM is fine for this stuff right up until you get a few hundred hits in a few seconds. The poor baby ran into swap, then ran out of swap and locked up.
So I’ve decided to relaunch those articles at a new site - with professional hosting. I didn’t want to mess around with mediocrity and el-cheapo servers, so I went directly to pair.
To anyone who’s put out or feels spammed by my relaunching the three articles - I’m sorry; but there were literally hundreds of people who tried to read them and couldn’t because of my crap old server.
After years of random topics on my old blog, I also realised I was going to be posting a fair few purely tech-related articles, and I realised I needed a new site to keep the signal to noise ratio down for my readers. I’ll still continue to update the old site - but I’ll post my ramblings and personal news there. This site is for the geek stuff alone.
del.icIo.us
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