How did you become a sysadmin?

Question

My brother-in-law is interested in computers and after talking with me for a bit decided he wants to be a sysadmin. He then, of course, had to ask the question "how does one become a sysadmin?" I realized that I could only answer for myself and that there were probably a thousand different entry paths that people could take. So I decided that I should try to collect stories from other sysadmins and aggregate theminto a blog post (or novella, we'll see how many replies I get).

Serverfaulters (is that a word?), would you mind sending me a quick narrative about how you got into your first "real" sysadmin job. What education and experience did you have at the time, what were the job's responsibilities, etc?

Answer 1

Yun quit

Answer 2

custom ms-dos boot disks to vary autoexec.bat/config.sys settings so i could play xwing on my 386 and have a working soundcard driver at the same time.

been all downhill since.

Answer 3

Started as a developer. Ended up asking lots of 'Why not?' questions to the current sysadmins about our web and app servers, which eventually resulted in 'OK, you do it then!'

Answer 4

Ten years ago my boss says: "we need someone whith knowledge about linux to migrate our novell netware server". I say: "I know linux". The truth is that I never had installed linux before, but I was bored with my current duties.

Answer 5

I started using Apple II computers in my local public library when I was 8 y/o. I was just drawn to them-- I can't say why. I can't remember not knowing Applesoft BASIC!

When I was 10 my father bought a white-box PC from a local guy and started using a DOS accounting package for his small businesses. I started playing with GWBASIC on the machine and was hooked. I decided that I was going to "sell computers" when I was older, after seeing the "exciting" lifesytle that this local guy had, what w/ having multiple computers in his house (some with color monitors, even!).

I did a lot of DOS programming. I got some Unix (Xenix, System V) experience after becoming interested when I read a manual at the local library. I started using Linux fairly heavily in the early 90's and was very, very excited to have my own Unix-like machine at home. (I remember installing from floppies... ick!) Somewhere along the way I acquired some various Commodore (C-64, C-128D, Amiga 1000) and Atari (800XL) machines, but I was never really into these platforms like I was w/ the Apple II and PC.

Out of high school I did some "odd computer jobs" for a couple of local businesses but wasn't able to garner any real business. I strung some thin-net on a job with a friend and did some "Windows for Workgroups" installs. I started doing "LAN parties" with friends. I remember being amazed at getting IP connectivity between a couple of Linux boxes on my basement floor over a piece of thin-net cable. After having used a lot of serial "Laplink"-style cables I was shocked at how fast Ethernet was.

I started at a local community college and ended up in an internship doing sysadmin work for a nearby K-12 school. (I never did tell them that the first time I saw Windows NT 3.1 was first day I was on their site and touched their "server"... heh heh...) I stayed there for a couple of years before getting hired by the local "mom and pop" shop.

I ended up staying at "mom and pop" for 7 years (perhaps a bit too long) doing stuff like building PCs and server computers, installing small office networks, and doing contract jobs for larger firms installing routers, switches, etc. I became the company's in-house sysadmin somewhere along the line, and eventually ended up managing some other technicians and doing project planning / quoting.

I left "mom and pop" to start my own business just over 5 years ago. Two partners and I are "outsourced IT providers" for a small (but very interesting and engaging) Customer base, and I act as a "hired gun" subcontractor for some small local IT firms doing work for them when they're in over their heads technically or have too much work to do. I grew up in a family that owned small businesses, so I always knew that I wanted to own my own business. It took me awhile to get there, but I'm happy with how things are working. I get to be exposed to a variety of environments, people, and business sectors. My occupational fate isn't tied to the success or failure of any one company, and I have a lot of freedom to plan my time (though, at the same time, a lot of opportunity to spend all-nighter after all-nighter doing work for different Customers).

Answer 6

I got into system administration via the desktop support route as many do.

My first job in IT was working for my school district after I graduated high school. I spent the summer working for a very experienced CNE who took the time to teach me a lot about Netware, networking and Windows (WFW at the time).

The summer after my first year of college I landed an "internship" at a large retailer's corporate headquarters working on a Windows 95 roll-out. I was an Electrical Engineering student, so it was more of a summer job then an internship for me (the others I worked with were finishing up associate degrees in various IT fields).

Once back in school I started a job working for one of the computing departments in the university. I started in a desktop support role and though a lot of hard work, was able to work myself into a lot more admin-type projects. Eventually I became a junior sysadmin and that was the last time I was primarily handling desktop support.

After graduating with my BSEE, I stayed in IT as a systems analyst/administrator.

For others that I know in this field, the route I followed is quite common - gain experience wherever possible while in college, land a desktop support or junior level role out of school and then work your way up.

Answer 7

How'd I become a sysadmin? Well, I was a coder for years. As I age, I seem to be getting lazier. Lazy coders make great sysadmins.

I'm sure eventually I'll turn into a networking guy. Probably the same year that I buy a lay-z-boy recliner.

Answer 8

In kindergarten (1992 or 1993? - I was five), I saw an Apple II and I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I will always remember this moment, as the "moment" I had an idea of what I wanted to do. Second grade rolled along, and my grandfather bought us a computer. It was a custom made beige box - Cyrix 486DX2, 8MB of ram, 512MB hard drive.

I guess I always found myself tinkering. I won a copy of Windows 95 in a newspaper contest. I made my town's website when I was 9, and then people started calling me to do desktop support. Fast forward to 16 (about 6 years ago today), the town didn't have an IT person and had a month to spend about $35k worth of stuff on infrastructure upgrades. So, they called me in and I ended up managing their IT infrastructure. For them to trust me at that age, well, I'm infinitely thankful to them, for the experience.

I kept that job up until last September, when I graduated college and took a full-time sysadmin position where i maintain a 100-server cluster used in electronic hardware design. I love it! I'm always implementing something new, and most of my users are great.

Answer 9

I did computer science in university, and was playing around with linux, and was involved with the local internet society, which was basically sysadmining. We ran our own email and web servers. When I got outta college I saw a job add for a junior linux sysadmin and applied. My real world experience helped me get the job.

Answer 10

I didn't see my first computer till I was bout 10 when my dad brought home an Amiga 500, and I was hooked. I moved on to an IBM PC10 where I learned BASIC by copying games out of a book. I got a birthday present of parts for a new computer and spent the next day learning how to put them together and install Windows 95 on it, it was the most wonderful feeling to turn on this thing I had built and it not only not blow up, but it actually worked.

I took A Level computing at school, which turned out to be a pretty badly run course and dis-heartened me. I'd decided at that point that going to University straight after school was a non starter for me, but what I was going to do, I didn't know, so I went to work in retail.

I got bored of that very quickly and and decided I definitely wanted to move into computing, and got lucky getting a pretty low paid job building PC's. I worked hard, studied and worked my way up to being a lead engineer, then decided I wanted an change and went to university. My degree plus having over 6 years experience have helped me land a pretty good job doing what I love.

Answer 11

Enlisted in the Army for a completely unrelated job. Made the mistake of fixing the commander's email. Voila! I became a sysad.

Answer 12

I always wanted to be sysadmin. Sysadmin seemed a very clever person to me, and I wanted to be clever. As a result I became sysadmin.

Answer 13

When I was younger, we had Atari computers in the home, an 800XL, a 600XL and a 1200XL if I recall. I remember going to a friend's house that had a C64, and another friend that had an IBM PC, and getting the concept of an operating system. Years later, an uncle pointed out that I could get a free Windows NT 3.5 Server disk sent to the house if I signed up online - so I did. Then I got a free NT 4.0 disk with a J++ retail kit for students. I started collecting operating systems, downloading and running oddballs like Lucent Inferno for fun, and of course lots of Linux installs, which lead me to the BSD's. Sun sent me catalogs for free, but never actual software unfortunately.

I remember reading about the Internet in the early 90's and thought "this is very cool", so I got a Pipeline NY account when I discovered they were offering very a early flat rate internet offering. I obtained my NT 4.0 Server certification in college just as it seemed the thing to do. My brother and I had an obscene collection of 486 computers that ran Quake fairly well, and we set up lots of impromptu LAN parties out of our house. At some point I dove in and bought a domain name (back when they were $70 a year) - and shortly after ran a web, email, FTP and gopher server on NT 4.0 on a 33.6 modem that I left dialed up all the time on a spare phone line. I got a job working helpdesk for Gateway 2000, and actually enjoyed it - but the few calls we would get about networking only whet my appetite.

My second computer oriented job I was interviewed as an "Internet Marketer" (SEO before we knew what it was called) - but they had no systems administrator. We shared our boardroom with a local Sun rep, and I remember pointing to Sun posters on the wall during the interview and saying "Oh, I'd love to run one of those." They had two SPARC Station 5's set up on a dual channel ISDN line as a web server and email server. I never did a single Internet Marketing related task. I managed our SPARC stations, installed our NT domain, all of our workstations, and eventually on to our clients machines - and finally, I was a "SysAdmin". Wait, no, even better - I was the SysAdmin.

Answer 14

I think I did something horrible to someone in a previous life and this was my punishment. Anyone else feel like that?

Answer 15

I got my start in college, being part of a two person tech team for 2 departments. I got to know a lot of real world problems, that classes just didn't cover. I learned more at my job than in classes. I applied for a network admin job, took it to get more windows exp ( as the college ran novell) took that exp and got a much better job network admin job.

btw I left college with a degree in French.

:: No real correct answers, should be a Community wiki ::

Answer 16

been making extra $$ fixing people's computers since I was 12. At 14 I had a summer job working in a large IT company. And I moved on from there - first a CNE in Netware 3, then on to WinNT, and from there to Linux.

Answer 17

I fell in love with computers a real young age. I got a shell account on a 16bit UNIX server when I was a young'n. A bit later I got accounts on some Vaxen. I enjoyed the power and simplicity of the systems and kept digging in and kept learning as I went.

While I was in the Navy I continued playing with various types of Unix remotely and on PCs. I played a bit with SCO Xenix, i386BSD, and some SysV variations. Then, about 92-93, I installed Yggdrasil on a PC. That was followed by machines running Linux distributions from Slackware and several others.

About this time I also started helping a mom and pop computer store supporting their customers running vertical apps on a couple UNIX variants in exchange for parts. Then after another transfer I did some more consulting work for a couple companies including a small ISP.

When I left the Navy I decided to pursue systems administration fulltime. That was over a decade ago and I still love the technical challenges.

Answer 18

If he wants to do it the hard way, he could first graduate from a bussines school and get a job in a firm that has a few computers and is full of employees that do not diferentiate a floppy from a CD. Then he could start helping other employees computerwise: an excel table here and a disconnected cable there, but enough to get hooked. Than the firm could buy more machines and get more employees, so he could be encouraged by the firm executives to extend his computer maintenance duties (not yet called system administration) to attending a network. A few years later he could become a full time sysadmin in the firm, neglect his bussines school education and never look back. Than he could move to a bigger firm with more sysadmins and specialize in auditing...

Answer 19

I was a developer for many years, but got older (now in my late 50's). Sysadmin eventually seemed to be a better fit, probably because it's closer to a management role, gives me a little better visibility within and outside the organization, and allows me to use my accumulated experience to get involved with many of the "big picture" projects that are going on at any given time. And yeah, I guess I like being "root" :-)

Answer 20

When I got out of college, I interviewed at a few places for dev jobs, but most of them looked really horrific.

I ran into a really unique DBA/Unix admin job that had some programming and dived in. I've always loved figuring out how stuff works, and the work is much more interesting than most corporate dev gigs.

Answer 21

I became a sysadmin totally by accident. In the late 70's, I was working as a journeyman locksmith, and had stopped into Radio Shack to buy some electronic parts for a door alarm I was designing and building for a McDonald's restaurant. Rad-Shak had TRS-80 Mod III on display, and a Blackjack game was booted. It asked me for my name.. I eagerly typed in "Buttface"... It happily shot back, "Hello Buttface, let's play some Blackjack" and dealt out the hands. I thought how stupid that some machine that had been claimed to be such a coming force did not understand that "Buttface" was not a valid name. From there I became curious on how computers worked and thought, and set me on a course to go thru some home-study courses on Microcomputers and Microprocessors beginning with the Z-80.

Eventually time goes on, and in the 80's I am working for Ma Bell as a PBX tech in the Bay Area. I put a BBS online which becomes one of the most popular in Silicon Valley using that TRS-80... Soon I meet a 'c' coder who wants to collaborate on writing a unix-based multi-user BBS.. Together we created the monster BBS in Unix, and it ran for 8 years.. Until Portal, Prodigy, and the internet took over. By then, I was well versed in scripting, Unix, and working all day for Pacific Telephone and all night doing Usenet and BBS file maintenance.

Long story short - I became a SysAdmin because of a hobby that went totally out of control, and all because one Rad-Shak display computer years before thought "Buttface" was a valid name... It didn't hurt that a manager in a corporation I was working at doing telco and dumb Wyse-50 terminal wiring adds, moves, and repairs allowed me to move from the network side into the Sysadmin side. I believe they recognized that Unix was (and still is) my passion...

Answer 22

I fell into it. Studied programming and wanted to do that, but took on a junior helpdesk job as a means of getting on the ladder. A junior Oracle DBA (tape monkey really) vacancy opened, I expressed enough interest to be given a try at it, and years (not to mention a few other moves) later here I am.

With hindsight it's much better than a pure programming job as my abilities there are more on the very low-level technical side rather than the LOB app side and a sysadmin role fulfils that nicely, as well as giving me shiny toys to play with and sufficient variety to keep the interest levels always high.

Answer 23

I broke my PC over and over and fixed it repeatedly, often with help from a local computer store. I built a second PC, networked them together with 10Base2, shared printers and so on and fixed those problems. I went on to college to earn an MIS degree and found a part-time job doing website maintenance and a later job doing desktop support. From that position I moved on to several higher-level and higher-paying positions as a Sysadmin.

Answer 24

I started out in desktop support. I was sure I wasn't going to stay on the first tier long. I started looking at my co-workers and thinking about each of their jobs, and thinking would I like that job? I decided I wanted to be a sysadmin. So I went and found a job that was part support/part programmer at a place that needed more sysadmin work. I then leveraged my skills into that arena. I also went to night school for some formal training which was good for learning best practices without a senior admin to show me the ropes.

After that it's all been downhill.

Answer 25

You don't mention your brother-in-law's qualifications, other than in interest in computers. I guess you can see that a lot of us sort of fall into it in our current environment. Like others, I tinkered a lot in my personal time and then started helping out in the IT group at my college. I am not even sure how you would get started from the ground floor, which is why I ask about his current qualifications/situation. If he just likes computers and thinks a sysadmin job would be fun, then I would suspect some kind of training is in order. If he has some experience with computer support and feels comfortable enough with a helpdesk-type job, I would say that would have to be the place to start.

Answer 26

I was always interested in computers from a very young age; my Dad was interested in computers and we always had one at home. I learned as much as I could from him, and then turned to library books. In high school, I talked my way into becoming a teacher's assistant and participated in some projects where I learned even more. I also helped out during the summers.

After graduating high school I studied computers post-secondary and got a diploma. I wasn't allowed to go for a degree until I had at least 2 years work experience so I headed into the workforce. It was difficult to find a job in my field, but eventually I got a job as a draftsman (I took some drafting in high school). The company didn't have an IT department. Most employees were gamers and just sort of muddled through everything. They knew how to put a computer together, but didn't know much about selection of components and had no clue about post-install configuration. There was a bit of conflict by having too many people "helping", so I convinced the boss to pick somebody to be in charge and he picked me because I had the most experience and training. Being the sysadmin was always a part-time gig there; my primary responsibility shifted from draftsman to technical editor to customer service rep to web developer.

Times got tough and a few of us got laid off (this was long before the recession; they lost all their sales staff for various reasons). As I was walking out the door, I got my next job. I worked for a year doing mobile IT services (not Geek Squad) and my new boss also hooked me up with contract work from IBM. I gave it a year, but wasn't getting enough hours to make ends meet. They were sad to see me go, and I was sad to leave.

I was getting sick of fixing other people's problems and wanted to do something different. I spent a few months working in a warehouse as a shipper/receiver and forklift driver, but it wasn't working out so I started looking for another job and eventually quit when I couldn't stand to be there anymore.

Pretty quickly after that, I got hired by the company I work for today. I'm an analyst, which means I still get to do a bit of sysadmin-type stuff and a bit of programming-type stuff, but it's not primarily my responsibility.

Answer 27

I started my first 'real' IT job working on the companies helpdesk. From there I made a point of trying to work more (in a day to day sense) with the other sysadmins in between my heldpesk duties. From there is just kind of evolved (both within that job and with subsequent jobs).

One thing that has served me well is my background in programming (I did a CompSci major). Although none of my jobs are programming roles, being able to script and automate tasks has made my life so much easier. It also helps when working with the in-house developers to try to solve a particular production problem.

Answer 28

Boy Scouts

My old scoutmaster hired me as a contractor after I graduated and, conveniently enough, the VMS admin retired at the same time my contract was expiring. He then hired me full time as the new VMS administrator (ugh, twitch twitch twitch). I was fairly decent at just about everything we needed and as such got my hands into just about everything. Except network infrastructure. I don't have the patience or the mental capacity for that.....

Answer 29

I distinctly remember sitting in the library in 8th grade, reading "So you want to be a systems analyst?" When I got to college, I enrolled in CompSci. I had a full time job as an engineer tech at the time, the guy who managed the CAD network got a promotion, and couldn't manage the network and do his new job. So he came to me and said "you're studying computers, right?" All of a sudden, I'm the admin for 5 HP-UX workstations, and 6 PC's all networked over Thin-Net. Since them I've managed Novell, AS/400s, Windows NT, Windows 200x, Linux. Ironically, the shop I'm at now is primarily an HP-UX shop, so things have come around in a circle.

Answer 30

I was an IBM mainframe systems programmer when they brought in this box with RS/6000 stamped on it and said "it's got IBM on it, you feed it". So my team applied the same disciplines used on the mainframe (maintenance, security, backup, change control) and grew it into a pretty respectable UNIX cluster. This was at the peak of mainframe vs PC war and there were clearly separate camps. Now we are all bi-lingual admins as comfortable in UNIX as the mainframe with multiple career paths.