How do you get ahead/stay up-to-date?
Posted by Nickisabi@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 10 comments
Hi Guys. I'm pretty new to the systems administration field, about 6 months in from the helpdesk. I have a pretty great job, good coworkers, pay is decent for being a noob. I have a wife and 2 kids and I try my best to come home and just focus on spending time with my family, but I am always feeling the ever increasing need to spend personal time studying for my next certification exam, or work on my homelab to explore potentially useful tech. It's for a good cause, since I want to increase my value on the job market and make more money to provide for my family, but the last thing I want to do is sacrifice time with my family that I can't get back.
I know it's a delicate balancing act and the answer is somewheres in between, but I'm curious how the average sysadmin deals with this dilemma.
enforce1@reddit
I research all day long. New technologies are all around, always popping up. If you are actively problem solving at work, new stuff is everywhere
My homelab is all basic proven tech, even it’s doing a bunch of stuff, and I haven’t needed a cert in ages.
TheTipsyTurkeys@reddit
Sounds exhausting
enforce1@reddit
I meant it’s a professional advantage for me that I like doing it and other people don’t.
-maphias-@reddit
^^this. You absolutely do not need to waste your time with certain. Only if you’ve got your eye on a job that requires it or if your current employer is incentivizing you to do it.
Holmesless@reddit
We need to take a break and experience life.
ElevenNotes@reddit
Simple: With your own /r/homelab.
poolmanjim@reddit
Here's my priority list
The first two will always fight each other for dominance and I'd be lying if I said I got it perfect. The best you can do is find a balance you can live with and that your family can tolerate. The last one is the one that should be cut into the most (and often is the hardest to cut into).
Study and Labbing can fit into the 2nd category if you work remote or have some hybrid days. If not, you can always study. Find an article or a blog or a book and carve up 30-45 minutes a day or every couple of days and block it off on your calendar if you can.
There isn't a perfect solution to finding time to improve your skills. And staying current is impossible if you stay too broad. Eventually you need to specialize some and focus on that.
Certs are tricky. They can be a boon or a curse depending on lots of factors. I personally found value in efforts to get certified and I really tried to retain everything. It made me better. However, updating those certs and getting new ones gets harder and harder with every passing year. It is a balance that you have to find worth in. If nothing else, use them as training paths to improve and forget passing the tests.
As one parent of two to another, I wish you the best and encourage you find little windows of study. You'll be surprised how helpful even the small windows can be. Above all else remember this.
"No one will remember you worked late, except for your family"
Don't miss out on life in pursuit of work. There will always be more work. Kids grow up and there is so much to miss.
BrainWaveCC@reddit
A. You don't. The landscape is moving super fast these days.
B. You don't have to. It is neither useful nor possible to know enough to be able to claim to be up-to-date in a broad sense.
C. Spend some time in places like this sub, and you'll be kept abreast of a lot of what you need to be paying attention to.
D. Pick 2 or 3 technologies that you're going to focus on, and stay in the right places to know major things about them, but don't over do it. Whenever something comes up, you'll be able to get up to speed on it in a timely fashion.
Don't ever forget this one, and you'll be good. Lost family time is unrecoverable.
The_C3rb@reddit
Oh dear sweet summer child... You don't :)
-maphias-@reddit
Don’t sacrifice time with your family for a job, no matter how well they treat you or how much you’re paid.
I love the work I do, I’m compensated very well and will remain loyal to the company. But there’s nothing more valuable than time. Once the day is over, it’s over.
You should want to advance your career but don’t sacrifice your own free time and precious time with kids and family to do so. Do you think the HR and finance folks go home and study new trends in HR and finance on their free time?
You should make time during the day or throughout the week to research, explore, attend webinars/demos, and evaluate new tech in a sandbox. And you don’t need to feel guilty about spending time doing it and that it doesn’t produce something tangible. Part of your job as a SysAdmin is to stay current, be informed, be aware of the trends and guide the company through the next generation of solutions.