Career advice from legit sys admins
Posted by Significant_Event320@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 23 comments
I've been working in M365 support since 2023, handling issues related to Exchange, Teams, SharePoint, and Office apps. I’m confident in what I do, customers often appreciate my help and have even sent emails to my manager recommending me for raises, but nothing has come of it so far.
Lately, I’ve been feeling stuck. The pay is low, and I don’t see much growth where I am. I’m 27 now, and I really want to do something bigger with my career. I’m not sure if I have it in me to learn programming from scratch, but I do want to earn well and build something better for myself. I just need to figure out what direction to take. I wonder if others have felt the same way at this point and managed to break out of it.
Ssakaa@reddit
So, step 1, step back from the start down the "stir crazy" path that feeling stuck brings and really work out for yourself a few questions. What motivates you? What do you define as "bigger"? And what, out of that, is missing in your current role? What do you like about your current role? When did you last feel fulfilled in that role, and what specifically triggered that (money, 'official' recognition, successfully solving a complex technical issue, a genuine private thank you, a title bump implying upward progression, some overarching organizational achievement that you felt was a positive thing in the world and you felt you contributed to)? And what tech/toys/concepts/etc. have had the most positive kick on grabbing/holding your interest over the past year or so? What are you willing to trade for more money/title/etc? What do you explicitly dislike in your current role (on call, on site, providing user facing service, etc) and how much of each of those are really dislike for that facet vs just amplified frustration from the bit of stir crazy?
If it turns out it really is just the "this job plateau'd", and no other concerns, that's the easy one to fix, once you find what you want to play with in the next role out of the list of what you find job listings for, pick up a bit of the skill, and go looking for the job. If you have other priorities like family time, specific paths of tech you want to break into, ties to wherever you call home that remove the "pick up and move" option from the list of jobs you can consider, personal life problems you're ignoring in favor of work, etc., you'll want to sort those out and plan your next moves with those things too. And, back to "bigger", if you just want more responsibility, you can find that too. If you want to feel like what you do matters, who you work for suddenly matters a whole lot more, too, and you'll want to figure out what impact you want to contribute towards, and find somewhere that aligns with that.
Significant_Event320@reddit (OP)
Wow, thank you so much for explaining it so deep, yes and I think regardless of the title and designation it is money at the moment which is my motivation, I am up for learning new skills and basically I want to do it in cloud and devops, but thinking what if I start from today and it takes me 1 year, till then AI may wipe out my prospects of getting a Job.
Ssakaa@reddit
The most likely option of AI killing prospects is the hype bubble popping and yet *another^ wave of layoffs adding skilled, hype chasing, filks to the competition. You know how to interact with tech, you'd be an ai herder rather than replaced by it.
Significant_Event320@reddit (OP)
I use AI but minimal, do you think I am not helpless but lazy to even start something and seeking help, and what if my inner self is just pretending of being stuck.... Why couldn't i switch as this feeling is with me for a long time now.
Ssakaa@reddit
It's clearly not helplessness or explicitly laziness, as you're not trying to defer all your efforts to a magic black box you don't really know you can trust. And, if your research without it is effective, you're just adding variables and complexity if you change in the middle of real work. All that's left is finding the time to dedicate to more practice in parallel if you want to give the new tool a chance. The fact that you're going into it knowing how to verify the output gives you an edge, if you do.
Pflummy@reddit
Just change your job there is so much more to learn.
Significant_Event320@reddit (OP)
Like how, and please I am genuinely asking for any suggestions, cuz with current skills and experience I am getting similar jobs.
Pflummy@reddit
I trained myself for about 5 years using YouTube,apps, and documentations.... Than I could convince my new employers I have the skills by demanding a "arbeitszeugniss"(sorry I don't know the English word) from my old employer. The zeugniss included many new skills. This was my way to improve my skills and get better payment.(I never wanted more payment just more skills) I had not much social life for about 5 years. After this I am having a spread knowledge 😌 on many topics. Sorry for my bad English
Pflummy@reddit
In short be nerdy :D I love my job it came all without big pressure
Afraid-Donke420@reddit
Lie and take chances
IdidntrunIdidntrun@reddit
Certs and job hopping are your best bets if your current job won't foster your growth. Not a difficult formula in theory, but in practice it will be a grind
Sufficient_Yak2025@reddit
Certifications are your friend, and even though you are avoiding it, programming (read: automation) are your best friends. Since you’re in the Microsoft world, read Powershell in a Month of Lunches. Do it as prescribed, one chapter per day, during your lunch break. In just one month, the entire trajectory of your career will shift. Then apply that knowledge to things you study for certifications. You’ll also be shocked at how easy it is to pick up Python after that.
whatdoido8383@reddit
Why not keep moving up in your current career tract? I kind of do what you do but higher up more on the Engineering side and with more Azure stuff too. I make decent money, \~$135K or so.
Significant_Event320@reddit (OP)
Wow man:) I really appreciate people taking their time out and telling everything from their heart, but you, you are the one I like to become, I want to earn decent plus with Azure experience for sure, what could be a way for me from here?
Like I don't know much about Azure. I want to build test everything in my testing tenant, that is how I have learnt many things. Please suggest something
whatdoido8383@reddit
I'm a visual learner. So I purchased my own M365 tenant with E5 licensing, copilot etc. I then pick a topic I want to learn about and dedicate time to dig into that. Sometimes I'll watch YouTube and lab in my environment, or read blogs. I also purchase courses on Udemy (or whatever platform you like) when they go on sale. I can do the courses and lab in my environment.
Yes it costs me $80 (plus if I spin up VM's or whatever) a month for my M365 environment but I'm investing in staying current and skilling up. IMO, just part of the career.
Jeff-J777@reddit
There is so much out there to learn. You could go cloud with Azure/AWS, networking, security is a huge one as well. You could focus on one and become a master.
Or be like me I am a jack of all master of none. But I can do anything from VMWare/Hyper-V. Backups, firewalls (Fortigate, WatchDog, PaloAlto), networking, M365, (Exchange, Teams, Teams Phone, SharePoint, Defender, PowerApps, Power Automate, Intune) Windows Server. I even handle our Barcode scanners in our warehouse. But I am not a master in any one area I did not silo myself, but I have a broad knowledge of a lot.
The question you need to ask yourself is what you are passionate about. Is it cloud, security, programming, networking, or M365??? For me it is networking, that is my bread and butter that for me is fun. Don't get me wrong I love all the other stuff as well but give me a good networking project and I am super happy.
But don't go do something for the money, in the end you won't enjoy it as much. You need to figure out what path you want to do and go from there.
What excites you in the IT world???
Significant_Event320@reddit (OP)
I may be wrong in introspection still, but couldn't it be because of money that I am feeling stagnant, I know M365 good now in this duration and work is not something which troubles me.
jakgal04@reddit
Just jump around. There's far more to sysadmin than just M365 and programming. I make just over 100k doing relatively basic stuff for local gov. Managing modems in cars, standard desktop support, drone support, manage a few basic servers, etc. Its a mixed bag job which I like because I'm not siloed into one category.
Significant_Event320@reddit (OP)
Happy for you ☺️, but will it sustain for long, and I have tried but couldn't get any response from that as well, doesn't make me sit though will try again
ciaza@reddit
Upskill yourself. Do you know PowerShell? Being able to interact directly with all MS software will help you any direction you want to take (assuming you want to stay with Microsoft stuff)
Significant_Event320@reddit (OP)
Yes, I know powershell and often use it for troubleshooting, my question is will upskilling in MS help me in future given the AI wipe out we are witnessing
ThePathOfKami@reddit
Been there, buddy.
First, are there any options for an internal move? Maybe there are teams that are really in need of support.
If not, think about whether you want to stay on the client side or switch to a different area — infrastructure, security, networking?
Once you’ve figured that out, ask yourself whether you’d prefer to work in the cloud or stick with on-premises systems. Different tools and technologies are used in each, so it's an important decision.
From there, it becomes pretty straightforward. You can work on the necessary certifications and within a year or even less, start looking for a career shift.
In my opinion, that’s the best path forward and gives you a strong foundation for your career.
Pro tip: What helped me figure out what I enjoy was a small personal project. I built a high-availability Kubernetes cluster on a web server that hosted my CV, which I coded in basic HTML, CSS, and JS. That project taught me a lot and helped me understand what I liked doing and what kind of tech I enjoyed working with.
Hope this helps you a bit!
Significant_Event320@reddit (OP)
It indeed does, thank you so much for explaining it in details.