"What do you do"
Posted by pancakeman2018@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 126 comments
I've been asked by a very successful software engineer in a rhetorical way "I don't understand what you people do" back in 2015.
It basically implied that I held a useless position, after explaining I administer servers, build networks, migrate VMs onto new hosts. The senior fellow I looked at back then versus now has made me realize he had a very narrow mindset.
Fast forward to 2021 and now the all encompassing IT world includes battling sophisticated phishing and ransomware attacks proactively, in addition to many other duties.
Basically, if anyone is wondering what we do, just come on over and try it out sometime. It is a lot of mind numbing work, to put it nicely. There are aspects I really enjoy, and aspects I hate with a passion.
vass0922@reddit
I take the requirements from the customer and I hand them to the developers
hurkwurk@reddit
As i have moved from system support to a more senior position in management, i have discovered, this is an actual skills set that is very important in an organization, and people that can comfortably speak customer and also understand dev jive/screech, and translate back again, are fucking priceless.
even better when they can smooth over the shit flinging both sides inevitably want to lower themselves to, in order to cover their own failures or design, explanation or choice. A communicator is worth twice what a good programmer is in most cases. you can iterate on code problems, you cant iterate on customer satisfaction.
vass0922@reddit
Completely agree! It's difficult to understand the questions to ask a customer that's not overwhelming them with tech jargon but still get as much relevant information as you can
The tech guys don't want to deal with all the jabber and documentation they want to get the job done and move on to rest of the list.
Exalting_Peasant@reddit
Its even more than acting as a translator. Its understanding what people really want, vs what they think or say that they want, all while setting expectations and asking the right questions. It even sounds kind of easy, but solving people problems is often a lot more of a grey area than solving technical problems which are more black and white.
jchaven@reddit
You physically take the requirements from the customer?
vphan13_nope@reddit
I HAVE PEOPLE SKILLS!!
ansibleloop@reddit
I'M A PEOPLE PERSON GOD DAMN IT
bbqwatermelon@reddit
How do you even do that between all the meetings?
sloancli@reddit
I run a small IT dept. in a company with 10 locations and 500+ employees. Here's is how I've described our Mission and Vision. I point to it whenever someone asks this type of question.
IT Dept. Mission
Guarantee access to seamless tools and technologies that maximize the up-time of our colleagues working on behalf of our customers.
IT Dept. Vision
Imagine an average workday where IT technicians walk around the office to check on their colleagues who cannot remember the last time they had to submit a ticket to the help desk, all equipment is clean and well maintained, and you return home at the end of the day fully satisfied that everything will still be working the next morning.
joerice1979@reddit
If anyone wonders what we do, have us not done it for a week or two and see how things look then...
Also known as:
"Why do we need you? Everything works fine!" "Something has gone wrong, what are we paying you for?"
Long_Experience_9377@reddit
"Why isn't the automation that assigns these tickets to various teams working?" Because I'm on vacation. I'm the automation. Because it's not possible to make automations do critical thinking.
Agoras_song@reddit
The way I explain if I need to, to the higher ups, is that we can create rules. I say, "If you define the rules, we can create it and make one task less repetitive. However, if a ticket, or task requires judgement (I don't use critical thinking because some of them lack that), it can never be automated, unless you break down the judgement into rules".
It's been working well so far, and everyone is on the same page. Sometimes, some smartass tries to ask "but why not" and you need to give them an example and put the ball in their court like "Okay, in this specific scenario, would you categorize it as A or B?" -> "Why" -> "So that's judgement based on your experience, not the rule you told me about" -> "Unfortunately it cannot be automated".
Long_Experience_9377@reddit
True true. There's only so much we can do, and users will always find a way to thwart the best automations. :-)
Agoras_song@reddit
Yes, definitely. I have successfully trained my users to understand that anything with 'judgement' is impossible to automate. If they give me clear rules, it's easy to do, and I will enthusiastically do it too.
Darkhexical@reddit
Most tickets have a keyword assignment you can do. Other than that most reliable form of automation for that would probably be an LLM attached with a model but it would still get some things wrong. Best option: Assign emails for the different teams that way they just email the right team and ticket is automatically assigned correctly. No need for any thinking.
J0LlymAnGinA@reddit
That assumes the users will send the tickets to the right place.
Which isn't likely.
Long_Experience_9377@reddit
Exactly this. Most tickets come in by way of email and there’s a fair bit that fails to fall into the existing automations due to user laziness. Plus we have separate teams for certain systems so a generic “it’s not working” could be three different teams and it needs some guessing.
Mailstorm@reddit
If you're system's break in a week or 2 you aren't good at your job sorry to say. The only excuses to this are factors outside of your immediate control such as physical failures or deadlines (like certificates or licensing)
joerice1979@reddit
Thanks, yes. My retort wasn't exactly deathly serious.
Though not sure about your realm of admin (which might be a little more focused than mine), but in my two weeks the number of:
MFA resets, new users, ACL changes, bosses with new iPhones, new machine rollouts, email borks, restore requests, I can't get my second monitor to work, the spell check is in American English, the boss has lost their iphone...
...would remind users fairly quickly of our value.
Setzer_SC@reddit
Bingo. Imagine someone not changing a baby's diaper for a full day. Shit will start hitting the fan rather quickly.
Ok-Bill3318@reddit
If you have a large enough fleet, low failure rates occur
simulation07@reddit
Janitor
sys_admin321@reddit
Bob, I’ve got 5 bosses.
dustojnikhummer@reddit
I beg your pardon? 8?
flunky_the_majestic@reddit
Eight, Bob. So that means that when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will only make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.
WWWVWVWVVWVVVVVVWWVX@reddit
What would ya say... ya do here?
DueActuator6755@reddit
I talk to the customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills! I'm good with people dammit! What the hell is wrong with you people?!?
Lol delicious
GhostC10_Deleted@reddit
Ew imagine talking to c*stomers
Setzer_SC@reddit
Goddamn customers*
Stompert@reddit
And they all agree on the course of action, right?
… right?
lazylion_ca@reddit
At least in the movie, the bosses were consistent and on the same page about what they wanted. They even had a memo outlining the procedure and made the effort to (tell their assistant to) forward him an up-to-date copy, instead of telling him to look it up and review it.
He also didn't get pulled into a meeting about it and given a performance improvement plan.
Nomaddo@reddit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NDYaw4LkQEg
AhYesTheSoldier@reddit
From crimping cables to mouse batteries and to network & server management
No_Investigator3369@reddit
You can reply "have you always coded in sandboxes or is this your first time on real infrastructure?"
tuvar_hiede@reddit
I work in technology, I don't even tell people I work in I.T. because they don't get it. I've come to the conclusion of I tell them ill be asked to troubleshoot some random desktop or cellphone issue. I haven't worked help desk in over a decade at this point. Telling them technology is just easier.
Hynch@reddit
I worked at an MSP for 10 years and we constantly got customers complaining that they have no idea what we do or that they can't justify the cost. Sure Bob, I drove down here yesterday just to show you how to plug in Janet's monitor after you decided to move her desk to a closet. Does that help explain things?
No_Investigator3369@reddit
Its more about the value. Society doesn't value people who understand IT. Because there are plenty of people lining up and willing to pretend or half ass it. And those people tend to scar non-technical people with the downtime and outages they create.
No_Investigator3369@reddit
Just be glad digital dookie doesn't plumb itself unless its all running on 1 box. So just like plumbers, there will always be a job. To be honest, I'm making about $180k now dealing with BGP, vxlan all kinds of other issues I am underpaid for. I'm am going to be pretty happy on the back half of my career to slide back into a $60k desktop admin who just pretends they don't know why the printer doesn't work and white glove submits a ticket on the users behalf. I could buckle down from here, learn some python and IaaC this whole place but seriously, the pay just is not worth the stress. And lets stop pretending IaaC is going to stop the 1am phone call.
dominus087@reddit
Oh. Shuts down prod
Hear that screaming? I make sure that doesn't happen.
fcewen00@reddit
I had a C level complaining my help desk team and I weren’t addressing tickets in a timely manner. I challenged them to a shift on the phones. After the end of the day, they thanked us for the experience and we never heard a peep about us being lazy again.
Smelle@reddit
I told my boss I will stop doing what I do for a few weeks.
CharcoalGreyWolf@reddit
I don’t understand what you people do. You just seem to make software I have to make hardware solutions to run on, support users and the company in,….Oh waaaait….
isuckatrunning100@reddit
The mouse batteries aren't going to change themselves
thenewguyonreddit@reddit
That GUI ain’t gonna click itself.
isuckatrunning100@reddit
10 years of experience in ClickOps
Ziggy_the_third@reddit
I'm stealing this, and putting it on my LinkedIn.
wanderinggoat@reddit
Taking horses to water, but they are too dumb to drink
IJustLoggedInToSay-@reddit
Lol we used to call these folks "Space Monkeys", because all they do is press the red button when the red light turns on and press the green button when the green button comes on.
thatpaulbloke@reddit
I genuinely once had an interview candidate tell me that he was an expert in PowerShell because his current job involved running PowerShell scripts. Not writing - hell, from what I could tell he'd never even read them - just running
Perform-SomeAdminTasks.ps1 -ASetting 'what it says in my script to use'.Ssakaa@reddit
Ah, a month of experience, 120 times.
isuckatrunning100@reddit
Sterling-Archer@reddit
When I first started, I used to change the mouse batteries for the receptionist. Now, 20 years later, I change the mouse batteries for the CEO.
Hebrewhammer8d8@reddit
Does the CEO give you a raise for the batteries change with stock options?
frac6969@reddit
I plug in the charger cable for the mouse for the CEO.
isuckatrunning100@reddit
6 years in. Same.
unkiltedclansman@reddit
The tips in apple pencils don’t sharpen themselves!
scrittyrow@reddit
How many admins does it take to screw in a apple pencil tip?
codyturntrout@reddit
I didn't know they unscrewed...
Happy_Kale888@reddit
That hits close to home....
Vivek_2004_m@reddit
Kindly provide downtime
Sufficient-Class-321@reddit
If anyone asks what it is I do I dont answer, I just book two or three days leave
They'll soon realise exactly what it is I do
Ok_Conclusion5966@reddit
very successful software engineer in a rhetorical way "I don't understand what you people do"
he must not be very successful if he has been asked or questioned the other side, just wait until something breaks or he needs to design, architect and implement a solution he'll be begging
MagicHair2@reddit
https://youtu.be/T_D3d1RWBrI
sakatan@reddit
Jup, that
sakatan@reddit
I usually just link to Gilfoyles rant and say "that".
RetPallylol@reddit
"I clean mice when they get dirty"
flecom@reddit
if you are old enough you had to clean their balls too
Happy_Kale888@reddit
I am puzzled by the term "fast forward to 2021"...
icebalm@reddit
Because an LLM with a busted clock or an old training data set wrote it.
flecom@reddit
jesus I am so tired of reading "This is AI!!" posts, they are honestly more annoying than the actual bots/AI posts
pancakeman2018@reddit (OP)
In the old days, Symantec Endpoint Protection was golden.
In 2021, it's trash.
hooch@reddit
You're aware that it's currently 2025?
pancakeman2018@reddit (OP)
Yes but the Symantec golden years ended around 2020ish
imnotaero@reddit
Post starts in 2015, so it tracks, I guess.
OP probably has some personal OPSEC policy to wait ten years before ranting on Reddit about something somebody said. If we all could be so restrained.
hurkwurk@reddit
"I don't understand what you people do" I take this as a complement. it means they have never needed me. because shits working.
I tell people the old joke when they say stupid shit like that.
"I don't understand what you people do"
."we keep the ghosts out of the office"
"no really, what do you do"
."have you seen any ghosts?"
Big-Floppy@reddit
"When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."
nullpotato@reddit
The gold standard for IT
Logical-Gene-6741@reddit
I do a lot of managing of endpoint detection. It’s boring. But it’s going to make me moneys
Manwe89@reddit
From Sillicon Valley:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_kBnV9vLBw
What do I do? System Architecture. Networking and Security. No one in this house can touch me on that. But does anyone appreciate that?
While you were busy minoring in gender studies and singing acapella at Sarah Lawrence, I was getting root access to NSA servers. I was a click away from starting a second Iranian revolution. I prevent cross site scripting, I monitor for DDoS attacks, emergency database rollbacks, and faulty transaction handlings.
The internet, heard of it? Transfers half a petabyte of data a minute, do you have any idea how that happens? All of those YouPorn ones and zeros streaming directly to your shitty little smart phone day after day. Every dipshit who shits his pants if he can't get the new dubstep Skrillex remix in under 12 seconds.
It's not magic, it's talent and sweat. People like me ensuring your packets get delivered unsniffed. So what do I do? I make sure that one bad config on one key component doesn't bankrupt the entire fucking company.
That's what the fuck I do
Hour_Rest7773@reddit
https://youtu.be/QMDf5MSE0LQ?si=3rd3dYEP3_YofBwp
mnemosis@reddit
that's what the fuck I do
IT_vet@reddit
I wouldn’t worry about the software engineers tbh. They don’t know what you people do because they honestly don’t understand it. I’m a network engineer and they have no idea how the network actually works or what considerations need to be made to preserve wan bandwidth.
When they tell you they don’t understand what you do it’s not an insult, it’s reality.
AbolishIncredible@reddit
If software developers make the cars, sysadmins build the roads
tuxedo_jack@reddit
"I'm the guy who gets paid to tell people who are probably on more uppers than a hot air balloon 'no, you don't get to do that unless you want to have people in alphabet-embroidered windbreakers show up to knock on the door with a few dozen black Suburbans and a warrant.'"
Or...
"I'm the guy who does his job. You must be the other one."
vogelke@reddit
Love this. Straight into my quotes file.
icebalm@reddit
Did chatgpt write this or a different LLM?
goingslowfast@reddit
This isn’t always mean spirited.
Devs know dev stuff, sysadmins know sysadmin stuff.
Many devs don’t know what a vCenter is or what a cluster is. That’s fine, we’re a team!
wakojako49@reddit
lol this reminds me the recent news of xAI guy exfilling all the code to openai.
“why do we need IT when everyone is working in IT”
g3n3@reddit
More powershell and less click-ops
Verisimillidude@reddit
https://youtu.be/2-OQhot_ml0?si=NXO3h2soGbMDCYbs
bingle-cowabungle@reddit
That's about the kind of attitude I would expect from a software engineer, my single dumbest demographic of users. I would rather deal with HR.
digiden@reddit
I fix the problem you didn't know you had, in a way you won't understand.
Iamanerd1@reddit
I just tell people I’m a janitor with a computer and network cables.
Zane_Adams@reddit
“I don’t understand what you people do” -software engineer
The proper response is “I take the requests when your shit code tanks the systems”
angrydeuce@reddit
I just tell people im the IT equivalent of a plumber. They use pipes and I use network cables, but at the end of the day were both just making sure that all the shit the company produces efficiently flows where it should without any clogs.
Schnaupps@reddit
I use the mechanic analogy with the wires being 'roads' but yeah, same.
csmflynt3@reddit
I work on everything that has an IP address.....
BoltActionRifleman@reddit
We help people who we suspect have trouble figuring out their zipper each time they go to the bathroom operate their computers.
TinderSubThrowAway@reddit
"I make sure everyone else can do their jobs"
CyberpunkOctopus@reddit
Also, “I make sure the systems everyone uses work so they can do their jobs and we all get paid.”
Ok-Bill3318@reddit
Nobody wonders how the water supply works until it doesn’t either
TheOnlyKirb@reddit
"I do everything, except ERP, please don't make me touch that- the system it's on? Sure. But nothing more"
Mailstorm@reddit
So many people on their high horses. If you can't explain your job you either aren't good at it or you do way less than you think you do.
And for what you said "battle sophisticated phishing and ransomware attacks" what does that even mean? What exactly are you doing to do that?
For the others that say "everything you don't" what is that exactly?
I'm not afraid to say it. Most of the time most of the things I got going on are totally optional and brought on by myself. What I do is basically "I try to improve user experience by improving existing processes or introducing new technologies and processes and "If something was working and suddenly doesn't, I fix it"
sovereign666@reddit
"Yes debbie, thats a malicious email. I will update our spam filter"
closes ticket
"I do what others cant"
olizet42@reddit
"I haven't seen you at the camouflage training, private!" - "Thank you, Sir!"
Different job, same thing.
fredbeard1301@reddit
Sounds exactly like my CIO. 20 year developer right up until he made CIO. He has no idea what I do, won't even attempt to understand it, and thinks developers built everything I use.
goldenzim@reddit
I'm currently trying to learn laravel. I'm quite proficient in php already and I use it in sysadmin work to write front ends to interact with back end system services. So for instance. I have a bunch of ansible and bash that I want to automate. I set up a mariadb database with all the variables I need in the scripts and then have the back end bash stuff reference it for operation and then create a front end gui in php to make it clicktastic.
My point is coming, I promise!
I'm a sysadmin first and I can do some cool stuff with servers and networks and containers and virtualization and all that. But that stuff seems like child's play once you start looking at the swampland that is the coding world.
The frameworks, the CSS bullshit, the error handling, the sheer mashup of languages in use today is staggering.
So I can see where the dev guys are coming from with that attitude. No, sysadmin stuff is not easy but when you are outside it and looking at code all day. It sure does look like it's easy to manage a few servers and a few applications as your day job.
The reality is that it's all hard now, in 2025. To be a good systems guy or network guy or developer. These paths all take 100 percent dedication.
zweite_mann@reddit
I know someone who works in banking. He says he does "coding" he's paid pretty well for it and I'm assuming it's COBOL. But that's all he knows.
He applied for another job that used Python and was unable to translate any of his skills and was let go.
Meanwhile, I can pick apart and debug most code, even if I've never touched the language before.
Because we know the fundamentals of how it works, regardless of OS or language.
Its obviously great being paid well to know how to do one thing well, but I'd get damn bored.
With the ever changing popularity of frameworks, it almost seems a waste sometimes to dedicate so much time to the learning curve of one specifically.
DasaniFresh@reddit
I’m a one man show. When people ask me what I do, I just say everything IT and electrical related.
ITguydoingITthings@reddit
"I make what you do possible."
Complex_Ostrich7981@reddit
“Most people don’t even know what sysadmins do, but trust me, if they all took a lunch break at the same time they wouldn’t make it to the deli before you ran out of bullets protecting your canned goods from roving bands of mutants.”
We are doomed to know the truth while having to accept the reality
Valkeyere@reddit
"I'm expected to be an expert in anything that has anything to do with computers. In reality I'm really good at learning on the fly and passing it off as knowing what I'm doing."
derfmcdoogal@reddit
Jim Halpert:
I have a lot of work to do this afternoon. Those mines aren't going to sweep themselves.
unixux@reddit
His lack of understanding reflects a lot more about his personal qualifications than anything about the profession of herding literally all this shit for all of the time for all of the people.
L3TH3RGY@reddit
I will sometimes say I work on servers, networks, PCs, and I'm a therapist. Tell me why this email is important
WhatNoAccount@reddit
Bro I’ll bring prod down, don’t make me turn off your test environment.
Caldazar22@reddit
I try to prevent people from shooting themselves in the foot. On the occasions that I fail, I clean up the blood.
Crotean@reddit
I like this one.
kidmock@reddit
I say IT is like any other industry profession. Like Medicine or Construction. There's the high-level field and there is expertise under that field.
Like a Plumber and an Electrician are both in construction. They have expertise that don't make them interchangeable.
Same goes for me.
So what do I do? The most simplest answer is "I am technical support to technical people"
For a more humous answer, google "What does Gilfoyle do"
Crotean@reddit
The things thats difficult is we almost never get to just learn one thing and get good at it unless we are working in very large enterprise. We are constantly adding another blade to our switch army knife, the constant learning is exhausting.
CowardyLurker@reddit
Me? i’m the guy that does his job.
You must be the other guy.
hainesk@reddit
I like to look at it as we are the ones who have to put ourselves in the minds of every software or hardware engineer that designed the products that you use and rely on every day, because even though they created them, we are the ones who are ultimately responsible for them.
mouse6502@reddit
I answer in the exact way Elaine did when asked what she did for Mr. Pitt.
“….Whatever”
Zakgyp@reddit
"I babysit you and your wise-ass coworkers." is my go-to
SlapcoFudd@reddit
I like you
Fuzzmiester@reddit
"You don't understand? That's why we're employed. Because you don't understand. You have to know your programming languages. So do we. And how to configure all the servers securely. And how to build a secure network. The systems we administer are not the servers, though they are part of the systems. We make sure everything fits together, so that when you push code, it hits your deployment pipelines, and eventually flows all the way through to production, in a safe, secure and sane manner. Now go away before I replace you with claude.ai ;)"