So what am I? Duties and responsibility
Posted by Wild_Competition_716@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 110 comments
Recently was talking with my coworkers that Systems Admin is broad but not exactly the best title for what I do, so what am I?
I handle/have, Domain Admin, Azure Global Admin, OneDrive/M365 Admin, Hybrid Exchange Admin, DNS, DHCP servers, Vmware ESXI admin, Hyper V, backups, Apple Business manager, Intune MDM management, 3 Data center sites, 2 hot, 1 cold, 200VM's, 1 critical zero trust site, cross-trained on access control, SIEM escalation and logging, ADFS, Azure, AD, GPO, DFS, Fileshares, OAuth, SSO, Intranet sites, manage and configure meeting room hardware, Camera surveillance administrator, tier 3 escalation, cjis certified, and other wonderful government data standards - on call and hourly exempt status (not salary) for about 70k in USA.
Been in this role about 2 years, would not quite think the word senior would be in the title but maybe based on the responsibilities.
adx931@reddit
You are headed for burnout. That's what you are.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
You’re telling me it’s not supposed to feel like this?
antilochus79@reddit
No printer management? Can’t really call yourself a Sysadmin without that. ;)
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
I forgot to mention those… we have 5 managed printers vendors, each dept can have their own managed printer provider so GF, MoM, xerox, cannon, etc can do as they please. They typically call once on site for a new DHCP reservation and SMTP rely information for scanning. 3 print servers about 250ish MFP’s total
antilochus79@reddit
You have to be working in either Education or Healthcare to have such a huge print environment on top of your other duties and getting paid so little.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
Government! Every elected official does as they please as they are "chosen by the people", likewise their staff demand printers to eliminate their walk to a printer and blow 10's of thousands of taxpayer dollars in the process. Example, a clerks office has 3 MFP all beside each other. One for certified mail types, one for color copies and trays, one for legal and odd sized paper.
Throw secure print and badge secure printing in there, each dept at their own discretion with that as well.
nerdyviking88@reddit
This 100% sounds like they need to centralize IT and procurement, regardless of what the elected want. I'm not sure how Ohio does it, but I"m used to only like 10% of Dept Heads being elected, the rest appointed.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
We had centralized IT, due to there being no Data board it is at the option of the departments to play nice and play with our standard department.
This has led to some departments going out and getting their own staff that they dont have to fight over and or share with the help desk, but are still IT, but not a part of the central IT department.
The County level is a nightmare for elected vs appointed
antilochus79@reddit
That was my next guess!
Large governmental organizations with fragmented IT are pretty rough; it’s like the post-secondary environment where every college/department has it’s own IT structure and resources.
eman0821@reddit
Managing printers is not always soley part of a Sysadmin role. I work entirely in cloud that's 100% Linux. No Windows Server, No AD.
antilochus79@reddit
It’s a joke about how much Sysadmins in certain industries get dumped on with all manner of systems to support.
whatdoido8383@reddit
A sucker? Lol, kidding aside, you're a sysadmin that sounds like you're being taken advantage of. No one person should be doing all that.
uptimefordays@reddit
I mean security cameras and InTune/ABM seem like the only unrelated job duties. Everything else is basically what one can reasonably expect to have to touch at some point working infra. If I had to guess OP works in a small shop and thus gets to do it all.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
OP works for government in the top 20th% by size in the State of Ohio with about 1400 employees on payroll and 3000 total including vendors and external contractors.
dustojnikhummer@reddit
Did you forget to switch to your alt? Or why are you talking about yourself in 3rd person?
nerdyviking88@reddit
You said the magic word, government.
Something something Civic Duty! Something something thin blue line! Etc.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
The user in the thread said, "If I had to guess OP works in a small shop and thus gets to do it all."
I found it funny to respond in third person with information that was already in the thread just lower down :)
dustojnikhummer@reddit
Ah I see lol
uptimefordays@reddit
That’s still solidly SMB sized. There are organizations with more than 200k W2.
Frothyleet@reddit
In the sense that "SMB" covers single digits up to "vague few thou where suddenly you are now "enterprise"", sure. He's definitely on the high end of what you'd call SMB.
uptimefordays@reddit
1400 FTEs and 1600 contractors, vendors, etc is not a large organization. A university-hospital might have 70,000 FTEs plus 9,000 students. In a world where large organizations span continents and employ tens or hundreds of thousands, a few thousand seems small.
Frothyleet@reddit
I'm not disagreeing with you, but when you use "SMB" as a shorthand label for expectations about how an org operates, its stack, budget, and so on - there's a significant difference between "Mom & Pop" with 10 people and an org with 1500 FTEs.
uptimefordays@reddit
In my experience places with under 10,000 FTEs typically operate more like mom and pop shops small budgets, uniform environments (all or almost all one OS), lower complexity, etc.
whatdoido8383@reddit
Agreed, I think they should get paid more though. When I was a Infra admin doing what sounds like basically the same stuff but at a larger scale and maybe a tad more complex, I was over $100K.
IMO, they should be making at least $85K.
uptimefordays@reddit
They only have 2 years of infra experience though.
whatdoido8383@reddit
Maybe $80K then? Back in 2012 I was making $80K as a Jr. network admin at a small company doing a portion of that work. I had 3 years experience at that time.
uptimefordays@reddit
It also depends on cost of living. OP works for the state of Ohio.
Chumphy@reddit
How about for 80k, because that’s what I have a similar set of responsibilities.
whatdoido8383@reddit
Sounds about right. That's what I made as a Jr. Engineer with \~3 years experience.
Like others have mentioned, its location dependent but on average in a average US major city, that's what I'd expect.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
I feel like a fish on a hook, I have one other sys admin, they typically handle alot of the hardware stuff as they have about 20y experience. I know their pay is about 5-10k more than mine, but not much over 80.
StabMyEyes@reddit
How long you been in the game? $70k seems well underpaid.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
2 years in role, 3y in the org, 5y overall exp.
zakabog@reddit
What was your salary from your previous employer? What did you do your 1st year at your current job and do you get yearly reviews/raises?
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
Prev employer, helldesk 1 for 44k.
1st year at current job, Helpdesk/IT contact for X building- 54k (Annual review was exceeds expectations so 3% raise)
2nd year, Promoted to SysAdmin 67k (job class payscale was raised + annual 3% raise)
3rd year, SysAdmin year 2, same as above, 3% raise to about 70k
zakabog@reddit
Eh, for a low cost of living area like Ohio it's not terrible, especially with your minimal experience, touching everything doesn't mean expertise in everything. Just as long as you're happy with your work life balance, otherwise start looking for a more specialized career and see what offerings are out there.
masterz13@reddit
Nowhere is low cost. Even middle of nowhere towns want you to pay like $1000 for a 1BR apartment these days. :(
zakabog@reddit
For someone making $70K a year, that's nothing. Their gross income is 70x their rent. Plus the median home price in the most expensive neighborhood in all of Ohio is $675K, that's a fully detached home in a beautiful neighborhood. The median home price in the cheapest neighborhood in NYC is $380K. That's a one bedroom condo/co-op in a terrible neighborhood in the Bronx.
masterz13@reddit
After taxes and benefits, that's like $52k. Rent, electric, water, trash, (possibly) gas, renter's insurance, car, car insurance, phone, internet, groceries, gas, student loans, and other expenses I'm not thinking of right away. That $52k gets used up quick.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
For realistic numbers, when I lived alone in my 1bed 1bad, 650sq ft was 1085/mo no Util
zakabog@reddit
JFC, that apartment would be $3,000 in NYC... If you're having difficulty paying for that with $70K a year you're doing something wrong...
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
No issues at that time, now back then on my $20 help desk salary, it was tougher
masterz13@reddit
Yeah, my $1000 was conservative...usually puts you in a bad part of a town.
zakabog@reddit
Spending less than 20% of your gross income on housing is conservative. Spending less than 20% of your NET income on housing is a dream.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
Quite quick! Property taxes went up 17% this year, I purchased 2 years ago. Average house in my area is about 275-315
StabMyEyes@reddit
Ah, ok. Yeah, you're on track. Sounds like you're getting a lot of valuable experience. Carry on!
masterz13@reddit
Sadly it's fairly market standard. I've been a sysadmin with similar responsibilities for over 6 years and only make $63k.
UCB1984@reddit
Are you me?
duranfan@reddit
I hope you're at least four people.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
At least 3, Me, myself and I
Low_Newspaper9039@reddit
Honestly, your job sounds like a lot more than just a Systems Administrator. You’re managing both on-prem and cloud infrastructure, running data centers, handling virtualization, backups, security, and M365/Azure environments. Basically overseeing everything that keeps the organization running. You’re also dealing with compliance, troubleshooting at the Tier 3 level, and even managing some of the physical tech setups. That’s not really just “SysAdmin” work, it’s closer to what an Infrastructure or Cloud Systems Engineer does.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
I feel like my job is one big scope creep.
Started out migrating Hyper-V to Vmware, the scoping renewal post Broadcom, then MDM migration, then SAN expansion, the RHEL backup encryption and backup tapes, then ADFS and DC replacement and lifecycle, then Access Control certifications, then Powershell scripting and user auditing via automation, then ODBC reporting and SQL writing, then PM for yearly audits handling external vendor, then SME for software migrations and Oaut/SAML based authentications, On premise security migration and camera configurations for all user access. I could go on and on
Then just becoming the SME for all the systems and responsibilities that I maintained while I was not in my current role, but unable to be delegated due to the technical nature of the systems and lack of experience from the help desk...
thatguyyoudontget@reddit
full stack IT Admin😃
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
Every damn time I open putty to go to our pgsql servers, am I a developer?
thatguyyoudontget@reddit
Full stack mate, full stack.
If someone found any other stack other than this 'full', we gotta go there too 🤣
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
Competency = Responsibility where I am from
clavicon@reddit
Cursed by competency
thatguyyoudontget@reddit
Exactly 💯
Alucard0134@reddit
the modern title would be "site reliability engineer" 😏
zakabog@reddit
No? I know how to write SQL queries and occasionally run them against our monitoring database, but I'm not a dev as that's not my primary role. My main role is to keep everything running, not to write database queries.
TuxAndrew@reddit
Could I do all of the database queries after enough time and become a developer, sure. Do I want to do those at all? Hell to the fucking no.
dustojnikhummer@reddit
You are a whole department.
hevvypiano@reddit
Bro...
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
I assume this is a bad bro
Suaveman01@reddit
Sounds like your standard sysadmin/infrastructure engineer in a small to medium size company. I’m assuming you have atleast a couple other people helping you out with all of this, including a senior?
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
1 other sysadmin, Director who hasn’t been in a technical role in 10ish years
Help desk 3 staff (1 manager), 1 network admin, 1 security Total org size, 1400 full time employees 3000 total if you include contractors and temp/seasonal
MyThinkerThoughts@reddit
What’s your job description say that lists your salary? That’s what you are. Anything beyond that is your fault.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
Job classification has a fixed pay scale but it is up to appointed authority for deviation based on steps at the discretion of sole appointed/elected authority.
Job desc says: "20% All other duties as assigned"
So I'd scrub toilets if assigned to me
MyThinkerThoughts@reddit
See back to my original comment. That’s not a job I would take then.
NailiME84@reddit
Sadly you probably fall into the (not an insult)
Jack of all trades - master of none
Be careful to not get stuck in a lower paying role cause you don’t have a speciality
iliekplastic@reddit
Sysadmin and underpaid dramatically.
Krigen89@reddit
I mean it's a lot, but nothing particularly special.
Most lvl3 techs and sysadmins in MSPs deal with that stuff regularly.
uptimefordays@reddit
Frankly, outside of cameras and endpoint MDM, everything on OP’s list is related and builds on core concepts and skills. “Managing users, running core services (DHCP, DNS, directory service, file servers, webservers), virtualization, cloud infra, and backups” is all just normal expected infrastructure work for an internal corporate sysadmin or MSP worker. Today’s entry level certifications touch on all of this stuff.
Eggtastico@reddit
the dumping ground for the work nobody else wants to pick up
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
Competency = Responsibility
Eggtastico@reddit
every office has the eager beaver that likes to take on all the work that either people cant be bothered to do, or other people cant do! Problem is, when you become a jack of all trades, then master of none rules apply as you do not specialise in anything singular.
eman0821@reddit
You are over exaggerating. You just listed a bunch of technologies not duties. That's like saying Ansible Admin, Powershell Admin, keyboard and monitor admin, headset admin, printer admin, bitlocker admin which is silly.
A Sysadmin uses many technologies which is nothing unusual. I can list a laundry list of technologies myself that works in Cloud. Up keep in maintenance, some engineering work, back ups, escalation point is all normal duties.
kos53@reddit
Until you singlehandedly build and configure these systems/services yourself, you would still be considered a system admin, maybe Junior level in the Industry standard. The fact that you named the alphabets of a lot of technology and protocols, how you mentioned 1 service of M365 app suite but not the others, how you lists a whole set of AD protocols and features, looks like you still have a a couple more years to go before hitting the senior system admin/engineer role. Cjis certified is literally a 15 mins click-through training and 10-question quiz. I have seen this very same mistake made by newly grads when they list their skills in their resumes. I can say you’re on the right track to succeed in this IT field, but you will need to specialize in one or more of those domains to truly break into the next tier.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
I’m 2 years into my experience as sysadmin so yea you are right on. Just feel like I’m constantly running in circles juggling crap and we have no policy or delegation standard to support anything we do. For a government org, it’s like my hairs on fire all the time
kos53@reddit
I was in your exact boat 4 years ago so I completely understand. A jack of all trades is not highly valued in our field. The good thing is that you’re in a Gov org so supposedly everything is already set up following best practices, which makes it great to build a foundation for whatever path you decide to pursue. The first 4-5 years of system admin is always the most difficult. You don’t have enough experience yet to be considered for Sr. Roles, and it feels like you’re stuck in break-fix hell. Doing password or MFA reset 3-4 times a day or rebuilding computer are not great way to upskill. If you have room at your current job to be promoted to team lead or manager role, I would aim for that. Otherwise, start specializing and looking for another job. Certifications like MD102, MS102 or AZ500 can take you a long way if you want to stick with Microsoft stack. I consider it one of safest vendor stacks along with Cisco and maybe Amazon to get in-depth without worrying about it being obsolete in the future.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
Next step up is director, we follow rules only we make. We do not follow best practice and its a fight to get anything written into policy.
Hell, we enforce 60 day password changes due to elected officials getting phished, now tell me how that makes any sense...
You can tell that administration consulted with our single security guy before making that change...
kos53@reddit
Yeah best practice now is to have no password expiration and couples with phishing resistant MFA. Regular password reset is a thing in the past.
I would only stay if you have education/certification reimbursement. It’s a bad market out there so maybe wait another year before you move. That is the only way to get better pay + more specialized role, unless you expect any major restructuring at your org. Best of lucks to you!
Smittayee@reddit
All jokes aside your a highly skilled and underpaid sys engineer that also administers the systems. Trust me, if you leave all hell breaks loose. I would use this as leverage to get more pay if you like if you like where you’re at right now and your relationship is pretty healthy. Otherwise bounce. At the end of the day bills don’t pay themselves man.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
You are making me want to crave chaos
Alucard0134@reddit
Welcome to the underpaid sysadmin club!! (55k here and they refuse to call me a sysadmin lmao)
oubeav@reddit
Okay. But how many users?
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
1400 internal, if you include all existing vendors, contractors about 2900 total.
35 physical sites.
oubeav@reddit
And you’re the only SysAd?
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
1 of 2 Other typically handles a majority of hardware lifecycle and has been pushing projects recently like onedrive migration
OneSeaworthiness7768@reddit
Much of what you listed was under my responsibility when my title was sysadmin. The parts that weren’t were under someone whose title was systems engineer.
Burgergold@reddit
Underpaid sysadmin
IgotTHEginger@reddit
Way underpaid
whatsforsupa@reddit
My opinion, that’s all pretty much under the Sys Admin guise, especially for a small-medium business. Check my flair, I can relate.
I do think you are underpaid though, especially if you are the “solo” guy at that level. You should probably be closer to 6 figures in any medium COL area, more if HCOL
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
I’m Gov org, 1400 internal employees, 35 sites, 3000 total users. It is definitely small compared to a lot of org, total team of 9, I am 1/2 sys admin
Arillsan@reddit
You are what I like to call a "contingency issue", if you are compromised, lots of stuff can go wrong, and if you are one of very few, if not the only person with this role, the company is fucked when you resign/get hit by a buss 🤸♂️
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
I’m glad someone sees how I feel! There is one other sysadmin and they typically handle most of our hardware lifecycle, since I’ve worked my way through promotions I picked up crap along the way and it was never delegated to the rest of the team because it works as long as I’m around.
GainDifferent3628@reddit
i work at a law firm and i can say ive done or touched all of these at some point, how often do you engage with these? Because in my environment there's hardly any day to day maintenance unless something breaks.
kg7qin@reddit
Just remember that job titles are mostly made up in this industry.
What you should be asking is are you specialized or a generalist. Based on the list you are very much a generalist.
The question then should be: what do you want to do? Remain a generalist or look to specialize? And if you want to specialize then in/on what?
redvelvet92@reddit
There isn’t an “azure” global admin. So maybe you need to brush up on some stuff.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
Erm... I guess you are technically correct. It's a role within Microsoft Entra ID role assignments
gabbietor@reddit
I think it’s less about the title and more about documenting the responsibilities for career growth. That way, whether you’re looking at senior-level, architect-level, or some fancy hybrid title, recruiters get what they’re dealing with. And if you’re ever trying to explain it, tools like DataFlint or similar dashboards make it easier to show the impact without listing every single admin privilege.
redvelvet92@reddit
Honestly from looking at what you do, you’re paid around what you should be pain. Nothing here is particularly difficult nor requires insane $$ to hire someone. Don’t want to be the bearer of bad news but this just looks like standard sysadmin to me.
Bi_Count@reddit
I don't even do that much as a "Sr Sys Admin". I'm end-user and conference support, a little VDI and MFA for the most part with some other responabilities thrown in. For fun I asked copilot to give me a more descriptive job title based on the work I do and I think Digital Workspace Engineer/Admin suits better than a sys admin title.
MonstersGrin@reddit
Like a girl after a month of dating 😁.
"So, what are we?"
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
So are we gonna put a ring on it or what?
MonstersGrin@reddit
"If I was a worm, would you still manage my services?"
Defiant-Garden5809@reddit
Master and Commander, the Overseer.
TuxAndrew@reddit
Is there any particular reason you have DFS and Fileshares on your list? Curious why you're differentiating them.
Wild_Competition_716@reddit (OP)
Bad internal lingo ive picked up, Fileshares being user facing "mapped drives", DFS being our internal file distribution mainly used by the IT team for service/maint related
KareemPie81@reddit
A IT Guy ?
Subnetwork@reddit
A sys admin?