Feeling Like a Fraud
Posted by ItsColeman12@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 174 comments
I am an IT Systems Administrator at a company of ~500 employees. I am the sole IT worker. I started there as an IT Technician, but after my coworker left, they promoted me to IT Systems Administrator, no interview or anything. They then closed my old position, leaving myself as the only IT staff.
I graduated college less than 2 years ago and am now tasked with maintaining and updating this 24/7 infrastructure. I feel that there is too much for me to do and I cannot learn fast enough (I understand that this is a pretty common mentality in IT). Even as a Systems Administrator, I feel I have a very rudementary knowledge of Networking and Active Directory.
Can anyone give me any advice on how to work on these skills? Unfortunately, as I work on my own, I do not really have the opportunity to learn from someone senior to me.
I understand homelabbing is how most people learn, I just don't really know where to start at this point.
StiffAssedBrit@reddit
That's insane. Don't they even have an MSP to back you up? How do you have a holiday?
theHonkiforium@reddit
You're being used. Find a new job.
cla1067@reddit
This 100%. He is being used.
ItsColeman12@reddit (OP)
I understand I'm being used honestly. My problem is, I have very little experience as I said. And IT jobs are hard to come by in my area unfortunately.
theHonkiforium@reddit
Tell them you need help. If they don't get you help, find a new job.
500 employees for one junior tech? Fuck that noise, the company is going down if they think that's sustainable.
No offense to you, it's just ridiculous in general.
Unexpected_Cranberry@reddit
Being a bit more charitable, it could simply be a case of them not thinking it through.
I'd say this would be a tall order for a junior, but if he wants to stay having a conversation with the appropriate exec about what happens if there's an outage, what would that cost the company, what happens if he works alone for five years and then resigns or gets hit by a truck? Highlight that it will be difficult and costly to find a replacement on short notice that's able to keep the lights on.
Highlight the challenge of keeping up with securing and documenting the environment while also providing support for end users. Ask what the cost of being compromised resulting in customer data or company secrets being leaked would be.
And then ask what they want to do about those risks. If the answer is that they'll just accept them and the work load is too much I'd start actively looking for a new job while also setting clear boundaries making sure not to work myself to death. But that's old me. Young me would have worked my ass off 24/7 until two close friends took me out for beers and sat me down and told me there's more to life than work and that I needed to start taking it a bit easier.
ThisIsMyalt2012@reddit
That was me 21 years ago. Work work work. Everything else be damned. Now, in my 40s, I want to try to enjoy life and my family. But this job and work environment is wild
Jofzar_@reddit
You could be the most senior tech in the world, you still need atleast 3 AT A MINIMUM people for 500 employees. 1 For being sick, 1 for being on holiday and 1 to do the work.
The_NorthernLight@reddit
With 500 employees, realistically, you should be a team of 8-10 people depending on infrastructure specifics. If they can’t afford that with 500 other employees, jump now, as that ship is sinking anyway.
Delta31_Heavy@reddit
Those were my exact numbers too. The average used to be 100 users to a tech…
SevaraB@reddit
That is a gross over generalization. The number of work streams is a better proxy for minimum IT head count than the non-IT head count. I’ve soloed a 350-strong call center without breaking a sweat.
The_NorthernLight@reddit
Yes, obviously it is dependent on a few things, and it is an over-simplification. However, the fact is, he's a Junior, running a whole company solo. This is not good for him, nor is it good for the all the employee's of the company. Lastly, just because it "can" be done, doesn't mean that's the right way to do things. No single person should be the sole IT source for that many people.
xproofx@reddit
It's just computers and pressing buttons. How hard could it be? /s
Solkre@reddit
Not just 500, he said 24/7 operation.
sharpied79@reddit
Back in 1997 when I started in IT as a fresh faced, zero experience, 18 year old junior IT support person.
We had a team of approx 7 just in operations/infrastructure alone covering approx 300 users.
Our AS400 teams, ops and devs had 9 people...
Unexpected_Cranberry@reddit
I'd say it depends on the environment. My first sysadmin job we had I think around 10 people total for about 2000-2500 users. Then we brought in consultants for specific projects or migrations.
So for infrastructure (AD, Exchange, Citrix, networking, storage, backups and hosting) there was two of us, plus one part time consultant. Then we had a few support contracts with four networking and Citrix where we could call in experts when needed. We tried to FIND an equivalents for AD, but while there were experts out there, none of them were available for support contracts. Only health checks and migrations.
I feel like for 300 users you can get away with not having a ton of people depending on the environment. But just one dude is asking for trouble.
pmpork@reddit
From my perspective, used or not, I'd get every ounce of experience from this job. In a year or two, demand a massive pay raise or leave with a nicely updated resume. The years might SUCK, but focus on YOUR skills and YOUR knowledge.
I did this same thing... Albeit 20 years ago, and it worked out swimmingly for me. It was actually '08 when I left, and the job market was SHIT. But, that knowledge and experience, especially with AD DS, landed me a nice career after.
crazy_clown_time@reddit
Ask them what their plan is when you go on vacation?
Drywesi@reddit
$5 says it's tell them they can't go on vacation
The bus test is a better way to address that.
crazy_clown_time@reddit
The bus and vacation test are one in the same. Vacation means I'm unreachable by my employer unless otherwise specified (aka half days).
Drywesi@reddit
I'm aware, but if you phrase it with 'vacation', it leaves open "you're too important, we can discuss time off after'. Not so with the bus wording.
crazy_clown_time@reddit
I see what you mean.
Any job that cannot accommodate a vacation request with reasonable advance heads-up is just not worth doing, no matter the pay.
Drywesi@reddit
I really wish that were the case.
Minute-Yoghurt-1265@reddit
You need to cover yourself here as you will be the fall guy when something goes wrong. Send emails to seniors all ccd, bccing your personal email. Id be looking for another role asap too.
p3t3or@reddit
A similar situation happened to me. First and foremost, get paid. Then, learn as much as you can and have fun breaking things in test OUs before you find something more respectable.
Colink98@reddit
System Admin for a 500 user environment is far from lacking in experience
Try to couple this with some training/certs The MS Azure ones are easily accessible and cheap to acquire
And you are on a winner
crazy_clown_time@reddit
Not sure how he's gonna have time to obtain certs when he's on call 24/7.
Total_Hat996@reddit
How do you go on holiday? Explain to them with a detailed (as possible) plan, that for 500 people you're going to need 4/5 people min., or you'll never be able to keep everything patched, updated, replace old machines, etc. List it all out and don't be shy. Ask for a meeting and present your, "Plan for a Stronger Tomorrow" (yes, execs love a plan with a name!).
Alaknar@reddit
To give you a sense of scale of how much they're using you - I work at a company of also around 500 employees. We have 6 IT people handling only the end-user + Microsoft Cloud stuff, and another 6 guys handling our own infrastructure and network.
Prestigious-Rice-382@reddit
Use the opportunity to gather better experience that you need to land your dream Job.
AccidentAnnual@reddit
Your employer should be aware there is no backup (not files, but an engineer) in case you become unavailable for whatever reason (sick leave, holiday, job switch). Make a formal appointment with your CEO, make sure they understand their business process is at risk. 500 clients for 1 person is ridiculous, we were with 2 fulltime plus an intern plus two inhouse consultants by the time we reached 200 in our IT company. You're not a fraud. Also, ask for budget and time for exams, get certificates.
llDemonll@reddit
step 1 is stop working more than 40 hours a week. assuming you're salary, that's what you're paid to work. if you're working 60 hours a week and asking for help you're perpetuating your own demise by trying to cover and do everything.
NoReallyLetsBeFriend@reddit
Are you, by chance, spring a bunch of warehouse staff with minimal device usage? Are some remote? Do you fall back on an MSP for monitoring or security or patches?
ItsColeman12@reddit (OP)
No, it's a 24/7 operation, minimal warehouse staff and only a couple fully remote. We do have an MSP that monitors security issues however I am tasked with resolving them.
HappyDadOfFourJesus@reddit
MSP owner here. If they don't have full remediation abilities, either have a talk with them asking why not, or find a new MSP.
And like others have said, start triaging issues and when leadership asks why lower priority issues aren't being addressed, that's when you ask for at least two additional staff members.
blockplanner@reddit
You're going to need to come to terms with failing to meet expectations, and then explaining straightforwardly and without apology that those expectations are unreasonable.
thrwwy2402@reddit
If you don’t do this, OP, you’ll never get out of this cycle.
cla1067@reddit
One thing I forgot to mention if you can get them to agree to a 3rd party audit or pentest it may benefit you in the future. Unfortunately some audits are just people marking off checkboxes that don’t know anything.
Anyways this may show and document flaws like outdated computers, servers, shit network equipment, shit network design, improper or no MFA, shit security in general, shit policies or no policies, and so on.
cla1067@reddit
Google and chatgpt. Don’t be the scape goat though when shit breaks. If they expect things running smooth 24/7 they would higher a team of People.
You don’t have to answer the phone in the middle of the night (I put mine on silent).
Plenty-Wonder6092@reddit
Wrong, this is an opportunity that makes careers when you're young. 2 years out and he is already being paid to learn to be a sysadmin, others get stuck in helldesk much longer. OP use this to learn as much as possible, 2-4 years' experience as a sysadmin then start looking.
Delta31_Heavy@reddit
Who is hearing from. OP is two years out of school and got thrown to the wolves. Who is training OP in best practices? Documentation, procedures? Proper vulnerability and remediation?
matroosoft@reddit
This, use it to learn a lot in a few years with hard working. Then change ship to get better pay and a team around you to reflect what you learned and see how others do it.
theHonkiforium@reddit
So what you're saying is "find another job, this one sucks".
majkkali@reddit
I don’t think you quite grasp the situation here. He is 100% being taken advantage of. It’s impossible to be a sysadmin, IT manager and IT support all at once, especially if he only has 2 years of experience under his belt. His company are a joke. They should employ at least 3 people to cover all the different areas in IT. We’re not talking about a 20 people start up here.
blizardX@reddit
I don't think you can learn while your mental state is in constent mode of fire extinguishing.
FarToe1@reddit
Everyone is being used. That's literally what employment means.
theHonkiforium@reddit
Working a fair job for fair pay is not "being used".
FarToe1@reddit
Employ. verb = "make use of"
ITYM being abused or exploited. Not employed.
theHonkiforium@reddit
"Being used" = "to be taken advantage of or manipulated for another person's benefit, often unfairly and without consent or full understanding".
Drywesi@reddit
Then the question becomes what is "fair pay"
giffengrabber@reddit
I guess you have a point, but ideally it’s more of a win-win situation than what OP describes.
FarToe1@reddit
Sure, and no argument OP that is being exploited.
ciberjohn@reddit
This is spot on. Being used.
chriscrowder@reddit
Or... accept the challenge and step up! Only a few can do it.
beneficial_deficient@reddit
Honestly threaten to quit if you don't get help. Then they have no it to do anything. Doesn't make you a fraud
MikeOxbig305@reddit
For 3 years I worked in a 700 employee company with 7 locations with diverse business operations. I had only 2 support staff members.
Here's what worked for me.
1. Learn all you can and certify in each system you support.
2. Leverage AI to perform as many repetitive tasks as you can.
3. Invest in an endpoint management tool and treat your IT inventory management like it's ultra important.
4. Choose and implement a framework. ITIL works for me.
5. Read my paper on converting your IT department from cost center to profit center and use your ITIL ticketing suite to perform nominal charge-backs to show the value of each of your functions to management. This will encourage them to release more funds to you to develop the environment.
6. Outsource specialist functions like cybersecurity.
7. Leverage cloud services as much as possible.
8. Schedule regular meetings with management to discuss plans and accomplishments. They should feel involved in your function. If they do they will fund your iniatives and training.
9. Compile performance metrics and share them with management.
10. Ensure every critical system is virtualized and operates on high availability cluster nodes if they aren't already in the cloud.
11. Implement identity management to enable users to self reset passwords.
theHonkiforium@reddit
Where does "answer the phone for 500 users-worth of problems" fit in here exactly. You "only" had 2 support staff, this guy has 0.
MikeOxbig305@reddit
That's where AI service desk chat box and identity management solutions are useful.
99% of calls would be to unlock user accounts. Identity management allows users to do this themselves.
A chat box AI solution would interact with users and filter only the most deserving calls to a human.
theHonkiforium@reddit
Who should set that up, the junior who's busy supporting 500 users solo while keeping everything running? When?
Neuro_88@reddit
Number five: where’s your paper so I can read it?
derango@reddit
Prob written with ChatGPT just like this post.
Neuro_88@reddit
Gets me every time. How did you figure it out so fast? And do you think the comment has so good parts that are of value?
MikeOxbig305@reddit
Certainly not written with any AI.
This is my experience,offered freely.
Im actually a consultant and get paid for what I just offerred freely.
sheep1e@reddit
Just google his name, Mike Oxbig… oh wait, maybe don’t do that
SilkBC_12345@reddit
Do you have a link? I would be interested in reading it.
crazy_clown_time@reddit
How many hours a week were you working?
MikeOxbig305@reddit
Regular 40.
But I responded to server alerts off hours.
System updates were done after hours.
Upgrades were done on redundant cluster nodes during production time and after parallel running for a week they were done on the other nodes.
This was at an organization with 7 lines 9f business. So much easier for a single business corporation.
Delta31_Heavy@reddit
Some do you feel like a fraud? That doesn’t compute .your setup with that many employees should have at least 8-10 employees. At least in the financial world we had more than that for a 500 person shop. You don’t say what line of business
scarbossa17@reddit
You will learn a lot when stuff breaks and you need to figure it out. Trial by fire..
zayer96@reddit
Best thing to do is requesting them to hire someone to help you, maintaining 500+ employees can be hectic
lexbuck@reddit
Wow. We have two IT guys currently for ~100 users and about to hire a third. We have more work than we can keep up with. One guy for 500 in insanity
w3warren@reddit
Document all the things. Automate as much as you can, a test environment at work will be critical for this (good way to test if your backups work too using your isolated test setup and the backups to set up the test environment). The more repeated tasks you can take off yourself the better position you put yourself in. If there aren't some regulatory reasons in your area, self service options for your userbase.
Knowledge base tied to your ticketing system with self service options. You are one person, so the more your userbase can reasonably do for themselves that takes some off your plate.
Show your work. Some kind of ticketing system and monitoring information info in exec friendly dashboards. If you want more help show the bottlenecks. Set expectations for SLAs and response times. Makes talking budgets up the hill easier.
SP92216@reddit
You can leave this job as you are being taken advantage of you as some others mentioned. Or you can Uno reverse it and become really good (although it will be a test by fire) and when they really need you, then you leave for better pay and let them try and find someone as good while you will get good pay with all the experience you acquire. I dare to say really good sysadmins are made this way, it’s not ideal and the company eventually might learn their lesson but this is a perfect example of “take that opportunity” what do you have to lose? A job you don’t want anyway.
xstrex@reddit
Imposter syndrome is a real thing, and I’ve been suffering from it for years, you are entirely not alone.
Being good at your job isn’t just about knowing all the technology, or feeling confident that you can do the thing.. it’s about knowing what your strengths and weaknesses are as well, and being ok with that, but not scared of it. It’s also about knowing instinctively how to handle difficult situations, and tactfully coming up with solutions on the fly.
Keep in mind, you’re in this position because you already know enough to perform the job you’re doing. If you didn’t, they wouldn’t have given & trusted you with this level of responsibility. The fraud feeling doesn’t go away, but it does get easier as you adapt and overcome more challenges. One good exercise is to make a not of the skills you do have, and any and all situations or projects that you have already learned and overcome. It’s easy to focus on what you don’t know, it’s a lot harder to focus on what you do!
You’re smarter than you think you are.
As far as future growth, have a conversation with your boss about getting some training in the areas you’re weakest in, by taking this initiative you’re owning your faults, making them known, and removing any fear around them. Any good boss will recognize and embrace this, and help you get the training or resources you need to feel more confident in those areas; and they’ll actually respect you more for calling them out. You’ve got this.
thefinalep@reddit
First off. Find a new job. Secondly. Look into learning powershelll. Lots of good resources free on internet. It will help you automate things.
Affectionate-Cat-975@reddit
Don’t worry, you’ll burn out and leave. They’ll appoint an unqualified yes person who’ll outsource to a MSP,waste a bunch of money all while moving on.
You should move on to a better work place
Magumbas@reddit
Just make sure you test your backups. Worst thing is a downed server with no recovery options
Current_Anybody8325@reddit
Your company is treating you like dirt - that said - setting your company aside - 80% of what I know in the I.T. field I learned on the job, not in college.
Anthropic_Principles@reddit
Leave.
Your employer does not invest enough in IT. Something will inevitably go wrong, it may be really bad, it may take the company sown. It probably won't be your fault, but you will carry the can, your record will be tarnished and you will have a hard time getting a new job.
Leave.
Far_Ad_1700@reddit
Ask to a promotion and you got all point in your fav.
Quiet___Lad@reddit
You're tasked with the responsibility of an extremely wide swath of tasks.
The problem isn't 'a' task; but the volume.
Provided you have 'enough' time, each task is solvable; but you're concerned about timeliness.
Talk with your manager, mention your worries, and let him determine prioritization (and get it in writing, even if it's an email from you).
Then, when stuff breaks, hopefully it's the less-important items, as your manager stated/you-wrote.
fnordhole@reddit
"I understand homelabbing is how most people learn, I just don't really know where to start at this point."
Don't. Learn on the job, on their dime.
nagol0123@reddit
Even though the company should be hiring more IT people and should absolutely pay for any training OP needs, I think for OP’s sake, having an environment at home for testing and learning (without bringing down production) is still a good idea.
TyberWhite@reddit
Find an MSP that will co-manage, get a ChatGPT/Claude license, and hit the forums. You got this, mate! Make it a learning opportunity. Soon you will be very proud of yourself!
matroosoft@reddit
This, co-managing with a good MSP can take a lot of your shoulder while they can also help you learn new insights and skill
Tb1969@reddit
“Hey boss, I predict in a years time without help in IT, I’ll have a psychotic break or by then I’ll have taken a job flipping burgers”
Lost-Committee-8053@reddit
You’re not a fraud — you’re just in the middle of the learning curve everyone hides behind confidence.
CactusJane98@reddit
So. The good news is you can put systems administrator on your resume now. I would run with that and apply for Junior Sysadmin jobs or anything in that category. Always be sure that you're falling upwards.
butterbal1@reddit
Ok, couple of things.
First and most importantly nobody knows everything there is so much to know that changes daily it is literally impossible. As a specific example of working specialities my company we have a networking team (10ish people) that only plays switches and routers and a separate 5 man team that does nothing but work on the firewalls. 2 entire teams with a bunch of guys for what most people would just call "networking stuff". We then have Windows server support, unix support, AD support (tiers 1,2,3,4), DNS/DHCP team, desktop support, machine imagining, backups, entries teams that support a single application, yadda yadda yadda.....
Without knowing more about the industry you work in I can't say the exact size your IT organization should be, but it is somewhere between 3 people as an absolute minimum and up to 20 for tech heavy companies.
What happens to the company the day you go on vacation for 2 weeks or get hit by a bus walking across the street one day? They must have both diversity in skillsets and redundancy.
You are in a really strong position to help them grow to a correct IT org or just walk away and find a new job where you aren't ridden like a borrowed mule.
SBelwas@reddit
Some actual advice: If you want to try and tackle this and actually do it, enumerate all the known unknowns you have about the job and the infrastructure. Then start one by one crossing them off, learning what it takes to deal with it. You have the advantage of AI chat it's to help you find resources and fill in the gaps of known problems. Sounds like ur def not equipped as you are now but the best learning I've found is done out of necessity.
If you don't feel like you can do this yourself, you need to talk to who's in charge and flag this as the massive risk that it is. Honestly either way probably should be doing this. Frame what's going as you elevating risk and wanting to ensure continuity. If they don't grasp this then I'd tread water while you search for something new. I always have to advocate for the systems I manage in this way. I used the "what if I were hit by a bus" argument and describe the ensuing nightmare if there isn't sufficient docs and knowledge transfer to other capable people.
linkslice@reddit
Your company is taking advantage of you. Also this is how you level up your career. Work on automating everything. Add docker and kubernetes, terraform, Jenkins, ansible/salt etc. then bounce with pretty nice raise.
manservant4@reddit
You need to find a vendor to support you. All it takes is one virus outbreak and they are done. Hold on as long as you can and document everything that you are responsible for. Add it to your resume and run.
Admirable-Fail1250@reddit
homelab at work. old equipment can be repurposed as test equipment - separate network of switches, servers, workstations, aps, cameras, whatever else you might need to learn about. setup whatever hypervisor you guys use and start playing around with it. if you can set it up with it's own isolated internet connection that would be best but you can also just have a router/firewall in there with a private ip of your staff network as the wan and then a different subnet on your test environment.
refurbished server-grade hardware can be had for cheap. but even old desktops can act as servers and run hypervisors and other server OSes.
do what you want with your time at home. if that's learning more about IT, great! just don't do more free work (ie. training, learning) than you want to do.
Stosstrupphase@reddit
1 IT staff for 500 employees and whatever infrastructure you have? That’s completely non-viable.
qwertymartes@reddit
Tell them that you need another person, you are a single point of failure
mitharas@reddit
Homelabbing is for scrubs, I learn by breaking prod.
chocotaco1981@reddit
Sole IT for 600? Crazy
Any-Fly5966@reddit
SysAdmin, Network Admin, Security, Tech Support, Cyber Security, Data Protection, 24/7 support for 500 people and you’re the only person? You are set up for failure and it most likely won’t be pretty.
TigNiceweld@reddit
I don't really agree with these comments about you being used. You are now a manager, act like it and start using the company like a manager would. You can and should get more training to get up to par with job requirements. You will be taken more seriously when you kick in the managering role. Just let them know that you need to attend trainings and you might need to hire new employees. Managers do that. If they say no, you make them understand why its a necessity. Managers do that too! You will do just fine! If you are forced to stay alone, get all biggest AI pro plans and let the AI train you and create automations for mundane tasks. You got this!
HummusMummus@reddit
This is not true, even if some people posting online want you to belive it. Having a homelab is EXTREMLY rare, those that have it might be better than those without it but a vast majority learned some skills during some form of training/education and has learnt on the job.
jdptechnc@reddit
The only fraud in this scenario is your company, not you.
Cashflowz9@reddit
No easy answer at this scale / I would bring in a MSP that can help with a goal of getting them out in 3 years or maybe less. A good one will mentor you and help you learn, would be a great team and reduce client risk.
I say do that cause then you can be promoted and eventually get someone under you. But if you bring in a director above you, you’re kinda stuck for a bit.
DM me if you want to explore this more.
NarrowDevelopment766@reddit
First thing first, pay for some AI that can help fill some of the knowledge gaps you'll be dealing with, trust me it will be your best friend.
Second, track your hours and help desk calls, this is to show that your are handling a volume that is way to large.
Third, start job hunting, most places don't realize how important there IT department is until it's empty, then they are desperate to fill the position and will normally offer higher pay them the previous admin.
Good luck Tech.
SmileyBanana15@reddit
Honestly the guys here are right, you are being used. But you know that already. Try to take the positives only from this situation, and as much as you can, learn the things you mentioned on company time and dime.
Ask for help, see what they say. I know it's not as simple as "get a new job" but I would start looking and upskilling. You are in no rush, but chances are it would be a change for the better. Just keep your eyes open.
foxcode@reddit
Software engineer not system administrator but that is completely ridiculous. A company that size can afford more than 1 IT worker, and if they can't, their business is not viable. For comparison, we had approx 5 IT staff in a company that peeked at about 120 people. Sounds like exploitation to me, but congratulations for making it as far as you have at that scale, not everyone can do that.
I've seen weird ratios before like a single HR person for a company of almost 200 but your case just sounds nuts. I'd be searching for another job if it's feasible for you.
Brazilator@reddit
You have two options in my opinion.
A) Stay and you will learn new skills as you need to at a much quicker pace than regular jobs but the risk is the company may outsource IT at some point once they realise it is cheaper than hiring another person to help you out
B) Find another job and something more comfortable, but you won’t skill up as fast and probably be doing less problem solving.
I personally took Option A when I was in a similar scenario. I was young, didn’t have kids so it worked out ok (was bloody tired by the end of it) and then used my experience to springboard to a better job when I’d had enough (was after 2 years) and the writing was on the wall what would happen in terms of future IT support.
My advice to the young guys is to do the hard yards when you are younger, it makes it so much easier when you are older.
Calleb_III@reddit
I was about to post the same. Would also add some more point should you pick A)
Las but not least - once you feel you have learned all the tech in this job - start looking for a new one. This company doesn’t value their IT and IT staff and are unlikely to change.
Brazilator@reddit
Well said
Far-Nefariousness588@reddit
100% this
chickentenders54@reddit
This is dangerous and irresponsible for them to have just one IT person.
remotelaptopmedic@reddit
You can build a homelab using either Unraid (free demo, then paid) or Proxmox (free). All you need is some LLM guidance—they're not perfect, but they help a lot most of the time. Just remember to give them as much context as you can. No human required.
For hardware, use anything you can get your hands on: a single PC, a full IBM server, old or new—doesn't matter. No need for shiny toys from the get-go.
How much are they paying you? Depending on that, you're either being exploited or slowly burning out. Either way, you've got a gold mine, a golden opportunity here.
Unfortunately, I don't have a lot of free time, but maybe I can give you pointers here and there—ideas, perspective, help navigating those first homelab steps. Just send me a DM. I'm mostly a hardware guy, but I've been in IT services for a few years and do some remote work on the side.
Looks like you just need a push. Don't panic, don't overthink—just do your best and prepare for a good chat with your employers. Put in some requests. We've all been there. Time is always on your side; you just need to see that.
Whatever you do, good luck. And don't worry—I'm not gonna ask you for money. You explain your world as best you want, I'll explain mine. Win-win, IMHO, lol.
PS: I don't feel like a fraud, but some impostor syndrome percolates somehow. A lot of people praise me as a genius when I solve their problems remotely, but to me it seems natural and easy. It surprises me when they PAY me for stuff I'd do for free if I could. Also, my ESL is kinda rough around the edges, so I had to pass this text above through some LLM to smooth it a lil bit.
FarToe1@reddit
Create a test suite at work. Use that to learn, you've already got the job.
Don't worry about being used, that's what employment means. We're all used or we wouldn't have value, it's a non-phrase.
Do worry about lack of management. You need to talk to your boss about lack of support and zero overlap. It could be the company is in trouble and they're bare-bonesing critical staff roles, or that they're about to migrate to a MSP. Talk about what happens to the company if you're sick, run over by a bus or there's an issue OOH. Take your steer from their answers in that discussion.
crazy_clown_time@reddit
With what spare time? Sounds like his 8 hours are primarily spent dealing with break-fix shit.
FarToe1@reddit
Even more reason. OP shouldn't be bringing that work home, he needs to disconnect and recharge.
Unexpected_chair@reddit
We're a team of 3 for 120 people... My friend, you need to ask for backup.
InspectionHot8781@reddit
You’re not a fraud you’re just in an impossible setup. One-person IT for 500 users is trial by fire, not imposter syndrome.
The trick is to stop trying to “keep up” and start building systems that make the job smaller:
-Automate everything you can (backups, patching, onboarding).
-Standardize configs and document as you go.
-Fix what breaks twice, if it breaks again, automate or replace it.
You’ll learn fast, but don’t let the company confuse “surviving chaos” with being supported.
Get the title and experience, but start lining up your next move once you’ve stabilized things.
TerrificVixen5693@reddit
Better get some IT certs. I’d start with the CompTIA trifecta.
spin81@reddit
I don't know about that. I've always gotten the impression that many, if not most, people learn on the job.
bingblangblong@reddit
Yeah that's how I do it. Fuck homelabbing, I have a life outside it work. I need that time for videogames.
gtsaknak@reddit
this will cause massive burnout .. here is no way you can thrive as a lone soldier with so many users and various technologies but that is corp america for you , doing more work with less people is a very shitty policy - get out and preserve your mental health
reni-chan@reddit
I've been in that position. You are being used but use it to your advantage. Use your time to learn and practice on their equipment as much as possible. It's your playground now, they can't afford to fire you.
Clock out at 5pm and turn your phone off until the next morning. After 18-24 months find a new job where you work in a decent team and don't have to think about everything at once.
That's what I did, which tripled my salary in 4 years period.
Nzash@reddit
Just 1 IT person is almost never reasonable, even in much smaller environments. One person can and will get sick, or be on vacation. Then what?
If you need 1 IT guy then you need 2 at the minimum. And for 500 employees you'll want even more.
No-Opportunity6598@reddit
Shout out when u cannot do something technically and ask for help. Request expensive freelancers to assist and they will quick figure out in house was better. Make sure ticket system is working and focus on the priorities , IT must set the priority n9t the staf. Don't work over time if it's not paid and if it is knock it out the park
Dangadi@reddit
Dude...one person for 500 employees is crazy. I don't know what your company does, but if they also have some type of specialized technological equipment or machinery, you're screwed. Ask for help and extra staff. On my team I have 3 guys, one from systems, one from data analyst and one programmer, for 450 people...and we are full most of the time
CoolNefariousness668@reddit
Brother, I feel you.
I often say I know something about everything and not a lot specifically. I don’t specialise in anything I am just expected to know the answer and make the decisions for everything in a 200+ company. It’s great, the money is good but about seven years in on this now and it is really wearing me out mentally.
I am having the same epiphany of being used and it’s time to get out.
crazy_clown_time@reddit
You're not a fraud, you're just in an impossible situation.
I mean, what are they gonna do if you take a week of PTO? The situation is a powder keg waiting to go off.
Gh0styD0g@reddit
Depends on the company, you’re doing the job of 5 people if that’s 500+ user endpoints associated backend infrastructure, supply chain management, etc. or a lot of stuff that should be getting done, just isn’t putting the business at risk. If it’s 475 sandwich packets and 25 admin staff with minimal it then it’s doable with 1 person and good outsource support.
NHLBigFan@reddit
1 IT tech per \~ 500 users?
That's not normal for sure.
Witte-666@reddit
My thoughts exactly, that's way too much for one person. OP is going to crash and burn without help.
gomibushi@reddit
I agree! It depends heavily on what kind of users, systems etc, but not in the most ideal setting could that be an ok ratio.
mamborghini-@reddit
I’d advice for the company to get SLA from an MSP. Then you get a head of department role for your resume.
diditalforthewookie@reddit
Part 1:
OK, I was you 15 years ago. I was placed (without asking) into the role of being responsible for a large organization's total technology stack where I felt on paper. Without writing a whole book, I'm just going to lay out some assumptions about your organization, and then some conclusions, and then personal recommendations for you! This will be US centric, but I assume it to be true for most countries.
ASSUMPTIONS:
- those 500 employees are all IT consumers with equipment issued to them owned by the corporation
- Your organization generates at least $70M gross revenue yearly
- You are not currently being invited to participate in budget forecasting for IT
- People generally really like you, your end-users give you good recommendations for you (and to you probably mysteriously even when you can't solve their problems in the most efficient way)
- Every corner that can be cut, is cut. Expired warranties on servers and network equipment, and the cheapest possible hardware is in place everywhere you look for infrastructure (laptops excluded -- especially for the exec staff)
- Your company is not doing well financially and there is a general sense of unease for the rank and file
- You never lied to anyone about what you're capable of, or what you know. You may have said things that you believed to be true and later realized they weren't, but nothing outright deceitful.
- You have basically no cloud infrastructure, You have some SaaS type (office 365) solutions, but no servers or storage or apps really running in the cloud
CONCLUSIONS:
- Your suitability for this role is not your responsibility, it is the responsibility of the executive staff/board, and as a result you definitely belong in your position, and are the technologist that the organization deserves. This is supported by your conscientious approach to improving your technical skill.
- You're focused on the trees and not the forest (I promise this isn't an AD pun, or maybe it is now, I dunno, I'm just a technologist, not a writer). Lead IT (CIO?) needs to be thinking in terms of risk and staffing and strategy, not "how does AD work". Though if I had to pick one, I'd pick the nuts and bolts guy as that's much more operationally focused, shit, someone needs to keep the lights on.
- Your organization's IT budget is woefully under budgeted, including your salary, I'm guessing they've got you at < $100k. Realistically an organization of that size should be expecting somewhere in the range of 600k-2M p.a. IT budget on the low end, with salary being about half of that.
diditalforthewookie@reddit
Part 2:
RECOMMENDATIONS:
- Ignore the "quit your job" negativity, it's not productive. You can't just strap on your job helmet and hop into the job cannon and launch yourself into your new dream career.
- Keep it up! This is a fun opportunity, I like to fantasize about the planning and wish list presentation I'd give to my superiors in your situation.
- Stay positive, and stay focused on your temperment. Personality goes a long way. Having been around the block, I'll take an honest and earnest technician on my team over the reclusive genius or spiteful wizard any.day.of.the.week. Teams make systems work, and humans are just as much a part of the system as domain controllers are. Be reliable, set boundaries, be aware of your own limitations and state them clearly (in writing maybe), but don't harp on them and don't make it the only message. You won't succeed being 24x7x365, and that should be obvious, so say it once and then leave it be for a month or so.
- Get certs, don't sweat the method, just get them. Even if you only learn the materials that are relevant to the exams, you'll at the very least get awareness of the components that the vendor thinks are important
- Get yourself some cloud budget! $200/mo goes a long way to getting labs going to learn all the networking/AD stuff you're interested in... which leads to...
- You probably should pick up something like terraform! Build some lab environments as IaC! Using cisco routers? Subscribe on AWS to Cisco CSR images and learn how to spin them up in VPC's that suit your learning scenarios, then you can turn it all on when you're ready, spend $10 learning, then destroy it all, knowing you can spin it all back up again when/if you need to revisit. Using Fortinet? There's fortigate images too! Using TP-Link/Netgear/China router #1? well then pick Cisco or Fortinet or Juniper or Palo and learn that instead and then make a case (I might recommend Fortinet, but that's just me)
- Keep asking for help, find a community, being sole IT is 100% a double edged sword for personal development. There is no better teacher than a trial by fire, and no better builder of confidence. But not being the smartest guy in the room is also a great way to pick up perspectives and tricks of the trade that you would probably miss on your own
- Apply for jobs that you don't want. Get yourself out there, talk to people, see what's available before you absolutely need it. I'll tell you from experience, there is no better feeling than interviewing for a job you don't intend to take, it's really freeing to be brutally honest.. Bash scripting? I'm not really sure, I've not done it but I'll figure it out. VMWare? Sounds interesting I'd love to learn about it, I understand the concepts of virtualiztion. Say it honestly with a smile on your face and you'll be surprised how well people react.
- Quit your job! (Positively! :) ). Set a personal goal that you find yourself in an organization where you're selling IT services to other companies, not doing IT internally, or a the very least, doing IT internally for a technolgy competent organization. Get surrounded by competent experienced professionals, it's the only way you'll ever really be a fully rounded IT guy.
- Get used to the imposter syndrome.. That part... never goes away.
diditalforthewookie@reddit
Oh man.. I wrote a 6KB response to this and reddit is trashing the post, just testing a smaller post.
diditalforthewookie@reddit
OK well I wrote it, and I'm sure as hell not going to troubleshoot why reddit didn't let me post it, so here's the text from someone who was in your shoes once.
diditalforthewookie@reddit
Well, this isn't how I intended to post this, but I wrote it, and sure as hell am not interested in troubleshooting why reddit won't let me post it.
meditateinside@reddit
When you started it was two men job. Now only you? Why won't they hire a replacement for your coworker?
tkobc@reddit
You stated SysAdmin, but is this really the full truth?
As a SysAdmin, I think the expectation is that you are the Senior Security Officer too. You will be patching, undertaking security assessments, logging security events and reviews. Do you have the tools or time for this? Do you have anything that will help you with configuration management for CIS and workstation patching?
You will also be wearing the Network Engineering hat. Do you have the tools to monitor intrusion detection and response? Do you have a test stack for configuration testing or performance testing?
You are also Service Desk, Architect and testing department too.
Don't get me wrong, this makes you agile within IT and you can learn a lot, but I think this is too much.
How do you deal with holiday and downtime for yourself?
Good luck
peoplepersonmanguy@reddit
You aren't the fraud, but your company is.
gomibushi@reddit
I’ve worked at 1:25 (academic, demanding users, bespoke everything) to 1:140ish (remote hosted apps, no device support) ratio, both were ok workloads because the responsibilities and work was totally different. 1:500 is not ok in any scenario.
Make this known, in writing.
Ambitious-Effect-990@reddit
Stay in the battle and learn as much as possible on their time. Then when you will start looking for your next job you know exactly what you are worth.
TacticalFartPalace@reddit
User forums. Cisco's is particularly good.
noitalever@reddit
Two years in and 500 employees? Geez dude, drinking from the fire hose in the deep end of the pool.
I’ve been doing this since 96 and I wouldn’t do it with less than five others. Unless they want it done like crap.
You may not even be able to learn anything while you are there. Hard to learn when you’re chasing your own tail and there’s no one to teach.
Blueline42@reddit
Sole IT and starting out is hard. I've been fortunate along my long IT journey to have lots of experienced IT people around me willing to share knowledge. Honestly if you can land a different job with experienced people around you it will accelerate your career.
No_Promotion451@reddit
Bet the working condition is horrible with osh violations prevalent
rcp9ty@reddit
You're not a fraud their demands are to high of you. Hell even I struggle with 300 people when my co-worker is gone... They need to get you at least one more person... No one will replace you even with lots of money... If they eliminated that other person's job they better pay you all of that person's money on top of what you made before they left... My boss has told me plenty of times if they fire me they better have my replacement starting the next day or he would quit.
AppearanceAgile2575@reddit
My boss is going to reference this post the next time I mention we’re understaffed. I can smell it.
sahui@reddit
get a new job. just one it guy for 500 users its INSANE
HoneyLagoon37@reddit
Even seasoned sysadmins would be sweating bullets with that workload. not saying you can’t grow, but this is straight-up unsafe
hardingd@reddit
Last I heard it was 140:1, no?
_THE_OG_@reddit
We had 4.5 for 3k and 50+ remote locations for a year. Wasnt fun but it being hourly, made a good buck
aluminumpork@reddit
500 employees!?! Are they all actual users?
antnyau@reddit
That's what I was thinking - that seems kind of insane. I'm assuming OP isn't tasked with providing user support as well as maintaining infrastructure!?
ItsColeman12@reddit (OP)
Yes they are actual users. Yes I am tasked with provider user support, maintaining infrastructure and everything in between.
MaTOntes@reddit
Who is the manager? Are you the top of the IT department?
BlackFlames01@reddit
Sounds like they're setting you up for failure. Document your work and concerns, so if and when things go south, you covered your butt. Good luck. 👍
ctwg@reddit
Build yourself a production-like test environment. You’re going to make mistakes better there than in live. Ensure its fully isolated.
xylopyrography@reddit
There is no time to build any environment if you are doing IT support for 500 people.
ItsColeman12@reddit (OP)
This is my biggest issue. Management keeps asking me to make changes in our environment to help increase productivity, but all of my time is spent putting band aids on issues, and that also doesn't give me time to investigate and solve the root cause of these issues, let alone introduce new tech for our staff to increase productivity.
fanofreddit-@reddit
The very nature of your job being so extremely short staffed, and you also not even having anyone else there to learn from, is likely the very thing holding you back. Like where are you possibly going to find time for education when you’re putting out fires all the time, by yourself. You came here looking for answers on how to improve your skills however I think you already know the answer. You just don’t have the time to do it.
Flat-Classroom4230@reddit
1 guy for 500 users (single office or multi site?) Is insane and breaches due diligence. My current role has 6 guys for 500 end users across three offices and 3 data centres. Find something else because when something breaks and it will you'll be drowning trying to fix it.
Terrible-Ad7015@reddit
Be real and upfront to your leadership - they don't understand the scale of what is needed to support their daily work, I would suggest you endeavor to make that clear to them - but in an HR-approved, corporate executive friendly way.
Over the next week, try to log the hours and tasks you are accomplishing - log the hours in tasks you need to accomplish - log how often you are interrupted in completing necessary support tasks with other user facing/immediate attention work.
Review local MSPs, and crash course some SaaS/PaaS offerings to automate RMM.
Another side to this, was stated above -- ask about budget - but not only for consulting/contractors/MSPs - but for continuing education.
"I would like to enhance my ability to support our company, I have found that with X amount of doll-hairs per year, we get access to this education platform - that is not just IT specific, but would allow the other members of the company, to gain knowledge in various different softwares and programs we already use daily (point out Excel, the corporate world still runs on Excel).
I am not a sponsored affiliate or whatever, so my name dropping is simply from things I have used personally: Udemy, PluralSight both have decent enterprise level offerings for this, and both are seemingly well-respected.
If you don't think you can get the budget to pay for classes, do not worry -- YouTube is free, and there are extensive options to learn - Domain Controllers, Active Directory, LDAP the works - there are numerous tutorials, walkthroughs, 5/10/30/90 min videos galore. Spend 2 hours doing some good research on some decent videos - build a playlist - work through that playlist and add/remove videos as you go, for the next 3 months - you'll gain a decent understanding.
For homelabbing - one of the main suggestions is just setting up virtual machines to create/mimic development/production setups. Proxmox is a regular go-to, you have r/homelab for the wizards to help you build and understand - r/proxmox for those wizards to help you understand that whole world.
Be careful of r/networking - networking guys may bite, especially if you ask about Cisco 🤣 jk.
Other than that - some decent advice has already been given here, GPT is a fairly decent resource for learning - however, always ask for links to supporting documentation - keeps you from learning things it decided to randomly make up.
When one is truly seeking knowledge, the only stupid questions, are the ones that go unasked.
Happy learning journey!
P.S. AD is actually simple. It's all permissions my friend. #ItAlwaysHasBeen
Legitimate_Put_1653@reddit
This situation is a timebomb that ends with you being fired over some incident that was likely avoidable with proper staffing. Find another job soon.
umlcat@reddit
They are cheap and taking advantage of you.
Igot1forya@reddit
Is there a budget for a consulting agency? I worked at a place under very similar circumstances and while they refused to hire assistance in the form of another employee, they did offer to pay for consultation time for projects. I learned so much by having access to a consulting agency.
Basically within the block of time set aside, I grilled them endlessly. In time, they themselves started to reach out to me for stuff and because of my curiosity and the relationship we formed it turned into other opportunities. They even offered me a job, though I didn't accept it (it required lots of travel), but they were extremely well connected and hooked me up with contacts to other experts in the industry. That led to access to conference invitations and more networking.
Pretty much I could land a job anywhere in that field if I wanted. ITs a small world if you know the right people.
BinaryWanderer@reddit
Easiest answer is to ask for help and get an MSP to take some of the bulk and bullshit work off your hands. That gives you help and the company an easy monthly charge that they can cancel or change as needed.
MeatSuzuki@reddit
You are being taken advantage of bud.... Companies that do this to IT workers have no understanding about what IT actually costs and frankly do not give two shits. You will always be struggling there.
Best way forward is to insist you're made department manager, so it looks good on your resume then purchase udemy and train train train. When you're ready to move on, start putting minimal effort into supporting their infrastructure and focus looking for a new company.
octahexxer@reddit
Youtube tutorials are fastest way build a lab and do stuff
thisiscameron@reddit
just google and chatgpt stuff until you get everything figured out. fuck it!
raydleemsc@reddit
Virtualbox and discord. Build it yourself and have help on hand, may have to do some syncing with other timezones to catch up with the people you need, but work at it in test nets, and keep varying just one parameter at a time.
GO0BERMAN@reddit
500 employees and you’re the only person in IT? This is an org issue that they are going to hopefully figure out. This isn’t your problem. You need to communicate this, if they don’t fix this then I would start looking for a new position
BisonThunderclap@reddit
Good time to hit videos and proctored certifications. Watch videos related to "how to set up an enterprise network" I've always found that's a good way to see the various ways people approach architecting and keeping up with their environments.
Read the documentation on your environment, or create it if it doesn't exist.
Look up best practices and see where your environment lies in that list.
You should also be honest with your leadership about the help you need right now and bring an MSP on to help assist. They'll have knowledge and expertise you don't currently possess and that'll be important if something goes sideways.
lemaymayguy@reddit
You need to bring in a msp to support you
GrabMyBurnerBro@reddit
ChatGPT pro