First sysadmin role and I feel completely lost
Posted by TrippedOverNothing@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 52 comments
Started my first sysadmin role about 2 weeks ago after working in desktop support / helpdesk / desktop engineering.
Honestly, I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing most of the time.
So far I’ve worked on a couple of PowerShell scripts, but I haven’t really been given much documentation, onboarding, or direction. It also feels like they may not have even had a proper sysadmin before me.
No real onboarding or direction so far, and I’m still trying to understand what systems exist and what I should be focusing on day to day.
I’m fairly introverted and I may also have some ADHD traits (not diagnosed), so the lack of structure makes it harder to get traction.
For people who moved from support into sysadmin work:
Is this normal at the start?
What should I actually be doing in the first few months?
How do you even begin getting control/visibility over an environment when there’s barely any handover?
Trying not to panic and just taking notes on everything right now.
Panta125@reddit
I feel super regarded and worthless 90% of the time... But that 10% I'm like fucking lex luthor.
Specialist_Fig_7857@reddit
Document everything you do. What you did, why you did it, what you expected to happen, and how to undo what you did.
CYA, because there will always be someone unhappy with something you did. It does not mean they are right it may mean they are used to doing something non-legit or even illegal or at the very least not the very best IT standard practice.
For example, as stated, running Windows 10 in a Production environment, no anti-virus, no firewalls, no back-ups, no UPS, and the list goes on.
They will blame you because it's easier for them to take the blame.
jakgal04@reddit
The rule of sysadmin roles is every other organization is more organized than yours. Trust me, your feeling is valid and its a reality for a lot of places.
Start by identifying whats critical. In a lot of cases, its your job as a sysadmin to find structure in things so start taking your own notes. Document in a way that anybody can understand, not just you. This is beneficial in two ways. 1. It'll be easy for you to understand months or years down the road but if you ever decide to leave or bring on help, it'll help onboard them.
I've noticed that it takes about 6 months or more before I start to feel "comfortable" in a new role where I understand more than what I don't know. You'll start to figure out where problem spots are, what services/equipment might need to be addressed within the next year. You'll start to understand the network structure, etc.
Long story short, don't worry, its normal. It will get better!
TrippedOverNothing@reddit (OP)
Thank you, honestly. Puts my mind at ease.
electricpollution@reddit
Take this to heart. I oversee IT at a decent sized shop. It takes a minimum 6-9 months for a new hire to be comfortable. 1-2 years to know most everything.
Documentation that has step by step recreation guides are key. It will help you now and future you and others.
Give yourself a breath and dive in. One system, one process at a time. Understand it, from start to finish
jakgal04@reddit
No problem, good luck and congrats on the role!
zarkain2000@reddit
Im at the Same Spot in the Moment. Both admins gone. I’m alone with two supporters and try to learn the Infrastructure of a whole small town with satelites in schhols and beuros, very confusinh VMware hyperbolisch citrix fat Clients it’s overwhelming af
Suitable-Hand-1059@reddit
Take inventory of what you’ll be responsible for maintaining.
Do you have an on-prem server stack, and if so what is it running?
Are you using Hyper-V, VMWare, Xen, something else?
What is your backup solution? Do you have an offsite backup, or it is all on prem?
What is your security solution? Local antivirus clients, SIEM for log aggregation and retention, IDS (usually included at the firewall level).
What network equipment are you using? Have you drawn a physical topology yet? You’ll save a lot of headaches down the road if you establish a good network map early on.
What subnets are in use? What VLANs, and how are they tied together?
Is your shop a combination of DHCP and static addresses, or all DHCP with some reserve addresses?
Do you have any airgapped equipment?
Do you have policies and procedures in place for IT? NIST 800-171 is an excellent framework for this.
Do you use any external resources such as VARs or MSPs which might impact the scope of support or your budget?
Are you responsible for other tasks, such as report generation or an ERP system?
I’m not going to hammer down too much, but these should give you plenty to think about to get started.
Best of luck to you on your journey, and just remember that literally all of us have felt like you do at some point.
adstretch@reddit
This is a great answer. It’s generally what I was going to write only WAY more complete.
HappySmileSeeker@reddit
Time to dig deep and see what you are really made of. The best love I ever got from anyone was tough love. Time to roll up your sleeves and get dirty.
ankitcrk@reddit
Figure out is it real System Administrator or Desktop Support disguised as System Administrator
packetssniffer@reddit
Pretty much how my job is.
I bring up ideas we need to implement and my CTO is always 'i don't think we need that'
Then I found out he's a nepo hire (brother to the CEO) and everything makes sense now.
I could go on and on.
Rough_Section_3730@reddit
Wow, win 10 home. So much for any ad on those and no plans for 11. That will be some interesting times when one of those 10 pro systems gets breached and the rest of that environment goes south.
ibringstharuckus@reddit
Probably the most secure network going. Ransomware group. No one runs Win 10 home at a business. Don't waste your time.
UnleashedArchers@reddit
I remember going into a role as a network administration officer, thinking it was admin. Turned out the network administrator was being in charge of user creation. Then took me 9 years to find another job because the role wasnt giving me any sys admin experience.
Thankfully I'm now working as a desktop/intune admin
crazycanucks77@reddit
Took you 9 years to find another job to go from Network admin to intune admin?
UnleashedArchers@reddit
Yep. The job was outer suburban. According to a job agency most people looked at it as country and frowned on it. And the same of my role hurt because people assumed network admin by the title, but I was glorified help desk.
I was also constantly put down by the manager, which killed my self esteem.
Then because I was glorified help desk I struggled to get another job that paid as well, or they deemed I didn't have enough on the job experience in my role to go for other jobs I applied for.
Eventually took a pay cut and took a "jack of all trades" position. Spent two years there building up my skills again and that got me where I needed.
achristian103@reddit
This right here.
A lot of sysadmin roles are glorified tier 1 help desk positions, particularly in smaller companies.
Diegotapiamusic@reddit
🙋🏽♂️ that’s me hehehe
sentient-hardware-55@reddit
gotten this before. soul crushing since I thought it was going to be my first big boi job. it was more on par with call center than any help desk/desktop support job I ever had. it was far and away from a no name company too so even worse feeling.
Clean-Afternoon-4982@reddit
Well if you don’t have documentation, start by making your own documentation suite. Probably about a week into this will start creating work for yourself.
charlyAtWork2@reddit
Build the documentation you wanted to have.
Do the audit and inventory of your infrastructure
check who is the ownership of what.
look your user right data base, half are not in the company anymore.
You are an adult now.
bobdobalina@reddit
This, be paranoid because everyone else will be ready for blame as soon as trouble arrives. Be the calm that points at the triage before their worry becomes a distraction during an outage.
you'll go from "Everything is down" to IT said it's XYZ and we're all out of Y.
ScumLikeWuertz@reddit
seriously?
brekfist@reddit
Get access to monitoring system. Get access to everything in monitoring system.
britannicker@reddit
If there's no documentation, then start documenting whatever you find out along the way.
This post from today has a usual list/overview of what you might look at, and document.
Did I mention, start documenting stuff.
Anyways, here's the link to the post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/s/PKul0OEiza
britannicker@reddit
If there's no documentation, then start documenting whatever you find out along the way.
This post from today has a usual list/overview of what you might look at, and document.
Did I mention, start documenting stuff.
Anyways, here's the link to the post:
https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/s/PKul0OEiza
Jaereth@reddit
Basically your going from problem solving reactive mode to system maintenance and improvement proactive mode.
And if your org is like every one i've ever seen, there's ALWAYS something to improve. Always some nagging problem that nobody's been able to solve.
I'd start by saying: Is there anyone else in your role you can talk to? Or perhaps the person who got promoted out of your role to put you in it? Ask them what their day to day was like. Or ask someone! Just because nobody "onboarded" you or showed you the ropes doesn't mean it's devoid of tasks that need to be done.
Acceptable_Mood_7590@reddit
Get Google Gemini Pro subscription for a few months, it’s 2 months half price right now
CeC-P@reddit
Document EVERYTHING. We're talking inventories, ages, duplicate reduction, OS and software versions, network scans to find hidden devices. You want zero surprised and zero vulnerabilities. Can't really make a budget or a plan or a replacement priority without knowing what's there.
Then I'd move on the what's Microsoft changing/screwing up in the next year and plan for that.
Then I'd focus almost entirely on security.
Ok-Measurement-1575@reddit
Just chill until something goes bang then be like, "THERE WAS NO DOCUMENTATION ABOUT THIS FFS."
troy57890@reddit
I'm currently 8 months in and I still feel this way to a degree.
I'm not used to not having as much training or documentation, so it's been a bit difficult to adapt.
Even if I'm told I'm doing good, it feels like I'm far behind.
I've had to do the following to make sure I'm not screwing myself over:
1.In the first few months, touch as much as you can to understand the infrastructure. Whether it's MDM, file servers, M365 administration, etc.
This one I'm not too sure on unfortunately. I've always had to ask what my team owns in order to gain visibility or control of an environment.
Keep making notes and documentation. Schedule time to organize them and update them. They will come in handy sooner or later down the road.
Coming from a tech support specialist role, this has been the most challenging thing to get used to. Some days you feel like you can keep up and you're understanding more, while other days you feel that you're drowning and can't swim.
Don't be afraid to ask for help. Be sure to be that junior that asks every team member a question over something you don't know.
If you're shown how to do something to complete a tasks, immediately make notes and turn it into go to documentation.
You got this! It's hard, and a lot at times, but over the course of time, it will get easier.
macbig273@reddit
Sysadmin, depending on the infrastructure you got in your hand, should be a minimum of 5 to 20 days.
Find the documentation, if there is none, write it.
As a rule thumb, ask yourself if it goes wrong / down how would I fix it. what will append if I'm dead, and it goes down.
Go from service to service, write yourself a map, write a map for the next one. because the next step is :
crutchy79@reddit
Third sysadmin role and I feel completely lost 🤠
Zealousideal-War6372@reddit
Your going to need a fireman hat, you’re main job is going to be putting out fires that a good system setup might have prevented , while trying to stabilize and modernize the chaos
Casey3882003@reddit
This is normal. Imposter Syndrome is a major pain in this career and it will come and go throughout.
When I first moved from a mom and pop shop to my first real sysadmin role all they told me was to keep on top of updates. I had no idea what I was doing and too afraid to ask questions. I went away for a vacation about 3 months after I started and my first day back in the office I had a meeting with my manager and senior sysadmin. They found I hadn’t made any progress even though I said I did and lit me up for about 30 minutes. It was a real wake up call. I had to learn how to swim so to speak real quick.
I finally had the courage to ask questions and get the necessary help because I knew my job was on the line. I hope you can get the guidance you need without having to go through the steps I did. It can be an extremely rewarding career if you find aspects you enjoy and get a company that treats you well.
Library_IT_guy@reddit
Are you solo, or do you have a team? If you're solo, yeah it's kind of rough. Here's some stuff to get your feet wet:
Don't go making any sweeping changes unless something is in dire need of replacing due to falling over or being very insecure due to being end of life.
jcwrks@reddit
A real Sysadmin would know what to do without asking r/ users. You should have asked questions during your interview to prep yourself. One of the first questions that you should have asked is "who managed your infrastructure before me?" Is your boss technically savvy or is he a hands-off manager? Is this a startup? Are you the only IT guy?
Rough_Section_3730@reddit
Kinda hard to ask questions when you’ve never worn the hat before. People don’t know what they don’t know until they encounter it for the first time.
noOneCaresOnTheWeb@reddit
Documentation.
Changes should not be done unless absolutely required for 3 to 6 months.
Do not believe any documentation that you happen to find.
chickibumbum_byomde@reddit
quite norma as your first sysadmin job, especially in a messy or undocumented environment (majority). At the start, you’re not expected to know everything, you’re expected to figure out what exists and how it fits together.
best is to know what systems are there, what is important, what breaks often, and how things are connected like backups and dependencies. taking notes and learning the environment step by step is exactly the right approach. Over time, things become clearer as you build a mental map of the systems.
Denver80211@reddit
Yah this is about right. Keep in might, the people who hired you don't know much about what you do either.
Not much documentation? There's a thing to do. The more you do, the more you'll find.
See if you can get a claude enterprise subscription and start a project collecting information about the environment. It does a lot of the work and will find thing to fix as it goes. The files you collect go into the project and can be used later as reference material.
StiuNu@reddit
1 check backup for everything 2 test backup 3 check credentials and remove Admin for everyone who don't need it 4 remove Ai from everything Admin related 5 document everything, for yourself and future 6 learn to use all the search engines and do not trust Ai answers unless you know from experience it works 7 change your sleep schedule from 11 pm to 1 am and arriving at work at 11 am
Congrats you are one of us!
NotMedicine420@reddit
Don't check backups. That's too much expectations. Too much effort. Too much wasted time. You already doing them. Lots of them. Huge backups. The bestest. They should be satisfied with that. Anything more is above your pay grade.
Pln-y@reddit
Do an inventory of servers eol/eos devices ideally with software and system owners, network review etc. Vendor agreements and other boring stuff..
acquiesce88@reddit
If I were in your position, I'd talk to my manager and/or peers, to find out what the expectations are. Find out what projects people are working on and see if they're working on something you're interested in learning about or doing.
I started out in tier 2 desktop support, and despite my introversion, I'm okay one-on-one and figured out who I felt rapport with and see whether they were working something I wanted to learn more about. So I talked to the email, network, and server admins and offered to help them with projects, or even just tag along / shadow them. Once you're in as a system administrator, you realize that there are so many more ways to branch out and specialize in different areas.
Are you going to be on-call? What systems are you going to be responsible for? Are there trouble tickets you can work on or previous tickets you can read through? If you talked to your coworkers, and gathered some technical and interpersonal info, then when you talk to your manager you can express interest in those areas.
redfester@reddit
godspeed
Wabbyyyyy@reddit
Been there done that . It’s going to be overwhelming as fuck the next few weeks or even months but don’t let that discourage you. Do your thing and get shit in order. You’ll grow and learn so much from this experience you’ll be able to show it to a new company when you ditch that shithole.
I left internally to join as a sysadmin for an MSP and the previous sysadmin that they hired for 8 months didn’t do anything and left me with shit. Got thrown into a massive heap of shit and had some serious imposter syndrome. You work through it and you’ll find a groove and things should start getting better. If not, just start applying.
Use this as a learning experience.
Major-Error-1611@reddit
You have gone from being reactive to being proactive so it's normal to feel this way at the beginning. Your worth is no longer quantified in terms of how many tickets you close but rather in making sure the systems you look after are operational and secure. There will be patching and updates that you need to arrange, preferably through some sort of automation and on a reliable schedule. What does your job description look like? Surely it mentions the systems you are responsible for? Are there any other sysadmins?
The fact that you haven't been given strict guidelines can work in your favour by allowing you to manage the environment as per your own liking as long as the objectives are met.
TrippedOverNothing@reddit (OP)
That’s exactly it, i was working a user facing role, where i was reacting to tickets, and I am really good at problem solving, but now i feel like an imposter.
The role covers Windows Server admin (AD, DNS, DHCP, GPO), user accounts, permissions, and security policies. I also support infrastructure monitoring, lab machines, and general system health.
There’s a physical side too: workstation setup, hardware troubleshooting, and repairs.
A lot of the work is reacting to issues from engineering teams (failed tests, lab faults), plus keeping legacy systems stable and patched.
It also includes some Linux support, working with DevOps/QA/hypervisor teams, and handling documentation, patching, virtual environments, and compliance/security tasks.
Rough_Section_3730@reddit
Some things I’ve done first time in “the chair”
if not done already, verify your ms licensing is in order for the servers you run.
Ensure data is being backed up properly. Learn the software and hardware in use Commvault, etc. data storage in use for them, tape libraries, cloud,etc and check that they’re being done.
Make a patch management plan. Wsus or your preferred patch system is in place and working.
Explore everything you’ve been told you’re responsible for.
For account pruning, find out from management if they require accounts to be help for any specific length of time before deletion, etc. could be some legal reasons that they’re not purged.
Didn’t say if you were in a virtualized environment or not, but if you are, check for old snapshots no longer needed and clean them if applicable.
Just look around at everything. Sooner or later, you’ll find something that you’d like to run up the chain and do differently.
Unnamed-3891@reddit
First steps: What is business critical? How do backups of these things happen? What do my networks look like? Where are credentials for everything stored?