Why does Sys Admin feel more like Everything Admin?

Posted by SenikaiSlay@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 226 comments

For context I'm a Jr Sys. I'm very used to wearing multiple hats and going "out of scope" to accomplish the mission. Been in this role for 6 months officially, a year and some change unofficially. Point is, I know I can't be completely siloed, and I don't want to be. Is it more normal for a SysA to be a jack of all trades? I mean I've worked at companies where they had network guys, exchange guys, server guys, sharepoint etc. And here.. I do most all of that myself. There is no one above me, save for the ITD and 1 person below me, helpdesk. This is all stemming from pressure to do more networking, and I fully suck at it. I was never good at it. I'm sure I can buckle down and figure it out for now but God is it so wrong to just...not want to? I'm pissing in the wind here I know, it's a good skill to have and I probably should have more than the basics...but is it really needed to be a success?

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226 Comments

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Quirky_Oil215@reddit

Welcome to jungle, if it has power you are lord over it ! Phones, Printers, Light switches, Front door phone, Power sockets , Mobile phone contracts - not ops...IT Conference equipment

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SurgicalStr1ke@reddit

If it plugs into an electrical socket, it's IT.

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cmwg@reddit

the smaller the company the more roles and technology will need to be done by less people - so obv. a sysadmin will do all sorts in those cases PS.: a sysadmin should always have a very good and deep understanding of networking.

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Optimal_Leg638@reddit

But they are not going to have a deep understanding of networking because that would be a network admin. If you are managing AD and the network, the company is either cheap or small potatoes (or both).

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cmwg@reddit

very shortsighted view of things, and i am in no way saying the sysadmins should be on the same level as network admins but a sysadmin should have a good understanding of OSI / TCPIP stack and the protocols in it - since the infrastructure is built using them

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Optimal_Leg638@reddit

I can agree, but ‘Good’ view of the OSI is not ‘deep’ network knowledge.

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cmwg@reddit

which is why i mentioned TCPIP, but i could of course list alot more, ie. know the protocols down to the header level, so you can make sense of wireshark captures, know the handshake, know how for example DHCP works, understand subnet mask and vlans as well as routing and nat. (again this is not a complete list, just examples)

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KnightmareLG@reddit

Then those roles should be contracted out.

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cmwg@reddit

definitely not - esp. not generalised as you make it

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thegreatcerebral@reddit

Don't start... I've never been to a small place that has the money or the want to contract out things that someone they have on the payroll already can do. Besides, while they are small, they still operate like they care and will find value in you doing this. If you contract out too many things then you will just find yourself contracted out eventually.

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KnightmareLG@reddit

If you think any employer cares about you at any size you have much bigger problems. Do yourself a favor, get an MSP and an MSSP on a retainer while chasing down microwave, TV, and HVAC problems. It'll benefit they next person after you.

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SeriousSysadmin@reddit

I'll 2nd the advice of understanding networking. Even if you do get to a place that has their own network team it will be valuable. Knowing how services connect will make OP more aware of security concerns for sure. Having been on the network management side of the house, when a colleague can articulate exactly the problem they have on a network level...\*chefs kiss\*

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greenstarthree@reddit

Things I’ve been asked to fix/do/advise on over the years: Microwave Air conditioning Put arms on a chair Move a 240v power outlet Repair phone screens And the endless “do you have a charger for….”

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monkey7168@reddit

Oh my god, the chargers and cords... I just started stocking everything. Must be nice to be forgetful and have someone you can ask. If I forget a cable or charger as sure as shit won't be asking any of the mouth breathers at the office, I am my own help desk. The biggest problem is getting the damn things back. I started printing large silly labels and attaching them to the chargers and cables, making them easier to distinguish "from their personal items" It was amazing to see how quickly a small office can burn through iPhone and Android chargers when you're expecting people to be responsible adults and I buy the nice premium shit that works well.

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HugeRoof@reddit

Years back, I had all my loaner cables in pink. Was easy to spot, less of a chance of them wanting to keep them.

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FunnyMathematician77@reddit

You should stop doing those things

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CosmicMixer2120@reddit

So in other words, you have boundary issues and don’t know when to tell someone no.

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greenstarthree@reddit

I didn’t say any of these things were actioned. There are always those few who look to bring down a good-natured / light-hearted comment eh? Thank you for being today’s trigger to get off Reddit 🙂

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Alex_2259@reddit

If you allow facilities to size your server room AC you will be like 10K BTU short every time at least

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223454@reddit

I try to maintain a good relationship with those guys, but a lot of them think because they work with electricity they can do IT stuff, like cabling and project management. I've had facilities guys completely butcher cables and projects and not see the problem. Even simple things like moving computers get messed up. So I try to not let them touch anything.

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Alex_2259@reddit

We draw up all these spec sheets where I work, and then facilities just does the coordinations side. Works fine. Otherwise we end up with a rack too small for equipment, not enough or no AC, wrong type of cable, no AP runs, and we have to waste so much time re doing everything.

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223454@reddit

My last boss was terrible in a lot of ways, but one thing they did right was to bully their way into projects so IT had a seat at the table during the planning stage. Before that upper management would just work with facilities on projects like that, so we'd end up wasting tons of time fixing things after the fact, just as you described.

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Alex_2259@reddit

Yeah I have had not doing that cost the company a fuck ton of money, and then they don't learn somehow so in the next project re doing and fixing shit costs them even more money. The cycle repeats.

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223454@reddit

I once had a high level manager scope out a project and sign the contract without even telling IT it was happening, then when things went sideways, and half the project had to be redone, they had the nerve to blame IT for not stopping them from screwing it up. Like, you didn't even tell us this was going on, and it's our fault? Nope.

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minddragondeez@reddit

Mine is the exact opposite. Love the facilities guys but they'll call me in to look at standard wiring on their equipment and expect me to have some magic wand solution for them. "No, I don't have a kit to crimp Ferrules" "I'm not soldering a surface-mount potentiometer in the power inverter you broke." "I'm not an expert in air compressors but your error code says 2.01 and not 2.00 so you're looking at the wrong wires here." They love me but I have to point out the obvious to them sometimes.

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223454@reddit

I would much prefer that situation. Mine (at a lot of jobs I've had) tend to do things IT should be doing, but they don't tell us they're doing it. We find out when it's done and messed up.

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lvlint67@reddit

> Is it more normal for a SysA to be a jack of all trades yes. > This is all stemming from pressure to do more networking, and I fully suck at it Networking is REALLY easy. A competent sysadmin can learn it in an afternoon with the right teacher. The problem is finding the right teacher. Everything you need to know is packet/frame flow. It's "routing and switching" in the cisco books. once you know how: 1) an ip packet is made 2) How the operating system decides where to send that packet 3) how the switches decide to forward that packet 4) how routers forward or mangle packets 5) What the receiving operating system does with the packet networking is easy. If you can describe the full encapsulation of an http packet you have 1 covered. The operating system uses it routing table and the associated nic forwards the packet. If the destination is not on the same subnet, the OS will use the "next hop" MAC Address of the associated router as the destination in the ethernet frame. That's 2. Switches are layer 2 and deal with ethernet frames not ip packets. They hold tables that describe which ports specific MAC addresses are attached to. If the switch knows the port, it forwards it out that port. If it doesn't know the port it "floods" the packet out of all ports (except the receiving port). Routers receive IP packets. They use their routing tables to forward packets similarly to the OS. They will replace the destination mac with their next hop toward the destination. If NAT get's involved, the router also changes the src IP address&MAC and holds that info in a table for the response. If the operating receives a tcp packet with an IP address it has configured and a port that has a program "listening", the "kernel" will forward the packet to the program. If the ip/port isn't listening the packet is usually dropped silently.

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ordray@reddit

To risk sounding like an ass, look at your job title. You're a SYSTEM Admin. In smaller shops, you're expected to administer their SYSTEM i.e. damn near everything. As companies grow they can budget to add specialists, and your responsibilities narrow. If you don't have the bandwidth to add more networking to your plate, then have that conversation with your boss and see if they will consider bringing in a consultant/MSP for major networking problems/projects since you don't have the time or expertise at the moment. If you DO have the bandwidth, learn networking! It's never something that you won't need. I'm not saying go all CCIE, but an entry level networking understanding at the very least is going to be required for you to progress in your career as a sys admin anyway.

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charmingpea@reddit

Sysadmin types tend to be the kind of people who can think and solve all kinds of problems, and also people who actually do solve problems, so it sort comes with the territory.

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Lozsta@reddit

This. There is also the fact I am incredibly lazy if I can be and will find a novel solution to a problem rather than forming a focus group to discuss it ad infinitum. I will mostly find the quickest way to go from point A to point B with the minimum of fuss.

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ooblongtea@reddit

> forming a focus group to discuss it ad infinitum I do this for projects that I think are a waste of time and resources. I mention a group to non IT management and they LOVE focus groups/etc. By the time they get their shit together they've moved on from their original ask.

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Frisnfruitig@reddit

Also "taskforces". Hey let's form a taskforce and have bi-weekly meetings to discuss the status and next steps! Keep the ball rolling!

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ooblongtea@reddit

I was on a task force recently that had an emergency meeting to announce who in the group would "represent" the facility, then they wanted to discuss the name of the taskforce, and the titles they'd bestow upon the participants who had active roles. I was made "IT Liaison for \_\_\_\_\_". Then those folks actually put that shit in their signature. Really? It's a mandatory project from corporate, we don't need to meet 3x/wk, just do what they fucking ask and move the fuck on.

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Lozsta@reddit

Yeh that sounds like an idea. I normally bypass the whole group, speak directly to the project manager, give them exactly what to say in the larger group then things move. But it is such a frustrating process.

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electricpollution@reddit

Should just be our job description short and sweet.

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Lozsta@reddit

Once I was told to remove the experience section of my CV from my many contracting roles. So I did. Pretty much what I put above I reworded for my CV. It essentially read. "I will work out what you need done, do it, train other people to also do it and continue doing it if you need me to or move onto the next job."

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Gazyro@reddit

This, and we generally know who is who in their environment. Need info on application A? go to team C for this, team B also can help but not with issue D and E. We can help, but we are not trained in any way so we might only help with easy issues. I am for instance also responsible for, aircon/ventilation, heating, water, gas, electrical, charging infra, AV systems, and a whole slew of other things not directly IT related. Does it have a connector? I might be able to manage/fix it. Developers get paid more then me though....

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AnBearna@reddit

You as basically me then. Anything with a plug on it will be the potential source of a ticket. The HR manager hasn’t been able to find her storage heater as a config item in ServiceNow but that doesn’t stop her from asking me to take a look at it from time to time 😂

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Gazyro@reddit

Heaters are also managed by us, as in we take them away. Fire hazard. Did I mention that we are responsible for the fire thingemabobs as well :) And we mostly don't deal in tickets, current system is too much overhead for a small team of 5 people managing everything IT and Electrical non IT related stuff in a company of 300 developers with multiple smaller corps attached that we also service. I sometimes miss the option in LinkedIn to just write down every single thing I do.

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Frisnfruitig@reddit

It sounds like you need to start incorporating the word "no" in your vocabulary more often tbh.

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Gazyro@reddit

Did, was not acceptable or service oriented enough....

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beepboopbeepbeep1011@reddit

I feel that so much!

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Frisnfruitig@reddit

And why are you still working there exactly? There are plenty of companies who don't expect you to be part janitor.

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DEATHToboggan@reddit

> I am for instance also responsible for, aircon/ventilation, heating, water, gas, electrical, charging infra, AV systems, and a whole slew of other things not directly IT related. I know this story… we had a whole fight in my company over electrical car, chargers, and how the support post-implementation would end up getting pinned on me by the PMs tasked with installing it because it “connects to the internet”. Thankfully my boss, who is also a partner, is very supportive and told the project managers installing the car chargers that it was not an IT issue. Now it more like: is there an issue with the car chargers? “that’s not my area. Call the electricians.” Do you have an HVAC problem? “Call the building manager.” Because we know how to solve problems and/or know who to call people just send the any and all requests to IT without even thinking for themselves. if you end up assuming all of these little responsibilities, then you own it and get shit on when it doesn’t work. That said, I can tell you who to call and give you their number, but I’m not gonna fix it for you. Some days I swear I’m just a glorified phonebook.

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Cowboy_Corruption@reddit

More of a case of who/what you know than what you can do, and frankly it's a lot easier on my blood pressure to just tell people who they actually need to talk to.

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thegreatcerebral@reddit

>Developers get paid more then me though.... This line is the one that hurts. We have the ability to wear all the hats we never wanted, some we didn't know existed, and all the ones that generally nobody wants but this... yea. We are still generally seen as a non revenue producing person so they really don't care. Doesn't matter that we make sure EVERYTHING works... nope. It really does hurt.

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Gazyro@reddit

I have to battle my manager about not getting certifications while teaching the people that have the certs about stuff in the certs next to all the stuff they rather not do due to not being IT enough. But they might get a promotion before me though ...

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thegreatcerebral@reddit

I'm not sure I followed what you were saying entirely but some of it that I did get... yea it can be frustrating to say the least.

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bebearaware@reddit

Ah hell, our executive assistant has been dropping the mail distribution ball recently. So yesterday when I spotted some checks from the IRS I played mail woman systems administrator. It won't be permanently part of my role but I think a general sense of wanting to make the workplace better fits with a jack of all trades/sys admin.

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No_Investigator3369@reddit

Same here. That's why I never submit change requests. People like that I get shit done and they also like that they have a liability buffer to point at me. Many people know I do it but currently it's a don't ask don't tell due to the productivity in the face of the current useless agile,scrum, and other time wasting meetings we're stacked with.

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OGUnknownSoldier@reddit

Dude, you can still be a high productivity person and also follow proper procedures for change requests. I hate that it slows things down as much as anyone, for sure, but the documentation and multiple eyeballs signing off on things protects the business, reduces chances of security vulnerabilities, and give you a trail that can be followed for reverting changes, and forces you to have an "oops" plan in case things go wrong. At least, that's what it should do. Annoying and inconvenient can still be the right thing to do.

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No_Investigator3369@reddit

Our problem is we need things yesterday but only have 2 change meetings per week. So in our case, no you can't. Even our directors reach out directly with we need to go ahead and do this now requests daily. We also don't have redundancy in our knowledge. All of our team members are scared to touch other teams members config.

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Reynk1@reddit

Is going to come back and bite you one day. But in my experience, usually last minute work translates to “we knew about this for months, and we only just told IT about the requirement now” Also generally are a number of change options: SRP/RRP to restore service, no change required. You follow the documented plan Standard change, document a thing. Make standard change. Now no need for cab Change, what you describe. CAB meets twice a week Emergency change, I have an incident. Change relates to incident for same day urgent change Service restoration off an incident

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No_Investigator3369@reddit

> Is going to come back and bite you one day. But in my experience, usually last minute work translates to “we knew about this for months, and we only just told IT about the requirement now” That is absolutely the case.....we had one architect admit, I've known about this for months but been under an NDA (publicly traded) and therefore that's why I'm telling you guys this week that it needs to be finished next week. I'm in this meeting thinking, why not have us just sign the NDA as well?

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Lozsta@reddit

So true, been called into a salesforce setup issue in the last few weeks. The person I gave Salesforce to had been using SF support, they in turn put them onto a 3rd party group who want £25 to do some fairly basic setup and some workflows. So I am then involved, they are discussing doing it in sandbox, which again meant them charging for more time. I called them cowards, just do it in prod and get on with it. Change requests, I put in, I approve, I do...

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Reynk1@reddit

Yes, unauthorised change caused a multi hour tech bridge because some chucklehead rammed in a port change without thinking about how it impacts severs Another one, yolod a change to the proxy whitelist, flubbed it and took out a bunch of web services and stopped updates Or rammed a new SCCM distribution point for workstations and promptly flooded the link at update time because it wasn’t configured properly Every time, causing long outages because no one knew any of this had happened

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Alex_2259@reddit

Bro the people at work who discuss projects and problems rather than fucking sorting them out are the absolute dredges.

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Lozsta@reddit

Yep yep, I have sat in meetings with people going round and round the subject. Then whilst there whipped out the laptop or even the phone and fixed it there and then.

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Reynk1@reddit

No, teams arguing about ownership causing legacy systems to persist for longer than they should are the problem

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Arudinne@reddit

Sometimes people just like to vent, especially if there is little they can do to change the situation. I've had to learn how to sympathize without going into troubleshooting mode with my wife when she'd vent about certain things. Prior to that she'd avoid talking about certain things because my natural instinct is to try and find a way to fix things.

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toy71camaro@reddit

same! lol. Its a blessing and a curse.

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Alex_2259@reddit

I see what you're saying, ranting is a bit different from what I am talking about, and is an important part of maintaining sanity when dealing with BS. I am talking about the people who monologue on about projects or tasks, but never do any real work. The showmen type. Not insanely common but there's a few everywhere. It's painful as hell

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Sad_Recommendation92@reddit

Yeah, this can be incredibly frustrating. I often find myself on projects with PMs that don't really have the technical road map of how to get from point A to point B. I'm not saying you could completely do away with PM's and workflow management and writing up all the agile cards needed to accomplish a technical project. But there's so much just red tape and process that gets passed off as "work" That doesn't really add much value. And for me I can usually break it down into a bulleted pain points that need to be resolved to move a project forward. But I'll still have to ask for multiple weeks for the PM to schedule a meeting with that team to discuss the roadblock and everything will take five times longer than it would actually take without all the "Agile theatre"

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IdiosyncraticBond@reddit

Sorry, can we have a group meeting about this revolutionary idea of yours? /s

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CosmicMixer2120@reddit

Not really. They’re just generally arrogant and don’t know how to say no.

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JVance325@reddit

This is it! We have critical thinking skills and we get shit done.

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dracotrapnet@reddit

Sometimes I think my title should be Designated Thinker.

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Dismal_Bliss@reddit

Yep, plus other people tend to believe sysadmins can solve all their problems, so they pile them all onto the sysadmin.

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Candy_Badger@reddit

>Sysadmin types tend to be the kind of people who can think and solve all kinds of problems, and also people who actually do solve problems, so it sort comes with the territory. Totally agree. I was managing and fixing almost everything at my previous company. I am glad I don't need to do out-of-scope job now.

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KnightmareLG@reddit

I disagree. As a system administrator you should vehemently be protesting ownership of things that you should not own. By taking on so much ownership you're putting too much risk on one person for the organization. Obviously there is a land somewhere but I've walked into organizations where the system administrator is doing maintenance work on the HVAC system. Bus Factor is a thing for a reason.

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DaemosDaen@reddit

Pretty much this.

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q1a2z3x4s5w6@reddit

Yep, it comes with the territory of being a troubleshooter/problem solver and being able to understand systems and processes. In the business world almost everything is a process backed by a system of some sort and I find myself intimately learning the processes and systems just by supporting the users that use them.

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Litttle_Joe@reddit

haha fucking normal to me…. and I also have to be someone’s report line without extra paid… ![gif](giphy|ae0xmwpjVglnG|downsized)

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zer04ll@reddit

This is the way, SMEs come and go, sysadmin keeps the world communicating. I now prefer seeing a broad system admin exp vs a SME hands down. Get your AWS and Azure certs that good and all and not a bad thing but the person making every system work with every other system has a better grasp of the flow of data and a better grasp of IT than most SMEs.

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sagewah@reddit

> Is it more normal for a SysA to be a jack of all trades? Kinda. Depends where you are and what they think a sysadmin does. There's been a movement over the last 10ish years to emphasise the admin side more than systems side, especially in larger orgs. But if you're in a smaller org where you might be solo or part of a smaller team, sysadmin is the generic term for The IT person/people".

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Dadarian@reddit

Earlier today one of my techs were asked how to use the coffee machine. I scolded him for being too helpful. I can’t ask everyone to not walk all over him. I’ve told him plenty of times he can say no and he’s got my backing to say no to things. It would be tone policing for me to come to a department head after the fact, when my tech should just gain a little more confidence to say no. If we let everyone else push us into doing everything for someone else, we’ll just get asked again and again and people will assume that’s our job when we were only trying to be polite. This is a warning and a scolding to everyone out there in the industry just trying to be nice. You’re making it more difficult for the rest of us. Just say no.

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professionalcynic909@reddit

What? If someone asks me how to use the coffeemachine I'll show them how to use it. Takes what, 2 minutes? The coffeemachine here is a computer with a touchscreen so it's not that strange that a tech person would be asked for assistence. I think you're in the wrong job, especially with your "scolding".

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volrod64@reddit

Damn, I'm in IT and have no fcking clue about how to use a coffee machine since I don't drink coffee.

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professionalcynic909@reddit

You also can't install software that you don't use yourself?

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cosine83@reddit

Different mechanical processes are different.

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bfodder@reddit

You absolutely should be able to install software you don't use yourself because you should be managing app deployments in SCCM/Intune/JAMF/whatever management system you're using for whatever platform.

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volrod64@reddit

I can install a soft, but I won't learn HOW to use it to show it to someone else.

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xixi2@reddit

Thing is working a coffee machine is a human question not an IT question. As someone working in IT, I'm also human so I can happily answer that. Also tell someone where's the bathroom. I just don't like when they ask me these questions *Because* I'm IT (since we don't need a line out the door of people asking for help making coffee) but I don't really know how to simultaneously be upset at that but also be OK helping.

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Lozsta@reddit

One of the most telling questions I have ever asked in a meeting with a lot of my colleagues was "think back over the course of the last 6 months or a year. During that time period how many times have I asked you for anything that has impacted your days in any meaningful way. Then Think how many times in that period you have asked things of me that have completely derailed my planned days work". I hadn't asked them for a single thing. Yet it is quite normal for them to ask me questions that take an entire week out of my working life to arrange, set up or complete.

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xixi2@reddit

What you say is true but I'm not sure the point you're making. It makes sense because IT is largely a service role. It's not a symmetrical relationship of requests. HR probably rarely asks sales for help with anything but if sales has problems with their 401K contributions, they call HR right?

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Lozsta@reddit

Why? HR are there to enable the organisation to be able to say "not our fault" they are the least "human" resource in the origanisation. A 401k contribution, i assume meaning a pension fund, would be pointed towards finance as they are the people who deal with deductions on payroll. I am in a small team, we work well together. However I rarely need input from anyone, if I don't know how to do something I will search ourt the answer. I deal with larger global cloud infrastucture, financing of the aforementioned, regulatory complinace and data quality. But someone has a problem with the printer in the office they ask me, it is not my job. I don't have an issue with a network and turn around to them and ask them what to do, I just sort it.

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wells68@reddit

Does it have a cord or battery? Call the Help desk. Car won't start? Yup, battery, call the Help desk. Got shoved by a co-worker? Call for help cuz that's the first name of the Help Desk! Besides, that's battery. I know, don't call, submit a ticket. But, but, these are **emergencies**! :-)

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Bright_Arm8782@reddit

I once got asked to find the boot release (trunk for Americans) on a marketing guy's new car.

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wells68@reddit

"Sorry, buddy (old chap for Brits :-), your Mini Cooper (his new motor car is vintage) has a *mechanical* release - no cord, no battery. Head over to Facilities Management."

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OptimalCynic@reddit

The mechanical release probably uses a cord!

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wells68@reddit

No sir/madam, that would be a non-electric, mechanical cable. Maybe the rule should be “electrical cord or battery.” We sysadmins have our boundaries (on a good day).

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OptimalCynic@reddit

Bold of you to assume that extending the cord policy to two words won't make people glaze over and ignore it!

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wells68@reddit

LOL is over used, in a fun way, but your comment really did make me laugh out loud! I write *a lot* of documentation, so that was a direct hit on my funny bone. I've been exasperated when what is stunningly clear to me in my non-universal brain is not understood by a non-techie, normal person. Thank you for the day-brightener!

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19610taw3@reddit

>Car won't start? Yup, battery, call the Help desk. I had that happen once years ago in a previous org. It was a combination of a particularly stupid person and a particularly *disconnected from reality* receptionist. I actually thought it was a social engineering attempt but it was just the craziest combination of dumb people. I get a call one day *Hi 19610taw3, xxzxx is here for you to change his car battery*. Huh, what? *He is a walkin without an appointment and needs his car battery changed.* So I go up to see what's going on and some rando figured since the place I worked for at the time sold computers we'd be able to change a car battery because cars have computers. Like WTF?!

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sprtpilot2@reddit

Probably by being not a jerk he is gunning for your job??

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threwahway@reddit

If u were being sarcastic you did too good a job. If ur not being sarcastic please take a vacation because holy shit lmao…

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Vandergrift001@reddit

You're paying the competence tax. Wear it like a badge of honor.

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Born_Memory5575@reddit

Because there is no longer the help desk tiers, they’re being replaced by sys admins. Sys admins are the new help desk

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Acceptable_Repeat908@reddit

And the senior system architects became "platform engineers".

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Economy_Bus_2516@reddit

My own context: been tinkering with computers since the Timex Sinclair. I was in a consumer "computer shop" when Windows hit the market, and I eventually found myself at a major bank where everything was segmented. I was a "sysadmin" at the time, and it's really annoying to troubleshoot an offline workstation issue where you can look through a glass door and SEE a cable came unplugged, but you can't actually DO anything about it because "that's the networking team". Two days later, someone might come plug the cable back in. After 7 years there, I left and I now work at an MSP in Small Town, America, where my business card says Network Engineer, but could have put on the back System Engineer, Field Technician, Windows Admin, Help Desk, Office Gopher, Painter (we just moved to our own building), and Plumber. There are times I envy folks at bigger companies where everyone owns their own little piece of the pie, but that's usually when I'm feeling overwhelmed at how much there is to learn. Honestly, I personally don't want to be stuffed in a box where all I do is one aspect of the industry, I kind of like the blurry lines but that's because of where I work. If I show up on a site because a switch port seems down and I need eyes on, I like it turning out to be a cable termination that I can clip the end on and put on a new RJ45. I don't want to have to apologize to the customer (or end user) "I'm sorry, the problem is the end on this cable, but I'm not authorized to replace that. I'll let the network department know, and they should be in contact within 36 to 72 hours". That drives me nuts. Except for printers. That's Tier 1's job.

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Federal-Effort2@reddit

It's literally Systems Administration. All the systems. But yeah, in a small company, where the main product is not 'IT tech', they need somebody who can somewhat reliably manage all the basics to keep the company running. Is the main product 'IT Tech'? Then you can see the trend of SysAdmin + SysEng with smaller expansion for tech supports as well.

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derkaderka96@reddit

I've been interviewed by devops for an IT position and they had no clue anything about it.

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Federal-Effort2@reddit

Ain't no DevOps like DevOps. As SysAdmins, their roles vary company to company, so while at one company you have DevOps fairly competent in everyday IT tasks, servers etc. practically being the infra, backend and partially SecOps/ SR, at another DevOps can be just a bunch of senior architects and SR people making sure their OG systems don't die and remind everyone to NOT TEST IN PROD.

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Chazus@reddit

As someone who is becoming the sharepoint guy, and is already the exchange guy, and the domain/AD guy, and the network guy, and the Stupid Crap That Outlook Does guy.... Yeah, pretty much. We have a 'microsoft guy' but he lives in another country and has a work ethic that requires extreme micromanagement. Very smart, will do you what you give *precise* instructions on, but cannot follow anything that seems intuitive or out of the box, so... Basically just a lackey for busy work. If you feel you're stagnating with your skill set, you can do a couple things. 1) Ask your supervisors for opportunities for training (and in time, a raise) 2) Start looking for better paying jobs for your skill set Each time I've changed jobs, I've been 'the useful dummy at the bottom' but also getting paid as much, or more. I learn a lot, improve my skill set, and move on to being a higher paid 'useful dummy at the bottom'. I went from building/selling PCs, to desktop support, to business admin, to systems admin, effectively. The people around me are smarter and more experienced, and I learn stuff all the time. Eventually Ill either grow into more pay, or more skill (which leads to more pay) Either way, you have to be proactive.

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fadingcross@reddit

>but God is it so wrong to just...not want to? Yes, it's extremely wrong not do both know and not want to do networking as a sysadmin because it's the most fundamental part of being a sysadmin since EVERYTHING YOU TOUCH is connected to a network in some way and utilizes it.

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SmallAppendixEnergy@reddit

I’ve been in most of my roles the go-to-guy as long as it had any electronics in it. Started with normal IT support, then added coffee machines, physical access control, alarms, up until combined WLAN and radio comms for a major warehouse. Never lost the old standard answer, switch it off and on again. Still remember giggling about a connected coffee mug that needed a firmware update before being able to heat the coffee.

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Yellow_Triangle@reddit

How in the world does one not get the firmware for a coffee mug right in the first try? I mean, the results are kinda binary. Either it works or it doesn't.

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Frothyleet@reddit

IOT devices need updates, or they turn into botnet members real quick.

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Valrien@reddit

We live in a world where our coffee mugs need software updates lest they turn against us. Truly this is the best timeline possible.

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hangin_on_by_an_RJ45@reddit

I mean, if you're a sysadmin, you know that software developers aren't really people. They're some sort of cyborg from another planet that isn't rooted in human reality most of the time.

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ddmf@reddit

It's impossibly hard to get things right pre-caffeine, and then for a moment post-caffeine you're too busy floating doing the *real* work so you forget. Repeat.

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Lozsta@reddit

Fuck the coffee machine, that is an admin function.

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SmallAppendixEnergy@reddit

They fucking call home to the service provider when they’re low on beans :) IoT at its best :)

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Lozsta@reddit

That and water and when it needs a clean

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melasses@reddit

coffee machines as a service

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Lozsta@reddit

CMAAS. Coming to Azure and AWS in 2024

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cswimc@reddit

Thid is a pretty spot on assessment. I feel like you've accurately outlined my experience. My 'giggle' moment was pushing out firmware updates for our very expensive washing machine. To be fair, it is a 'turnout gear washer extractor' meant for extraction of cancer causing carcinogens from gear and equipment worn in hazardous conditions. It has a lot of logging for cleaning agents used, gear tracking, etc. Never did I think I'd have to provide IT support for laundry related equipment. Data networks, mail servers, network security, door lock access systems, security camara systems, VOIP systems, sure... but laundry systems?!? 🤣 Basically, I've learned over the past 15 years that if it plugs into a wall, it will end up reaching my department at some point.

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SmallAppendixEnergy@reddit

Wow !!! I hope you had recent hazardous materials instructions and protection !

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SenikaiSlay@reddit (OP)

You mean a Java update

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post4u@reddit

Angry upvote.

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ddmf@reddit

Anything with a plug is entirely the reason why the laminating machine and guillotine are under our remit. Surprised we're not in charge of microwave ovens and kettles - but I've never said that out loud just in case someone hears...

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Thiccpharm@reddit

Guillotine?! Let them eat $cake

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kagato87@reddit

Because the core skill that makes a good sysadmin also makes a good "wtf is going on can anyone help figure it out" person.

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anima-vero-quaerenti@reddit

This is so true. Today, someone seriously asked me the best way to build a life size dragon for an event in about a year. Oddly, I had an answer.

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InevitableOk5017@reddit

Sysadmin is jack of all trades. Listen learn implement grow change.

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TireFryer426@reddit

I’ve worked all over the spectrum. Huge, tiny. Siloed, not. The main difference is that when you are siloed in a large company, you are expected to have absolute mastery of that skill. When you are a generalist at a smaller company, it’s more about breadth than depth. You need to know a lot of different things, but you aren’t expected to be a master in any of them. Now you might argue with me here saying tire…. I am expected to be a master. This is a disconnect in the difference between what functional competence is, and what mastery is. Look up what the bell curve looks like for skill mastery. You can become 80% proficient in a reasonably short amount of time on most things. 95% proficiency takes years. It takes getting close with the product group - or working for the company that makes the product. Your jack of all trades guys are basically just trying to get that functional understanding across multiple disciplines. It’s very hard to make the jump to single product mastery. It’s also very difficult to go back. It’s also very normal for people in small to medium size companies to ‘do it all’

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elephanttrashman@reddit

Sys is short for "systems" (note the plural). I think the expectation should be that you have to learn additional systems as needed. Depending on the company / role, you may have a more narrow scope or a more broad scope. I don't think either is incorrect so long as you have a logical amount of work on your plate.

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jburkhart68@reddit

Maybe the title/position should be reevaluated. Tech has changed, and not the the Job Description. For me, I love the challenges. It certainly can be taken advantage ok.

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kinos141@reddit

If the company is small, you'll be doing a a lot. Have a good ticketing system in place and route users to it. It will at least give you ammunition around eval time.

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False-Information-61@reddit

I do networking, website design, servers, azure (everything), slack, teams, and Google workplace. It's an everything job + the fact I'm shafted at my job due to no employees.

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PAiN_Magnet@reddit

99.999999% of people have literally no clue what the difference is between IT functions.

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FuzzTonez@reddit

It makes more sense when you realize *everything is* the system.

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landob@reddit

From my experience it is, and I like it that way. Keeps things interesting for me.

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superslowjp16@reddit

I think you’re misunderstanding what an admin is. There are techs, engineers and admins. Techs service basic high volume repetitive requests/onsites, engineers design and implement ssolutions, and admins plan and maintain the environment that they have ownership of. If you’re doing everything, then you’re understaffed. That’s a management issue, and only management can fix management issues. You can communicate issues, but when you tell a manager that you don’t have enough people they generally aren’t going to take you seriously unfortunately, unless you have the rare good manager. The unfortunate part is that if you’re not good at networking as a Sys admin or engineer, you either need to have someone to bail you out, learn networking, or find a new career path. You won’t get very far without at least basic networking skills.

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capsteve@reddit

Years ago I had a boss who considered anything that plugged in was in my realm: servers, network switch, computers, printers, even personal space heaters. Space heaters seems like a stretch, but I actually had a user who was constantly having application and system issues, super random. I ended up spending a day in her office to try and catch the gremlin. “See that capsteve! It’s happening now!” Turned out it was a little ceramic disk heater under the desk that the user plugged in when their office got cold. I unplugged the heater and took it away, problem solved. Hate to be a bastard operator from hell, but most users are clueless and do stupid shit and are often the cause of their own problems. Sysadmins are troubleshooters and problem solvers, directly related and tangentially. Get used to it or gtfo.

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redshadow310@reddit

The fridge in the break room has a digital display so obviously it's an IT problem when the ice machine stops working... Hey I need you to set up a computer for me, oh and you will have to build the desk to set the computer up on. Sadly one of the best things to ever happen to me was the girl at the front desk breaking her arm helping to move a cabinet and going on disability for a month. I was immediately forbidden from doing any manual labor that didn't involve a computer.

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Churn@reddit

Your life will be so much easier if you can get them to hire a network engineer. Once you have a network engineer you can blame almost everything on the network and the network engineer will figure out what the real issue is while proving it’s not the network.

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subsonicbassist@reddit

LMAO hit the nail on the head, worked with one who was truly worth his salt and almost never had an issue with the actual network :) wish I had him now LOL!

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Nova-Sec@reddit

You’re telling me it’s been 6 months and you still didn’t know “Sys” actually stands for “sell your soul” ?

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Dismal_Bliss@reddit

lol

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SenikaiSlay@reddit (OP)

That's funny. I like that

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Sinister_Nibs@reddit

Everything is a system.

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maximo_83@reddit

Sysadmin for about 20 years here. I used to say I,T. Aka Information, Technology, meaning we are part of an office deputy of providing Information and Technology. Eg. Where is the HR office, where I can find batteries or paper for the printer. Sometimes we are lucky and we can even take care of technology.🤣🤣🤣🤣

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m3shia@reddit

Because it is.

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Nik_Tesla@reddit

If you're the only sysadmin, then I would think that the company probably doesn't have a particularly complex network to begin with, it should be manageable to learn it and how to do some of the most common things on it (change a vlan on a port, find a MAC address, set a trunk port for adding a WAP). And yes, it's totally normal for a smaller company to only have 1-2 sysadmins, and they are everything admins. That's how my company is, and I prefer it that way. I also sucked at networking, but am slowly learning, it takes work, but it's worth it. Also... if there's no one above you, you aren't a Jr Sysadmin, you're a Sysadmin

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saracor@reddit

Don't forget, you need to fix the espresso machine as well since it's network connected.

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itsallahoaxbud@reddit

And plunge the toilet.

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saracor@reddit

Smart toilets are a thing!

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PrincipleExciting457@reddit

It’s normal imo. I hate dealing with networking ca lot of people on this sub think its mandatory to know the ins and outs. To an extent, they’re not wrong. But there is a HUGE difference between someone like a network administrator and someone who is an admin. You need to know the basics, how communication works, what the equipment is and does, etc. but if you slapped a firewall or switch in front of my and told me to configure it from the group up… no.

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systemfrown@reddit

It’s when they do it to avoid proper staffing or start asking you to do non-technical, unrelated random work that’s it becomes problematic.

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largos7289@reddit

probably because that's what it turns into.

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OverseerIsLife@reddit

The smaller the company the more hats you'll wear.

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ronin_cse@reddit

I think some of it is the name, I mean what really is a "system"? Really anything that contains interacting components can be a system so we tend to get just about everything thrown at us. I suppose it can be frustrating sometimes but I really enjoy having my hands in almost everything and having knowledge of it. You REALLY have to be good at turning down things that you should go to someone else though (this depends on the size of your team of course). Like be absolutely sure any networking problems go to the networking guy, security goes to the security person, random user issues go to the helpdesk, database issues go to the dba, etc... because otherwise you'll burn yourself out. You'll find as you do this more having knowledge of everything makes you extremely valuable though. Like if there is an issue with DNS resolution somewhere the network engineer can probably figure it out, but if there is a DNS issue what is causing an SQL lookup to fail because something is misconfigured between the DNS record, the VPN tunnel, and the private endpoint in Azure then they probably won't ever figure that out. To answer your question though you do absolutely need understanding of networking. If you have a network person then you don't necessarily need to know how to set up everything you have or all the commands, but you should at least know enough that you COULD if you were forced to. Networking touches everything and it's vital to know what could be going wrong when troubleshooting. If you don't have a networking person at your current role then it's only a matter of time until something breaks and you have to figure it out on the fly during a high stress outage, it's best if you have that foundation before that happens. Sorry about rambling there.

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ZAFJB@reddit

>Why does Sys Admin feel more like Everything Admin? Because you have not yet learned to say 'No'

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CosmicMixer2120@reddit

Exactly what popped into my head. This thread is filled with people who have boundary issues at work.

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Zizonga@reddit

Depends on the size of the shop but... ya. I mean think of it this way - there are sysadmin jobs that involve \-CRM \-Mainframes \-Anything with lights on it \-Weird proprietary crap If its a system - sure. What's the scale of networking in this case OP? SMB or Enterprise? Is this some Ipv4 subnetting and creating vlans/net admin stuff or like proper network engineering? I am a junior as well and my approach has been just keep doing something till I reach enough proficiency to handle stuff within an SMB enviro. I scale my skillset of "if I were a 1 man shop with about 100 people, can I do everything more or less". I don't think of it as mastery or even being good/bad because I have a decent network of other IT professionals/sysadmins to consult with (thanks Linkedin/discord!)

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trinadzatij@reddit

Most of those network, SharePoint, Linux, etc guys are probably able to solve all of the usual Jr. Sysadmin problems, they just grew a lot of experience and knowledge in the specific field. And the companies they work for are large enough to afford and to be in need of those field-specific engineers.

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Usual-Chef1734@reddit

Because systems are in everything, and almost everything can become a system.

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ExpressDevelopment41@reddit

From my experience, siloed admins are the first to go when a company cuts overhead. The only exception I've seen is network guys. So in my opinion, it's worth while to stick it out and learn networking, and adding it to your tool set.

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GeneMoody-Action1@reddit

When you strip off the label of things like "Network, Exchange, Web, Security, etc" they are all just systems... The bigger the company and or department gets the more those start to become specialties, but the inverse is true as well, the smaller it gets, they are all after all just systems! Don't sweat it, a few years doing OJT, and you will have a much better idea in what if anything you would like to specialize in than anyone looking through a course catalog would begin to dream to know. If there is no SysAdmin and you are the "Jr" then at least you have room for a title change and raise!

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Adimentus@reddit

We kind of have the situation going here. I'm a tech but I help the sysadmin ALOT with his projects from networking, to adding cameras, to running new cables, drilling holes, ordering supplies that don't necessarily pertain to IT. We literally do it ALL around here. We are only a two man IT team without a ticketing system since we only have about 50 people on prem with the rest out in the field.

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miikememe@reddit

if anyone thinks and IT department can be run proficiently with 1 person they’re wrong

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encryptedhashes@reddit

Sys Admins manage systems. Network systems, storage systems, application systems. It’s fairly broad. I’m a DBA & Sys Admin by job title. But, we have a small team so over the years I’ve gotten comfortable with our storage systems and SANS in general - I went to school with a heavy emphasis on networking and security so while I don’t know the application interfaces well of a Cisco ASA I know the principles and design. In other words, yes, especially at smaller to mid size orgs, you’ll do all sorts of things.

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bebearaware@reddit

If you want to stay in small shops, it's part of what they need. If you go to the US Banks or Bonnevilles of the world, you'll be stuck resetting passwords and focusing on one thing. I couldn't do the latter.

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amazinghl@reddit

Didn't you know? Any device that plugs into the wall or uses batteries is your responsibility.

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night_filter@reddit

Well how much a "sysadmin" is an "everything admin" depends on the company. The smaller the company, the smaller the IT team, and the more any given member of the IT team tends to need to be able to do whatever needs to be done. However, even if you're at a big company and relatively siloed, it's still good for a SysAdmin to have networking knowledge. The reason is, if one of the systems you're responsible is having a problem that *might* be a networking problem, but might not, it helps to be able to confidently tell the difference, and avoid mutual finger pointing with the networking team.

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secret_configuration@reddit

Sysadmins at smaller firms most often than not wear multiple hats and are a jack of all trades. Over the last 15 years I worked exclusively at SMBs as a "Network Admin" aka a jack of all trades sysadmin and enjoy being able to work with multiple aspects of IT vs being siloed.

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ThyLetterB@reddit

I think it's just that the titles are completely arbitrary. Being an administrator of systems can mean a whole slew of things, so companies just apply it arbitrarily to any role that fits within "tech." It also happens when you leave HR alone to figure it out for themselves. Where I work Systems Administrator (System or Systems?!) means servers and Linux administration; that includes all the little caveats that go along with that, including networking (we have a networking team, but we still need to understand how subnets work, bridges, layer 2 vs. layer 3, VLANs, or else our job would be a nightmare). Meanwhile, my friend works at a company where SysAdmin means Service Desk, end user support, updating PCs, being in a help desk basically. Usually, the smaller the business is *and* the less front loaded tech is in the companies day-to-day (i.e. an accounting firm vs. an ISP) you'll end up doing everything under the sun. Anyway, if you're in the "IT field" at all, you should pick up networking. Just a course on preparing for the CCNA would probably do wonders for you and it's really not that bad. Tools like GNS3 will give you a good practice in a simulated environment (Cisco recommends 'Packet Tracer,' but it's not great, a choose your own adventure for simulated networking gear basically).

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asedlfkh20h38fhl2k3f@reddit

Agreed. We jack of all trades workers need to start demanding higher wages. The fact is it's justified. You can say what you want about hiring newbies and training them, but if those of us who have been doing this for over a decade are still getting paid garbage pay, and we walk, good freakin luck training the new guys on your own. They'll be overwhelmed and overworked and quit. I think we really need to increase the demand for better pay for sys admin / JR engineer / whatever other made up title they want to give it. It's all the same job, with the only difference being your specific environment you happen to manage.

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threwahway@reddit

SYSTEMS ADMINISTRATOR. You administrate systems….. i don’t see where the disconnect is.

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vagueAF_@reddit

The disconnect is in your brain.

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threwahway@reddit

Yeah that’s why there’s 30 other replies saying the same thing.

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gorillo@reddit

I used to be an Everything Admin until I got into a bigger organization. On a bigger team people can be more specialized. I recommend getting what you can out of this job and then look to join a bigger company.

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juandrt11@reddit

So how are you a 'jr' but there's no one above you besides the director? If you do all of that chances are that you're probably not keeping up with systems/app lifecycle. A common practice for smaller shops is to have a vendor/msp handle the networking portions beyond break/fix. Maybe explore that option?

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SenikaiSlay@reddit (OP)

Because the Sr left 6 months ago. I do the app and systems life cycle as well.

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EAsapphire@reddit

I was hired as an endpoint admin and this sounds like what I do. I tend to be involved in everything and asked to do a lot more than just manage Intune or Jamf.

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jordanl171@reddit

Elevator phone lines? Yep, that's me. Coffee pot not working. Me.

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Infinite-Stress2508@reddit

I'm the it Manager for My org, still handing over my admin roles to my team, but it's 3am where I am, i am part way through a sql merg from an acquired company, I just finished recording and mastering our new IVR for the new phone queues I completed, finished getting the new sdwan kinks configured and connected and routing correctly, finished migrating 365/exchange/one drive and will be on-site first thing to give a welcome presentation to our new staff, go through our technology processes, cyber security training etc. So yes, in my experience unless you are a dedicated single focus admin (network/sql/infra etc) you are everythingadminperson. Which suits my adhd/autistic brain just fine!

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techw1z@reddit

everything is a system as a sysadmin you should be able to visualize simple quantum systems in your head...

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lucky644@reddit

Hey look, buddy. I'm an Sysadmin, that means I solve problems. Not problems like "What is beauty?", 'cause that would fall within the purview of your conundrums of philosophy. I solve practical problems. For instance, how am I gonna stop some big mean Mother-Hubbard from tearin' my infrastructure a structurally superfluous new behind? The answer? Be lazy. And if that don't work, be even more lazy. Like this hacked-up Powershell little-old-number designed by me. Scripted, by me. And you best hope... It’s not written for you.

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Tasty_Beats@reddit

You must have taken my last position lol. Exactly the same scenario, small-med business with an ITD and help desk below me. Having to manage everything with a damn battery as I used to say. You have to pivot your learning and engagement constantly and it can be a real burn out. Also being the point-man…. You’re getting called whenever something happens as your ITD and helpdesk have no clue. My advice is to set expectations and levy professional services to come in for the heavy lifting you aren’t totally comfortable doing. I learned the most when I’d working with professionals on various projects.

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boxstep@reddit

Why not look for work you like? For example a server sysadmin or cloud admin. Which specifies into single field of work

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bakonpie@reddit

"ah yes this requires electricity therefore IT must know what to do with it"

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indatank@reddit

Yes...

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jfoust2@reddit

You don't have a POTS butt-set and telco punchdown tool in your tool box?

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Doso777@reddit

We have been asked to write a workflow on how to correctly put things into a bookshelf once. So.. yeah.. EVERYTHING admin.

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singlejeff@reddit

Depends on the size of the organization and how much you push the workload to the proper person. I cannot be a DNS admin since they didn’t give my ‘a’ or ‘s’ account rights to administer DNS so all DNS questions get bumped. Same with DHCP and people know not to even approach me with email or share drive or AD questions.

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Thiccpharm@reddit

I get it, it seems like the responsibilities and learning needs just never end. The way I look at it is I am paid to be as knowledgeable, useful, and resourceful as possible. Become more of those 3 things, go get paid more, lather, rinse, repeat. You just never know when the next opportunity becomes available because of that project you did a few months back (that maybe you hated at the time). If you are overwhelmed, speak with your manager to get help in prioritizing your work queue. If that doesn't work out for you there move on to somewhere it will. It probably feels tough now but it can get better if you make the most out of it.

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samspock@reddit

What you are describing is being an IT generalist. I have been one for 25 years now so I am used to it. Pretty much if it gets near a computer they bug me about it. Larger orgs can have specialists but smaller ones need people who can do a bit of every thing. I am lucky in my current job that I don't have to worry about phone systems (mostly), AV, security systems etc. but in the past I have had to do these things. I still have to switch gears from on prem server crashes to outlook is slow to I can't print to someone hacked an email to the toaster won't toast all the time. Where you are now is how you try and find your niche and determine if there is a specialty you want to concentrate on. If you like doing lots of everything then you are right where you need to be.

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frank-sarno@reddit

This is typical in lots of companies and certainly in the ones I've been in in 30 years in IT/Tech. First you specialize then generalize then specialize again. As you get better and become the SME for a particular tech, you carve out your niche. My first admin job was a backup operator (fancy way of saying I changed tapes and wrote in a log book). Then started taking care of basic Unix admin tasks such as user IDs, mail, etc.. To your point, any good \*admin is going to have at least general knowledge of a lot of things including networking. Until that changes you will need to know the basics (IP addressing, subnetting, L2/L3/L7, routes and gateways, basic VLAN terminology, TCP/UDP, TCP ports, etc..). Not saying that you are responsible for the networking but you should at least be able to diagnose if something is a connectivity issue or DNS or firewall. This avoids situations where you're pointing the finger at the network or DNS team because some app is 404ing.

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AnotherAverageITGuy@reddit

I mean... The elevator went out in our building and they called me... ??

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Cairse@reddit

Because we have no union so HR gets to decide our responsibilities instead of people who actually understand the scope of work. We need some sort of collective bargaining to force the industry into being segmented properly.

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Final-Display-4692@reddit

Hey I forgot my password OP can you reset it for me.

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syberghost@reddit

Siloing parts of the job is an Enterprise thing due to scale and complexity. For smaller tenancies we've always owned The System, and that's always been defined as "whatever nobody else owns."

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noctrise@reddit

You do all the roles and function of higher paid jobs, just without the title and pay. I had a non hilarious meeting with my boss looking to change my title to reflect the additional responsibilities, to which he said NO, since my role would not change......so we can add responsibilities to the role without a title change, but cant do a title change without adding responsibilites. GOT IT.

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bythepowerofboobs@reddit

Try working for a manufacturing company. We've basically combined IT and OT here. All the IT things, plus PLCs, AGVs, Robots, automated freezers, ovens, fry lines, scales/check weighers, packaging lines, SCADAs. The scope of what I am responsible for is absolutely overwhelming.

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borider22@reddit

sink or swim. do all the things

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plebbitier@reddit

Where I come from "Out of scope" will get you fired: BOFH: "Doing X is not part of my job" PHB: "X is now part of your job responsibilities" See how fast that changes? Where I work, I'm responsible for everything with a plug.

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NorgesTaff@reddit

In my experience, it’s far more likely that people working in large companies with dedicated specialist teams will be siloed and restricted to their specific areas of expertise than people working in smaller companies where you’re going to have your fingers in a lot of pies by necessity. There advantages and disadvantages to both, for the company and for the employees. After having worked in both, I personally prefer the smaller companies with a less siloed model as I like to do a bit of dba, *nix, and storage work and some stuff in between. But I will never have the very deep knowledge in any of these areas as someone who specialises. You pick the poison that fits you best.

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h3dwig0wl1974@reddit

My team is a "jack of all trades" when it comes to SysAdmin things. We also help other teams and our Level 1 and 2 folks frequently. Sometimes, I feel like we are involved in tasks for "moral support." There's not much for us to do, but our peers feel better when we are there.

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trexx1979@reddit

Yes. I do servers, switches, firewalls, cybersecurity, backups, phones, end-user devices, respond to tickets (password resets, did you turn it off and back on again), really anything technology related falls into my lap.

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hauntedyew@reddit

I’ve had to fix coffee machines, mount TVs, and call plumbers. They literally come to us for everything because they’re that inept at problem solving.

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james4765@reddit

Small shops tend to turn the systems administrators into a human hatrack. Earlier in my career I was doing everything from replacing PCs to pulling cable to scripting backups to replacing boxes in our colo. Current job is at a government agency, we have a separate networking and Windows team, 100 developers, a document imaging team, any my team which is Linux / mainframe. Knowing networking does help a lot, especially when firewall rules are involved.

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frogmicky@reddit

Wow nice!!!

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stumpymcgrumpy@reddit

It's our own fault... We let the industry create this generic all encompassing term to literally mean "Do the tech things". To make matters worse we get to deal with "other duties as required " on many of our job postings.

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DifferentArt4482@reddit

id feed the cat/dog if they pay me for that :)

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benderunit9000@reddit

Learn to delegate or say no.

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duoschmeg@reddit

"And while you are at it would you resupply the tampons in the men's room?"

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Wide-Mention-2694@reddit

It's pretty common for Jr. SysAdmins to wear many hats, but specializing varies by company.

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tabortsenare@reddit

I've worked as a sysadmin (or "sysadmin") at a handful of places. Most were like you explain. What I enjoy about is personally is the jack of all trades aspect. I tend to get bored doing one and the same thing over and over. However they should definitively let you grab an experienced consultant when setting up or reworking something out of your comfort zone. Part of it should be written off as you getting experience and the other for getting the job done (and faster than if you'll google until its solved. At least you don't also have to do helpdesk (like me) 🤷‍♂️

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Interesting_Page_168@reddit

15 years as Sysadmin. I once got a question from a colleague why her neighbor's Smart TV didn't have all the channels she has. Comes with the territory.

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Ianharm@reddit

This one time I had to DC promo the toaster

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p4ck3ts@reddit

welcome to the club

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jackmorganshots@reddit

25 years in. Today I got called away from a compliance project to change the lens on a DSLR. I make nearly triple the average income for my country. I am the most expensive button pusher on earth.

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b4k4ni@reddit

IMHO there's nothing better for a sysadmin to be the one guy for everything. That means you have to do a lot of learning and building knowledge all the time, can also be stressful, but I loved it. Really. Never learned so much in my life. And I also had my 2-3 things I wasn't happy to do (Auth and certificates for me), but still... Awesome. Hell, it was a smaller company, 35 pc users with another store 150km away, so also VPN etc. And I literally did everything - from sysadmin things to ERP system (worked at erp company before and have a clerk apprenticeship behind me) to our heating and everything nobody has a clue what to do or where to get. Even production, Logistik and other parts of the company. One of the best works I ever did. Sadly the pay was way too bad, so I had to change at one point. But still, best work so far. It really depends and what you want to do or how far you are fine with it. Many don't want it and only do what they need to do. Others embrace it more. For me it's way worse to be put into one specific work/sector. I need change, different things and also a bit stress from time to time.

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Key-Window3585@reddit

Most likely because you are at a small company and they do not have enough resources to hire properly so they put everything on the sysadmin. This is very common. I work at a mid sized company of about 10 sysadmins and I can tell you I do not know just one person or two could handle all the complexity in our environment. I manage patch management, application deployments, antivirus, server provisioning, vulnerability management, and monitoring. We have another guy who does Linux support, cert management, and identity management. Another one that just handle VMware host creation and vdi/citrix. Another just handles exchange and proof point. One guy just does domain controllers and group policy. Another guy is our security guy and just does all our audits. Also vulnerability management and security hardening.Two guys just manage AWS and terraform. Then of course everyone is backup to everyone else on something. We are even going to hire a guy just to do power shell development and automation. We only have 700 servers. Only around 1000 employees. It baffles me that the gig I came from only had 4 desktop support guys and three sysadmins. We def were understaffed.

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adozu@reddit

I like to describe myself as a digital groundskeeper, i carry around all the keys and i get called to fix the pipes and mow the lawn. Except the keys are passwords and the pipes is my colleague who can't figure out the cleaning company slightly bumped into their monitor power supply again.

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I-Like-IT-Stuff@reddit

Wait until you become DevOps engineer.

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FeralSquirrels@reddit

>Is it more normal for a SysA to be a jack of all trades? Depends, one employer is very different to another _however_ I wouldn't say it's any more of a "new trend" than it was a decade or more ago - a lot of places had just one "IT guy" and they were helpdesk, sysadmin and dev all rolled into one at times. >I've worked at companies where they had network guys, exchange guys, server guys, sharepoint etc. And here.. I do most all of that myself. Especially during periods where "things need to be done, done well and expense isn't a huge issue as we want it done by the book" then sure, some big (or government) employers certainly _will_ have siloed departments within the IT Team that'll handle things. >I'm sure I can buckle down and figure it out for now but God is it so wrong to just...not want to? No different to elsewhere - I handled on-prem and general "internal" IT stuff for years, then got told with a months notice we had to go 100% AWS and to basically "work it out". I hated it, not because I didn't _want_ to or didn't _want_ to learn, I love new stuff under my belt - but the pressure of working out "how to cloud" in the space of a month and needing to be live by the end of that? You just need to be prepared to do one of two things - go with it and pray or be prepared to, as I did, push back and say it's just not happening as it's not just _insert laundry-list of reasons why it's unsafe and liable to explode or not work and be late_ - but also it's no different to building an office from scratch.... You don't want your construction staff being dragged from Finance and being told "get to it" and expect it to be 100% solid, kosher work that'll last eons, right? Well, don't expect IT staff to learn a whole new skill the same way. tl;dr there though: no, it's not _wrong_ to not want to be forced into it, but _yes_ it's a good skill to have. >is it really needed to be a success? If you want to be a Sysadmin, yes. There's no two ways around it, having networking as a skill is a solid part of being a good all-round Sysadmin. It's no different to asking "do I need to understand GPO's and AD" - you _could_ get away with missing one element, but ultimately it's all things which, together, make a roundly skilled IT staffer and it _will_ hurt your prospects if you expect to continue in the field, eventually.

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Yellow_Triangle@reddit

A Sys Admin has become the janitor role in regards to general admin, because general admin happens within the Sys Admin grounds.

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adamixa1@reddit

Correct, including this 1) BWM battery car/car remote 2) Anything that has internet connection, inclusing your smart watch that i never heard it before 3) Anything that has electric on it, especially the one started with Smart XXXX 4) Sometimes need to change filter for water cooler 5) Information Center 6) List go on... Do i enjoy working with people? No. For me networking is the easiest part. I also zero knowledge of networking, the only achievement was changing IP address in the network setting. Slowly learning

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Gravybees@reddit

Absolutely, think of yourself as the special forces of IT, so that when you arrive on scene the odds are now heavily tilted in your favor. Never let yourself get siloed, that’s a dangerous trap. Also, pay close attention to the things you naturally gravitate towards on a day to day basis. Finally, don’t be a “Jack of all trades, master of none”, be a master of everything you do.

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Suaveman01@reddit

Depends on the size of the company, small organisations make you do everything from basic user support to configuring firewalls. Mid size organisations are similar but usually have a dedicated helpdesk to deal with basic user support but you’ll still deal with everything else. Large organisations will have teams for every part of their IT infrastructure and won’t let you do anything outside of the small scope of your team.

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Hypervisor22@reddit

Yup you absolutely need the networking knowledge even if you have a network engineering group. Sysadmins are the go to jack of all trades people and always will be - it really is that simple.

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Dodough@reddit

If there are 2 IT people in the company, who do you expect to do the network? You can suggest your company to outsource the networking, but MEH. Also, understanding how a network works in general is great even for the more "standard" sysadmin rôle, I'm thinking about Firewalls in particular.

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Otis-166@reddit

Yeah, I feel like sysadmin is often a catch-all bucket, even at larger places. I can totally validate not wanting to be though so please go easy on yourself.

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