TheaterFire

What are the signs of a veteran sysadmin?

Posted by Holmesless@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 498 comments

What seperate the green sysadmin from the 5,10,15+ year sysadmin.

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498 Comments

Snoo_88763@reddit

veteran admins never type a password we script something that we need once, and never script a thing we do monthly we know all of our servers' names, most of their IPs (reverse for Network admins) We will gladly explain something for 40 minutes, and at the end you'll have less understanding on the subject.
View on Reddit #23297124

Tzctredd@reddit

Sorry but when one is administering thousands of machines and VMs one doesn't care about their private lives. They are all numbers to me, even if they have names, which nowadays look just like, uhm, numbers.
View on Reddit #23619964

thegreatcerebral@reddit

less of an understanding but a deeper understanding of what you used to know along with 4 or 5 new things that you are now wading in.
View on Reddit #23512418

Tzctredd@reddit

Grey hair.
View on Reddit #23619728

czj420@reddit

When someone gives you a random project, assign them the smallest bit of work to give you a solid starting point and watch the project dissolve right before your eyes.
View on Reddit #23325347

EvatLore@reddit

This is the best lithmus test of how important a project is. It's not even pushing back. If they cannot firmly consolidate their thoughs into the work needing to be done then it is not really important. It ws a though that popped into their head and lasted long enough to bother IT with their great idea.
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vocatus@reddit

In the military we call this person the "good idea fairy."
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BasherDvaDva@reddit

This dude admins
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roger_ramjett@reddit

Vets know how to say no.
View on Reddit #23296431

thegreatcerebral@reddit

...and WHEN to say no.
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cka243@reddit

25 years here. No more lab in the house. No more tech related hobbying. I haven’t even owned a computer in almost 10 years that wasn’t company issued. These are the signs of a true vet.
View on Reddit #23297724

thegreatcerebral@reddit

This was one of the saddest realizations I think I ended up accepting.... When you first realize you want to have less and less interaction with your computer at your house. ...even gaming ended up like that. Everyone thinks oh man you must have the craziest stuff... yea... hardly any. The only thing that annoys the crap out of me is wanting to have a nice network setup at home and having to live with the crap ISP stuff simply because I don't want to mess with it and figure out how to get this non-enterprise "just hand me fiber or ethernet and my static IP" stuff.
View on Reddit #23512653

Fatty_McBiggn@reddit

This is so much me. I remember having AD, exchange, sharepoint and all the stuff from my giant binder of CDs I got with my MCSE installed on so many old computers. Now I take the work computer home and only turn it on when the phone rings.
View on Reddit #23335213

19610taw3@reddit

>25 years here. No more lab in the house. No more tech related hobbying. I haven’t even owned a computer in almost 10 years that wasn’t company issued. Oh ... I'm definitely there.
View on Reddit #23316100

ImCaffeinated_Chris@reddit

30+ years here. My patients for tech at home is zero. I just want it to work. All my hobby tech projects are on company time and work related. My home PC is probably 15 years old. I still learn new things everyday, but on company time only.
View on Reddit #23311137

nocommentacct@reddit

Shit I’m so on my way to this
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thegreatcerebral@reddit

add... They have Google Accounts that date back to 2005.
View on Reddit #23512344

Snogafrog@reddit

It took me a long time to learn to push back on requests.
View on Reddit #23284223

mrpoops@reddit

Don’t even push back. Just asking for requirements usually does it.
View on Reddit #23298741

thegreatcerebral@reddit

This is the kind of thing this thread needs to hear. Just ask the user to "Show Me" is such a powerful tool. Often times for whatever reason the end user ad a packet loss for a moment and forgot a step and wouldn't you know... poof! Also... If on a call with the user, try to listen to the keys to look for the ever loving NUMLOCK not on issue. Sooo many still cannot touch type and since they don't teach that in school and the advent of mobile phones and autocorrect, things are only going to get worse.
View on Reddit #23512151

Moontoya@reddit

A good chunk of tickets I resolve by "rubber ducking" for the user. I make them explain to me what theyre trying to do, then show me how theyre going about it - Quite often, the issue becomes self evident because theyre having to format it for another persons eyes / paying more attention. If you cant explain something in a way that a 5 year old could follow - you dont actually understand it The same mental processes apply
View on Reddit #23322793

Snowlandnts@reddit

The alcohol they drink is light or dark, the drugs they take are uppers or downers, and the sarcasm level when they speak.
View on Reddit #23502137

NorCalFrances@reddit

A veteran sysadmin doesn't sweat the small stuff because they know it just doesn't matter and the job will eat you alive if you let it. They also know that business needs, department reputation and irrational requests from CxO's do matter. I also like this one: "New admins think IT is the reason the company exists. Old admins know we're like the in-house plumbing or maintenance departments of a hundred years ago. There's a reason IT and Facilities unions support each other."
View on Reddit #23279697

vppencilsharpening@reddit

I'm not even going to touch the urgent request to switch the company from Windows laptops to iPads for at least 48 hours. Then I'm going to ask about budget for the hardware, management software/services and services to help us get off the ground. Finally I'm going to ask about all the Windows only tooling we use. Usually at this point in something like this they realize nobody thought it through and I can focus on the script I've been writing for a day or so that will save 10+ hours a month. Also the internet is not down and your emergency is a known limitation in the system you picked; There is a documented work around that you have been using for the last 7 years.
View on Reddit #23293785

admlshake@reddit

>I'm not even going to touch the urgent request to switch the company from Windows laptops to iPads for at least 48 hours. "Sure if you are okay with (insert app's) not working since they don't have a version for the ipad, and you'll need to get the CEO to sign off on the dollar amount for this. Let me know when he approves it." The last part is usually how I get things torpedoed. Nobody wants to go ask him for cash.
View on Reddit #23309726

TheBros35@reddit

That is one thing I like about where I work. Upper management asks the CEO and CIO before bringing it down to IT. They both are good bullshit filters. Now middle management however…
View on Reddit #23313914

vppencilsharpening@reddit

We have a little bit of both here, but management at all levels is usually receptive to a discussion and willing to learn. They may not understand all of it, but I try to describe it in a way that makes sense to them. I do get pushed for alternatives, which I see as fair, and that has lead to solutions I didn't initially think the business would accept.
View on Reddit #23496782

belgarion90@reddit

> Nobody wants to go ask him for cash. Sometimes it doesn't even make it that far. My boss once fixed the WiFi on a phone by giving quotes on how much alternatives to MFA would cost.
View on Reddit #23313842

logicson@reddit

>they realize nobody thought it through Great post. Why does it seem like people in management whose job literally includes *strategic planning* (aka thinking ahead) haven't thought ahead? I just don't get it sometimes.
View on Reddit #23350014

vppencilsharpening@reddit

I usually chalk it up to tunnel vision. People don't step back and look at the bigger picture. And in some cases they don't understand what something entails enough to see what the change actually means outside of their area.
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MairusuPawa@reddit

"Just make it work"
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HughJohns0n@reddit

I like you.
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NorCalFrances@reddit

This sublime; thank you.
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shouldvesleptin@reddit

Yep. Vet Sys/Mgr here. I just moved our dept out from HQ to a nice, quiet building by the airport. Facilities dept came with us.
View on Reddit #23372650

NorCalFrances@reddit

That's the dream. No C-suite execs in the building and the ability to easily collaborate. The only downside that I've ever seen is if your liaison/champion to upper management moves too, and gets out of touch with them.
View on Reddit #23391121

sysadmin42601@reddit

Never thought of it like this but we have always got along well with our central maintenance team. I started when I was 20 and 15 years later we are both departments that just want to get on and do our jobs
View on Reddit #23287079

Majik_Sheff@reddit

IT and maintenence are kindred.   We know exactly where the pipes connect and how much shit they'll handle before there's a problem.
View on Reddit #23295054

SOUTHPAWMIKE@reddit

Other than at an org that just has a CIO/CTO, I've always wanted to work somewhere that has IT and Facilities under a COO or Director of Operations, since most orgs will at least have small teams for each. Aside from an MSP job, every IT position I've held has ultimately been under the head finance guy; usually the worst person to oversee such an expensive department.
View on Reddit #23299856

squeamish@reddit

I do information resource management consulting and one of my first moves is to always pull the IT/IS department out from underneath accounting/finance/the CFO.
View on Reddit #23304819

Quadling@reddit

I do information security and compliance advisory and I always suggest they put InfoSec under the cfo. Risk vs dollars is the cfo’s stock in trade. But deferred maintenance is bad, agreed.
View on Reddit #23308533

WMSysAdmin@reddit

It needs to be a hybrid relationship. Finance can be aware of the cost but I am here to ensure they understand the downstream cost of dealing with downtime and ransomware etc. Might cost us $50k to do our entire overhaul but that $50k is going to ensure we don't end up operating at a $20-100k/hr loss. Networks down? Oh so is shipping, our AI controlled inventory and CNC system, orders and plans aren't making it to the secondary CNC either. No parts coming up stream to production so nothing's getting made. Employees standing doing nothing. Deadlines end up missed and production gets backed up. OR let me have my budget and spend the money and weekend ensuring we have redundancy and backups ready to go and avoid operating losses.
View on Reddit #23328118

Quadling@reddit

Exactly!!!! A good finance team understands a dollar spent now can prevent 20 bucks spent later. A good IT, Security, Compliance, and Risk team can explain that to finance in a way they get it.
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Bogus1989@reddit

YES. Man i bet IT teams love you
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Quadling@reddit

They do. It’s a relationship. If you nurture the relationship, and watch out for budget, finance will sign off, no problem. If you treat them as an enemy, be prepared to get nothing
View on Reddit #23383627

WMSysAdmin@reddit

My MSP actively tells me how much I am their favorite client. The relationship is very much a knowledge swapping relationship with a team I can lean on for large projects to help out. If a ticket hits the support channel from me they know it's never something frivolous or trivial. It's usually hey when can I get three of you on site to help me overhaul the network in less than two days while we are closed?
View on Reddit #23331643

Usodus-3389@reddit

Where do they go?
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squeamish@reddit

Preferably under the CIO, which I am happy to serve as on a contract basis! Usually somewhere operations-related.
View on Reddit #23355801

SOUTHPAWMIKE@reddit

You're doing God's work.
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Royal_Percentage_815@reddit

Great move! Those departments always go very cheap when it comes to IT. Especially city, county, and state IT jobs.
View on Reddit #23329110

randing@reddit

Doing the lords work
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550c@reddit

IT and maintenance are both under the COO at my org. I like the arrangement.
View on Reddit #23338836

Hour_Replacement_575@reddit

Having IT report to a CFO has its perks if they're a good one. My last supervisor was CFO and he always found a way to budget out IT projects/hardware replacements requests. It ruled.
View on Reddit #23311447

SOUTHPAWMIKE@reddit

I currently report to essentially our CFO, and yeah, most of the times he's fair and actually understands the value of good tech. The issues is, sometimes what IT would like to say to top leadership still gets filtered through the perspective of someone who's main concern is the budget.
View on Reddit #23333661

phalangepatella@reddit

Damn! You just described my gig: Facilities & IT Manager, reporting to COO.
View on Reddit #23302694

SOUTHPAWMIKE@reddit

Dang, I'd love to land somewhere similar in a few years. Did you start off on the IT side (guessing yes since you're here)? Did you gain any qualifications/education for the operations side before your current role? Just trying to plan out how I could get to that point for myself.
View on Reddit #23303195

phalangepatella@reddit

I’ve always been one of those people that was just able to fix what was broken. I’d never had a job with a clearly defined single role. But, yes, the majority of my experience was IT. I wish I could tell you I had a master plan and give you advice on how to replicate my experience. The truth is my current gig is like a lottery win. I randomly met the President of the company through a friend, and he liked that I wasn’t a one trick pony. He hired me to “generally manage” the place during a period of huge growth, and it’s been a whirlwind since then. As the company has grown, I’ve gone from wearing several hats (some of which I hated, but did anyway) to more clearly defined roles. Along the way, we put dedicated experts in roles where I was previously wingin’ it. Now, I’m in a place that I love, that I’m good at, and I feel great about.
View on Reddit #23331447

Dhaism@reddit

Reporting to the CFO fucking sucks. We recently got put under our COO after our CFO held up a nearly 10 figure acquisition timeline by 4 months because he kept nickel and diming every single purchase for the project and making us jump through all kinds of ridiculous hoops.
View on Reddit #23330851

sysadmin42601@reddit

Central Maintenance and IT both report to the same COO where I work
View on Reddit #23302793

WMSysAdmin@reddit

I was hired so he could wash his hands of it. I'm more or less the CTO. He controls the budget and I of course need approval but I usually have the final say as the "expert". The CEO sought me out and asked me to interview for this reason. I'm blessed to have that sort of thinking behind my position. This place was being taken by a shitty fully managed MSP. We swapped to co managed to support me for a year in the takeover of this mess as there's some projects I need a team behind me on. I've pitched and they approved my overhaul plan. Leaving broadcom and Cisco behind. Swapping to XCP-NG on the vates stack and moving to ubiquiti. No fights. Just wanted to know the benefits and cost savings and that was that. I made sure to have the conversation ahead of time that proper robust IT systems aren't cheap but what you spend up front can save you hundred of thousands in operating losses due to network downtime or ransomware. Any time our machines aren't running we operate at a loss.
View on Reddit #23327867

19610taw3@reddit

>I've always wanted to work somewhere that has IT and Facilities under a COO My previous employer had that setup for 4 or 5 years. It worked very well. COO was starting to get noticed by the board so CEO sent him walking.
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JohnBrine@reddit

We just got re-org’ed under finance.
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seetheare@reddit

put the most expensive dept under the COO....worse thing ever for an IT dept
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Tanuki-Kabuki@reddit

I worked for a company that had IT under the CFO, I won't go into the details but when I can discuss the functions of Quickbooks at a level higher than the accountants and explain how it should work, well let's just say IT was moved under to work alongside CxO level.
View on Reddit #23310099

UptimeNull@reddit

Quit grouping me with f$.@& facilities. I do IT. IT is not facilities ffs. This is part of the problem.
View on Reddit #23356703

Majik_Sheff@reddit

I don't think you understood the metaphor.  The jobs are very different, but both serve the same basic mission. Maybe Air Force vs Army?
View on Reddit #23360586

V_man_222@reddit

My team lead "Senior Linux Janitor" in his email signature. It's very apt.
View on Reddit #23332280

Majik_Sheff@reddit

Someone's gotta empty the bit buckets.
View on Reddit #23335947

Bogus1989@reddit

Can confirm at a hospital, maintenance guys are my favorite people. They even mount monitors and hook everything up and make sure its working before leaving. Every single one, and we never ask…love those guys. Before iOS had the Files app, there wasnt a good way to view fileshares on it for free at least…there were a few apps i remember it costing money tho, but i ended up just setting up the maintenance guys with synology app DS File. Worked great for them, and at the time, it was the fastest share we had, our network and datacenter were complete shit back then, and we bought a synology with the soul purpose of it being just for our shop and a few other people. The maintenance guys would have to walk back to their desk to look at blueprints…they all had ipad pros already…I was like dude say no more. All those guys worked here all their lives. It brightens my day when i see one out in the hall, i dont know many other new faces anymore.
View on Reddit #23331223

SkyWires7@reddit

Same here. When we need to install new gear, cabling, get more power/amps to an equipment room, or whatever, we usually coordinate with Facilities to open the ceilings, cut holes, climb ladders (or at least borrow). They're invaluable.  
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legolover2024@reddit

Until maintenance surprises you with a total building power shutdown 😈
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Majik_Sheff@reddit

Sounds like an extended lunch to me.
View on Reddit #23312053

cowprince@reddit

Truth, every place I've worked, we've always gotten along with maintenance.
View on Reddit #23302456

anevilpotatoe@reddit

Why I always got along with the maintenance folks.
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dayburner@reddit

Operations people stick together.
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Maro1947@reddit

Buiding Management/Post room staff as well.
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Total-Cheesecake-825@reddit

used to hang out with the guys from the post room all the time. inspired 1 of them, who was a young guy in his twenties to go into IT 😂 and don't forget the security guards, they were chill as fck
View on Reddit #23308466

Maro1947@reddit

Same. And yeah, we're all in the trenches
View on Reddit #23308529

Its_ya_boi_G@reddit

My office used to be tucked in the corner of a warehouse with mechanics. Always felt more comfortable around them than the people upstairs.
View on Reddit #23309305

mr-octo_squid@reddit

I love our facilities team. A lot of IT positions sits in this weird spot between not quite blue collar, not quite white collar. At the end of the day we are both working on systems others rely on. Their boilers take water, gas and output steam. My boilers take electricity, cold air and output heat and data. I feel like we have an understanding with each other.
View on Reddit #23321913

Its_ya_boi_G@reddit

Thats a good way to put it. I always told the mechanic's that I was just a "computer mechanic"
View on Reddit #23373002

NorCalFrances@reddit

I like that analogy!
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pedro4212@reddit

A true veteran knows it is all small stuff and big stuff is piles of small stuff, just the panic around them is more vocal, and just letting that panic wash over them and away. Somebody screaming that everything down won’t help us solve a problem.
View on Reddit #23362182

steverikli@reddit

Spot-on. "it's all small stuff" is basically the sysadmin Litany Against Fear.
View on Reddit #23362183

strifejester@reddit

God this is so true. The shit my new guy worries about sometimes is crazy. I always tell him in 16 years, which is how long I’ve been at the company, you’ll realize hose little that one thing mattered. The other one is trying to please everyone for stupid reasons. No is a complete sentence. Always telling people I’ll look into it and get back to you just wastes time. I also hate how people try to abuse newer admins this way thinking asking them instead of me will change the result.
View on Reddit #23353425

RandoReddit16@reddit

Where I work, IT and Maintenance both report to the same staff manager, who has a degree in Industrial Engineering and a background in being a plant manager. Needless to say, our IT is pretty well taken care of and in-house. While our maintenance team does a damn good job from keeping toilets working, to doing remodels and even maintaining as many of our machines as possible.
View on Reddit #23352883

ChicharonLover@reddit

What is an IT union you speak about?
View on Reddit #23285078

NorCalFrances@reddit

They exist and they are amazing. The most recent example that I was thinking of was in the news regarding the Kaiser Permanente strikes in Q3 of last year. IT walked in solidarity with Facilities.
View on Reddit #23288349

SlackOPs_admin@reddit

>For some reason, it's incredibly difficult to get IT workers interested in unionizing, but that should be it's own discussion thread rather than derail this one. Well for a lot of us, if we tried we would probably find a lot of H1-B's suddenly asking us to show them how to do our jobs. I'm pretty sure my company would just come up with a reason to shit can everyone and bring in a 3rd party to manage things. Our CEO already see's IT as nothing but a cost center he's forced to deal with.
View on Reddit #23311740

czj420@reddit

Introduce C levels to the fact that the IT Department is a revenue multiplier. No laptops? No email? How efficient/profitable would the company be?
View on Reddit #23325598

Curious_Property_933@reddit

Naive take
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Iregularlogic@reddit

They exist, they aren’t amazing. Reddit loves loves loves its “muh unions are magical” circle-jerk, but like anything else in the real world, sometimes things work, and sometimes they don’t. Be wary of anyone that comes to you as a friend, but that friendship is conditional on you losing your own rights to bargain in voluntary exchange. Be **especially wary** when they start forcing money out of your paycheque with the threat of you losing your job if you don’t comply.
View on Reddit #23344554

TaliesinWI@reddit

>For some reason, it's incredibly difficult to get IT workers interested in unionizing, but that should be it's own discussion thread rather than derail this one. Probably because IT types have a very meritocratic outlook and we realize that all the incompetent people we've worked with over the years would have MORE protection under a union setup so we figure we're better off just advocating for ourselves, and screw everyone else. I'm not saying that's RIGHT, just that I suspect it's why it hasn't taken hold industry-wide.
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NorCalFrances@reddit

Until the mass layoffs, anyway. How's that 100% remote work from home working out for everyone?
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TaliesinWI@reddit

I must have missed where being part of a union makes someone immune to layoffs. :)
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NorCalFrances@reddit

I don't disagree with many of those points. I am pro-union, but this was not meant as a call to organize. Part of the power of unions is that they form relationships so that if one goes on strike, another does as well. And that can be so expensive that the company is driven to the bargaining table. Strikes are always, always a last resort though. They're risky and expensive for everyone. It has to be worth the fight, and I honestly don't see most IT workers being in positions that are that bad off. But it's also the little things, such as collectively bargaining to raise the healthcare tier that IT workers get vs other departments or levels in the company structure. Or hiring more people so that we don't have to be on call 24/7/365 even while on vacation. That sort of thing.
View on Reddit #23342001

TaliesinWI@reddit

>It has to be worth the fight, and I honestly don't see most IT workers being in positions that are that bad off. That's exactly it. Almost every competent IT person I know that's in a shitty situation can improve it completely on their own. Unions are great for when you have competent people but that's \_still not enough\_ for them to improve their own situation. People who are busting their asses for the company good, and their rewards is merely the opportunity to keep doing it.
View on Reddit #23343896

mr-octo_squid@reddit

>IT walked in solidarity with Facilities. I work in higher ed, we are union and our specific bargaining unit has a non-sympathy clause. If our faculty strike ([again](https://www.insidehighered.com/news/faculty-issues/labor-unionization/2024/01/26/why-did-cal-state-strike-end-after-just-one-day)) its business as usual for us. IT is a scary group to have on strike. If facilities strikes, your office might get a bit warm, or you might have to adapt a bit. If IT is out, and a major system goes offline, admin, instruction and research grind to a halt.
View on Reddit #23321607

NorCalFrances@reddit

In the specific strike I was referencing, Facilities handles things like operating room power, oxygen supplies and delivery, and so on. They are highly specialized and likewise are tightly constrained as to how and when they can strike, as patient's health or lives could be directly impacted.
View on Reddit #23340594

DragonfruitSudden459@reddit

>For some reason, it's incredibly difficult to get IT workers interested in unionizing, Historically significantly higher pay and benefits than most fields, and requiring a type of flexibility that isn't usually available in a standard union like you might find in a factory (which is most folks' union experience). Lots of people with big egos, and smaller numbers of people in I.T. departments, as well as a lack of federally mandated certifications or licensing; so a lot of people that believe that they are above average and can fend for themselves, a lack of people in one place that would have much power anyway (e.g. factory/production workers), and a lack of a unifying standard and training to rally around (e.g. electrician union, pipefitting union, etc)
View on Reddit #23312170

NorCalFrances@reddit

Indeed. There's a book called, "The Computer Boys Take Over" and although parts are dry and boring, there's an interesting thread running through it about the adoption of computer technology within corporations. Specifically, a \~70 year struggle by corporate management to try to force computer workers into the same boxes as other workers so they can be more easily controlled and constrained. (and thus, cost less but produce more). It touches on all the management trends over the years and how computer workers didn't fit. The current tactic is when we push back a little (see: COVID + wfh), they enact mass layoffs to remind those super-specialized workers that they (we) are replaceable.
View on Reddit #23339813

Schrankwand83@reddit

IT workers of the world, unite!
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DonkeyOld127@reddit

Old admin knows we’re a sunk cost, we don’t make the company money we just cost money so they look at us like the anchor of the titanic. I AM THAT ANCHOR.
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u35828@reddit

No one thinks of either group until there's a problem.
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NorCalFrances@reddit

Or doctors, for that matter.
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Boyblack@reddit

> Old admins know we're like the in-house plumbing or maintenance departments of a hundred years ago. Wow that's similar to what my current Lead Admin told me. She's been doing it for 22 years. She said something like "We're basically a form a maintenance".
View on Reddit #23338435

NorCalFrances@reddit

Business management knows that change is always expensive, incurring things like retrainings, new processes, new integrations, and so on. So we have to try to improve things without impacting end users as much as possible. This gives us the reputation of only fixing things. Having a manager or director that can sell IT upwards with our actual achievements to company leadership is an amazing experience.
View on Reddit #23341478

duckamuk@reddit

Unfortunately the comparison is all too real. I've been asked to help more than once when there was a problem in the bathroom at work (small company). My response (depending on who was doing the asking) usually entailed 'what role of the network does the bathroom fit in?' to which they'd mutter something about me being the one they turn to whenever \*something\* needed fixing.
View on Reddit #23325738

NorCalFrances@reddit

The scary thing to me is how many business managers are so highly specialized to be people and politics centric, they have no clue how anything outside that realm actually works, including toilets. Or concepts like, "if you let it reach EOL, it will be orders of magnitude more expensive to upgrade later". One can almost see how they tokenize everyone who can fix things to be the same.
View on Reddit #23340978

_DeathByMisadventure@reddit

At a certain point, sysadmins will probably be mostly on project rather than break fix work. If you are doing project work, and not spending at least half the time documenting, you're doing it wrong. Me, 30+ year sysadmin
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NorCalFrances@reddit

Very much so, or at least the longer we're on the job the less fixing we do. It's like going from 4th or 5th tier to n-th tier.
View on Reddit #23340034

cisco_bee@reddit

>"New admins think IT is the reason the company exists. Old admins know we're like the in-house plumbing or maintenance departments of a hundred years ago. There's a reason IT and Facilities unions support each other." Fuck this. I've been in IT for over 30 years. If my company thinks I'm like plumbing or maintenance and just here to fix stuff, fuck off you dinosaur. Get eaten by the competition that embraces technology and change.
View on Reddit #23311858

NorCalFrances@reddit

"...and just here to fix stuff" I'm guessing that's your view of Facilities because to them, you are an end user. Most non-IT departments see us the same way. They have no idea what we do except when we fix things or implement something new. Which FYI, half the time they see as an inconvenience because it temporarily makes them less efficient, process-wise. "IT can improve *every facet* of your company." Sure, if as you pointed out, they let us. But at most companies, we really are not the reason that company exists, so we have to compete for budget allocations and it's a tough sell because...they think we're just here to fix stuff.
View on Reddit #23339233

Vivid-Clerk6155@reddit

Genuinely curious, what are the examples of small stuff?
View on Reddit #23301665

NorCalFrances@reddit

Being told to start a truly useless project, then after enough hours are sunk and you are invested in it anyway, it gets cancelled. Priorities changing often enough that a certain project has lingered for years, starting and then stopping again. There's no way it will ever be completed. Nepotism & that one coworker who is going to burn the building down one of these days. Bean counters counting beans and the Directors that love them. Short-sighted decisions made for you based on ignorance that you cannot fix. A manager who was a junior programmer in the '90's and thinks everything from SQL to .NET to Kerberos works just like COBOL.
View on Reddit #23336445

spacecucumber@reddit

For some reason this comment reminded me of that Geto Boys song from Office Space
View on Reddit #23327643

TCPisSynSynAckAck@reddit

Woah. Great representation.
View on Reddit #23327301

czj420@reddit

There's the right way, the wrong way, the Microsoft way, they way the other companies do it, and then there's the way we do it here.
View on Reddit #23325155

MaelstromFL@reddit

Design Principle 2: The little things don't count, they multiply!
View on Reddit #23298844

BlueBrr@reddit

Big problems tend to get fixed on their own. Minor nuisances are forever and should be dealt with immediately.
View on Reddit #23298845

sharpie-installer@reddit

I might have to get a sign made that says this, to remind me to keep taking action on the nuisances
View on Reddit #23315132

BlueBrr@reddit

Credit it to "Some uneducated shmuck on Reddit"
View on Reddit #23316200

sharpie-installer@reddit

As you wish!
View on Reddit #23317649

OtherMiniarts@reddit

Computer janitors unite
View on Reddit #23309525

plasticbomb1986@reddit

And here i am: Sysadmin/ItSupport/Facility Caretaker. I still hate toilets and sinks.
View on Reddit #23305520

ZachVIA@reddit

Agreed. I would boil it down to “vets don’t care TOO much”.
View on Reddit #23280660

NorCalFrances@reddit

I had extra letters to use up.
View on Reddit #23284700

PossibilityOrganic@reddit

Can write useful documentation, and ability to delegate, even in an emergency.
View on Reddit #23477375

Davton-Dev@reddit

Lotus notes expert
View on Reddit #23280986

pedro4212@reddit

Old fart!
View on Reddit #23283708

Davton-Dev@reddit

Yep that too
View on Reddit #23465022

julesallen@reddit

Used to admin a public facing Domino server. Still in therapy.
View on Reddit #23297863

Davton-Dev@reddit

I feel your pain - and recovery
View on Reddit #23334922

Vassago81@reddit

Also hosted clients public website on the same Domino server too, because why not?
View on Reddit #23332102

HunnyPuns@reddit

There are no Lotus Notes experts. There are only those who have survived Lotus Notes.
View on Reddit #23293677

Raowyn@reddit

The names file must have been an early attempt at quantum computing for where it simultaneously existed. Corrupt yet also, not corrupt.
View on Reddit #23326568

archiekane@reddit

Lotus Notes survivor here. That software helped shape my current world.
View on Reddit #23301427

Moontoya@reddit

STOP REPEATING THE CUTHULU BE DAMNED NAME you\`ll wake the eldritch horror from its slumber, it will open its maw and croon the song that blackens the sun!
View on Reddit #23322253

trev2600@reddit

*PTSD flashbacks in Domino/NetWare*
View on Reddit #23301972

ZettaiKyofuRyoiki@reddit

You mean you’re not still using it?
View on Reddit #23296493

BGP_Community_Meep@reddit

We speak not of the old evils here
View on Reddit #23290603

CP_Money@reddit

Ah a fellow NSF enjoyer
View on Reddit #23286753

OsmiumBalloon@reddit

A veteran will search the Subreddit for discussions on the same topic within the past week or two.
View on Reddit #23279272

godzillante@reddit

A veteran will search and find their own answers from the past year or two
View on Reddit #23308019

infiniteblaze@reddit

I had this EXACT situation not too long ago! I was facing an issue with my on-prem Exchange and was searching for a solution when I stumbled on a Spiceworks thread in which the selected best answer was my own response from a couple years prior! I was mad at myself for forgetting the answer but absolutely tickled at the situation, too!
View on Reddit #23343665

symphonic@reddit

Been there
View on Reddit #23463440

Moontoya@reddit

\*Technomancer/Veteran trigger warning\* A veteran will also have spent countless hours searching finding nothing but "Hey i have a problem with the Foobarflinklebunz function in Whoojimiwhatsit 6.66a, does anyone know how I can recombulate the splinkle wa-wa function?" \*no other replies\* "NM, I fixed it" How, HOW did you fix it, what did you do, what unearthly eldritch horrors assailed your senses - FUCKING TELL US YOU BASTARD. \*I am so SO sorry if I triggered the flashbacks, lay down flat on the floor and breathe through it, in through the nose, hold it for 3, out through the mouth - think about Stevie Wonder playing superstition on Sesame Street (possibly the best performance of the song EVER) and remind yourself that they cant hurt you, youre in a safe space.
View on Reddit #23308582

Sin_of_the_Dark@reddit

Or people who post forum posts, get a suggestion and then just never say anything again. Did it work?! Did you fix the problem?! Did the suggested solution land you in the gulag?! *DON'T LEAVE US HANGING!*
View on Reddit #23323193

BGP_Community_Meep@reddit

RTFM has been around since BBS and will always live on in spirit on any technical forum 
View on Reddit #23290655

battmain@reddit

You're starting to show your age... I still remember blowing up somebody's PC with ansi graphics as payback because he messed with me. He could not figure out how I did it. Those were the days!
View on Reddit #23336595

BGP_Community_Meep@reddit

Hahaha. Dude my favorite of those was that old Apple computers (think 90s, pre- OS X) would just absolutely shit the bed if you sent them a finger request. So I would run around IRC terrorizing Apple users with “random” crashes. Especially the IRC mods. 
View on Reddit #23337723

lmkwe@reddit

Following very closely by lmgtfy
View on Reddit #23295231

battmain@reddit

Or did you Google it?
View on Reddit #23336475

Taavi179@reddit

There already was a similar question
View on Reddit #23280175

bard329@reddit

Unless it was from 13 years ago, got marked solved with 23 comments "same problem, what was the fix?" And OP never shows back up....
View on Reddit #23321547

Beautiful_Giraffe_10@reddit

And they were the ones that posted it
View on Reddit #23285167

OsmiumBalloon@reddit

You don't say?
View on Reddit #23280418

Rhythm_Killer@reddit

It’s a good thing I was already sitting down for this
View on Reddit #23281408

Sivtech@reddit

I remember when.....
View on Reddit #23452259

FloweredWallpaper@reddit

The veterans fully embrace Read Only Friday.
View on Reddit #23293663

grarg1010@reddit

All our new hires....what's no change Fridays?
View on Reddit #23293981

frygod@reddit

The prequel to "fix shit that broke over the weekend Mondays."
View on Reddit #23332582

Sasquatch_Shrimp@reddit

This!!!😂😂😂
View on Reddit #23451678

Moontoya@reddit

As Bhudda taught, change must come from within, so we arent changing shit in the live environment.
View on Reddit #23322354

Mrmastermax@reddit

My company fully says let’s do it on Friday and on Saturday no one is ever available when shit hits the fan.
View on Reddit #23341405

mspax@reddit

We've started calling it Automation Friday. It's still read only. Just work on ways to make things better.
View on Reddit #23333704

bard329@reddit

We talk about it. We dream about it. We long for it. But it doesn't happen. It never happens. Maybe, years in the future, I'll have a day where I spend more time on actual work than I spend in meetings.
View on Reddit #23320904

scooterj76@reddit

I came here to say this
View on Reddit #23297413

neosid996@reddit

Can recall the same time an issue occured from years ago and resolve it. Can finish and answer questions before they are fully asked. Can prioritise without question and know when a incident is bigger or smaller then it currently is. Finally can understand the business needs before Senior Management usually can.
View on Reddit #23447633

Fresh_Dog4602@reddit

The veteran sysadmin only starts panicking if a system still isn't responding after an hour has passed, following a reboot.
View on Reddit #23441454

Agility9071@reddit

They don't bother trying to block porn hub
View on Reddit #23441346

Alfordw2_in_sawmill@reddit

The under the breath chuckle when newer sysadmins talk about administering O365 because that veteran sysadmin recalls administering the 50 some odd systems it took to do the same thing on-premise.
View on Reddit #23440115

mumako@reddit

Honestly? Communication. If you can talk with people, you're already 90% there. Doesn't matter how technical you are (absolutely helps though) because I've seen the most technical people flounder when it comes to actually solving the issue because they just don't talk to the right people and ask the right questions.
View on Reddit #23290577

BlueBrr@reddit

I got stuffed into a job where my primary responsibility is to find appropriate person A and appropriate person B and force them into a room with each other because apparently I'm good at it? Listen, I don't know shit about what you two do but you definitely need to sort this problem out between the two of you. I'll take notes for later reference. Ready? Go!
View on Reddit #23299060

Numerous_Ad_307@reddit

The first rule of IT fightclub is...
View on Reddit #23437501

schroep1@reddit

This is the primary function of a project manager.
View on Reddit #23317469

wet-dreaming@reddit

They use man instead of google
View on Reddit #23434060

ozdude182@reddit

Judging by this sub, a veteran sys admin..... isnt doing sys admin anymore 🤣
View on Reddit #23300121

tekvoyant@reddit

Quite so.
View on Reddit #23417749

ImCaffeinated_Chris@reddit

Ummm.... Damn this hits home!
View on Reddit #23311426

BitOfDifference@reddit

unfazed by any request presented to them that would send you into a tizzy...
View on Reddit #23395216

Mysterious-Tiger-973@reddit

Depression
View on Reddit #23368111

UptimeNull@reddit

I totally got the metaphor. Now quit saying it. Its not that true. Its like me saying librarians can read sops and deliver. The reading is different therefore different role. Teachers read shit but are not lawyers who also read shit !
View on Reddit #23365156

Financial-Chemist360@reddit

The 1000 yard stare and generally jaded and haggard look defines the veterans.
View on Reddit #23360112

Gindotexe@reddit

Senior admin knows Read-only Friday isn’t a joke, it’s the rule.
View on Reddit #23358003

IAmJustNobodyAtAll@reddit

A green Sysadmin hopes for the best and a veteran knows that's never going to happen and plans for the worst.
View on Reddit #23356326

grouchy-woodcock@reddit

Green admin = "I've never caused a production outage." Seasoned admin = "Let me tell you a few of my favorite stories about production outages."
View on Reddit #23356173

Pristine_Curve@reddit

Year 5. I have the technical solution for everything. Year 10. I have the process solution for everything. Year 15. Please stop making me solve everything.
View on Reddit #23296344

DarkwolfAU@reddit

Funny you say that. I had the new guy ask me about something weird on a box, I said “box is memory leaking. Run up perfmon for a few days and find the culprit”. New guy doesn’t do that. He instead screws around with some other stuff with the box, customer gets pissed off a week later, job gets handed to me because I’m good at solving stuff. I run up perfmon and have the culprit found overnight. Maybe the old cranky dude in the corner has some idea about how to fix stuff and if you ask questions maybe listening is good 🤦‍♂️
View on Reddit #23354609

bard329@reddit

I'm at year 10 but with the year 15 mentality. Even my boss keeps saying "stop assigning everything to bard329, we have other folks who are perfectly capable of fixing it" In my head; "yea, whoever its assigned to is just going to ask me, and it takes less time to fix the issue than explain *how* to fix the issue."
View on Reddit #23321123

_Not_The_Illuminati_@reddit

We have a security specialist that likes things done ten minutes before they submit a ticket. When they ask for something QOL I’ll say “we can’t prioritize that right now, I have other things higher on the list”. So they thought they were being considerate by submitting a ticket for someone else to do it, but the help desk just sends it to me to do anyways. She’s learned now just to wait and I’ll do it some random evening.
View on Reddit #23327661

petrichorax@reddit

Im a security guy who was a sysadmin. I know how to not be a PITA thank god
View on Reddit #23350643

CubesTheGamer@reddit

But if you explain the issue it stops becoming your issue I’ve struggled with this but training someone else on something takes longer and it’s harder but if I never have to do it again afterwards it saves me time.
View on Reddit #23340811

bard329@reddit

>But if you explain the issue it stops becoming your issue You'd think so, right?
View on Reddit #23341286

balling@reddit

Bro, year 10 and in the exact same spot as you! I was the solo IT guy here when we were 100 people strong but now we're 15x the size and I have an adequately staffed team with me but so many tickets still get directly assigned to me. All of them from the end user include "balling set this up and knows how to fix it" and the level 1 guys assign it directly to me even though I've trained 5 other people and documented how to do it step by step so even the least technically saavy tier 1 employee can do it!!
View on Reddit #23334902

DL72-Alpha@reddit

If you coached the other individual the inverse could be true.
View on Reddit #23333356

bard329@reddit

Nope. They would continue asking me how to do it. I know they will because god knows I've tried in the past.
View on Reddit #23334223

Ripsoft1@reddit

Year 20 … I don’t give a shit anymore. Just leave me alone. 😎
View on Reddit #23347847

steverikli@reddit

>Year 5. I have the technical solution for everything. > >Year 10. I have the process solution for everything. > >Year 15. Please stop making me solve everything. Year 30. I can't believe I'm still doing this stuff.
View on Reddit #23344304

Bob_12_Pack@reddit

Year 24 here, Jesus frigging Christ can’t you guys figure anything out for your damned selves?
View on Reddit #23341836

Mrmastermax@reddit

Shit I have been through all three stages.
View on Reddit #23341447

Moontoya@reddit

Year 20. I gotta do everything around here
View on Reddit #23322627

Ssakaa@reddit

No, no. Year 20 was "Heeey. Who took my matches? That's no fun." 
View on Reddit #23323233

dloseke@reddit

Beards. Often gray.
View on Reddit #23353054

WRB2@reddit

Scars that haven’t healed vs Un abused body
View on Reddit #23352330

Zealousideal_Ad642@reddit

We ask a lot of questions such as "what the fuck?" "Why?" "What have you tried so far?" (This is usually answered by 'nothing') Also having 6 or 7 year old server hardware and stupid management decisions are just part of the job and you're completely used to it
View on Reddit #23280403

mattmattatwork@reddit

Just decommissioned a 14 year old dell machine
View on Reddit #23349611

L00fah@reddit

6 or 7 years? Hahahaha Our oldest machines are half my age. 
View on Reddit #23291145

BlueBrr@reddit

We have a working DEC Alpha.
View on Reddit #23298865

archiekane@reddit

Not for much longer. But you've already informed all the right people, yeah? It'll still be your problem and fault though.
View on Reddit #23301410

BlueBrr@reddit

Yes. For sure. Absolutely. Without a doubt. *internal sobbing* It's not under my purview and there is an ongoing replacement project but it's like the monster in the closet. We're all scared of it and everyone that knows how to fight it is dead.
View on Reddit #23313262

erosian42@reddit

Don't worry. You can always call the guy that volunteers at the local computer museum.
View on Reddit #23347247

steverikli@reddit

Depending on the actual make & model, that's not as surprising as some others. DEC gear was solid. "DEC diagnostics would run on a dead whale." \- Mel Ferentz I miss my old Alpha sometimes. They'll run NetBSD forever, too.
View on Reddit #23344098

DL72-Alpha@reddit

I had at least 4 of those along with a giant ass self wheeled drive array sitting in my garage for a couple years. Plugged one in and felt the heat coming out \*with it off\* and got rid of them rather than try to use them for anything.
View on Reddit #23333456

Brainrants@reddit

Now there’s a name I haven’t heard in a long time…
View on Reddit #23324791

L00fah@reddit

Good lord... That's just shy of how old I am.
View on Reddit #23312054

steverikli@reddit

I used to have some gear like that but I got rid of my SPARC systems. :-)
View on Reddit #23343961

CubesTheGamer@reddit

We have systems running operating systems that came out before I did.
View on Reddit #23340656

fattes@reddit

I have a pbx that’s almost my age
View on Reddit #23335948

HughJohns0n@reddit

Ha, I just had a crusty old server decide it didn't want to recognize 9 out of 10 RAM slots. How does that even happen?
View on Reddit #23308562

12inch3installments@reddit

By deciding it only wants to recognize 1 out of 10
View on Reddit #23330553

L00fah@reddit

Whoa. That sounds fun! Haha
View on Reddit #23311984

DoesntHateOnArguers@reddit

our oldest machines are 3 years older than I am.
View on Reddit #23324637

Shectai@reddit

Are we to presume you're older than 12?
View on Reddit #23303963

L00fah@reddit

I can neither confirm nor deny. 
View on Reddit #23311952

HunnyPuns@reddit

I was once supporting a mission critical server for a major airline company. It was end of life'd 4 years before I was born. I will be 43 this year.
View on Reddit #23293729

bemenaker@reddit

> 6 or 7 year old server hardware Ahh, they're still teenagers. They haven't even grown up yet.
View on Reddit #23307708

u35828@reddit

Lol, our 6509e switches in the core are old enough to vote, lmao.
View on Reddit #23342920

Neb-Scrier@reddit

“We’ve tried nothing and it hasn’t worked!”
View on Reddit #23336992

LeTrolleur@reddit

I find myself asking our service desk "what have you tried so far?", Full well knowing their answer, multiple times per week. It would make me so happy to see a ticket with a bullet point list of all the stuff they've tried. I wouldn't even consider myself a veteran yet, maybe I'm beginning to reach the mindset though 😂
View on Reddit #23335584

shrekerecker97@reddit

90 percent of the time it's they tried nothing, and something simple is the fix. The 10 percent that puts you through the paces and usually nothing has been tried to fix the issue
View on Reddit #23295127

AcadiaSpirited5729@reddit

This boils my blood. I got out of help desk because I followed a SIMPLE process of asking the right questions/ trying the simple stuff first even if it doesn't seem like the cause of the problem. Some people just don't get it and they think every new issue is just so crazy complicated and immediately reach out to an admin instead of doing their dye diligence! /rant
View on Reddit #23304573

Daadian99@reddit

Have you rebooted ? Seriously ...don't call me until you have rebooted.
View on Reddit #23319561

shrekerecker97@reddit

when they say no and then lie about it i tell them their system is about to reboot, Then use our RMM to make them reboot wasting more time then if they just did it :P
View on Reddit #23329297

Littleboof18@reddit

Yes every time my level 1 guys see a new issue they just cry wolf to me (network team). For example, had a tech reach out to me last week regarding a user not being able to log in to a file share to extract some data that was recently created. User keeps getting failed login attempts, tech gives up after doing no troubleshooting and asks me to check the network for any issues. Traffic is on the same VLAN, no ACLs, no firewall, plus user IS getting the goddamn login prompt. I relay this to him and he huffs and puffs and continues to not do any further troubleshooting, he just wants me to do it for him. I ask him have you checked logs on the file server, have you checked permissions, can YOU login with the account, etc. hasn’t done any of that, so far the only thing he’s done is blame the network. I finally log in to the server because this guy is clueless, check event viewer and see the user logins failing because they are using the incorrect account. I show this to the tech and tell him he needs to work with the user, I still don’t think he has done this. I just don’t get it with some of these techs man, sometimes it’s more frustrating having them than not.
View on Reddit #23323102

vertisnow@reddit

It's simple when you know the answer. There are a lot of simple things to know
View on Reddit #23296879

DragonfruitSudden459@reddit

"This error says 'Firefox has been updated and needs to restart.' what do I do?" Have you tried closing and re-launching Firefox? "No" .....
View on Reddit #23312476

cisco_bee@reddit

My favorite questions: * What the fuck? * Why the fuck? * WHO THE FUCK? * *How the fuck?*
View on Reddit #23311962

Ohfiddlestixx@reddit

https://preview.redd.it/tmi1qnvli9rc1.jpeg?width=400&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=0fc0725418dd4ffebc59c038f6449ec135e93d3d
View on Reddit #23309759

TurnYourPhoneDummy@reddit

My son says, so you run the place? no son I make the gears turn
View on Reddit #23347670

Rich_Ad3723@reddit

When you reach 70+% proximity fix rate
View on Reddit #23328701

Patchewski@reddit

This is an underrated comment
View on Reddit #23345575

_D3N14L_@reddit

If you ask them to configure a mail server they turn around and run into the opposite direction.
View on Reddit #23299322

steverikli@reddit

... because they've done it before, might even still be running their own server, and know what it takes to do properly.
View on Reddit #23344843

xarzilla@reddit

A veteran always asks about backups and assumes the worst can happen before any big changes. They will use phrases like "roll back plan", the nerve!
View on Reddit #23279650

Tig75@reddit

30 year veteran here….sometime we don’t have a backup plan…than the confidence steps in and the don’t sweat the small shit….thats for the field techs 🤣
View on Reddit #23280589

IdiosyncraticBond@reddit

"Here goes nothing..." while he presses the big red deploy button, and gets up to get a fresh cup of coffee
View on Reddit #23281813

anonymousITCoward@reddit

I like to say "this will either make things better, or it'll make it worse, cross your fingers, and I'll cross my eyes"... note: not an sysadmin
View on Reddit #23289947

BlueBrr@reddit

"Well, it's already broken. What're we going to do, break it more?" My favorite from my field tech days
View on Reddit #23298997

steverikli@reddit

Yup. Also in the same vein: "use a bigger hammer; if it breaks, it needed to be replaced anyway."
View on Reddit #23344510

anonymousITCoward@reddit

from experience... yes, it can be broken more... much much more lol
View on Reddit #23329466

BlueBrr@reddit

True, but is it working any less when it's broken more?
View on Reddit #23331545

anonymousITCoward@reddit

I once went from recovering an exchange data base to recovering the server, so not it wasn't working before or after me getting into it.. but it did make fore more work recovering the server. It was a bare metal restore on an old HP server... twas not fun... got talked down to when I asked for help, got ~~yelled at~~ a stern talking to in a very condescending manner when I messed up the edb, which i still don't know how I did that... then it got worse when I screwed up the server and it needed to be recovered from backup...
View on Reddit #23335154

battmain@reddit

Concrete proof right here that you haven't worked in IT until you have taken down production at least one time...
View on Reddit #23336802

BlueBrr@reddit

Oops.
View on Reddit #23335366

therealmofbarbelo@reddit

I'm not a sysadmin but I've ran into these situations quite a bit where it's already broken lol.
View on Reddit #23301483

GreenElite87@reddit

My go-to phrase for those situations is “hold onto your butts” from Samuel L. Jackson in Jurassic Park.
View on Reddit #23285524

Moontoya@reddit

mine is "Fire in the hole" seems apt.
View on Reddit #23322306

_p00f_@reddit

Can't be bothered with emergency calls to your desk while you're refilling the cistern.
View on Reddit #23283424

Majik_Sheff@reddit

If you're a drinkin' man or a prayin' man, now's a good time to start.
View on Reddit #23295206

hozwei@reddit

Totalcommander is the tool to use.
View on Reddit #23342955

Electrical-Cook-6804@reddit

Microsoft Paint to markup screenshots
View on Reddit #23289190

Ihaveasmallwang@reddit

Pfft. Snipping tool does all that.
View on Reddit #23296625

BlueBrr@reddit

Not if you want your squares square and your circles ovular.
View on Reddit #23298920

CubesTheGamer@reddit

I don’t thanks lol who’s got time to make sure their squares are square and their circles are perfect?
View on Reddit #23340747

Remarkable-Host405@reddit

you can open your snip tool capture in ms paint.. i only do it when the objects I need to annotate are slightly more complicated than my sloppy mousewriting
View on Reddit #23318336

sedition666@reddit

Today I learned... That button is so obvious as well yet I have never noticed it.
View on Reddit #23320938

BlueBrr@reddit

snip paste edit snip again This is the way!
View on Reddit #23318573

BIG_SCIENCE@reddit

Ya I'm using snipping tool to then paste the screen shots into paint like a REAL SYSADMIN I also like to Google for "YouTube" and then click the link instead of just typing the domain in the address bar
View on Reddit #23318018

czj420@reddit

I use snagit these days, but paint is surely enough
View on Reddit #23325682

Maro1947@reddit

Who's got a camera on me?!
View on Reddit #23296640

Moontoya@reddit

\_a\_ ? pft, amateurs
View on Reddit #23322189

fishypianist@reddit

At one place we had someone in finance using ms paint to edit customer invoices
View on Reddit #23308266

litescript@reddit

why am i not surprised?
View on Reddit #23315129

holysnatchamoly@reddit

This guys been in the trenches.
View on Reddit #23310234

RoboNerdOK@reddit

I always use PowerPoint. It has tons of tools for doing quick & dirty markup and easily exports to standard picture formats.
View on Reddit #23309736

Shaggy_The_Owl@reddit

I’ve moved on to shareX. Works great.
View on Reddit #23301251

MagicianQuirky@reddit

Ah, a tried and true veteran, I see.
View on Reddit #23292929

bbwolfe@reddit

Desk whiskey
View on Reddit #23340111

gpbakken@reddit

Alcoholism and cynicism. Lol.
View on Reddit #23338519

gpbakken@reddit

Alcoholism and cynicism. Lol.
View on Reddit #23338511

draenlaux@reddit

Never do deployments on prod on a Friday ? No good deeds will remain unpunished? Always check monitoring before troubleshooting?
View on Reddit #23337585

PhillyGuitar_Dude@reddit

There's a "joke" that goes something like this; There's some super important shipping boat that has engine trouble and can't leave port. For the sake of this joke, we know it absolutely has to get out immediately. Everyone is freaking out and can't get it to work. They call every mechanic they can find and none of them can fix it. Finally, the last mechanic shows up. It's an older, calm, slightly grizzled guy. They take him to the engine room and he walks around a bit, listens to the banging and chaos around him, he asks a couple questions, and sits down and pulls a thermos from his bag. He pours a coffee. The owners are infuriated and freaking out and yelling at him "how can you be sitting there and drinking coffee, fix this!". He asks them to try and start the motor. They begrudgingly do and it makes a horrible noise as it struggles, and fails, to start. The old mechanic sets down his coffee, stands up and takes a small hammer from his tool bag. He walks to the end of the engine room. He reaches as far back as he can, behind a series of wheels and pipes and valves, and with the hammer in his outstretched hand, he gives one of the valves a tap. "Give it a try now" he says. The owners are incredulous, but relent and go over to start the engine. It immediately jumps to life with a glorious roar and the owners are overjoyed. Now, there's some discrepancy in how the final part of the joke concludes. Some go on to tell some tale of how the owners then refuse to pay the mechanic because it only took him 5 minutes to fix, so the mechanic send an itemized bill with lines for 5 bucks for travel time, 2 bucks for coffee, and 25 Grand for the 30 years of experience that told him exactly were to tap. But, the reality was that he knew it was a problem with a stuck DiscNeedleSolenoid valve. If his 30 years of experience taught him anything, it was that it's always the................................... DNS valve. You're welcome.
View on Reddit #23294704

butterbal1@reddit

By chance have you read this... https://natethesnake.com/ Your pun is VERY much of the same terrible flavor. Also, it is a delight to punish people with a read through of that!
View on Reddit #23304982

DL72-Alpha@reddit

Nice, you bastard. Lol.
View on Reddit #23335114

ziron321@reddit

That is in serious need of a TL;DR
View on Reddit #23307710

butterbal1@reddit

Which is entirely the point!
View on Reddit #23324734

Fe_awen@reddit

It's the longest form shaggy dog joke I've seen in a long time
View on Reddit #23317271

DL72-Alpha@reddit

That's worse than adjusting the TCP/IP intermix ratio.
View on Reddit #23333660

Hakkensha@reddit

Thats the Henry Ford and GE tech story. https://www.reddit.com/r/todayilearned/comments/2b4n7a/til_henry_ford_once_balked_at_paying_10000_to/
View on Reddit #23320685

Festernd@reddit

The part about pay is based on a real one. It was a generator, and the dude was also known as the wizard of Schenectady.
View on Reddit #23308918

BloomerzUK@reddit

A grey beard
View on Reddit #23334901

wild-hectare@reddit

visible scars and signs of aging
View on Reddit #23334533

Both-Employee-3421@reddit

Looks in mirror.
View on Reddit #23333844

MrHoosFoos@reddit

Death. They are ded.
View on Reddit #23333689

Problably__Wrong@reddit

Veteran Sysadmins have seen how quickly vulnerable systems can be exploited by a trojan/worm. Back in the old days of Nimda and Slammer.
View on Reddit #23282548

shammahllamma@reddit

Oh nimbda - I remember being a tech at the time and hearing the Novell server running Norton antivirus beep every time a nimda file was found on the file shares. It beeped a lot. A lot a lot.
View on Reddit #23293313

BoringUsername978@reddit

I got told off by our security auditors for installing netbus on the windows servers so I didn’t have to put on a sweater and walk all the way to the server room.
View on Reddit #23333377

chadleeper@reddit

An old sys admin used batch files a new sys admin keeps saying they should learn powershell.
View on Reddit #23332948

Bogus1989@reddit

ANGRY punches server, speaks to it in tongue… Tells the same war stories over and over… Tells coworkers about his VA disability rating…. Wait…I dont think I understood the question? 🤣🤣🤣🤣
View on Reddit #23330665

CrudProgrammer@reddit

- A green sysadmin does tasks. A senior sysadmin takes ownership - A green sysadmin manages relationships with their team and their manager. A senior sysadmin builds relationships within the broader IT department. - A green sysadmin knows how to do everything. A senior sysadmin teaches others how to do anything. - A green sysadmin thinks about IT's perspective. A senior sysadmin thinks about the user's perspective. - A green sysadmin has no boundaries. A senior sysadmin has thoughtful boundaries. - A green sysadmin works hard. A senior sysadmin gets many things done.
View on Reddit #23330663

groupwhere@reddit

They aren't doing anything today.
View on Reddit #23330132

Gotrek5@reddit

Veterans understand it’s a blue collar trades job. Newbies think they are white collar lawyers and doctors
View on Reddit #23329893

sedwards65@reddit

Linux weenie here. A veteran sysadmin uses long options (eg, '--files-with-matches') on all commands in scripts, articles, and presentations instead of the confusing and conflicting short options (eg '-l'). Also he breaks each option onto it's own line and alphabetizes the list.
View on Reddit #23329880

BasherDvaDva@reddit

Thinking quietly about an issue vs. click-storming* their way into a much bigger problem *or the CLI equivalent
View on Reddit #23329795

PrincePeasant@reddit

Ready to leave and stampede at the stroke of 5PM
View on Reddit #23329421

TheNewBBS@reddit

"OMG this critical system just went down! Make <change> to fix it!" "Are you sure that change will fix the specific issue we're experiencing?" "No, but we have to do *something*!" "Let's wait another few minutes before we make any changes. It might be a transient/limited issue. During that time, let's figure out what's actually causing the problems and the specific thing we have to do to fix that."
View on Reddit #23283843

anonymousITCoward@reddit

>"No, but we have to do something!" quick pull up [https://hackertyper.net/](https://hackertyper.net/) and go full screen and start typing.. .they'll think we're doing something
View on Reddit #23290029

CardinalSIX@reddit

Oh. My. God. This is amazing. This puts me 'CMD+IPCONFIG -t' to shame. Thank you for this. Now I'll feel like a true vet.
View on Reddit #23298804

anonymousITCoward@reddit

in cmd netstat 3 is pretty good to
View on Reddit #23329361

Moontoya@reddit

Netstat & Systeminfo are also good screen scrollers for a technomancer "dog & pony show\*
View on Reddit #23308645

bard329@reddit

top And let it ride....
View on Reddit #23321319

__ZOMBOY__@reddit

‘cd / && tree’ on one monitor top/htop/btop/whatever on the second monitor
View on Reddit #23322820

bard329@reddit

Or, best option: run the Matrix screensaver on 2+ monitors and type super fast on an unplugged keyboard.
View on Reddit #23323760

FiCJordan@reddit

LOL this is great
View on Reddit #23323081

zigzrx@reddit

So fun
View on Reddit #23302855

yourapostasy@reddit

Voodoo IT. A telltale the staff does not truly encompass a mental model of the system. Unfortunately, it is difficult for many leaders to tell the difference between those practicing cargo culting / voodoo IT and those working from first principles / solid models.
View on Reddit #23286070

jaskij@reddit

Here in software dev land we call it programming by permutation. You change stuff until it works.
View on Reddit #23306974

FuzzyDeathWater@reddit

I've always called it shotgun debugging. Just keep trying things until something sticks, and half the time people don't do one change and then evaluate. Instead they do a bunch of changes and then don't know what helped and what didn't.
View on Reddit #23309329

JerikkaDawn@reddit

AND THEN they take the list of the random shit they tried and publish that in the KB as the step by step "fix" !!!!! 🤬🤬
View on Reddit #23326649

jaskij@reddit

I've done the "don't test each change" part in bouts of hyperfocus. Version control and diffing my work tree against the last commit is very helpful then. Which reminds me I'm about to be in a world of pain next week. Got to update some complicated stuff that has build loops measured in minutes, at best.
View on Reddit #23309519

JerikkaDawn@reddit

AND THEN they take the list of the random shit they tried and publish that in the KB as the step by step "fix" !!!!! 🤬🤬
View on Reddit #23326605

Moontoya@reddit

I got a right bollocking for "practicing voodoo" in the server room. Fake blood capsules, the remains of a KFC lunch and a distorted sense of humour had me cavorting in the server room over a mcconnell douglas PICC server carrying out "voodoo rituals" all I was doing was waiting for the RLL drive pack to reach equilibrium on spin up after adjusting the cantilever weights, oops, that might date this a bit. Gotta have \_some\_ fun after all. especially after they banned me from having flash paper and rubber chickens.
View on Reddit #23308804

basedadd@reddit

My mere presence seemed to fix some things for users…. So take that as you will.
View on Reddit #23325049

flunky_the_majestic@reddit

I just had this happen recently. I was sitting with a team of devs as we were implementing in a new (temporary) environment. It wasn't live yet, but it wasn't working properly. The interface was failing like 90% of the time. One of the devs does some sysadmin work. I had been a little intimidated by him, because he seemed to know all the answers for both dev _and_ systems. It started to make me wonder "why am I even here? This guy is obviously smarter than me on both sides of the fence." When this problem struck, I learned my value. His troubleshooting instantly went to flailing solutions: - "Let's raise the PHP memory limit and see if that helps." PHP was not reporting hitting its memory limit. And raising that limit carelessly risks the stability of the rest of the system since the limit is there as a safeguard. - "Let's restart the web server," Okay, I guess? But it's a pretty solid configuration that worked in our last environment. And it has been restarted several times while updating configuration options already. - "Let's restart the database". The application is not reporting any slow queries. And it's only got to run slower when it starts up with cold caches. ... The problem ended up being a link issue within the host network. All of that flailing would've caused new stability and performance issues while masking the underlying network problem. It's nice to see that I have some value to offer, even when I'm not necessarily the smartest one in the room.
View on Reddit #23321725

zigzrx@reddit

Sometimes I get a call, they're all "The house is burnning!" - I'll respond "Sure, but I'm not near my computer and am between sites, give me 10 minutes to get to a good connection - try not to do anything further or make changes". Go to the kitchen, smoke a bowl, look outside and enjoy the clouds. Call them at 11 minutes. "Oh, its OK now, everything is fine, we don't know why we called you, but I guess the system knew we did. Guess that's why we pay you the big bucks." Tap into the network later and check for further issues and make patches.
View on Reddit #23302757

Moontoya@reddit

I can say I truly own two things in this life, my word and, my balls. I break neither for nobody.
View on Reddit #23308920

zigzrx@reddit

This is the way
View on Reddit #23320167

imnotarobot_ok@reddit

There’s a flip side to this coin. Wishful thinking, overly long (hopeful) self healing time is sometimes the response of someone that doesn’t want to react.
View on Reddit #23297445

gunnerman2@reddit

The real lesson is really to start working the problem right away, but don't guess and check.
View on Reddit #23297446

Moontoya@reddit

except - youre potentially working a non problem. The real lesson is to know how to identify what really \_is\_ a problem and set your reaction to that scale - Aka ER/Casualty Triage. as with trauma treatment - if youre able to complain and bitch about the wait, its almost invariably \_not\_ a critical issue, if youre on the floor with blood leaking out of several non oem supplied orifices .... critical problem. If you immediately start working on Mrs Miggins who has an ingrown toenail - well gee, you cant react to Mr Frank Castle coming in with 8 bullet wounds, 12 stab wounds and a copy of Frank Sinatras greatest hits jammed into his ass. OODA loop - **Observe, Orient, Decide and Act**
View on Reddit #23309128

ConfectionCommon3518@reddit

Don't bother with a problem this side of a cuppa and a biscuit or 3 as like you say it may just be a one off event like some sparky doing some work on the lights but doesn't realise that some idiot used the same board to run power to some switch and it's still marked down as lights for the toilets...
View on Reddit #23306001

exmagus@reddit

Fighting with DevOps doesn't make me sweat
View on Reddit #23328960

nefarious_bumpps@reddit

* Nervous twitch each time the phone rings, or workstation beeps. * Palid skin and dark bags under eyes due to lack of sunshine and sleep. * Avoids leaving ops bullpen to avoid impromptu stupid user encounters. * Ever-present hoodie for extended trips into the data center. * Desk littered with empty coffee cups and vending machine food wrappers. * Framed and yellowed copy of Steve Job's "*Welcome, IBM. Seriously.*" ad on wall. Probably flanked by complex, internal SDLC, Change Management or Security process flowcharts. * Laptop has both RJ45 Ethernet and RJ11 phone jacks, just in case. * Yubikey and a USB flash drive labeled "Ventoy" on keychain. * Master of the art of "wall humping" card readers to open doors with hands full. /s
View on Reddit #23328924

Tatermen@reddit

Ask them to fix your home computer for free after hours, but don't remove Bonzai Buddy because you love that cheeky little ape. If they go into convulsions or start to froth at the mouth with rage, you found a lifer.
View on Reddit #23328559

RedditNotFreeSpeech@reddit

He's days away from being laid off because no one understands how fucked they'll be without him.
View on Reddit #23327759

atomiczombie79@reddit

A really good sysadmin knows that documenting their workload for the next guy is part of the job.
View on Reddit #23328408

twashburn1971@reddit

Always tired, social skills completely gone.....
View on Reddit #23327693

GardenWeasel67@reddit

Alcoholism
View on Reddit #23327412

czj420@reddit

You've fixed the issue that Microsoft Support says doesn't exist after you've paid them the $500 and they've wasted 3 days.
View on Reddit #23325991

EvatLore@reddit

3 days? We aren't even past the gathering log files from last years blue moon on the only Linux server on the network. Heck, might still be at the my name is "AWEralkjadfl" (John) and I will be assisting you on "problem that isin't even close to the ticket you entered"
View on Reddit #23327241

_Jimmy2times@reddit

They seem overprepared. Taking steps others may feel are overkill. They repeat themselves. They question peoples confidence. They ask hard questions; not ti be a dick, but because they’ve been in situations previously that couldve benefitted someone asking that question
View on Reddit #23280202

Ssakaa@reddit

> They ask hard questions; not ti be a dick, but because they’ve been in situations previously that couldve benefitted someone asking that question I've upset so many people with that over the years. People get far too attached to their ideas.
View on Reddit #23324588

_Jimmy2times@reddit

I’ve been lucky enough to come up around people who do this. It used to tick me off a bit, due to my ego. Now I appreciate it, and have no qualms about asking others if I feel its warranted.
View on Reddit #23327190

Rodknocking@reddit

You finally realize that your just a number and can be replaced at any time. Then end up in a sea of other job hunters that are trying to get past HR ATS filters just to talk to someone who can see your worth and understand what you bring to the table.
View on Reddit #23327180

xKHANx-McMarrin@reddit

Easy.. The total number of F\*cks given.
View on Reddit #23326953

PessimisticProphet@reddit

Absolute disdain for anyone else's (non-it) intelligence level
View on Reddit #23284199

thufirseyebrow@reddit

I'm by no means a veteran, but I've definitely developed this part already. So much so that I consider "user education" nothing more than a waste of time since the user has forgotten what you've told them before you finished speaking it in ~95% of cases.
View on Reddit #23299239

PessimisticProphet@reddit

They're not going to pay attention; even if they do pay attention they're not going to understand anything; even if they do understand something they're going to immediately forget it.
View on Reddit #23326813

punklinux@reddit

Someone who liked having no root/admin access to something if they don't need it. Like, Having root access is something that has added responsibility they'd gladly relinquish. "Foo is down! AAUGH DO SOMETHING!" "I don't have access to Foo. You need to speak to department Foo and tell them." "How can you have no access to Foo? Foo is a technical thing!" "Foo is not my responsibility." "Can't you hack it? Department Foo is on some offsite work binding thing." "Sounds like you need to make some calls."
View on Reddit #23319977

punkwalrus@reddit

I came here looking for this. Yes, absolutely. I love the "shortcuts" of, "Oh, I don't manage Active Directory. That's Joe Smith's job. No, I don't have Administrator access, I am the Senior Linux Admin. Not Windows. I understand your password to the VPN is saying incorrect password, but I checked and it's working for me, and the logs show you have an incorrect password, so, again, that's managed by AD in Windows." "I don't do Windows" is enormous freedom for me.
View on Reddit #23326500

Holmesless@reddit (OP)

This is ne with financial/sql software
View on Reddit #23320289

joeyl5@reddit

veteran sysadmin will not jump to conclusion without first looking at logs
View on Reddit #23325992

garretn@reddit

Lots of good points here. Experienced admins... * Won't volunteer for extra work and will be careful about drawing the line and crossing the line for standard hours. * Will be careful with their on-call agreements. * Will be annoyed with the younger/new admins that work too hard. The work is fine, but empty praise is only great until it raises the bar/standard for everyone rather then hiring an appropriate headcount. * Won't sweat the small stuff, or even the big stuff. The job is the same whether you kill yourself with anxiety and stress or not. This is not the same as knowing when to hustle and when not to. * They know they should brush up their resume and get the heck out of dodge if a financial investor suddenly owns the majority in stock before the layoffs start. They know what's coming. They won't actually do it until they have to because they'd rather do literally anything else. * Will have multiple W2s despite never being hired/fired from the job, as companies are bought and sold. * Will come to understand and appreciate the value of good benefits, and how important they are in terms of compensation.
View on Reddit #23320161

EvatLore@reddit

* They know they should brush up their resume and get the heck out of dodge if a financial investor suddenly owns the majority in stock before the layoffs start. They know what's coming. They won't actually do it until they have to because they'd rather do literally anything else. * Will have multiple W2s despite never being hired/fired from the job, as companies are bought and sold. * Will come to understand and appreciate the value of good benefits, and how important they are in terms of compensation. Never though of it that way but yes, yes and yes. The older I get the more I appreciate good benefits and the actual people I work with over normal compensation. Going through a buy out or company merger really brings out the best and worst in people. If only their was a way to learn this experience without the high stress. My first merger into a fortune 500 literally took years from my life due to stress. The ones after you learn to go with the flow and plan your exit while reaping any bonuses for merger work. Being good only at your technical part of the job is not enough. People and political skills are learned in high stakes mergers and acquisitions.
View on Reddit #23325865

czj420@reddit

You've seen The IT Crowd and you know what it means to be leg disabled and how absurd a fire at the sea parks is. https://youtu.be/uRGljemfwUE << The website is down
View on Reddit #23325829

Mental_Act4662@reddit

https://xkcd.com/705
View on Reddit #23325691

ResoluteCaution@reddit

The grey in our hair
View on Reddit #23325418

Practical-Alarm1763@reddit

No emotional attachment to work Can accurately estimate timeline and time a project or task will take Time management God and knows exactly what they'll be doing every day and at what time Starts work on the clock, leaves work on time Does not burn themselves out Knows their limits and when it's appropriate to escalate Does not get into arguments or confrontations Rants and releases their inner rage on reddit There are no emergencies. And if there are they will be handled swiftly, after they finish their lunch. Advises and moves on Understands their entire career is based on figuring out how to complete shit they've never done before. Knows how to keep upper execs calm, secure, happy, and confident in your ability by just doing your work. Enjoys the rush, adrenaline, and excitement of new challenging projects, but understands that type of energy is best reserved on projects that need it. Knows how to balance their mental state. Knows when it's time to take a vacation or move on to a different job.
View on Reddit #23296539

NetworkHead@reddit

This is actually very comforting!
View on Reddit #23312023

Practical-Alarm1763@reddit

I forgot to put up there "Seeks No Validation" That may be the most important one.
View on Reddit #23314460

DoesntHateOnArguers@reddit

Can confirm. No fucks given.
View on Reddit #23324790

CoffeePieAndHobbits@reddit

Great summary!
View on Reddit #23324176

_redcourier@reddit

Perfect summary.
View on Reddit #23320528

Petrodono@reddit

A vet (like me) also knows something many younger guys don't (and keep this shit to yourselves) have you ever heard of Scotty's engineering "miracle worker trick" where you claim something will take twice as long as it does and then you do it in half the time and get massive kudos? It's bullshit. A horrible lie that just gets you a lot more work. The trick is, to tell them it will take twice as long as it does and then **make it take that long**. You heard me. Lie your ass off. Vets knows that producing stuff as fast as you can has no benefit in IT, we are seen as overhead and a "sunk cost". Yes, we double, triple, even quadruple the overall efficiency of everything we touch. It doesn't matter to them. We give them tools to make better sales, faster decisions, cost savings and lots of other stuff but the sales guys get the parties, bonuses and trips to Vegas. Bottom line, the trick won't get you ahead and has a nasty side effect that when something comes up that goes wrong and takes a lot longer than you anticipated (or longer even) you just bought yourself time and avoided a shitload of hassle.
View on Reddit #23316424

marco0079@reddit

Using this on Sunday, I got UPS swap out and a net failover test
View on Reddit #23324646

tk42967@reddit

The life cycle of an IT professional (Early vs Mid vs Veteran) * Man there are all these meetings I'm not invited to. I wish I was invited. * I've finally made it. I'm invited to all the meetings. * Don't invite me to a meeting unless the building is on fire.
View on Reddit #23323808

EvatLore@reddit

Looking at the meeting list and realizing everyone in the meeting is there to discuss the actual work you are about to be given. Lets move everyone to VDI in the cloud. We need a new Office in Sri Lanka. Hey we just bought a new company and we need them to be able to use our email domain in about 4hrs at the press release.
View on Reddit #23324487

tk42967@reddit

>Looking at the meeting list and realizing everyone in the meeting is there to discuss the actual work you are about to be given. I have been in many meetings where I have uttered "Look, we all know I'm going to do this. Let's just agree, and I can go work on it instead of wasting my time.".
View on Reddit #23324560

EvatLore@reddit

Having a recovery plan. Snapshots, backups, written information. Being able to check on a change through events and tests. Understanding what a change does not just following a youtube or website follow through. This is the hardest lesson for the people I mentor. Help Desk can crash single systems at a time. Sys Admins can cripple an entire company. There is a different though process. 95% chance of a problem is a 1/20. That would be a yearly or semi yearly crash of the tech in a company you are in chage of keeping up and running. Sr Sys Admins have had projects go sideways and know how to recover. The ones that didnt don't become Sr Sys Admins. Sometimes you got to Yolo but knowing how to recover makes it work.
View on Reddit #23324139

pedro4212@reddit

We think before we do. Don’t panic, don’t rush into things and make sure we provide the best fit solution for the company, not necessarily the cheapest or quickest. Many times I have seen fresh sysadmins say “this product will solve this issue” without thinking it through. I tell juniors Help Desk are quick/immediate fix people, sysadmins are slower and more thoughtful.
View on Reddit #23280646

Gunnilinux@reddit

To expand on the "don't panic" bit: if someone claims there is a major outage/problem, we don't just up and yell fire.  I have seen new guys get worked up and start calling management because a user called saying everything is broken and didn't quickly just ask a few questions or verify.    Now if you do see a vet start running, follow their ass cuz something is really wrong. 
View on Reddit #23293014

vppencilsharpening@reddit

I see no point in running. It's not really going to get me there much faster. Then when I get there I'm going to be all hot and uncomfortable. Plus I could fall and get hurt, then have another urgent problem to deal with. If you see an executive making me a cup of coffee, shits going down so buckle up. -- For the record, I have a good working relationship with the senior team. So much that part of our SHF plan is them acting as a distribution point for information, running interference so the team can focus and getting supplies (coffee, food, snacks) for the team.
View on Reddit #23295299

Ssakaa@reddit

Oh a veteran in any field running during incident response is *very* unlikely running *towards* the situation, unless there's literal lives to be saved *and* the risks of running are outweighed by the need for expediency.
View on Reddit #23324088

asdrunkasdrunkcanbe@reddit

Yes. Always verify reports. Some users always believe their issues are urgent. Other users try to be helpful and suggest a root cause rather than just describe the problem. "I think the server reboot John did yesterday has caused Office365 to go down today". And a few users are usually pretty good and will very do some verification themselves before pulling the red handle. But you can really only know who is who over time and by verifying/reproducing the issue locally. "The system is down" reports from end-users are 9 times out of 10 that user's machine losing internet connectivity. A have a user (senior management), who without fail every few weeks will tell a project manager that "reporting is down", that PM will then send me a panicked message asking if reporting is down and how long will it take to fix. Reporting is never down, dear reader. Usually the reporting system is a few minutes behind the live system, so the user just isn't getting the most up-to-date results and isn't happy about it.
View on Reddit #23304946

lmkwe@reddit

Should grab the literal fire extinguisher too.... just in case.
View on Reddit #23295147

plonkster@reddit

If you need X dollars for something in your department, present two plans, one you want for X, and another one that costs ~ X*1.8 Enjoy always getting your requests granted asap Never failed me
View on Reddit #23322506

tk42967@reddit

Or point out the intangible costs of the "free" solution in terms of man hours versus paying for turn key.
View on Reddit #23323682

CGB_NoXoN@reddit

A dead look in thier eyes at the mention of an on call rotation.
View on Reddit #23323165

tk42967@reddit

>A dead look in thier eyes ~~at the mention of an on call rotation~~. There, I fixed it for you.
View on Reddit #23323623

tk42967@reddit

I'm mentoring my Service Delivery guys to bring them into the Sys Admin space. The things I show them are proper research, don't just assume you know the problem and go off on a wild goose chase. Case in point, one of my junior help desk guys who's on a sys admin path put in a ticket for our delegated domain admin tool (basically a domain admin proxy) that 2 new onboarded users could only access email through the web interface and not outlook on their computers. Turns out the new accounts were contractors who only got F3 licensing and that was the way of things. After he had put the ticket in, I went back and cleaned the ticket up, grabbed screen caps of the licensing and group memberships for on prem AD & Azure. I put in a long note with the questions I would ask if I were working the ticket, the research steps I performed, and what I thought the issue was. I then kicked the ticket back to the help desk guy and said please look over this and see me if you have any questions. This is what good troubleshooting looks like before you escalate an issue. I guess knowledge sharing should be another one. I want to teach you everything I can and empower you to do new things so that I am not the only one that knows this and has to get disturbed every time it happens. Lastly, experience. Real experience, not just time spent in the position. I find myself working with my help desk guys and will say "I saw this in the past. Here is the most likely reason for it.". At that point, I let them go off and work on it because they will never learn if I do it for them.
View on Reddit #23323580

cka243@reddit

When family or friends ask for help with their computers at home you say “Yeah, I don’t really do that anymore.” Or when people ask you what kind of computer they should buy and you honestly have no idea what to tell them.
View on Reddit #23321916

Kehama@reddit

He’s tired but carries on regardless
View on Reddit #23321828

jbanelaw@reddit

Veteran: "Let me write a long, unnecessary script to perform that operation." Green: "I can't believe M$ moved that one check box in Server Admin Manager again! Now I'll need to google where it is in order to get this operation done."
View on Reddit #23321776

dmoisan@reddit

PTSD
View on Reddit #23321254

DifficultyPotato@reddit

The lines on his face. Those aren't laugh lines. They're tear channels. Dispersed into the mouth for optimal re-uptake. Mmmm. Success is salty.
View on Reddit #23320265

DarthTurnip@reddit

Backups, backups and more importantly, backups
View on Reddit #23320234

GreenEggPage@reddit

Solo veteran sysadmins in small companies have a network of contacts who can answer their questions. There's no way you can know everything, so build up a group of experts in areas that you are weak in. Become the SME in areas that your contacts need help in. Help each other out.
View on Reddit #23319667

Dakeera@reddit

a green admin is a fairweather pilot, a veteran admin can handle when things go to shit
View on Reddit #23319519

sudo_samba_addusr@reddit

"When I was your age, people knew that Unix and Linux were different things!"
View on Reddit #23287938

Remarkable-Host405@reddit

I would say that anyone who knows what linux is knows it isn't unix. Just ask them to install unix on their linux pc if they don't.
View on Reddit #23319422

technicalityNDBO@reddit

Green admins tend to focus more on solving the technical issue whereas vets will try to solve the business issue.
View on Reddit #23319334

general-noob@reddit

Dead eyes and constant, spiteful hate
View on Reddit #23297707

hosalabad@reddit

Never forgive, never forget, die angry!
View on Reddit #23319093

DCJoe1970@reddit

Cup of coffee in hand, relax individual with no patience for nonsense. ![gif](giphy|bk8UGCysurqC2gmJ0o|downsized)
View on Reddit #23316627

Rafael20002000@reddit

I'm a 23 year old senior sys admin (actually I'm just a software developer)
View on Reddit #23318602

Eviscerated_Banana@reddit

A visibly bubbling undercurrent of visceral, vien twitching rage that increases over time.
View on Reddit #23317182

vrtigo1@reddit

The 1,000 yard stare. A sysadmin gets it after he's been in the shit for too long. It's like you've really seen beyond.
View on Reddit #23317037

jimbo21@reddit

Identifies as a BOFH 
View on Reddit #23316365

TrueBoxOfPain@reddit

Lack of life in the eyes..
View on Reddit #23314808

kscoolaid@reddit

As a guy with 30 years experience I'll give you some of the advice I would give young guys. Don't panic. It doesn't show a sense of urgency. You're the SME and you should be calm and steady. You're an expense. Fix problems and find ways to add value to the business. See something that could be better? Make it better. Don't just focus on IT, focus on IT in your business area. I do call centers, so I'm on top of workforce management apps; call recording apps; speech analytics apps and anything that can integrate with those that add value to the business. I expect my guys to operate at \~75% of being productive. Don't burn yourself out. Don't burn your team out. You can't know everything. In your role, focus on your tasks and figure out quikly where you can find information. Who knows what and who does what and what is the procedure to get those resources working with you if you need them. Be a good member of your team. Make group decisions when you can and make your own decisions when you need to. Don't pound people over mistakes. They're going to happen. Don't immediately jump in and save someone unless it's critical for the business. Help them develop thier troubleshooting skills and work with them to develop the answer or plan of attack. Laugh a little bit. Have some fun. Go to lunch together every now and then if you can. If that's how your office runs, there are some senior administrators around.
View on Reddit #23314328

B4rberblacksheep@reddit

Looking at what the actual issues are before worrying about what could be the issue. Or to be more concise, making molehills out of mountains.
View on Reddit #23314063

Superb_Raccoon@reddit

Suspenders. Rainbow ones for UNIX.
View on Reddit #23313569

burtvader@reddit

Boolean Google-fu
View on Reddit #23313289

Tommy_Sands@reddit

Smokes cigs
View on Reddit #23313216

AustinGroovy@reddit

War Stories. Lots of them.
View on Reddit #23313115

Simply_GeekHat@reddit

the 10000 yard stare...
View on Reddit #23312552

Aronacus@reddit

When a calamity falls on your business, and it will. They don't get emotional, they don't freak out, they just get to work. A number of years ago, We were doing power maintenance in our data center. Switched over to generator and everything was fine, Now this generator was 25 years old and was well past it's life expectancy, but budgets were budgets and everyone knows DR usually gets shit. So, the regulator on the generator failed and the motor revved up and it started dumping way more amperage than it was supposed to. This caused the UPS's to suddenly trip and dump all load to ground. This saved the data center, even though the guy who installed it was considered a laughing stock that he paid extra for a "needless feature" he was later let go over this. So, Power gets dropped. Entire data center goes black. My VP and Manager are standing there with us when it all happens. No work was started, So I fail back to street power, Everything starts coming up. My VP and Manager are frozen still, I yell out 'Gentlemen, We've now had a catastrophic power event in our data center, we need to assess ALL DAMAGE to our infrastructure. I'm going to go upstairs to my desk and i'm going to start checking systems. Can you all find ROOT CAUSE. Suddenly, they snap into action. I run upstairs and start doing all the checks, We lost 2 switches that were OAF (Old As FUCK!) but they were just access systems. Storage came up, ESXi clusters came up. 2 hours later, I'm back down there getting updates.
View on Reddit #23312332

demonfurbie@reddit

still typing dcpromo to try and spin up a new domain controller using mmc for everything
View on Reddit #23312188

sick2880@reddit

"It's always DNS..."
View on Reddit #23312140

SINdicate@reddit

Senior admin doesn’t wait for a budget and make shit happen
View on Reddit #23311918

seetheare@reddit

time and experience :) you start looking at the big picture. but I still like to get down and dirty with troubleshooting. troubleshooter at heart
View on Reddit #23311755

ChirsF@reddit

Chain smokes on a schedule is the biggest tell.
View on Reddit #23311645

Zahrad70@reddit

In a word, Documentation. In a phrase, “evidence-based political savvy.”
View on Reddit #23311493

Chemical_Shop_6835@reddit

Use vi as text editor
View on Reddit #23305147

ImCaffeinated_Chris@reddit

COULD use vi, but choose nano bc it's just easier!
View on Reddit #23311297

CaptainZippi@reddit

I _think_ I can still use ‘ed’ if I had to. But those neurons are old and gray, and may not be reliable.
View on Reddit #23305148

numtini@reddit

Alcoholism
View on Reddit #23281792

ImCaffeinated_Chris@reddit

I was gonna say, they know a lot about whiskey!
View on Reddit #23311174

stumpymcgrumpy@reddit

In interviews I used to ask the question "In your opinion, does IT drive the business or does the business drive IT?" Their answers usually told me how experienced they were in the field.
View on Reddit #23311084

slmagus@reddit

Irritability and a crippling addiction to caffeine.
View on Reddit #23311057

BJMcGobbleDicks@reddit

Delegation and documentation. If they have learned the right lessons.
View on Reddit #23311009

legolover2024@reddit

We keep a hip flask of whiskey with us and we're DEFINITELY not contactable when on holiday regardless of how important it is. We also drink during the day
View on Reddit #23310821

Kapelzor@reddit

Beard, cargo shorts, possibly flip flops
View on Reddit #23301733

ChiefBroady@reddit

I am in this picture and don’t like it.
View on Reddit #23309072

HughJohns0n@reddit

Windows Admins? PowerShell all the things.
View on Reddit #23308801

Moontoya@reddit

Veteran admins know the power of "No" Veteran admins know that IT and Facilities are kin - we both ensure shit flows smoothly through our pipes to stop the users screaming and stinky messes splattering everywhere.
View on Reddit #23308384

mrXmuzzz@reddit

Buys a massive server just got AD and group policy
View on Reddit #23307858

ms4720@reddit

Bone deep understanding of the concept of "no ticket no laundry"
View on Reddit #23307611

davidgrayPhotography@reddit

Telling the boss to get fucked. It took me a few years to get there, but I got there. First major time I did it was when there was an event taking place and the big boss' PA messaged me and said "can you do photography for this event?" (I was a budding photographer and had volunteered my services once or twice before as practice) and I told her no. She asked why, and I said I wasn't given enough notice, and that I didn't have my camera with me. Cue a day or so later when I get an email from the big boss. She told me that a request from her PA is as good as a request from her, and I needed to explain why I told her PA no. I said "I was asked to do photography with literally 10 minutes notice. I didn't have the tools with me, and I had more important things to do. Here's what I accomplished during that time: \[list of tasks I did\]" She didn't respond which I took as a win. Subsequent years they made sure to ask me two weeks before the big event, and I slowly stopped doing that. I'm still expected to attend the event, but I just sit up the back and fiddle with my phone instead of walking around the crowd taking photos.
View on Reddit #23307294

this_barb@reddit

Veteran sysadmins know how to ask better questions and they don't ask questions that can be easily answered by Google.
View on Reddit #23306758

Alsmk2@reddit

Calm under pressure. Don't bother with politics. Don't think they're indispensable. Don't put up with shit. PTSD.
View on Reddit #23306327

tardiusmaximus@reddit

A rucksack that contains cables and tools from jobs done years ago and will never be used again but can't bear to bin them.
View on Reddit #23305699

jv159@reddit

Senior sysadmin always has a plan B, does their homework before a major change or project, plans ahead of time and expects the unexpected
View on Reddit #23305591

botgeek1@reddit

Has read The Bastard Operator from Hell from the beginning.
View on Reddit #23285020

butterbal1@reddit

I WAS a PFY when I started reading it. I have become the crusty old grey beard since then.
View on Reddit #23304879

denverpilot@reddit

And knows what an Appeasement Engineer is.
View on Reddit #23299262

BeachAffectionate916@reddit

Back in the day it was printed in one of the historical magazines
View on Reddit #23290657

CaptainZippi@reddit

One ringing phone - no big deal. All the phones ringing - might be time to pay attention.
View on Reddit #23304875

bobs143@reddit

Veteran admins hopefully learn how important soft skills are. Dealing with people is something you continually have to do. Everyone from vendors, to people from other departments. Learning how to navigate those conversations becomes an art form in itself.
View on Reddit #23303724

tdmonkey@reddit

The vacant look in our eyes….
View on Reddit #23280028

bobs143@reddit

The thousand yard stare. We have seen some stuff. ![gif](giphy|jTeZmJNrEwGDHOkx8Q|downsized)
View on Reddit #23303418

SaltySama42@reddit

![gif](giphy|J8YpfDX0kvPQNSVGHY|downsized)
View on Reddit #23288496

ilovepolthavemybabie@reddit

Acquired dissociative disorder or hangover? Or are they a “bids and contracts guy” and got the chickenegg 2-for-1
View on Reddit #23283499

RGB-128128128@reddit

I'm only present in body, my spirit is long gone.
View on Reddit #23280959

Own_Adhesiveness_885@reddit

We don’t have to Google stuff. We just know the solution due to experience.
View on Reddit #23303375

Kingzjames@reddit

They remember every command
View on Reddit #23302562

Helpjuice@reddit

Veterans know how to escalate and are very calm under the most intense situations because they have been there, lived it before, and ultimately have fixed horrible situations.
View on Reddit #23289172

BeachAffectionate916@reddit

In addition, know their limitations and will know when to refer to someone else or Reddit
View on Reddit #23290575

driodsworld@reddit

This I agree as I shuffle into my 50s
View on Reddit #23301926

MrCertainly@reddit

The older you get, the more you realized you should've Unionized years ago.
View on Reddit #23301802

michaelpaoli@reddit

>5,10,15+ year Not best indicator, some will do 5/10/15/... years and not know a thing beyond they day they started, others (rarely) at less than 5 years will be flying past those with 10+ years experience like they were standing still. So, green (novice) vs. "veteran" (sr.), (very competent, skilled), typical examples (some will vary by OSes or flavors thereof, feel free to think of comparable examples as relevant for various operating systems/environments): * vi(1) * novice: to move cursor from leftmost position to (about) 70th column will hit the "l" key lots, then press and hold for auto-repeat, try and leg to at right time, then adjust to the desired position. Or worse yet, they'll copy to Microsoft Windows, edit there, copy back, they won't use vipw on /etc/passwd leaving it folded at every 80th column and lines <CR><LF> terminated seriously breaking things. Novice will at best generally be quite inefficient with vi. * sr.: will type 70| or 69l or some other few keystrokes to get straight away to exactly the desired position. sr. will also fly thorough vi so incredibly fast and efficiently that even the intermediates will often be like: "Uhm, *how* did you do that?!?!?!" * sh(1), etc. * novice: will struggle with most anything beyond (or even) basic shell stuff, e.g. simple redirection of stdin/stdout from/to files, pipes, asynchronous execution, etc. They'll barely and inefficiently navigate/edit shell history for re-execution - if they're even aware of shell history * sr.: will whip up useful powerful complex shell commands on-the-fly lickety-split. They'll highly efficiently utilize shell history to re-execute commands or edited versions thereof. Things quite useful on a regular basis and fairly non-trivial will tend to turn into saved scripts/programs, and be reasonably documented. They'll also be quite robust and accident resistant - e.g. well checking exit/return codes and appropriately handling exceptions. * commands - general * novice: may not fully, or sometimes even barely, understand the command they're about to run, exactly what it does, and how. * sr. They'll quite thoroughly know often to extreme detail, what they command they're about to run will do, and exactly how * foreseeing issues/problems, recognizing patterns/issues/problems * novice: will often miss these things. May sometimes have an inkling or "funny" feeling about something ... but often not much more than that. * sr.: will generally well foresee problems and potential problems, often/commonly well before they occur, and will generally work to avoid having problems/issues. When things go sideways, they're generally much more quick and efficient at recognizing it, knowing or figuring out exactly what the situation is, and how to efficiently correct the issue while minimizing negative impacts and resolution time. sr. will also figure out or be highly instrumental in figuring out and resolving the darn tough problems that nobody else can manage to figure out. E.g. few thousand failures daily among tens to hundreds of billions of events across many to 10s of TiB of data per day, I highly isolated that out and including all the needed relevant context when none of the developers or other sysadmins could. Likewise often highly well isolate relatively rare fast transient intermittent problems and get those problems nailed and corrected. Notice patterns others miss, leading to much faster resolution of problems and downtime. E.g. hardware problem - if I'd followed standard procedure and documentation, we would've been down >half day, I was able to get us back to nominal operation in well under 30 minutes, notably catching not only hardware diagnostics, but the meta-information of *how* they indicated, which pointed, along with some other evidence, to probable cause, used that to rectify the immediate issue to promptly resume normal operations. * sh\*t from shinola: * novice: will search (e.g. Google), will spend much time trying to figure out what information is good/useful, crud, poor, wrong, or "correct" but not a useful rabbit hole to go chasing down. * sr.: will generally quickly and well tell apart and sort out what information is more/most useful - vs. not, how credible/vetted, and not, be able to well test/evaluate/vet, and will be able to figure out which trails and branches are well worth following and may be quite useful and relevant, vs. those that won't be or are quite unlikely to yield useful information/results. * go search or look it up, vs. near encyclopedic knowledge of ... * novice: they won't know or won't be sure, they's search, look it up, read it, etc., hopefully test, etc. as appropriate * sr: much they'll already highly well know. Doesn't mean they don't look up, but when they do, it's typically double checking or confirming, or checking on some finer details, or looking up information about some significantly more obscure or complex issue/problem/challenge. So, while <(<) sr. will be looking up a lot 'o stuff on man pages, and maybe even trying to figure out what man page(s) to be looking the stuff up on and reading, sr. will be ... well, I had coworker that referred to me as "walking man page", as that coworker, and other coworkers, would often just ask me, rather than look it up on the man page - as they could generally get the information they wanted much more quickly, and generally down to whatever level of detail the wanted ... command, options, even more obscure options, alternative commands/approaches and various pros and cons ... yeah, I read *all* the UNIX man pages ... multiple sets in fact, ... and well retained most of the relevant information. * information sharing, transparency, etc.: * sr: will well document, share information, answer questions, train/mentor, etc. And if/when they make a mistake or do something less than optimally, it's not something they hide. They'll readily admit it, even showcase it, on how to better do/approach it, the hazards to watch out for, lessons learned, etc. * novice: they're generally still figurin' that out, sometimes they don't/won't ask for help/assistance when they should (and sure, sometimes they ask way too early when they should at least do some basic (re)searching and reading first), often they're not keen on letting it be known when they fscked up (hiding big booboos is generally a big no no and can end up being a bye bye sysadmin) (and mistakes will happen - even with sr. folks) or made an error ... or failing to appropriately ask when they're not (sufficiently) sure (depending upon context) ... either regarding what they're about to do ... or results of what they did. * top-to-bottom, depth and spread: * novice: will mostly know around some at least reasonable bit of CLI, and some reasonable bit of higher-level system concepts - notably at OS level * sr. will have much more comprehensive and deep knowledge, not only thoroughly on CLI and commands, shell(s), most or all utilities, various relevant programming languages, etc., but also hardware from bottom up, including electrical, electronics, machine, assembly, C (or other relevant language), and also higher levels, how applications use resources, what they serve, how, where, how they interact, lots of networking, security, how collections of systems interact, large and scalable designs, etc. * knowledge, abilities, skills * sr: generally knows the limits of their knowledge, abilities, skills, and will be humble - there's *always* somebody who knows more, and *always* opportunity to learn * novice: is generally still figuring that out And of course not all novices and sr.s particularly or precisely fit these patterns, but that's at least a relatively fair example or approximation thereof regarding the differences and types of differences one will generally see (and of course too there's quite a spread between ... at any given time, most are somewhere in those ranges between).
View on Reddit #23301634

intmanofawesome@reddit

Knowing the difference between if you could do something, or if you should do something. Just because you can , doesn’t mean you should.
View on Reddit #23299305

EvandeReyer@reddit

Thank you for saying this one! Also just because someone is asking for something, doesn’t mean we should give it to them.
View on Reddit #23300989

The-IT_MD@reddit

Coffee for problems you can fix, scotch for problems you can’t.
View on Reddit #23300051

CheekyChonkyChongus@reddit

"you know what, you all can go fuck yourselfs, I'm going home"
View on Reddit #23299571

Quick_Movie_5758@reddit

You generally STFU and do your job. That way, you control your world as much as you can in a corporate environment. You control what you can control, and accept what you can't. You explain the risks, and you leave it there. You can't carry that shit around the company's shortcomings your whole career and have a healthy life.
View on Reddit #23299552

likwidtek@reddit

Alcoholism
View on Reddit #23299510

GrayRoberts@reddit

They know the name Evi Nemeth, and still mourn.
View on Reddit #23280943

denverpilot@reddit

Damn that hurts. Met her numerous times. Worked on some circuits that went to the Internet co-op where she helped configure the far end. Etc. Still have a copy of the Unix System Administration book purchased at a club meeting she attended. I think the Linux one is around here somewhere, too. If they survived the dead tree purge. (Unsigned though. We were all just supporting her work.)
View on Reddit #23299457

youfrickinguy@reddit

Missing at sea is such a tragic conclusion. Godsoeed, Evi.
View on Reddit #23296874

grep65535@reddit

The understanding of these things and how they apply to everything : -decisions are all about risk -if you're not a decision-maker, then your role is to communicate that risk up so that someone else can make the decisions...not get upset over their disagreement with your recommendation -effecting change in an environment is a long-game thing most of the time -perception is reality -sometimes the quickest way to create change is to "let it burn" -treat servers like cattle, not pets -understanding context is important to nearly everything -most of the time, nearly everyone around you is hiding the dumpster fire that they don't have the skills or knowledge to fix, but if you ask them, "the system is complex"
View on Reddit #23299009

CakeOD36@reddit

Going into a situation with a primary, backup, and backup to the backup plan.
View on Reddit #23298801

TrickyAlbatross2802@reddit

Organization. Consistent naming schemes, folder structure, permissions, etc. If you have been around more than 5 years and don't have a strong naming scheme then wtf have you been doing the last 5 years.
View on Reddit #23298791

mbkitmgr@reddit

We see the same things come back "HIP" then become dirtier than a has-been influencer. We see a certain vendor throw all the rules out the window in order to have us sell their new platform. We become less patient with the end user. Loves to walk into a new client that is all a mess, has no faith in IT, we and turn it all around without having to replace everything the customer already owns. The customer then thinks we cam walk on water. Doesn't rush into the latest trend, we've seen several you've never heard of.
View on Reddit #23298027

TheMelwayMan@reddit

*looks in the mirror* Grey hair Horrible temper No tolerance for petty bullshit Short fuse
View on Reddit #23297353

symewinston@reddit

Super calm in the middle of an infrastructure outage, they know no one wants to deal with a hysterical cop.
View on Reddit #23296888

Shrikecorp@reddit

Hypertension, headaches
View on Reddit #23296757

Dirty_Goat@reddit

Eye twitch
View on Reddit #23295779

Rotten_Red@reddit

Panic, emotions and drama do not equal a requirements document. They can stress all they want but vague yet urgent requests are not actionable.
View on Reddit #23295762

Duel@reddit

We actually know how to turn meetings into emails.
View on Reddit #23295745

kiss_my_what@reddit

Can start a project or troubleshooting an incident without a clear idea of what the outcome will be, but will know almost exactly how long it will take to finish. Can make a solid argument for or against any new initiative or product. Can give the "I told you so" look to any executive, colleague, project manager, customer without saying a word but conveying the appropriate amount of distain.
View on Reddit #23295585

tenuem_ratio@reddit

If it can be broken... It can be fixed. 15 years as a sys admin. This one sentence keeps me sane. There is always a fix. Don't panic don't stress. Have a hobby.
View on Reddit #23295506

aSideOfNerd@reddit

Being in tune with the business side of things, understanding the why, and how to talk to management in business terms. I say this as someone who went from helpdesk to eventually sysadmin at one company, left to join my current company and here I've gone from sysadmin to IT director to CIO, both jobs over the course of 20 years. The place I am now I'd call a medium business, about 500 employees across 5 sites in 3 cities (all within an hour of each other).
View on Reddit #23295310

Advanced-Roof6432@reddit

The ability to say no and back it up
View on Reddit #23284918

Majik_Sheff@reddit

I can't even count the number of times I've told an executive some form of "no" and they accept it as a valid answer. It freaks you out the first few times.
View on Reddit #23294978

mobileaccountuser@reddit

we boot from our 14.4k modem into prorate BB's system to leave a board message the boards will be down for maintenance that day
View on Reddit #23294924

Ellis-Redding-1947@reddit

Being able to get to the root of a complex problem. But then sticking to your guns when the new sysadmin is adamant “that couldn’t be the issue”. Followed by that awkward moment when they realize the old guy was right!
View on Reddit #23281790

Majik_Sheff@reddit

I'm fond of working with the new guy through the troubleshooting process and letting them finally figure out what's wrong.  Then handing them the specific tool or part they need that I've had in my pocket the whole time.
View on Reddit #23294899

JiggityJoe1@reddit

An alcoholic?
View on Reddit #23294459

elkab0ng@reddit

Pro level: you match projects that are important but have no funding and projects that are political and have funding, and the vig is your gaming GPU budget
View on Reddit #23293971

fun_crush@reddit

Jr admins: “Hey [my name], where having an issue with this web server connecting to the backend when we implement this upgrade can you check your database and make sure it’s working correctly?” Me: “what do the logs say….. Jr admins: (long pause) well.. we haven’t gotten that far yet. Me: “go back… look through the logs and find the errors you’re seeing. Search vendor documentation and see if that helps you resolve the issues. If not send me the logs and highlight what you think is causing the issue and we will go over it together. Jr admin (1hr later): hey thanks we fixed it….
View on Reddit #23293606

spidireen@reddit

Ability to evaluate the situation for themselves and be reasonably sure where the problem is before diving in. As opposed to people who say “ok I know how to do all the things, and I’m just going to start doing all of them.
View on Reddit #23293410

iwoketoanightmare@reddit

A green admin drinks for funzies, a seasoned admin drinks to dull the repetitive bullshit that happens exactly the same way for decades.
View on Reddit #23293262

I_can_pun_anything@reddit

Alcoholism
View on Reddit #23290973

YallaHammer@reddit

Planning.
View on Reddit #23290626

MellerTime@reddit

Alcoholism?
View on Reddit #23287380

Onig58@reddit

Hold my beer...
View on Reddit #23286050

js_408@reddit

Beard
View on Reddit #23284856

tehiota@reddit

First step in any task - open up a terminal window / shell. Some admins adopted the command line. We were born in the command line.
View on Reddit #23284423

PickUpThatLitter@reddit

us vets have the 1000 yard stare in meetings with sales, marketing and HR.
View on Reddit #23280658

lopahcreon@reddit

Noob. Supposed to have the feed me bourbon and steak stare.
View on Reddit #23282780

apothecar@reddit

They take really good notes, and understand not just IT but the entire business operation inside and out. They also have nightmare stories to share. Lastly, time in this industry doesn’t mean as much as what you think it does. Technology evolves so fast, some younger people have surpassed my knowledge set. IT skills are like a snakes skin that sheds over time; Its a continuum of knowledge, and old knowledge serves less for your skillset.
View on Reddit #23282056

wezelboy@reddit

Cirrhosis.
View on Reddit #23281323

ahazuarus@reddit

It's got to be the eyes and how they roll back.
View on Reddit #23281215

STUNTPENlS@reddit

The length of your beard, and the amount of grey (and eventually white) in it.
View on Reddit #23281142

Gravybees@reddit

Caution!
View on Reddit #23280889

Bob_Spud@reddit

Veteran's will sod-off when you ask them stupid questions because you haven't done your own homework.
View on Reddit #23280261

FelisCantabrigiensis@reddit

Strong ability to partition a problem space and chose to work on the part of the problem space where the problem actually is.
View on Reddit #23280138