🥇Profession: system administrator

Often from the older generation we hear the magic words about "the only entry in the work book." Indeed, I had to come across absolutely amazing stories: a locksmith - a locksmith of the highest rank - a shop foreman - a shift supervisor - a chief engineer - a plant director. This cannot but impress our generation, which changes jobs once, twice, and what's there - sometimes five or more. We have the opportunity not just to change the company, you can change the profession and quickly get used to it. This is especially noticeable in the IT sector, where there are very bizarre career transfers and cardinal shifts up and down the career ladder.

Observing this process, we realized that the directory of professions is in demand not only by schoolchildren choosing a university, but also by adults choosing a path. Therefore, we decided to talk about the main specialties that are in demand in the IT field. We start with the one closest to us - the system administrator.

It's like that

Who is this?

A system administrator is a specialist who configures, improves, and maintains a company's IT infrastructure, including hardware, peripherals, software, and network connections. True, a very formal definition?

What a system administrator does depends on the size of the company, the field of activity, the experience and skills of the administrator himself. Instead of giving a definition, it is better to single out specific types of system administrators.

Enikey is a novice system administrator who performs basic functions for setting up hardware and software. Usually an assistant to a senior system administrator or an admin in a small non-IT company who closes current incidents.
A system administrator (aka true admin) is a generalist who is responsible for the stable and trouble-free operation of the IT infrastructure, monitors, takes inventory, is responsible for user security, deals with networks, etc. This is a multi-armed and multi-headed god of the IT infrastructure, who takes on the responsibility of ensuring the entire IT life of the company. Found in almost every company.
A systems architect-engineer is a specialist who designs IT infrastructure and network architecture in large corporations.
A network administrator is a specialist who is engaged in setting up and developing physical and logical networks in a company, as well as managing billing, accounting and traffic control systems. Demanded in data centers, telecoms, banks, corporations.
An information security engineer is a specialist who ensures the security of an IT infrastructure at all levels. It is in demand in companies that are sensitive to attacks and penetration into the network (and this is fintech, banks, industry, etc.).

Accordingly, having decided to become a system administrator, it is better to immediately plan in which direction you will develop, because you cannot feed your family and make a career in the position of enikei.

Where is needed?

I would say that everywhere, but it would be a lie. For some reason, the leaders of small and medium-sized non-yatish businesses believe that everything can be “crammed” into the cloud, and the system administrator can only be an incoming enikey. Therefore, companies often suffer greatly from a lame IT infrastructure (more precisely, an IT mess), but they do not hire a system administrator. If you manage to get into such a company, then in 99% of cases you need to consider working in a company as an experience and move on, and only in 1% of cases you manage to convince the boss, become indispensable and build an ideal IT environment with a verified architecture and competent management (here I describe directly from a real example!).

But in companies where IT is a key area of activity (hosting, developers, etc.) or closes the operational work (deliveries, online stores, banks, retail, etc.), the system administrator immediately becomes a sought-after specialist who can develop in one or more directions. As automation continues to take over companies, finding entry-level and mid-level sysadmin jobs will not be difficult. And when you become a pumped specialist, companies will fight for you, because there are a lot of Enikes, but there are very few professionals, as elsewhere.

At the time of writing the article on the service "Habr Career" 67 vacanciesrelated to system administration. And you can just see that the spread of “specialization” is large: from a technical support employee to an information security and DevOps specialist. By the way, working in technical support at the start very quickly, efficiently and deeply pumps a number of skills that are valuable for a system administrator.

average salary

Let's look at wages again. "Habr Career".

Let's take the average salary without highlighting skills for "System Administrator" and for "DevOps" according to the data for the 2nd half of 2019. These are the most popular specialties in the "Administration" section, and the most revealing. Let's compare.

Specialist level

System Administrator

DevOps

trainee (intern)

25 900 rub.

no interns

junior (junior)

32 560 rub.

69 130 rub.

middle (middle)

58 822 rub.

112 756 rub.

senior (senior)

82 710 rub.

146 445 rub.

leading (lead)

86 507 rub.

197 561 rub.

The figures, of course, are given taking into account Moscow, in the regions the situation is more modest, but, characteristically, the proportions are approximately the same. And it seems to me that such a difference is fair, because DevOps are really more advanced in terms of skills (if we are talking about canonical devops, and not about those that have the same name).

The only thing that I would not like to recommend is to take devops juns after high school. Theoreticians, who have not known either dev or ops, look very mediocre at the start, develop poorly due to a lack of understanding of where to go and are definitely not worth the designated money. Still, narrow specializations should have more experienced admins who have gone through fire, water, copper pipes, bash and PowerShell scripts.

Basic requirements for a professional

The requirements for a system administrator differ from company to company (someone needs to own 1C, 1C-Bitrix, Kubernetes, a certain DBMS, etc.), but there are a few basic requirements that are most likely to be needed in any company.

Knowledge and understanding of the OSI network model, basic protocols.
Administration of the Windows and/or Unix operating system, including group policies, security management, user creation, remote access, command line work, and more.
Scripting bash, PowerShell, which allows you to automate and optimize routine system administration tasks.
Repair and maintenance of PC, server hardware and peripherals.
Working with the configuration and routing of computer networks.
Work with mail servers and telephony servers.
Installation of office programs and applications.
Network and infrastructure monitoring.

This is the foundation that needs to be mastered at a good, confident level. And it's not as easy as it seems: behind each item there are a lot of chips, secrets of craftsmanship, necessary software tools, instructions and manuals. In a good way, work with self-education with full employment in the main job for at least a year.

Learn to understand this joke.

Important personal qualities

A system administrator is a specialist who cannot be isolated in a company and professional environment. He constantly has to communicate with people on the phone and in person, so introverted traits will have to be overcome. The sysadmin must be:

stress-resistant - to cope with inappropriate user behavior, a huge amount of work and communication with management;
multitasking - as a rule, IT infrastructure management involves active work with various tools, simultaneous solution of several tasks, analysis of several incidents at once;
those who know how to manage time - only strict planning will save you from fakups, disrupted work and deadlines for tasks;
communicating - able to listen, analyze and understand what users want to say (sometimes it is very, very difficult);
technically minded - alas, without the ability to think engineering, systemically and algorithmically, there is nothing to do in system administration.

The need for knowledge of foreign languages

If a company imposes language requirements and they apply to specialists, then the system administrator must comply with these rules (for example, the company provides outsourcing services for foreign companies). But in general, a system administrator should understand basic commands and system messages in English - for most, this is enough.

However, if you want to grow in your career, receive international certificates, including Cisco, be the first to understand advanced technologies, you will need English at least Upper Intermediate. I highly recommend making this investment in professional development, this is not some fantastic level, it is quite possible to master it even without language abilities.

Where to study

The profession of a system administrator is interesting in that there are no specific training requirements to enter the specialty, since a system administrator as such is not taught at a special faculty. Initially, everything depends on you - on how ready you are to independently master the theory and practice, work with operating systems (Windows and Unix), peripherals, and security. In fact, your computer should become your training laboratory (or even better if you have a separate machine for such tasks so that the process does not interfere with your main work and study).

To say that a system administrator is a profession without training and a lot of self-taught people is simply criminal in our time, because we see the level of well-paid system administrators. So there is a basic "classic" set that you will need.

A basic education, preferably a technical one, will give you an understanding of the basics of algorithmic thinking, engineering, electronics, etc. It will greatly facilitate the understanding of the specialty and accelerate its development. In addition, do not forget that for most Russian employers, a diploma is still an important document when applying for a job.
One or more Cisco certifications will significantly improve your skills and make your resume competitive. For example, the Cisco Certified Entry Network Technician (CCENT) is a first-level Cisco Networking Technician or the Cisco Certified Network Associate (CCNA) Routing and Switching is one of the basic entry-level certifications. You will encounter Cisco in almost any company, especially a large one. Either way, this professional certification is essentially the gold standard for networking. In the future, you can “get” the other levels, but, I’ll tell you a secret, already at the expense of the employer 😉
Depending on your job profile, you can earn relevant certifications in operating systems, security, networks, and more. These are papers that are really in demand by the employer, and from my own experience I’ll say that while preparing for exams, you pump in the subject to the fullest. If you do not study on your own, but limit yourself only to the course, it is almost impossible to pass the exam.
There is another way of education - comprehensive courses for Windows and Unix system administrators. Of course, a lot depends on the teacher and the underlying organization conducting the course, but the quality of the course can be 100% disappointing. Meanwhile, with a successful combination of circumstances, such a course systematizes knowledge very well, puts it on the shelves. If you still decide to get such an additional education, choose not a university, but a corporate university, where lectures and practice are delivered by real, acting professionals, and not theorists from the 90s.

A system administrator is a specialty that requires constant training in new technologies, security tools, IT infrastructure management systems, etc. Without continuous immersion in new materials, you will quickly lose your qualifications and market value.

You will not be able to get around the basics and become a cool professional - without knowing the architecture of a PC, server, understanding the principles of operation of application and service software, operating systems, nothing will work. Therefore, for system administrators, the thesis “start from the beginning” is more relevant than ever.

Best Books and Learning Tools

The classic is Andrew Tanenbaum: "Computer Architecture", "Computer Networks", "Modern Operating Systems". These are three thick books, which, nevertheless, have gone through several editions, are well read and perceived. Moreover, for some system administrators, the love of work begins with these books.
T. Limoncelli, K. Hogan "The Practice of System and Network Administration" in - an amazing "brain-ruling" book for systematizing the knowledge of a ready-made system administrator. In general, Limoncelli has a lot of good books for system administrators.
R. Pike, B. Kernigan “Unix. Software Environment", and other books by Kerningan
Noah Gift "Python in UNIX and Linux System Administration" is a great book for admin automation fans.

In addition to books, vendor manuals, built-in help for operating systems and applications, instructions and regulations will come in handy - as a rule, it is easy to find all the information you need in them. And yes, often they are in English and very bad in Russian localization.

And, of course, Habr and specialized forums are a great help for system administrators of any level. When I had to learn the science of Windows Server 2012, Habr was a great help - then we got to know each other even closer.

The future of the sysadmin

I have heard about the degradation of the system administrator profession and the arguments in favor of this thesis are more than weak: robots will cope, clouds guarantee work without a system administrator, etc. The question of who administers the clouds, for example, on the provider's side, remains open. In fact, the profession of a system administrator is not degrading, but is being transformed towards complication and universality. Therefore, if you have chosen it, several paths open before you.

DevOps or DevSecOps is a specialization at the intersection of development, administration and security. At the moment, attention to DevOps is only growing and this trend will continue, developing towards containerization, loaded applications and systems, microservice architecture, etc. Study all this while it looks like the highest priority for the future.
Information security is another direction of development. If earlier information security devices were only in telecoms and banks, today they are needed in almost any IT company. The sphere is not easy, it will require knowledge in development, hacking and protection systems - this is much deeper than installing an antivirus and setting up a firewall. And, by the way, there are separate specialties for infobez at universities, so if you are at the beginning of your journey, you can immediately enter the profile, and if you are an “old man”, then you can consider a master’s program to deepen your knowledge and have a diploma.
CTO, CIO - senior positions in the IT field or IT departments of companies. An excellent path for those who, in addition to systemic thinking and a love of technology, have managerial and financial abilities. You will manage the entire IT infrastructure, carry out complex implementations, build business architectures, and this, of course, pays very well. However, as practice shows, CTO / CIO in a large company is also the ability to negotiate, explain, justify and break through budgets, these are enormous nerves and responsibility.
Start your own bissnes. For example, to do system administration and support for companies as an outsourcer. Then you will be able to build your schedule, plan profitability and employment, and provide those services that are especially cool for you. But this is not an easy path, both in terms of recruiting and retaining a client base, and in terms of management, finances and law.

Of course, you can go into telecom, and into development, and into sales managers of technically complex products (by the way, an expensive option!), And into marketing - it all depends on your personal inclinations and understanding of specialization. And you can remain a cool system administrator and do all those listed in terms of wages and skills. But for this, your desire and your experience and understanding by the management of your company of the importance of IT infrastructure must converge (and this is already a really big rarity).

Profession myths

Like any profession, systems administration is surrounded by myths. I will gladly dispel the most common ones.

Sysadmins are a working profession. No, this is an intelligent, complex job with multitasking and workloads, because in today's world, IT infrastructure means too much in any company.
Sysadmins are evil. No, ordinary - according to the nature of the owner of the profession. But they are really annoyed by users who cannot describe the problem, or, what's good, consider themselves almost hackers and, before calling for help, exacerbate the problem utterly.

Not evil, but dangerous!
Sysadmins don't need education. If you don’t want to “repair stoves” all your life and do basic things like installing antivirus and other programs, you need to study constantly, both on your own and at professional certified courses. Higher education will help speed up the process of self-learning and perception of complex technical information.
Sysadmins are slackers. Oh, this is my favorite myth! A good sysadmin works with IT infrastructure management software and keeps the whole system in order. It takes a huge amount of time, often requires overtime work, but outwardly yes, it seems that the system administrator just sits at the PC, like the rest of us. In the opinion of the layman, this is a mess: the admin must turn around with wires and rush about with a crimper and a stripper at the ready. Stupidity, in short. Although no one is sinless, you will immediately feel the lazy system administrator in your own skin.
Sysadmins are untidy, they walk around in stretched sweaters and with a beard. The appearance of a system administrator is not dictated by any standards and depends solely on his personal preferences.

But in general, there is a share of a joke in every joke, and in general, system administrators are colorful, interesting guys, with a peculiar manner of communication. You can always find a common language with them.

General advice

There are no miracles and you will not become a super system administrator if you sit in a small office and do basic work. You will certainly burn out, be disappointed in the profession and claim that this is the worst job in the world. Therefore - develop, change jobs, do not avoid interesting and difficult tasks - and you yourself will not notice how you will become a real sought-after and highly paid professional.

PS: in the comments, as always, we are waiting for advice from experienced system administrators and stories about what helped you in your career, how you came to this job, what you like about it and what you don’t. How is it, system administration in 2020?

Source: habr.com

Profession: system administrator