Question: Career guidance for jack of all trades IT admin

jmd82 — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:40:43 -0800

Looking for career guidance. Currently a school's jack of all trades IT administrator. Help me figure out what to do a few years down the road in the IT field.

I'm trying to figure out what I would be good at or where my skills could be utilized in the IT field 1-5 years (leaning towards 3) down the road. Here's some background to understand where I'm coming from and where I might want to go. Kind of long, but want to give enough information to get some help.

Currently, I have no formal IT training besides some CS classes in college (C++/java) and the basic computer-nerd tinkering. Graduated in 2005 with a BS in biochemistry and molecular biology (I'll get to that later), worked a year after graduating as a grocery store lackey trying to find a "career job" and landed here.

Since last summer, I've been the "tech guy" at a two-campus K-12 school with 600 students, 60 staff members, and 100 or so computers.
Specifically, I manage four Windows Server 2003 servers- three at one campus housing the mail (IPswitch), database (Blackbaud), and a file/print server and another linux NAS server. The fourth WS2003 is at our other campus acting as a separate domain controller.
We have Watchguard firewalls at both ends VPNing so both campuses can see each other so I know firewall basics.
I also do troubleshooting, manage the database itself (it's all GUI- no SQL knowledge necessary), do student scheduling, and manage my own budget and purchasing orders.
Generally, I do anything else involving computers as I'm the main tech person. We have mostly Windows (98 & XP) and I know very little about Macs- there's a second guy who works a few hours a week to take care of out existing Macs (G4 OS9s). I don't know any other IT people so everything stops with me and I've had to do a lot of learning on the fly.
While I know a little about a lot, I don't know a lot about a specific area. I'm definitely not specialized, though I realize I probably ought to. I just don't know what in!

I just enrolled in a 2-year IT program at a local college. I'll get an AAS in information systems management, but I'm mainly there to get, at a minimum, A+, Network+, and MCSE certifications the classes are geared for (I know I could study for the certs on my own- ignore that for now).

I currently really enjoy my job. In particular, two things stand out which I want in future
1) I love the interaction with people on a constant basis. I'm a people person. One of the main reasons I veered off the science industry is I found it lacked enough human interaction. I mean hours with nothing but pipetting the same thing daily. Don't get me wrong- I know no job will have constant conversations, but I don't want to sit in front of a computer every day all day. I prefer to problem solve with a team. My bosses rave about me and my ability to get along with everyone. Everyone also thinks I'm IT god, but I'm far from it- nobody here knows enough about technology to know otherwise (both a blessing and a curse).
2) I enjoy the wide variety of things I do here. AD management, mail, database, troubleshooting, scheduling, working with students, etc. I'm not doing the same one or two things every day of my work week.

To summarize, I need human interaction and a variety in job duties.

Why am I going into all this? Because I see myself leaving this town 1-5 years down the road and I know nothing about the IT field outside of my own bubble. It has nothing to do with the job- I love it- but rather the city I live in isn't for me and a few other reasons I'd rather not get into.
Consequently, I'm trying to think down the road what I should be looking for in the IT field and what positions would suit both my skills (at the end of my college program with certs) and what I want out of a job (human interaction, variety, and enough money to live off). I know that most industry jobs are fairly specialized, and I have no idea where to even start looking. I'm basically on my own island out here for IT and have taught myself everything I know with nobody to get IT career guidance from. I could from the college, but they don't help until my last two quarters and I want to be thinking ahead further than that.

I do want to live in a big city and am not overly concerned about money. I'd prefer not to start as a support help desk person and work my way up again, though I also don't expect to be a head IT admin.

So, any ideas, suggestions, tips, etc, about what specific jobs I should be looking into? Resources for getting an idea of what the heck the industry IT field is all about? I'm looking for any help in looking for an IT job down the road.

By: PowerCat

PowerCat — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:10:43 -0800

Getting your MCSE should be enough to get another IT job somewhere else. As for variety, just ask during the interview!

By: selfmedicating

selfmedicating — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 10:23:51 -0800

You will always have a job. My experience in IT is that people skills + tech skills + learn fast is a very marketable combo. It doesn't matter what city you are in. I will say that I worked for a while at a headhunting place that did tech recruiting. I didn't do any of the recruiting myself (I was the network admin), but I know the recruiters relied heavily on searching resumes for key words. So, it's always useful to lard your resume with bullet points. Anything to do with databases - whether it's programming or administratrion - stands out.

By: advicepig

advicepig — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 11:06:50 -0800

You sound pretty employable at this point, so I wouldn't worry so much about the certifications and whatnot. You have a BS and work experience in the field where those certs might be useful. I'd hire a candidate with experience and a unrelated degree before a unexperienced one with a cert.

You may want to look at IT jobs at colleges and universities. You could play your BS into doing some support in the sciences. I did my work study in a similar environment and would easily go back.

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 18:03:30 -0800

Down the road, think about computer security. Less likely to be offshored, increasingly important in a wired world, always cutting edge, and salaries, I am told from those who work in it, are trending upwards.

By: hades

hades — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 00:27:58 -0800

Seconding the advice to look at IT jobs at colleges and universities. Your background sounds like a lot of the departmental IT support folks I know.

By: browolf

browolf — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 16:06:03 -0800

if you know a lot about a lot of things, consultancy is an avenue to explore.sometimes half the battle in situations is knowing whats possible and it admin i find involves a lot of coming up with solutions outside the box. you could probably start off with this in your own spare time. just an idea