Where to go from here? 3

[alex0628]

I'm the one and only in the IT department, which makes me the network, email, telephone, you name it I do it administrator. After 7 years, I've had it with the help desk side of the job. I don't care if the users are out of toner cartridge, or if they can't find the tool bar they dragged off the screen, or helping them with using Windows or office products, etc, etc. What kind of job should I be looking for, or re-train myself for that involves networking and computers, but does not involve desktop support (unless it's network related)?

 

[kHz]

I was a jack-of-all-IT in my first job. It encompassed all of the areas you mention and others. The company's server was an AIX server. I didn't know Unix, but in my almost 5 years there, I learned Unix and enjoyed it much more than Windows. When it was time for me to move on, I decided I would look for a Unix job. Fortunately it was 1999 and I had one job I turned down, and then 2 months later I had 3 offers as an AIX administrator. I accepted a job at my first choice - a Fortune 400 company.

My advice would be to decide what two or three areas you really enjoy and like, and focus on finding a job doing that.

 

[willir]

The nice thing about jack-of-all-trades with a one-person show is that you have a lot of autonomy.

If you are looking for advancement, you may consider moving to a larger company. But with larger companies comes the office politics, steep competition and good breaks and bad breaks.

Of the IT tasks, which do you prefer the most, and which are you best at?? Network Admin, Database Admin, Infrastructure, Design?

Experiment a bit if you can. Take a night course, remote course or a course over the internet course to see if it has merit.

...And take a vacation. Sounds like you would enjoy the time off.

 

[alex0628]

My strong point is troubleshooting. I excel at solving problems whether it's network or desktop related. I like most aspects of my job - except the help desk part, which includes printers, fax machines, cell phones and the internal phone system. And yes, being the one and only in a smaller company does have it's pluses. For example, I get to do the marketing material and the web site since I'm the only one there with a layout and design background. (My college degree is a BA in Art with a journalism minor. That was 20 years ago.)

Somehow I fell into the computer field. At the moment I'm looking at the skills needed to be a webmaster. I don't know. I'm more bored then anything else. I don't have enough interesting things to do. The network runs trouble-free. This year I'll be running the project for implementing a new business system. Maybe that will make things more interesting. And I sure wish that I was paid somewhere near what shows up on salary.com for a network administrator with my experience!

 

[aquias]

Well, I've been in both the big corporation (I don't recall the number of employee's we supported but it was the entire Western Hemisphere and the projects were global) and the "One man show".

It's tough...

In the big corporation Wiilir is correct, if you're not a complete politician, advancing can become more than challenging. Everytime I took two steps forward, I suddenly spent more and more time defending why I took those two steps instead of just moving forward. In addition, the bigger the company the harder it is to advance. Whether or not you've proven yourself your supervisor has to sell others on your abilities and that you deserve to advance.

The pro's? You get to see A LOT more of the current technology than you do in a smaller shop. You'll have a greater access to resouces (namely other people who know more than you do), which can greatly increase how comfortable you are with newer technology.

In a small shop, there's almost no politics. The only type of politicing I currently do is to get the facility to front the cash for improvements to the current technology that we have. I'm in charge of all projects, it has allowed me to get my hands on technology that I couldn't in a larger environment (doing an AD rollout for example).

Con's? You have no safety net. There isn't anyone else to catch if you make a mistake or to help you make deadlines. There aren't many people who will understand what you do, therefore getting support for projects can be a problem (unless you have people around you that you've earned their trust).

Obviously there are greater differences than I've listed here. Personally, I do miss the variety of people from the larger environment and being able to spend money like there's no tomorrow. However, the freedom of the smaller environment is extremely appealing, at least for me. I find the upgrades that I feel are necessary and create the proposal's, learn the technology, and do the implimentation.

 

[onoski]

Judging from your experience I think you might benefit from having a certification like ccna plus ccnp to break into network support administration.