When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator
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@scottalanmiller Have you ever considered that because you're actually good, that you have only worked at good places for quite some time?
Would it not make sense that because you are good, the only places that recognize your value are the ones that are also good enough to offer you what you're worth? It would be a bit of a mark on you for taking stupid jobs, or good roles from stupid employers would it not? I would say that yeah, it's far more likely that you have persistently worked for employers who are exceptions to the rules if you are exceptional. That makes sense if you think about it, because dumb enterprises aren't going to recognize talent, nor value it nearly as much as smart/good ones.
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@tirendir said in When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator:
It's just capitalism on display.
Not really. Capitalism suggests and is based around that wanting to succeed in profit making will drive decisions. SMBs actually display something very, very different.
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@scottalanmiller said in When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator:
@tirendir said in When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator:
@scottalanmiller Getting a good MSP, and getting a good MSP that can provide services as required by the organization for a price that they can, or are willing to pay are very different things though.
Willing to pay is the piece. All this means is that the SMB is dumb. Nothing more. It doesn't mean that the MSP isn't cheaper or better. Or that internal IT makes sense. You've just make "SMBs make bad decisions and screw themselves" the available reason, and I agree. For all intents and purposes, every SMB that doesn't use an MSP does so because they aren't willing to do what is right for their business because business results are not what are driving their decisions.
I agree 100%. An MSP can always come in cheaper than internal staff. But many SMBs simple burn money to flaunt that they can waste it. It's fun for them. It's hubris. Owners of SMBs commonly show off how much money they can waste, it's a thing. And not just in IT. In all kinds of ways.
I remember working as a sole IT person for a 250 person company. This company was going through layoffs and the owners (two brothers) constantly flaunted their money around even during the layoffs. In fact the owner bought a new private jet, and a some dumbass human size robot with facetime built into it. This was back in 2010 so it was pretty damn expensive at the time (a few grand).
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@scottalanmiller At the same time, your explanation fails to accommodate the fact that the MSPs are making the exact same dumb decisions, so how are they better just because they're bigger and making the same stupid decisions?
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@tirendir said in When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator:
@scottalanmiller Have you ever considered that because you're actually good, that you have only worked at good places for quite some time?
People say this a lot and I admit it has some merit. BUT... you have to consider that I've worked at something like 80 companies over something like 30 years in nearly every field you can imagine. And that's worked AT 80, not FOR 80. I've worked for hundreds or thousands because I consult a lot.
And for a very long time, I wasn't good. I was low paid, entry level and all over the map. I've had good jobs and bad ones. I've been good at my job and bad at my job.
If we had just a few recent examples, I'd buy that maybe I've created a bubble of finding good jobs. And I'll admit that my practices around job finding are, I think, extremely good which is why I teach them so much. Although, of course, when I teach people how to find a great job I get told "well yeah, that works for you" as if it won't apply to others and that, again, I'm a unique case.
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@irj said in When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator:
In fact the owner bought a new private jet... This was back in 2010 so it was pretty damn expensive.
Thankfully they are cheaper now
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@scottalanmiller You have a lot of confidence, that means something (a very important something imo). You're good at what you do, you like doing it, and you seem to like constantly progressing up the ladder(s) of your choice because it sounds to me like you see no real impediment to doing so. I really do highly respect that.
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@tirendir said in When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator:
Would it not make sense that because you are good, the only places that recognize your value are the ones that are also good enough to offer you what you're worth? It would be a bit of a mark on you for taking stupid jobs, or good roles from stupid employers would it not? I would say that yeah, it's far more likely that you have persistently worked for employers who are exceptions to the rules if you are exceptional. That makes sense if you think about it, because dumb enterprises aren't going to recognize talent, nor value it nearly as much as smart/good ones.
It's hard to argue with flattery. But the reality is, I work with insane numbers of incompetent SMBs. So SMBs are bringing me in, one way or another, in very different situations. So I see tons of problems there. And I've seen enterprises with some pretty extreme problems. But not around these kinds of things.
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I loved IBM, and boy could they dance (and that's where that term comes from ... Can Elephants Dance?) but boy were they loaded with issues.
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@scottalanmiller TBH, what you do probably doesn't and won't work for most people. They aren't you, or like you in many ways. That doesn't mean your advice is bad, it just means that for those that won't, they refuse to adapt that way. For those who can't, they simply cannot operate that way. Not everybody is the same, nor possesses the same capabilities, it's just life.
For me, I don't want more money. I don't really care tbh. Sure I'm worth more than I'm paid, and I tell my employer that regularly. I also tell them why I haven't left, which is why I have so little stress and such a good work environment. I could look around and find a better one in all likelihood, but I like where I'm at as far as physical location, and I've yet to see any great indication that there are any other such places in my area, so for now I'm staying put.
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@tirendir said in When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator:
@scottalanmiller TBH, what you do probably doesn't and won't work for most people.
I don't believe this to be true, partially because I know people who follow them and they work when it isn't me, and partially because nothing about them is centered around me, and partially because I've not always been this person and they worked for me long ago.
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@scottalanmiller I'm big on intangibles, for instance, that my wife HATES moving lol. Both of us moved a lot growing up (my dad worked/works for NASA rather high up now), so I lived in about six different states, and moved around within a few of those states a few times much like Military do. My wife lived in about 5 states growing up. Both of us want to settle somewhere for a good while, so I'm really just not interested in the typical org-hopping required to climb the IT ladders most places. It's not that I can't, I just don't want to.
You might not believe that what you do won't work for most people, but I'm talking in pretty broad and general terms. For those that are exceptional, sure it will work, because they too are exceptional. Part and partial to the whole genie gig, if you'll allow for my stealing a movie line from Aladdin ^.^. We've already agreed that most people aren't great IT, so naturally most people aren't going to be in positions where they actually have or deserve the levels of acumen or clout to do what you do. Most people in general aren't that bright, as a general rule. Doesn't mean they're dumb, it just means they're not really capable of doing some of what you do. I for instance lack the drive to do what you do to be frank.
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@tirendir said in When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator:
You might not believe that what you do won't work for most people, but I'm talking in pretty broad and general terms. For those that are exceptional, sure it will work, because they too are exceptional.
Here is one of those interesting statistical things about this kind of employment / career thing, though. Only exceptional people will ever take the time to sit down and find someone in the industry to get advice and ask about it. That I'm having the conversation with someone has already eliminated the majority of the "chaff" of the field. That alone doesn't make someone elite, but it does make them the exception, and a very rare one, as a starting point.
It's like the college video I did yesterday that isn't posted yet - I point out that while people often talk about college numbers as industry wide things, hundreds of thousands or millions of students, that such a tiny percentage of people take my advice or are in a position to, that even if ever single one did it, it's not a market-skewing number and the "niche" effect of it would still apply. Only a small percentage are applicable, only a fraction of them follow the ideas. Put that together, any for all intents and purposes, anyone actually listening has an extremely high chance of it working for them.
Would it work for most people. Maybe, maybe not. Will it work for most that know that I said it? Yup.
It's the same effect you mention with jobs but in reverse. You say only good companies take the effort to find and hire people like me? Okay, but only good IT people take the time to seek out people like me for career advice. I'm not tooting my horn, I'm tooting theirs. Taking effort to get good career advice is a rare thing. Those that do it, are likely to be the ones that advice based around being driven, high performance, career minded, pushing the envelope will work for.
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Although I have to say, my advice has often been used by random people I meet in life before they start their careers and have no idea who I am (or knew me before I had any real job and was bussing tables to pay the bills) and it pretty much always worked for them, too.
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@scottalanmiller Perhaps I should have been more specific in saying that I was referring to IT folks taking your career advice. I mean, those that ask for it and apply it should have at least some level of success, but I doubt many will have the same level as you have FWIW. I'm not even necessarily trying to flatter, but if you're great at something, it's no less rude to fail to acknowledge and talk about it as it is to fail to acknowledge and talk about how someone is failing and can do better when it's recognized imo.
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@scottalanmiller Perhaps I could ask you this question: Because I am an SMB IT Admin, what might you suggest I do in our current configuration to maximize bang for the buck? Or would you rather a new thread be started to deal with that?
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@scottalanmiller said in When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator:
@irj said in When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator:
In fact the owner bought a new private jet... This was back in 2010 so it was pretty damn expensive.
Thankfully they are cheaper now
lol. I was referring to the robot. I believe it was like $6k-$8k. He constantly made it patrol the halls of the business and people used to despise it as no one get increases and people were getting laid off.
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We've had this discussion before @scottalanmiller. You're fighting common usage, and you're not going to win. In SMB hiring a Systems Administrator is someone who is the equivalent of what you call an IT Admin. The problem is that common usage dictates that a SysAdmin > IT Admin (assuming the latter is even on the radar). So for an SMB job seeker to not use SysAdmin, because that is appropriate for the job being hired for even if it is not 100% technically accurate, is to automatically penalize themselves in that specific market.
I'm not sure which windmills you're trying to take down, but in the SMB market you're not going to make headway. These discussions devolve, and the only thing that happens is that job seekers like @wirestyle22 end up confused and discouraged. You're not wrong in the most accurate sense, but I don't know that you're helping.
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@tirendir said in When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator:
@scottalanmiller Perhaps I should have been more specific in saying that I was referring to IT folks taking your career advice. I mean, those that ask for it and apply it should have at least some level of success, but I doubt many will have the same level as you have FWIW. I'm not even necessarily trying to flatter, but if you're great at something, it's no less rude to fail to acknowledge and talk about it as it is to fail to acknowledge and talk about how someone is failing and can do better when it's recognized imo.
I agree, however you also have to accept that if the question is "how do I become successful" you can't start saying "don't listen to successful people because they are the exception, not the rule." It doesn't work that way. that doesn't mean that you can just copy what everyone that is successful does, you can't be ultra rich just by copying Bill Gates. But there are patterns to success and a common thing I've seen in IT is people intentionally avoiding recommendations and paths of success because they see people who have already been successful as not applicable.
It's like asking how to take a journey from NY to LA and ignoring any advice from the people who have already arrived in LA because "they are already there and don't relate to where I am", ignoring the fact that they just came from there and no one else has the ability to provide that insight.
