Careers in System Administration

Specialties and Career Advancement Paths

Because system administration is so broad, room exists for specialization. Examples of where you can specialize are security, data encryption, networks, heterogeneous integration, specific operating systems or platforms (Sun, NT, or Linux), specific subsystems (file sharing, mail, or naming systems), specific applications (supercomputing), and (more recently) web-server administration. Web-server administrators specialize in the operational issues specific to web servers, usually in the area of performance, security, reliability, and redundancy.

System administration is often thought of as a job in the trenches. However, good system administrators, through experience, hone unique problem solving skills, people skills, organizational skills, and a keen sense of the big picture and potential implications of change. These skills are invaluable for someone interested in a management track that can lead up the chain all the way to corporate information technology director and even chief technical officer.

Because system administrators seem to enjoy the challenge of actually fixing problems, career advancement often tends to stay on a more technical track. System administrators have plenty of responsibility for the operational integrity of the systems they administer, so the lure of responsibility for staff or budgets is less appealing. Advancement technically can be toward:

• Consulting, which often provides the ability to select work or truly focus on a specialty.

• Back-line, away from the "front-line" of interruptions to the more challenging problems.

• Specialties, focused and more detailed work, more available in larger organizations.

Large organizations may provide pre-defined advancement from the front-line of basic user support or "help-desk" through multiple levels of system administration toward the back-line of elite troubleshooters. Some companies even have a "special forces" team of system administrators to swoop in and fix really tough problems.

Market Areas and Industries

Every organization that has computing systems needs someone to perform system administration tasks. While every such site may have that need, solving it does not always involve hiring a full-time system administrator. When the load of system administration tasks is low, they are usually delegated to an existing staff person whose primary responsibility is something else. Interestingly, this is often the genesis of a system administrator. That person finds they enjoy the system administration tasks more than his other work.

The affect of this on the market for system administrators is that you can find a job in system administration in any industry in any market sector. Small, growing, and changing organizations feed the free-lance consulting and contract system administrator markets. Other organizations feed the consulting and contract pools with experienced system administrators who are looking for a change. In short, system administrators work for everything from churches and hospitals to multinational and Fortune 500 companies.

Market Demands and Trends

Some people have long predicted that the need for system administration would die out like dinosaurs as computers and applications become more automated and sophisticated and solve their own problems. The opposite is actually the case. As computers and applications have become more sophisticated, they've created different problems from those they may have solved. For example, ubiquitous computer networks have solved many problems in transport of information and resource sharing. However, for each problem solved, networking has introduced at least a dozen in the areas of security and data integrity. As problems crop up, system administrators have to figure out what to do about them to allow users to continue the "real" work.

There has never been a market glut of systems administrators. In fact, there are probably five jobs available for every existing sysadmin today. In fact, most experienced system administrators find they are doing the work of five people. Demand has out-paced supply for at least the last six years.

Of course, this is mostly subjective information. There are at least two problems with clearly quantifying trends in the system administrator job market. The first problem is that most system administrators have a job title that has nothing to do with system administration -- a member of technical staff, systems programmer, systems analyst, and so on. According to studies conducted by the Systems Administrators' Guild (SAGE; http://www .usenix.org/sage/ jobs/salary_survey/index.html), fewer than half of all system administrators are given title recognition for it. The second problem is that market analysts don't usually track system administrator as a unique job title because of the first problem. Any surveys of system administrators are based on self-identification, not job title.

Salaries and Salary Trends

As you would expect with increasing demand and shortage of qualified applicants, salaries for system administrators are attractive and competitive. According to SAGE studies, the average salary for all system administrators -- regardless of experience, industry, or geography -- was approximately $62,000 in 1998. System administrators with 1-2 years of experience on average earned $47,000 while those with 10 or more years of experience earned more than $70,000. About five percent of all sysadmins earned over $100,000 in 1998. As with most jobs, salaries are higher in the commercial sector than they are in education, government, and other organizations. Salaries are also higher in parts of the country where there is more demand and higher costs of living, such as California and New England.

Salary increases for system administrators tend to be larger than those in other jobs, usually to keep someone from leaving for greener pastures. The increase in average salary from 1997 to 1998 was 6 percent. Salary disparities between men and women are significantly less in system administration than other fields. In fact, the 1998 survey referenced here indicates women made about 15 percent more than men. However, that could be attributed to more men coming into the field than women. System administration tends to attract more women than other technical and computing fields. Sixteen percent of system administrators are women.

Consulting and Contracting Versus Direct Employment

Because of the large demand for system administrators, there is also a large market for "on-demand" system administrators through contract employment or consulting. Some system administrators prefer consulting or contracting because it provides greater variety and flexibility.

System administrators who are independent consultants tend to be specialists and make significantly more money than those who work for a firm and are contracted out. (For more information, see the SANS Salary Survey, http://www.sans .org/newlook/publications/1998salarysurvey.htm). As with most other computing contract employment, those who work for contract firms tend to make slightly more money than those who are directly employed. In this respect, system administration is similar to other technical fields. The only difference may be that due to significant demands for system administrators, making a go of it as an independent may be more readily lucrative than in other fields. There are plenty of opportunities regardless of which employment structure is most attractive.

Job Requirements

Becoming a system administrator is relatively straightforward. Anyone curious to explore a challenge while possessing a reasonably solid background in computing fundamentals may find themselves drafted anyway. Due to demand, organizations are also more likely to consider offering entry-level positions with training than in other computing fields.

Gaining a background in computing fundamentals is pretty easy. A degree in computer science isn't required, just a basic understanding of how computers, operating systems, and applications work and interact, logic, binary numbers, a little electronics, and some common sense. The most important traits of a new system administrator are the abilities to find and digest information, solve problems, develop creative strategies, and recognize and work within one's own limits. System administrators who have formal education and a degree tend to be preferred and sometimes required for jobs. However, that's not necessarily because the education is particularly relevant to the job, it's more because it is evidence of follow through and perseverance. Many practicing system administrators hold degrees in technical fields other than computer science, such as physics.

System administrators solve problems daily. The problems change every day and there is no step-by-step guide for solving them. So a system administrator has to be able to think on his/her feet, learn about the aspects of the problem, find the cause, find a fix, and then implement one that actually works within the constraints of the situation. Sysadmins are usually working on production systems, because it is expensive to duplicate a system purely for the system administrator's benefit. Consequently, it is imperative that a system administrator knows when he/she is in over his/her head -- and how not to create more problems. Other than that, it's all about experience and system-specific -- UNIX, NT, applications -- training.

Training and Education

There is no widely accepted formal curriculum for system administration. Unfortunately you can't go to the local university and sign up for a degree program in system administration.

Still, there are plenty of education and training opportunities for system administrators, including commercial education programs, university continuing education, vendor-specific courses, conference and seminar tutorials, and self-education through books. Commercial technical training companies, such as Technology Exchange Company (http://www.technologyexchange.com/) and Global Knowledge Network (http://www.globalknowledge .com/), also provide system-administration courses. Major platform vendors (Sun, Microsoft, Novell, and the like) provide system-administration training as well.

Nonetheless, universities are starting to develop system-administration curricula. The University of Indiana, for instance, offers an independent study program in system administration called "UNIX System Administration Independent Learning" (USAIL; http://www.uwsg.indiana.edu/usail/). The System Administrators' Guild (SAGE; http://www.usenix.org/sage/) provides publications, conferences, and tutorial programs on system administration. The number of books on system administration increases all the time. There are currently about 75 books in print on various aspects of system administration. Two books stand out as required reading for UNIX system administrators: UNIX System Administration Handbook, by Nemeth, Hein, Snyder, and Seabass (http://www .admin.com/) and Essential System Administration, by Frisch (http://www.ora .com/catalog/esa2/).

Furthermore, there are certification programs for system administration. Most existing certification programs are vendor specific; such as Solaris and/or NT administration, for instance. The Linux Professional Institute (http://www.lpi .org/) is developing certification for Linux professionals, who are essentially system administrators. SAGE is conducting an occupational analysis of system administration to begin the process of the only platform-independent system administration certification program.

Conclusion

The profession of system administration and programs for system administrators are growing all the time. In part, to meet this demand, SAGE is currently conducting a pilot program in mentoring and plans to have an established mentoring program next year. Furthermore, companies such as Sun are creating new multifaceted programs to spawn and encourage new system administrators. Why? because system administration is a career that is in high demand -- with no let up in sight.

DDJ