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Choose my career: System Administration, or Programmer?

danaj

danaj

Android Enthusiast
I am having trouble deciding what to do with my life. I have gone back to school and I have been having trouble deciding my major. First I wanted to study Anthropology, but then decided it was impractical, as I did want to actually be able to support myself.
I decided to pursue Nursing, which I would be able to support myself with, but I realize that I really don't like dealing with people all that much, or their bodily fluids.
Well now time is running out, I have taken the pre requisite courses for the majority of programs. I have decided that I would like to work in IT. However, I cannot decide between System Administration, or Computer Programming. I figured that many of you here may have experience in these jobs, and could tell me your experiences and opinions. Thanks.
 
Programmer. That skill might change in the future, but it's never going to go away.

Not in games though. As a permie, there's too much work, too much to learn, too little money. There can be successes, but the average is pretty crap when compared to "enterprise" programming.
 
Nope, I am choosing my major. I am good at math. Also, if there is ever a tech problem that my friends or family have they always call me to solve it. Most of the time I fix it with info that anyone can get from a quick google search. So I just want help deciding which way to go in school.
 
i see....

have you done any coding? do you think you could site in front of a screen.. writing code... developing new stuff for software?

or do you prefer to fix ... issues?
 
I have never done any coding. I don't know if I could because I have never done it. I guess that is why I want to know others experiences so I can make a decision.
 
I really can't say since you really don't have any experience in both. Some people even when already working, found the job that is best for them, some opposite of their current job. Lawyer to artist for example.

But I'll vote programmer in this case. You will always have work as a programmer.
 
i agree.. programming is a good career field... but it takes a type of person to code....more $$

networks sys admin... the work is more flexible career.. fixing stuff... as long as you can understand technology.. .
 
Why don't you try out programming? If you don't have fun whilst learning VB.NET (it's all free for students), then you shouldn't go into programming (in my humble opinion ;)). I seriously had tons of fun learning that (I had no experience and I did it just for fun).

I sadly lost everything I had done, the first programs, first games, web browser, etc. :(

Get Visual Studio Express (or professional!) here for free. :)
 
I would say programming. I think you have more choices that way.

I'm a system admin, and although I have worked on several different OS's (Solaris, AIX, Hp-ux, Linux, openvms, svr4, and vmware next year), programmers have more options. Companies always make some form of in house code because it saves money over buying packages.
 
I would try a bit of programming on your own to see if you like it. It's kind of one of those things were you like it or not (obviously, those are the two choices :P).

If you like programming, then I go that way. SysAdmin isn't bad either. If you really can't decide, then you could make a program that will decide for you :P ;)
 
9to5cynic said:
I would try a bit of programming on your own to see if you like it. It's kind of one of those things were you like it or not (obviously, those are the two choices :P).

If you like programming, then I go that way. SysAdmin isn't bad either. If you really can't decide, then you could make a program that will decide for you :P ;)
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Lol.
 
If you want to try programming I would recommend C# as a starting language. It does not have the same potential for raw speed that C++ does and you are locked into Windows but it is a lot easier to get something done fast. There isn't nearly as much as learning curve as C++ and you can get to GUI programming (forms, dialog boxes and such) very quickly (more instant gratification). Try it out and see where it takes you.

My experience (after being on the job about 3 months) has been this...
1) Most of the time you will be modifying someone else's code to either fix it or add new features. You rarely get to write a program from the ground up, which means you need not only good programming skills, but good problem solving skills to figure out just what the hell the other coder(s) were trying to do and why.
2) You'll need the flexibility to multitask and work on several projects at once (with different priority levels).
3) You won't get your choice of software. If the old code base was compiled with Visual Studio 6.0 and your boss insists on it, you'll be using Visual Studio 6.0.
4) Learning and researching will have to be something you enjoy. You'll constantly be learning new toolkits, new systems, new languages. Nobody is going to want to spoon-feed you information, you'll have to figure things out on your own most of the time.

That said, I like my job...good times and bad times though.
 
Both are problem solving fields. The difference is that programmers are most time insulated from the weekly (okay, daily) emergencies of the enterprise. They are specialists for the most part. SysAdmins (of which I am several ... Domain admin, SQL admin, Web Admin, Etc.) are generalists who have to cobble together bits and pieces and make it work. Some days I feel part Rube Goldberg, part Thomas Edison and part Dr. Seuss.

Also Programmers pretty much sit and work on a regular schedule where other areas of IT, especially working with infrastructure, travel around and are at the whim of the fates. Be prepared to get called in on weekends when a server goes down or a switch croaks or some jacka$$ CEO locks himself out of his own account and blames you for the draconian security he made you implement in the first place.
 
lunatic59 said:
Both are problem solving fields. The difference is that programmers are most time insulated from the weekly (okay, daily) emergencies of the enterprise. They are specialists for the most part. SysAdmins (of which I am several ... Domain admin, SQL admin, Web Admin, Etc.) are generalists who have to cobble together bits and pieces and make it work. Some days I feel part Rube Goldberg, part Thomas Edison and part Dr. Seuss.

Also Programmers pretty much sit and work on a regular schedule where other areas of IT, especially working with infrastructure, travel around and are at the whim of the fates. Be prepared to get called in on weekends when a server goes down or a switch croaks or some jacka$$ CEO locks himself out of his own account and blames you for the draconian security he made you implement in the first place.
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Truer words have never been spoken. Bravo!
 
lunatic59 said:
Both are problem solving fields. The difference is that programmers are most time insulated from the weekly (okay, daily) emergencies of the enterprise. They are specialists for the most part. SysAdmins (of which I am several ... Domain admin, SQL admin, Web Admin, Etc.) are generalists who have to cobble together bits and pieces and make it work. Some days I feel part Rube Goldberg, part Thomas Edison and part Dr. Seuss.

Also Programmers pretty much sit and work on a regular schedule where other areas of IT, especially working with infrastructure, travel around and are at the whim of the fates. Be prepared to get called in on weekends when a server goes down or a switch croaks or some jacka$$ CEO locks himself out of his own account and blames you for the draconian security he made you implement in the first place.
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This is gospel truth if it was ever spoken.

If you don't like working with people, then SysAdmin is not what you want to be. The job is probably 70-80% people skills and 20-30% computer skills. I used to work with a guy who as a complete and total hack as a computer tech. His clients loved him, worshipped the ground he walked on and sang his praises at the top of their lungs. He had a job with the company as long as he wanted one.

You also have to deal with a lot of user stupidity. We currently have one client who decided he wanted to encrypt the hard drive on his laptop. Problem is the hard drive has become corrupted and he didn't back up the encryption key. Further complicating the problem is that he is a big wig at one of our clients. To make it even worse our boss is not computer savvy at all and doesn't understand why we need a complex encryption key and why we can't just type in a password and decrypt the entire drive.
 
A.Nonymous said:
This is gospel truth if it was ever spoken.

If you don't like working with people, then SysAdmin is not what you want to be. The job is probably 70-80% people skills and 20-30% computer skills. I used to work with a guy who as a complete and total hack as a computer tech. His clients loved him, worshipped the ground he walked on and sang his praises at the top of their lungs. He had a job with the company as long as he wanted one.

You also have to deal with a lot of user stupidity. We currently have one client who decided he wanted to encrypt the hard drive on his laptop. Problem is the hard drive has become corrupted and he didn't back up the encryption key. Further complicating the problem is that he is a big wig at one of our clients. To make it even worse our boss is not computer savvy at all and doesn't understand why we need a complex encryption key and why we can't just type in a password and decrypt the entire drive.
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I disagree. I rarely speak to our customers, I prefer to communicate via email. Even still, most of my work consists of server builds, upgrades, patches, cloning, expanding/adding file systems, audits, and documentation.
 
pool_shark said:
I disagree. I rarely speak to our customers, I prefer to communicate via email. Even still, most of my work consists of server builds, upgrades, patches, cloning, expanding/adding file systems, audits, and documentation.
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Regardless of how you're communicating, you still have to manage the client just as much as the computer systems. We've got a client currently that would really benefit from an Exchange server. Their hosted solution sucks balls and they offer horrible customer service. They've got several virtual servers going. We gave them pricing for extra ram, hard drives, etc.... that it would take to give them an Exchange server. They came back and said that they wanted an Exchange server, but didn't want to add any extra hardware. We can't get through their heads that they can't get Exchange without adding hardware.
 
A.Nonymous said:
Regardless of how you're communicating, you still have to manage the client just as much as the computer systems. We've got a client currently that would really benefit from an Exchange server. Their hosted solution sucks balls and they offer horrible customer service. They've got several virtual servers going. We gave them pricing for extra ram, hard drives, etc.... that it would take to give them an Exchange server. They came back and said that they wanted an Exchange server, but didn't want to add any extra hardware. We can't get through their heads that they can't get Exchange without adding hardware.
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Option 1: give them a quote to do it right with a new server...

Option 2:give them a quote to do it their way.. on an old server they have...

Option Fix: then give them a quote to redo it after the doing it the wrong way.. which should come out to more than doing it the correct way in the first place. more than option 1 + 2...

explain to them, that your company gave them the options.. and explained the issues..

obviously ..Option Fix would make your company the most profit and labor.
 
I was in it for programming.

It is a love it is a passion and a way of life.

Some people say "you never stop learning it sucks!" But, if you look at the positives of learning.. You stay sharp and it keeps you on your toes. It is a beautiful field.

Oh well.. Maybe one day I'll finish school x.x
 
dan330 said:
Option 1: give them a quote to do it right with a new server...

Option 2:give them a quote to do it their way.. on an old server they have...

Option Fix: then give them a quote to redo it after the doing it the wrong way.. which should come out to more than doing it the correct way in the first place. more than option 1 + 2...

explain to them, that your company gave them the options.. and explained the issues..

obviously ..Option Fix would make your company the most profit and labor.
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In a perfect world where everyone was intelligent and reasonable, perhaps. In the real world ~60% would wake up and realize they need to re-think their postition. That's not saying they would end up doing option 1, it just means they'd understand each option.

~20% Would try and pick items from both proposals a la carte in an effort to bring costs down.

~15% would simply not understand why they couldn't at least try it their way first and then 'upgrade' if it didn't work for only the cost difference between option 1 and 2.

~5% would proceed with option 2 and then become angry with you for it working poorly or not working at all.

It would be great if the bottom 20% or problem companies could simply be dropped, but sales has quotas and once contracts are signed, there are obligations.

This is the kind of things system engineers deal with daily.
 
A.Nonymous said:
Regardless of how you're communicating, you still have to manage the client just as much as the computer systems. We've got a client currently that would really benefit from an Exchange server. Their hosted solution sucks balls and they offer horrible customer service. They've got several virtual servers going. We gave them pricing for extra ram, hard drives, etc.... that it would take to give them an Exchange server. They came back and said that they wanted an Exchange server, but didn't want to add any extra hardware. We can't get through their heads that they can't get Exchange without adding hardware.
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I think you missed my point. My point wasn't that I email more than calling, it was that I do more tech work than deal with customers, whereas you said dealing with customers was the bulk of the work.
 
Currently going for my Associates in computer Science and am about to take my CCNA Final :D

Most employers are looking for Network administrators that also have knowledge in Desktop help. If you have vast knowledge in computers and networking. Its the field to go into! Its way more exciting. Who wants to sit at a computer and look at code for 8 hours a day? Not this guy. I would rather be out in the field.
 
I agree with the others. Give programming a try first before jumping in head-first. You may love it...or, you may hate it.

I know for a fact that I did not want to pursue one of my hobbies as my full time career. Once you get into it full-time, it is hard to distinguish between what you used to love and what you are now just doing for the money. It kills the fun. At least for me.
 
pool_shark said:
I think you missed my point. My point wasn't that I email more than calling, it was that I do more tech work than deal with customers, whereas you said dealing with customers was the bulk of the work.
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I think your job is the exception. Most sysadmins have to deal with the people who actually use their systems. In any event, the job involves a lot of people skills.

dan330 said:
Option 1: give them a quote to do it right with a new server...

Option 2:give them a quote to do it their way.. on an old server they have...

Option Fix: then give them a quote to redo it after the doing it the wrong way.. which should come out to more than doing it the correct way in the first place. more than option 1 + 2...

explain to them, that your company gave them the options.. and explained the issues..

obviously ..Option Fix would make your company the most profit and labor.
Click to expand...

We've given them a quote to do it right. The virtual host simply doesn't have the resources to run another server, much less an Exchange server. It just doesn't. We have to add more hardware to the server. Otherwise, all the servers on that virtual host will woefully underperform and they will be extremely unahppy. **le sigh** The sad part is if we did it their way and it failed (which it would), they would completely blame us. That's how the world works unfortunately.
 
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