Plight of experienced Sysadmins/skilled IT staff - New years food for thought.
By experienced I mean a Systems administrator with over 5 years, in the corporate employment sector, aged 28 years and above. I noticed that those working for medium-sized companies that at some point do not continue to offer as much challenge as their larger-sized counterparts, continue to work until the time they either get a promotion(if they already haven't) or slowly get pushed to the corner as younger equally skilled professionals take over, and eventually get laid off(when the 40 age bracket nears). In a country with: - Very few Linux Kernel developers (who find it more rewarding to migrate to the US or Taiwan) - Limited/Already filled CIO / IT Director employment positions - Virtually non-existent Government research lab - subject to confirmation - Virtually non-existent regional high performance computing grids - subject to confirmation but with: - Numerous employers willing to exploit this vulnerable bunch - Numerous "listeners" itching to make a quick buck from ideas they overhear - Realistic but unnecessary academic or certification requirements non of which are pegged on the Systems administrator's prior experience. - A flooded market of Technical consultants - Underdeveloped Information Technology infrastructure - compared ofcourse to SA or Egypt - Not enough angel investors to support capital for potential small IT consulting businesses - Human capital specialists quick to label - 'This one will ask for alot of money' ..... I could go on and on What is the plight of experienced and skilled Sysadmins or IT staff that TIME considers 'deadbeat' where employment or self-employment is concerned?
Someone once told me, its not possible to have 30 years experience in the IT industry. Whereas you may be a TDM or Frame Relay guru, unless you can mix that up with MPLS or some sort of VPN technology, you are not doing yourself any favours. I figure it must be the same with a sysadmin...gotta keep current. Relational versus non relational databases, 16bit versus 64/128 bit OS's etc. My two cents, Is it possible to be deadbeat in IT? I think yes. We live in the information age, learn, learn, learn is the mantra. On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 1:59 PM, Patrick Kariuki <patrick.kariuki@gmail.com>wrote:
By experienced I mean a Systems administrator with over 5 years, in the corporate employment sector, aged 28 years and above. I noticed that those working for medium-sized companies that at some point do not continue to offer as much challenge as their larger-sized counterparts, continue to work until the time they either get a promotion(if they already haven't) or slowly get pushed to the corner as younger equally skilled professionals take over, and eventually get laid off(when the 40 age bracket nears).
In a country with: - Very few Linux Kernel developers (who find it more rewarding to migrate to the US or Taiwan) - Limited/Already filled CIO / IT Director employment positions - Virtually non-existent Government research lab - subject to confirmation - Virtually non-existent regional high performance computing grids - subject to confirmation
but with: - Numerous employers willing to exploit this vulnerable bunch - Numerous "listeners" itching to make a quick buck from ideas they overhear - Realistic but unnecessary academic or certification requirements non of which are pegged on the Systems administrator's prior experience. - A flooded market of Technical consultants - Underdeveloped Information Technology infrastructure - compared ofcourse to SA or Egypt - Not enough angel investors to support capital for potential small IT consulting businesses - Human capital specialists quick to label - 'This one will ask for alot of money' ..... I could go on and on
What is the plight of experienced and skilled Sysadmins or IT staff that TIME considers 'deadbeat' where employment or self-employment is concerned? _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
I guess you're right Mr. John Doe five pings..... Check this out http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article.cfm?articleid=2644---a good read On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 9:40 PM, John Doe <fivepings@gmail.com> wrote:
Someone once told me, its not possible to have 30 years experience in the IT industry. Whereas you may be a TDM or Frame Relay guru, unless you can mix that up with MPLS or some sort of VPN technology, you are not doing yourself any favours.
I figure it must be the same with a sysadmin...gotta keep current. Relational versus non relational databases, 16bit versus 64/128 bit OS's etc.
My two cents, Is it possible to be deadbeat in IT? I think yes. We live in the information age, learn, learn, learn is the mantra.
On Thu, Dec 30, 2010 at 1:59 PM, Patrick Kariuki < patrick.kariuki@gmail.com> wrote:
By experienced I mean a Systems administrator with over 5 years, in the corporate employment sector, aged 28 years and above. I noticed that those working for medium-sized companies that at some point do not continue to offer as much challenge as their larger-sized counterparts, continue to work until the time they either get a promotion(if they already haven't) or slowly get pushed to the corner as younger equally skilled professionals take over, and eventually get laid off(when the 40 age bracket nears).
In a country with: - Very few Linux Kernel developers (who find it more rewarding to migrate to the US or Taiwan) - Limited/Already filled CIO / IT Director employment positions - Virtually non-existent Government research lab - subject to confirmation - Virtually non-existent regional high performance computing grids - subject to confirmation
but with: - Numerous employers willing to exploit this vulnerable bunch - Numerous "listeners" itching to make a quick buck from ideas they overhear - Realistic but unnecessary academic or certification requirements non of which are pegged on the Systems administrator's prior experience. - A flooded market of Technical consultants - Underdeveloped Information Technology infrastructure - compared ofcourse to SA or Egypt - Not enough angel investors to support capital for potential small IT consulting businesses - Human capital specialists quick to label - 'This one will ask for alot of money' ..... I could go on and on
What is the plight of experienced and skilled Sysadmins or IT staff that TIME considers 'deadbeat' where employment or self-employment is concerned? _______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
_______________________________________________ Skunkworks mailing list Skunkworks@lists.my.co.ke http://lists.my.co.ke/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/skunkworks ------------ Skunkworks Rules http://my.co.ke/phpbb/viewtopic.php?f=24&t=94 ------------ Other services @ http://my.co.ke
participants (2)
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John Doe -
Patrick Kariuki