Changing career paths...

[930addict]

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[84porsche]

Originally posted by 930addict
So...the question I pose to my wise pelican brothers: Would future employers look at this - a decrease in pay and an about face - negatively?

I certainly don't think so. You are adding to your portfolio of capable tasks but I do question why the sudden switch. Can you find another job that employs both of your skills without the drastic pay-cut. I just feel that you have worked hard to bring yourself to a current position and I would think you could learn the extra knowledge and new field in your "spare time" and go to school in the evenings rather than sacrifice salary especially if you are in relatively the same field.

If you were switching to say sanitation engineer that would be a different story.

[930addict]

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[RPKESQ]

Hey the direction change is no problem, but the pay cut is bad news. It often takes many years to make that up. Consider that aspect very carefully.

[HardDrive]

How can you be an SMS admin and not have any hands on experience? Is it just being used for patch managment?

[Vipergrün]

Working with Linux/UNIX/Networking, in other words, non-windows, is the TRUE Enterprise environment. Throw in some SAN/NAS experience and you can pretty much write your own ticket. It may take you a while to catch up in pay, depending on what you are at now, but you will be much more marketable. I'd suggest taking a couple of Red Hat courses and getting the RHCE cert. No matter how bad folks hate Red Hat, or prefer other Linux distros, it is pretty much the defacto standard. You can run RHL on a cheapo computer for practice. Get a cheap Cisco router and switch off ebay and start dorking with that as well and get a couple of systems talking on your LAN at home. I say do it. I sure would not want to be a Windoze admin with Vista finally arrives...

I'll also add that I will almost always hire a Jr. person with a good personality and positive attitude over a whizkid who would rather sit in a closet. Tech skills can be acquired, personalities and common sense cannot....at least when we're this old.

[RPKESQ]

I agree with bb80sc. Good post, good advice.

[930addict]

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[mikester]

Do you think you have a shot at the Jr position?

I AM that dedicated network engineer you talk about but I maintain a subset of skills in the linux environment so that if need be I COULD change to a Linux sys admin role. It's always made me more valuable. My suggestion would be to lay low in your current job and start hanging out with the network engineers. Networks are much easier that systems because they are typically simpler (at least they used to be). But these days with load balancing, content switching, redundancy and all the things "required" to operate and maintain status it's not as easy or "best effort" as the internet used to be.

In that three months you have off maybe consider studying up on what a "Network" is. I'm sure you have quite a bit of the pieces of what it is but you'd be surprised at how many Sysadmins know ip addresses and cables but don't really understand networks. My suggestion is to get a CCNA book and start reading. The more you already know the more you'll understand it, the more you don't the better you will after reading it. It's a win/win situation. A Sysadmin with network know-how is valuable, a Network engineer with System know how is 10 times more valuable in my eyes. I can't tell you how many times I have been able to say "it isn't the network; because it *IS* this." OR even been able to say "It *IS* the network....dammit."

Stay where you are making the salary and hang out with the network engineers.

[930addict]

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[930addict]

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[VINMAN]

Originally posted by 84porsche

If you were switching to say sanitation engineer that would be a different story.

You laugh, but "sanitation engineers"(garbagemen) here in NYC probably make more than most network engineers!