IT Generalist and System Admin Titles for the SMB
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@Carnival-Boy said:
A lot of these problems would be solved if only the world started excepting "IT Generalist" as a valid job title.
Quoting the other thread to bring over the content post fork.
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@Jason said:
@scottalanmiller said:
Easy test: have you ever seen one of your servers in person? Good chance you aren't a full time SA
True we have people for that they rack them and replace HW. I have seen mine but it's rare. Same thing for the Datacenter UPS and HVAC we have people for that.
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@Dashrender said:
In the SMB environment most hiring managers don't know the difference between IT Generalist and IT Admin. I'd be willing to bet the assumption would be
IT Generalist = someone who can support desktops
IT Admin = someone who can support serversIn the enterprise, sure they might, would probably know the difference, but SMB? you really think they do?
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@Dashrender said:
In the enterprise, sure they might, would probably know the difference, but SMB? you really think they do?
In a good SMB, absolutely. One that takes IT seriously would have to. How can you take anything seriously and not even know the job you are trying to hire?
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
In the enterprise, sure they might, would probably know the difference, but SMB? you really think they do?
In a good SMB, absolutely. One that takes IT seriously would have to. How can you take anything seriously and not even know the job you are trying to hire?
Can you take most SMBs (government included) seriously at all? My experience was no.
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I have so little job hunting experience that have no idea how many Good/Great SMB employers there are that truly understand the value of IT to their business and value it as they should.
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@Dashrender said:
IT Generalist = someone who can support desktops
IT Admin = someone who can support serversNo, that's incorrect.
IT Generalist: Someone who supports "everything." The IT Jack of All Trades. The Archmage of IT. Sure desktops would be assumed, but servers too without question as well as networking, security, application support, hypervisors and other functions. Don't confuse a generalist with a desktop tech. SMBs do sometimes hire dedicated desktop support specialists because SMBs can have enough users and/or desktops to support that specialist role. Helpdesk as well. But not system admin. Generalists are what most SMBs hire, at least one of. Someone who can do "everything needed in the environment." Called LAN Admins in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
IT Admin: Not a real term.
System Admin: Someone who supports systems (not servers.) Systems refers to the OS. So a system admin would support Windows, RHEL, CentOS, Suse, Ubuntu, OpenVMS or similar. One or more operating system platforms. Not servers as a term, that implies the physical server or even the virtualization platform. A system admin would not generally touch either of these.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
IT Generalist = someone who can support desktops
IT Admin = someone who can support serversNo, that's incorrect.
IT Generalist: Someone who supports "everything." The IT Jack of All Trades. The Archmage of IT. Sure desktops would be assumed, but servers too without question as well as networking, security, application support, hypervisors and other functions. Don't confuse a generalist with a desktop tech. SMBs do sometimes hire dedicated desktop support specialists because SMBs can have enough users and/or desktops to support that specialist role. Helpdesk as well. But not system admin. Generalists are what most SMBs hire, at least one of. Someone who can do "everything needed in the environment." Called LAN Admins in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
IT Admin: Not a real term.
System Admin: Someone who supports systems (not servers.) Systems refers to the OS. So a system admin would support Windows, RHEL, CentOS, Suse, Ubuntu, OpenVMS or similar. One or more operating system platforms. Not servers as a term, that implies the physical server or even the virtualization platform. A system admin would not generally touch either of these.
you quoted me out of context!
Of course I've come to accept those terms as you've defined them for us here and at SW, but I was specifically referring to what SMB hiring managers probably think when they see those terms.
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The one role that is common (but not TOO common) to mix with system admin is virtualization platform admin and/or cloud admin. I've never seen a company larger than 1,000 people mix these two together, but I know that it happens sometimes. But because of standard focus and separation of duty concerns, these two generally remain independent.
Typically a system admin would be supported either higher or lower in the "stack" by roles like server tech (sometimes called a datacenter tech) and platform engineer (virtualization) on the "lower" side and application specialists (Exchange, Hadoop, whatever) and database admins on the higher side.
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@scottalanmiller said:
The one role that is common (but not TOO common) to mix with system admin is virtualization platform admin.
We didn't used to but a while back the CIO decided to merge it. We are considering the virtulization a comity item now. Storage is still separate.
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@scottalanmiller said:
side and application specialists (Exchange, Hadoop, whatever) and database admins on the higher side.
I'd love to clean house our exchange team though. Ours goes down for for 10min or so at least once a month.
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@Dashrender said:
Of course I've come to accept those terms as you've defined them for us here and at SW, but I was specifically referring to what SMB hiring managers probably think when they see those terms.
I see, I don't feel that any non-IT person uses "IT Admin." I've never once heard that used by a business doing hiring. Are you really seeing that places?
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@Jason said:
@scottalanmiller said:
The one role that is common (but not TOO common) to mix with system admin is virtualization platform admin.
We didn't used to but a while back the CIO decided to merge it. We are considering the virtulization a comity item now. Storage is still separate.
With more and more businesses dropping VMware and being able to have UNIX Admins handle the cloud because it runs on KVM or Xen it makes more and more sense. With VMware the cloud platform was completely unique, with Xen it is more an extension of the tasks already being done.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Of course I've come to accept those terms as you've defined them for us here and at SW, but I was specifically referring to what SMB hiring managers probably think when they see those terms.
I see, I don't feel that any non-IT person uses "IT Admin." I've never once heard that used by a business doing hiring. Are you really seeing that places?
I know of one person at a very small company with IT administrator title. He's basically a desktop support technician. but does their networking to (even in the manufactoring side) with Linksys routers and switches from staples.
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@Jason said:
I know of one person at a very small company with IT administrator title. He's basically a desktop support technician. but does their networking to (even in the manufactoring side) with Linksys routers and switches from staples.
I would definitely assume something like that if I heard a non-standard, clearly meaningless title. It would imply that the hiring manager had zero clue and didn't care at all and that the person that they hired didn't care, didn't know or lacked the clout to get a valid title. Because a title like IT Admin will certainly hold you back looking for other jobs for just those reasons.
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This topic came up at our recent SpiceCorps event in Auburn.
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@scottalanmiller said in IT Generalist and System Admin Titles for the SMB:
This topic came up at our recent SpiceCorps event in Auburn.
You mean someone specifically brought this exact ML topic up, or the topic in general.
How did the conversation go?
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@DustinB3403 said in IT Generalist and System Admin Titles for the SMB:
@scottalanmiller said in IT Generalist and System Admin Titles for the SMB:
This topic came up at our recent SpiceCorps event in Auburn.
You mean someone specifically brought this exact ML topic up, or the topic in general.
How did the conversation go?
LOL, I think it was YOU who brought it up
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I don't recall bringing this up.... maybe though.
We'll have to check with @Minion-Queen I think she has the entire event recorded.
