In the past the job of a systems admin could be quite good fun, but as with most things modern the job has been deskilled to a certain extent. The problems that we used to have to solve have for the main part been removed in various ways, the classic performance issues have been resolved by faster and cheaper tin. So there often isn’t the need to put your skill set to the test, not that systems aren’t sometimes problematic – they can be. But the problems seem to revolve around the applications more than the traditional system configuration problems, that’s not to say that the job isn’t fun any more it still is! As with most Jobs it’s only partly the work that is enjoyable, the people that you work with also make a great contribution to the enjoyment and job satisfaction. The work that we are doing at the moment is really interesting and the banter around the work is good, there are some people who understand what we’re doing and some people who don’t.
And here is where it gets quite interesting, the people that seem to be able to grasp the concepts are the ones that should be back filling while the others plough on with the project work. But that’s not what’s happening – the exact oposite is happening, the people who will be leaving at the end of the project seem to be the ones who are developing their skill sets. While the people who will stay behind are staying stationary, infact they are not even keeping pace with the new technology that has been introduced. In order to try and redress this balance I have decided that I will have to produce a short internal course to give people a heads up on what this technology can really do, this mainly due to the fact that people just don’t seem to be prepared to research things to learn what can be done using the technology. In order to do this I’ll probably have to put together a small self teach course, possibly using one of the freeware packages on the net, I’m not sure how feasible it will be to do this however I’m going to give it a try. It might even be that it will be, “The fun part of the job!” By the time that this is being read by most of you I will have spent a day with my European colleagues and will probably be esconsed in a pub with them, we’ll sample the delights of the beers of England and will be in training for the beer festival the following night. This is much more fun than talking about security, it will be good to have the chance to return the hospitality that was shown to myself and my colleague from the UK – even if the cheapskate bosses are not happy about paying for a night out!
