So you want to be a System Administrator ? Here is how ...

What is the job profile of a System administrator ? Obviously he is in charge of managing the servers and making them work flawlessly. But is that it ?

Ask a person like James Hicks who has over 10 years experience working as a system administrator and he will tell you there is a lot more to the job than just managing servers.

But lets start from the beginning; what does it take for a fresher to land a job as a system administrator ? First and foremost, you need three things namely, Intelligence, an interest in Computers and last but not the least people skills.

James has written a 3 part series [ Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 ] providing insights into the art of snagging, managing and thriving as a system administrator which is a worthy and informative read. He even gives his personal opinion about the various certifications in the market and their worthiness.

An excerpt from the article :

Good systems administrators in good companies spend the bulk of their time preventing bad things from happening and finding new ways for IT to improve their organization’s efficiency. Bad systems administrators or good ones in bad companies spend the bulk of their time fixing problems that come up - usually the same problems over and over again.