Re: certification

[pomeranz@netcom.com (Hal Pomeranz)]

I think there's an important subtext here, and it's an issue I've been
interested in for a while.

Stephen is talking about System Administration in a relatively narrow
scope.  Here we have the classic "buy stuff and plug it in" type of
job.  Certainly there's a lot of Sys Admin work in this area and the
"stuff" that you're plugging in can get extremely complicated
(redundant disks, silicon storage, fault-tolerant systems, yada yada
yada).

However, I've always viewed "System Administration" as encompassing
not only the pure system stuff that Stephen does, but also networking
(including routers, terminal servers, switches-- all the CCIE stuff),
security (building firewalls, setting up proxies), systems programming
(writing new tools and complete software systems), systems
integration, software development, and so forth.  A lot of people
disagree with me.  What's the truth?

Speaking only for myself, I've always tried to seek out jobs that had
a component of "new stuff" for me to learn.  That means that in my
time my job title has included "System Admin", "Network Operations",
"Network Engineer", "Software Developer", "Director", etc.  At all
times and in all jobs, I've always identified myself with System
Administration as a career, and I don't _think_ I was deluding myself.
The ability to do lots of different things has made this career choice
interesting to me over the long term.

As an outside perspective, it should be noted that the SAGE Job
Descriptions booklet also includes various skills that our outside of
the strict definition for System Administration that Stephen
advocates.  Look at the description of "Senior"-- there's a lot of
"extras" there including programming, system architecture design, and
the ability to give effective presentations.  I would tend to agree.

Hal Pomeranz, Principal        Deer Run Associates        hal@deer-run.com
      Network Connectivity and Security, Systems Management, Training