Tech Ping
11. You can’t fix everything with sudo
#su - root #cd / #rm -rf *Your problems are over!
IT is a bit of a thankless job. The money can be OK (you’re generally not going to get rich — Bill Gates didn’t get rich because he was really good at IT. He made business deals.) But age discrimination is a huge problem, outsourcing and H1Bs are a huge problem, and IT is the whipping boy for most organizations. People only pay attention to you when things go badly. So pretty much 100% of the time, when people think of you, it is unkindly.
It’s all true. When I was interviewed for my last job I was asked the cringeworthy “Do you consider yourself a people person?” I told my new boss later that if I’d told the truth it would have been, “No! I’m a sysadmin! I hate my users and I want them all to die!!” “I know,” he sez, “that’s why you got the job.”
“It has never failed to be true on every new gig or job I’ve ever taken. I’ve never figured out what the people before me did at the same job I now have. They didn’t patch. They didn’t maintain the hardware. They didn’t remove old users. They never upgraded anything. And they documented nothing.”
Stick around long enough, and you’ll burn out and become one of them.
Apparently, I knew enough and was patient enough that I eventually became something of a backup sysadmin for some tasks. There were times when the sysadmins were unavailable to enter our classified compartment (and networks were isolated to the compartment), so a few basic root tasks I was allowed to perform. For something a bit more complicated, they were able to talk me through it.
Yes, I had the root password for about 12 years as a user, but not once did I screw up any of the UNIX systems.
My favorite.
You can’t convince management to update the servers and infrastructure even though they’re past their forecast and budgeted usability window.
But then they want to buy bleeding edge toys/gadgets, bring them into the office outside of the normal procurement/testing process and are then ticked off when you can’t get them to integrate into the antique (in IT terms) systems you’re forced to keep supporting.
.
This isn’t just Linux admin, this is really any job in IT.
The real job is being on the other end of the phone from Jazmit Slamalamadingdong in Mumbai on his cheap cell phone (in speakerphone mode) explaining how to solve the problem by formatting the hard drive then rebooting. In other words, you’re on your own, jack.
I fail to see how this is a Linux Sysadmin list!
Anyone who works with and has responsibility for any systems (most especially high availability systems) has exactly the same issues.
It is a standard list...all of them.
Unix is evil. Good parent processes always kill off their children before they die so their children don’t become zombies.
11. All IT staff lie to the users.
I think that most of those ten points apply no matter which OS you are using.
#2 is very true.
Wife and I on the plane, after it landed the stewardess stopped me at the door telling me pilot advised her my company (another airline) had radioed the pilot and requested I call as soon as we landed. Computer problem at the HQ.
Honest to God real.
the key to being a successful sysadmin is always acting annoyed. that way, no one bothers you, and then you can go back to playing xtrek with your other sysadmin buddies on the net.
Hah! Spot on. I love it.
If you’ve never heard of the Bastard Operator from Hell you should look it up.
#6 we still have programs in use that were originally written in 1988. Now that’s a legacy!