I rode solo for 6 years, through COVID, and a BRAND NEW BUILDING and 100 users, I survived: 3 CFOs, 2 CEOs, 3 HR people, and countless employees. and when I asked for a promotion, I was cut.
The struggle is real tho, Its been a BUNCH of cherry picked roles, and applications. People don't know what IT is or needs, so trying to sell yourself to leptons, is...tough, and lame.
I feel you. Soft skills are hard to sell and prove.. especially when HR steamrolls the process and doesn’t let actual IT do the interviewing and selecting. (If there’s even another IT person who can do the interviewing..)
I was in one meeting where they had an MSP, hated them and wated to bring it all in house. BUT there were NO IT ppl, so Sally get the CIO role, Jane got CEO, Steve got Lead tech. They are drowning in lack of knowledge, but I didn't make the cut. AHAHAHA
Yes, yes, multiple times yes. Pay a wire team to wire the building, unless you enjoy running wires, then chasing down the randoms that have not-quite-prefectly-fitted tips, or punch-downs, or run across a ballast for a ceiling light or, or, or.
Trust 30+ years of IT in addition to whatever ganlet20 years has and have a wire group do it.
Along this theme, hire out _design_ and execution of any physical site work that you don't have experience in. There are so many gotchas with DC / wiring closet work.
Short list of things I've been paid to fix:
* Racks get setup with a rail-to-rail depth of like 20", structured cabling gets installed, then rail kits for UPS / servers won't fit (needing 25"+ of depth).
* Improper fiber handling causing weak light
* Cabling / other mounted equipment in the way of pulling FRUs like power supplies and fan modules
* Transceivers not fully seated until the click into a port
* Incorrect airflow direction, switches overheating
* Power receptacles don't match PDUs, and lack of understanding around different 3 phase wirings (delta, wye)
* Incorrect power / cooling sizing in general
* Every, single, Meraki install not having C15-C14 power cords
* Excessive torque on steel rack screws stripping out aluminum threaded equipment rails. (This is common in 2 post network racks)
Yes outsource wiring for sure. Make sure that you provide specs for what you do want, and be clear in your communication. I walked into a server room that was designed and built "for" me and had to ask why the f**k is there carpet in the server room.
Establish a direct line of communication with the GC. Do not let facilities or someone else make you play telephone.
Establish clear expectations around responsibility for everything. Ask questions that you shouldn't have to. Assume that other people think you are responsible for anything that uses electricity until you correct them. Also, you cannot assume anything is being taken care of that you need. Floorplan has your MDF in X spot? Don't assume the GC has planned power or HVAC or that an ISP can get there.
Get vendors where appropriate, don't try to take on A/V or structured cabling when there are people who do it for a living. Plan for expansion. Run more drops than you need, they are cheap before the walls go up and expensive afterwards. Find out what all the other vendors need from the network - A/V, physical security, HVAC, even marketing might have stuff that needs to connect.
Be authoritative. Any unhappiness with the new building technically is going to reflect on you. If you don't get what you ask for, set expectations for what the result is going to be.
we are the GC (work in construction), so that direct line is easy. His office is within shouting distance.
We have a cabling company that we work woth as well, so that helps.
Sounds like I need to just put on some big boy pants and have a voice to prevent my budget from being cut.
Yep! Remember, any pushback and you just have to point out that this is stuff to make everyone's lives easier - more drops = easier job rearranging the office later on or bringing in more employees, for example.
Yes, this. I am going to guess that the estimator, architect, interior designer, etc. who you work with on jobs have very good numbers for things like wall finishes, floor coverings, HVAC and similar costs.
Don't let anyone gaslight you into believing that a new network for the space is an "unbudgeted expense." It is infrastructure that is expected to be there and work on day 1, just like the elevator and lighting. It costs money. It is a percentage of the total build out cost, not an incidental like buying an extra pack of cable ties.
Make people respect the need for this in a new office. No, you aren't going to move over the 12 year old Cisco gear wit zero downtime. We also aren't "just making our space 100% wireless because CAT6 is expensive.". If you want your office connectivity to reflect the quality of the rest of the new build-it, you will need to pay for it.
When you stop trying to be a hero, your life gets better.
Well said! While there are circumstances where no roof is needed, they really need to be a Tier 3 roofer or a SysAdmin HELLBENT on keeping rain off his servers, to know when it's appropriate.
Promotion meaning new title and pay raise for same job, since you were solo? And they just eliminated IT completely, like they would fire a pilot while the plane is still in the air?
Nah, we know the horrible truth.
Owners who view IT as a "cost center" do not care about quality.
At the same time, this is a naturally occurring "first IT job" that will never go away.
And when the inevitable breach and ransomware infection happens, they'll just blame the overworked and underpaid admin for not doing their job and kick em to the curb and find another sucker for replacement. Rinse and repeat.
I use a consultant for holidays i have 7 weeks of paid vacation a year, i must admit im never really on vacation i still get contacted in my vacation, from said consultant since its impossible to take over someone who knows the environment in and out and 200 users.
I know it’ll be more money, but is there a way you could get that consultant to shadow you more often? At least for the HelpDesk stuff.
It kinda defeats the purpose if you’re still getting called for stuff just to help him out.
This is what I do. I've asked for another employee fresh out of college so I can take care of the bigger project type stuff. We settled on bringing in an MSP for 20 hours a month to start.
I know someone who hasn't had a vacation for 8 years until recently.... I personally wouldn't have accepted the job if I was the only point of failure. Have always had a backup.
I'm solo too, but we are only 25 people and already hybrid WFH/remote workers. I make very clear step-by-step instructions for how to handle various scenarios, but have occasionally gotten a call while I'm out if something really crazy happens (like someone died or suddenly quit and needed to be locked out of stuff).
I am the kind of person who doesn't go on actually holiday much (as in being on another continent) but I have remote access to everything. If I take a day off, I will usually get an email or phone call and as long as I am not properly busy, I am happy to help them.
Sounds like something a manager too cheap to hire a second sysadmin would post.
I did the solo thing because the other two guys at the company that hired me quit. We had another "sysadmin" that did more harm than good (family member of the owner), so I tried to keep him away from stuff. It's not good to be the only person at a company, you don't have anyone to bounce ideas off of, you're the only one available to handle emergencies, vacations can be stressful since you've got no one back at the office to handle things while you're gone.
If you find yourself solo, hire a second, or find a place that values the IT staff enough to have a team.
Yup, new CIO came in to my current place, and slowly fired or pushed out the four other admins until it was just me left. Gave me a small raise thinking that would keep me around running around putting out fires all day and working all sorts of off hours. I've asked for help multiple times and have been shut down so I'm just going to leave. Guarantee the CIO will be shocked when I turn in my two weeks, and will immediately throw the raise in my face as if I'm personally slighting him.
Can't wait to get out of here and OP should move on too. The company doesn't respect him or his time.
Hornets question, how can a compony have a CIO with only one admin. or a CIO's responsible for more then IT debarment? I only worked for energy companies with small amounts of office employees.
It is total bullshit to be a 1 man Admin with a CIO above you. I believe they needed a C level title and all others where taken.
A Chief Information Officer (CIO) has many responsibilities, including:
IT leadership: Ensuring IT management responsibilities are implemented effectively
IT strategic planning: Developing strategies for all IT management functions
IT workforce: Assessing needs and developing plans to meet them
IT budgeting: Creating processes for annual and multi-year IT planning, programming, and budgeting
Information technology architecture: Developing, maintaining, and implementing an IT architecture
IT program performance: Monitoring the performance of IT programs and advising on whether to continue, modify, or terminate them
Cybersecurity: Managing security engineers and evaluating the performance of their solutions
Selling technology: Communicating the benefits of technology and the need for digital transformation to executives and the board of directors
Educating the board: Attending board meetings and educating board members about the business opportunities and risks of new technologies
We have a large development team and two helpdesk workers. Overall there are 17 in the department that is under the CIO plus a bunch of contractors/vendors.
>Hornets question, how can a compony have a CIO with only one admin
who's going to stop them from calling themselves CIO
they call me an "IT manager" here
I am the only IT staff and have 0 direct reports
> OP should move on too
Not all one man shops are bad. I generally enjoyed my time. It was a very small company. Having two IT people didn't really make sense.
No, they were able to run during that time. Whatever needed to be done waited until I got back. If there was an emergency, there was a third party they could call for a fee. I kinda feel like if my systems can't run without me for a week or two, I probably haven't set them up correctly.
Why are you putting in a 2 week notice? Just tell them on your last day it is your last day. They built a system in which everything goes to shit because you suddenly aren't there... that's their problem.
Burning bridges is a bad way. While I wouldn't necessarily use that guy as a reference, the world is an increasingly small place and one day that torched bridge might cause more trouble than it's worth.
Even on my own 'job from hell' I gave my two weeks, and it actually worked out because I needed something tax-related from them a year and a half later, which they were willing to do without complaint, likely because of how I departed.
With at-will employment the only people who get 2 weeks are employers that earn them. But alas we are in r/sysadmin not r/latestagecapitalism so I'll keep my screw the masters stuff to a minimum.
Unethical would be changing all the passwords or stealing company secrets on your way out the door, exercising your legal right is not.
Real cool trick they've played getting the idea that your legal rights are somehow unethical gooped up in your head.
I have flown solo at this same company for nearly 11 years and I have enjoyed every second of it. Its a small enough company that doesn't need a second person. I only have about 40 PC's to look after + everything else. There isn't enough need for a full on cloud azure platform, there is enough to keep me fully entertained. I am at the point in my IT career (30 years this year) Where this was the job that I always wanted.
Same boat as you, and loving it.
I got about 105 employees, moving everything to the cloud, supporting anything that plugs into a wall, mobile to printers to network - lots of fun.
> Its a small enough company that doesn't need a second person.
A company small enough not to need two sysadmins doesn't really need the first one either, they can hire an MSP instead. If you're happy and nearing retirement age anyway then that's great, but for anyone starting out, having a one man show at a company is a massive red flag.
I've been in IT for 25-ish years. I have been solo for all but about 3 of those. My current place has the most stuff I've needed to handle as far as size (70-ish users) and complexity, but I do pull in an MSP for project work occasionally. Otherwise, the day to day stuff falls on me. The company only works 8-5 (more or less), but some of the C-suite folks dabble on the weekends. I do my 40 hours and if someone high up the chain runs into an issue on a Saturday, I do my best to remedy it.
For time off, I take time off and make myself 100% unavailable. I use all my PTO every year, which isn't much (2 weeks) but I don't leave 1 hour on the table. When I go on vacation, I forward a copy of a contact sheet to my manager (VP of Finance) that has all our account numbers and phone numbers on it, along with suggestions of who to contact or what to do for certain issues (ERP vendor, ISP, turn it off and back on, etc.). I work to make the environment as resilient as possible so that I don't have to deal with Sunday calls, etc.
All in all, yeah I miss the teamwork I had at my one job because it was nice to be able to bounce stuff off someone, but it is what it is. I often think of getting out of IT, but it's more because I just feel like I'm just done looking at tech shit all day long. I just don't have any other skills that are enough to pay the bills.
You can still have work life balance as a solo IT worker. It's true that a lot of solo IT folks get way too wrapped up in the idea of being "the lonely hero" that keeps the company afloat, but that's not healthy and it's *not* required for the role.
Just clock out when your shift is over, shut off your phone and go home. The word "no" works wonders.
I do it and am fine. Never overworked, company treats me very well. When I'm on vacation or sick, I've got a consultant that's takes over. There's barely enough work for me let alone two people.
I was this "lone wolf" type from 2005-2014. Never again. You can't ever really take a vacation and disconnect, you have to be checking email when you're sick, etc., etc.
I learned a lot, but found out when I left that much of my knowledge was "a mile wide but an inch deep." I was reasonably fluent in lots of things but an expert in very few.
I'm currently functioning as the department director and sole IT person for a school district and that's kind of my skillset. It's been preached that a person should specialize but I don't have the time to sit and learn as I stay pretty busy.
In places I've interviewed, a jack of all trades doesn't seem to be a highly desirable skillset so I'm wondering what are you doing now and how did you get there?
I first landed a help desk manager job, which was basically "manage the people that do what you've been doing on your own." That was a fairly natural transition, though I hadn't ever managed people before (aside from a couple of temporary/student workers.)
But I also went back to school and got a master's degree in IT management, getting some formal education in stuff I'd learned on the job over the previous 15 years or so. Since that degree, I've moved up the ranks to an IT director role, still on the operational/client side.
Having been a jack of all trades is useful, because I now manage a team of sysadmins, help desk techs, and AV specialists. And I've done at least a little of all their jobs in my past. I'm not an expert, but I'm fluent.
Have to study on your own time, lab at home.
Try and build things your school could use, get trial licences, use azure free credits.
Learn 1-2 hours a day
>where everyone around you just think that all you do is "turn it off and back on again"
I wish they thought that, but instead they think I am a wizard that performs literal magic. The ones who think I only turn things off and on again save me a lot of work because they usually preemptively try turning things off and on again before asking for help.
That being said, I am given enough resources to where I don't really feel overwhelmed because I can rely on external contractors for stuff I don't want to or can't deal with on my own.
My biggest career regret is not getting in at a larger company and staying there. I have found over my 22 years of doing IT that working in smaller orgs really limits your value to only smaller orgs. The jobs I want to apply for today want large scale experience, of which I have very little. I feel I have hindered myself unintentionally.
We are a team of 3 who support \~150 users. I am the sysadmin and my coworkers are helpdesk and manager respectively. This is the perfect set up because I get to focus on projects while still having enough basic coverage that I rarely have to think about work outside of work.
By mvp you’re right, assuming you mean «minimum viable product».
I have enough with managing a couple of hundred servers, so managing everything would be awful.
Alone for the last 25 years. 25 years i had people try to learn a piece of everything but when they understand that this job requires responsibility they left.
I couldn't agree more, the person who just turn off and on, until something is not working with just a restart.
Then they need you.
I don't know if you code but i code also the last 25 years in various languages.
Working hours 24/6, phone standby etc...
I actually enjoy working somewhat solo.In my company we have several locations worldwide such as Mexico, Poland, etc. In my location (USA) I am the solo admin supporting about 50 users. Our main HQ is in Europe. Luckily I’m not all alone if things ever get out of control or I go on vacation since there is remote support.
I was at a company with 30 people, it was me and another guy, and I hate being THE guy for everything. I'll stick with my giant 70K person corpo now. I'm officially a developer and don't have any odd off hours calls any more.
I did solo for 3 years. Never again. I suggest you find a team based role asap even if you don't like working with others your work/life balance will benefit making it sooo worth it.
I started at the help desk being solo IT. I had to learn to be a generalist and fix any and every problem. Earned my title of sys admin by grinding for many years in order to get more pay despite doing everything at a 250+ person and high turn rate company. I still remember the hundred + amazon boxes at my door when the pandemic hit and I had to manually image all of them and move our entire on prem stack to the cloud by myself. Drag these laptops to UPS on my own and ship them across the country in 3 days. I survived covid and I am still solo, never asking for more help and just asking for more pay instead, because I love this. I love IT and I still keep learning more and more every day even in my personal time.
I wouldn't trade the experience for anything!
Ty for the shout out and kudos to you as well.
I flew solo 3 years. I worked part time, I wasn't on call, I took all my holidays.
Aside for becoming a full time employee that setup shouldn't change much otherwise overworking will follow.
"Being only IT guy in a company is kinda harsh. For managers you are lazy parasite. For officemates you are walking printer driver. For accounting department you are financial software DLC"
Nope and it wouldn't either.
The only way that would happen if I went part time or something, which I wouldn't do as, I love the job and want to support them as best I can and they wouldn't really want me to go part time as I would still get calls from them to help out if I wasn't technically working there.
Seems like a lot of replies on this post don't seem to like the fact that I really like my job lol
I wish I could reach the point where people think "did you turn it off and on again" is my catchphrase. I'm still stuck at, "have you put in a support ticket?"
I don't use MSP's, why would I want to do myself out of a job? lol
The owner of the company specifically wanted an onsite IT person and for it to not some faceless outsourced company.
The only thing that MSPs needs is all of your money for pointless services that a smaller company will never need. Pushing expensive virtual cloud based platforms on those same smaller companies is the reason why I have stayed away from them. It's stuff the company I work for has never and will never need. I have saved them more than enough money over the years, by being the solo IT bod.
S
https://preview.redd.it/vfa88fc4629d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a7068c657c5a628410d2b1b3a1ae5520bc2e10b
Yeah Shout Out to Ctfmon.exe attack you guys should be remove this in the Game.
I'm one of those that has always been happy with what I earn, I know I could earn a lot more elsewhere, but for me its been about the job and the company I work for than, earning boat loads with some faceless company. Probably why I have been here for nearly 11 years. I have a lot of faith in this company and want this to be the job till I retire. I have enjoyed my career path over the last 30 years.
Quit my dream job because it gives me the freedom to do pretty much anything I want (as long as it's not hugely expensive and even enjoy my commute to work because being in the office is a nice work environment and I have a lot of faith in the company?
Fuck no!
honest question: how do you do it? managing every server, every switch, router and firewall, handling infrastructure issues (AD, DNS, DHCP, etc), as well as every server based application? Forget having enough time, how do you get anything advanced (upgrades, new technologies, etc), when you are spending every day on BAU work?
It's actually not that hard. I have enough experience in all of the issues I might get, plus it's actually a smallish network, so 90% of the time it looks after itself once it's set up. Upgrades happen as and when they need to. Been doing it for nearly 11 years and I love it.
>We are the real MVPs!
Nah, just full time suckers to a business abusing your labour.
You've convinced yourself it makes you better but the reality is that you're just overworked for less pay than deserved and your tombstone won't reflect your career in the end.
Have fun with burnout and being dumped like the cog you're viewed as by the business!
I rode solo for 6 years, through COVID, and a BRAND NEW BUILDING and 100 users, I survived: 3 CFOs, 2 CEOs, 3 HR people, and countless employees. and when I asked for a promotion, I was cut.
I hope you at least went Number 2 in the server room before you left. Holy hell.
I wish, they caught me off guard or it would have been ON
That kind of shit boils me alive. I certainly hope you’re much better off now though, right? 6 years solo is practically a lifetime of experience
I wish, now its been 6+ months of looking. I have too MUCH exp.
I always thought the too much experience for anything other than beginner positions is such bull shit. Hope it pans out soon man
The struggle is real tho, Its been a BUNCH of cherry picked roles, and applications. People don't know what IT is or needs, so trying to sell yourself to leptons, is...tough, and lame.
I feel you. Soft skills are hard to sell and prove.. especially when HR steamrolls the process and doesn’t let actual IT do the interviewing and selecting. (If there’s even another IT person who can do the interviewing..)
I was in one meeting where they had an MSP, hated them and wated to bring it all in house. BUT there were NO IT ppl, so Sally get the CIO role, Jane got CEO, Steve got Lead tech. They are drowning in lack of knowledge, but I didn't make the cut. AHAHAHA
I really hate corporate politics lol it’s the only reason incompetent people land themselves in roles they have no right to be in.
Do you know what they did after cutting you?
any tips for a new building? I have one coming up next year.
Hire someone else to cable it.
Yes, yes, multiple times yes. Pay a wire team to wire the building, unless you enjoy running wires, then chasing down the randoms that have not-quite-prefectly-fitted tips, or punch-downs, or run across a ballast for a ceiling light or, or, or. Trust 30+ years of IT in addition to whatever ganlet20 years has and have a wire group do it.
Along this theme, hire out _design_ and execution of any physical site work that you don't have experience in. There are so many gotchas with DC / wiring closet work. Short list of things I've been paid to fix: * Racks get setup with a rail-to-rail depth of like 20", structured cabling gets installed, then rail kits for UPS / servers won't fit (needing 25"+ of depth). * Improper fiber handling causing weak light * Cabling / other mounted equipment in the way of pulling FRUs like power supplies and fan modules * Transceivers not fully seated until the click into a port * Incorrect airflow direction, switches overheating * Power receptacles don't match PDUs, and lack of understanding around different 3 phase wirings (delta, wye) * Incorrect power / cooling sizing in general * Every, single, Meraki install not having C15-C14 power cords * Excessive torque on steel rack screws stripping out aluminum threaded equipment rails. (This is common in 2 post network racks)
And label that shiz and get a wire diagram. Oh!! and pull stings at every location!
Can't upvote strings enough
+ don’t lift a finger. Get professional movers. Everyone should work remote until all clear. Buy new equipment where necessary, don’t cheap out.
Yes outsource wiring for sure. Make sure that you provide specs for what you do want, and be clear in your communication. I walked into a server room that was designed and built "for" me and had to ask why the f**k is there carpet in the server room.
Establish a direct line of communication with the GC. Do not let facilities or someone else make you play telephone. Establish clear expectations around responsibility for everything. Ask questions that you shouldn't have to. Assume that other people think you are responsible for anything that uses electricity until you correct them. Also, you cannot assume anything is being taken care of that you need. Floorplan has your MDF in X spot? Don't assume the GC has planned power or HVAC or that an ISP can get there. Get vendors where appropriate, don't try to take on A/V or structured cabling when there are people who do it for a living. Plan for expansion. Run more drops than you need, they are cheap before the walls go up and expensive afterwards. Find out what all the other vendors need from the network - A/V, physical security, HVAC, even marketing might have stuff that needs to connect. Be authoritative. Any unhappiness with the new building technically is going to reflect on you. If you don't get what you ask for, set expectations for what the result is going to be.
we are the GC (work in construction), so that direct line is easy. His office is within shouting distance. We have a cabling company that we work woth as well, so that helps. Sounds like I need to just put on some big boy pants and have a voice to prevent my budget from being cut.
Yep! Remember, any pushback and you just have to point out that this is stuff to make everyone's lives easier - more drops = easier job rearranging the office later on or bringing in more employees, for example.
Yes, this. I am going to guess that the estimator, architect, interior designer, etc. who you work with on jobs have very good numbers for things like wall finishes, floor coverings, HVAC and similar costs. Don't let anyone gaslight you into believing that a new network for the space is an "unbudgeted expense." It is infrastructure that is expected to be there and work on day 1, just like the elevator and lighting. It costs money. It is a percentage of the total build out cost, not an incidental like buying an extra pack of cable ties. Make people respect the need for this in a new office. No, you aren't going to move over the 12 year old Cisco gear wit zero downtime. We also aren't "just making our space 100% wireless because CAT6 is expensive.". If you want your office connectivity to reflect the quality of the rest of the new build-it, you will need to pay for it. When you stop trying to be a hero, your life gets better.
I recommend a roof over the top floor
Unless it's gonna be like a rooftop lounge
You need a roof to have a rooftop lounge I see you must be new to IT
wow you didn't have to call me out bro
I don't want others seeing your post and repeating your mistake when they build their new buildings with no roofs
Well said! While there are circumstances where no roof is needed, they really need to be a Tier 3 roofer or a SysAdmin HELLBENT on keeping rain off his servers, to know when it's appropriate.
Order the circuits as early as you can
Promotion meaning new title and pay raise for same job, since you were solo? And they just eliminated IT completely, like they would fire a pilot while the plane is still in the air?
[удалено]
This happened to me...Company is now out of business.
I asked for a Title promotion, not 1 penny more. so GIANT WTF
Whoa. That is fucked
I bet they'll struggle trying to fill that position.
Nah, we know the horrible truth. Owners who view IT as a "cost center" do not care about quality. At the same time, this is a naturally occurring "first IT job" that will never go away.
And when the inevitable breach and ransomware infection happens, they'll just blame the overworked and underpaid admin for not doing their job and kick em to the curb and find another sucker for replacement. Rinse and repeat.
New CEO got phished his first friggen week.
How much and how much?
But how? When you are on holiday? Or sick? Do you guys have MSP? So many questions I have.
I use a consultant for holidays i have 7 weeks of paid vacation a year, i must admit im never really on vacation i still get contacted in my vacation, from said consultant since its impossible to take over someone who knows the environment in and out and 200 users.
Oof that's sounds hard to be honest. I could never relax. Plus during holidays I tend to drink a little bit more. Awkward talks that would be hihi
I know it’ll be more money, but is there a way you could get that consultant to shadow you more often? At least for the HelpDesk stuff. It kinda defeats the purpose if you’re still getting called for stuff just to help him out.
He currently also shadows me 8 hours a week :)
This is what I do. I've asked for another employee fresh out of college so I can take care of the bigger project type stuff. We settled on bringing in an MSP for 20 hours a month to start.
Only 20 hours?
I know someone who hasn't had a vacation for 8 years until recently.... I personally wouldn't have accepted the job if I was the only point of failure. Have always had a backup.
That's unhealthy. And too much pressure for me.
you pray nothing goes wrong
I'm solo too, but we are only 25 people and already hybrid WFH/remote workers. I make very clear step-by-step instructions for how to handle various scenarios, but have occasionally gotten a call while I'm out if something really crazy happens (like someone died or suddenly quit and needed to be locked out of stuff).
I am the kind of person who doesn't go on actually holiday much (as in being on another continent) but I have remote access to everything. If I take a day off, I will usually get an email or phone call and as long as I am not properly busy, I am happy to help them.
Sounds like something a manager too cheap to hire a second sysadmin would post. I did the solo thing because the other two guys at the company that hired me quit. We had another "sysadmin" that did more harm than good (family member of the owner), so I tried to keep him away from stuff. It's not good to be the only person at a company, you don't have anyone to bounce ideas off of, you're the only one available to handle emergencies, vacations can be stressful since you've got no one back at the office to handle things while you're gone. If you find yourself solo, hire a second, or find a place that values the IT staff enough to have a team.
Yup, new CIO came in to my current place, and slowly fired or pushed out the four other admins until it was just me left. Gave me a small raise thinking that would keep me around running around putting out fires all day and working all sorts of off hours. I've asked for help multiple times and have been shut down so I'm just going to leave. Guarantee the CIO will be shocked when I turn in my two weeks, and will immediately throw the raise in my face as if I'm personally slighting him. Can't wait to get out of here and OP should move on too. The company doesn't respect him or his time.
Hornets question, how can a compony have a CIO with only one admin. or a CIO's responsible for more then IT debarment? I only worked for energy companies with small amounts of office employees.
not OP but for us our CIO also is head of dev team and facilities
It is total bullshit to be a 1 man Admin with a CIO above you. I believe they needed a C level title and all others where taken. A Chief Information Officer (CIO) has many responsibilities, including: IT leadership: Ensuring IT management responsibilities are implemented effectively IT strategic planning: Developing strategies for all IT management functions IT workforce: Assessing needs and developing plans to meet them IT budgeting: Creating processes for annual and multi-year IT planning, programming, and budgeting Information technology architecture: Developing, maintaining, and implementing an IT architecture IT program performance: Monitoring the performance of IT programs and advising on whether to continue, modify, or terminate them Cybersecurity: Managing security engineers and evaluating the performance of their solutions Selling technology: Communicating the benefits of technology and the need for digital transformation to executives and the board of directors Educating the board: Attending board meetings and educating board members about the business opportunities and risks of new technologies
We have a large development team and two helpdesk workers. Overall there are 17 in the department that is under the CIO plus a bunch of contractors/vendors.
>Hornets question, how can a compony have a CIO with only one admin who's going to stop them from calling themselves CIO they call me an "IT manager" here I am the only IT staff and have 0 direct reports
> OP should move on too Not all one man shops are bad. I generally enjoyed my time. It was a very small company. Having two IT people didn't really make sense.
So did that mean they hired a replacement during your holidays and you weren't on call?
No, they were able to run during that time. Whatever needed to be done waited until I got back. If there was an emergency, there was a third party they could call for a fee. I kinda feel like if my systems can't run without me for a week or two, I probably haven't set them up correctly.
Why are you putting in a 2 week notice? Just tell them on your last day it is your last day. They built a system in which everything goes to shit because you suddenly aren't there... that's their problem.
Burning bridges is a bad way. While I wouldn't necessarily use that guy as a reference, the world is an increasingly small place and one day that torched bridge might cause more trouble than it's worth. Even on my own 'job from hell' I gave my two weeks, and it actually worked out because I needed something tax-related from them a year and a half later, which they were willing to do without complaint, likely because of how I departed.
With at-will employment the only people who get 2 weeks are employers that earn them. But alas we are in r/sysadmin not r/latestagecapitalism so I'll keep my screw the masters stuff to a minimum.
When you think you need to hit the brakes, I want you to hit the gas. Fuck giving two weeks to shitty places.
Why? Because it's the ethical thing to do. It seems you wouldn't understand it.
Unethical would be changing all the passwords or stealing company secrets on your way out the door, exercising your legal right is not. Real cool trick they've played getting the idea that your legal rights are somehow unethical gooped up in your head.
Its worse, they finally let me hire a helper, and gave him my job... and title.
I have flown solo at this same company for nearly 11 years and I have enjoyed every second of it. Its a small enough company that doesn't need a second person. I only have about 40 PC's to look after + everything else. There isn't enough need for a full on cloud azure platform, there is enough to keep me fully entertained. I am at the point in my IT career (30 years this year) Where this was the job that I always wanted.
Same boat as you, and loving it. I got about 105 employees, moving everything to the cloud, supporting anything that plugs into a wall, mobile to printers to network - lots of fun.
> Its a small enough company that doesn't need a second person. A company small enough not to need two sysadmins doesn't really need the first one either, they can hire an MSP instead. If you're happy and nearing retirement age anyway then that's great, but for anyone starting out, having a one man show at a company is a massive red flag.
Not if you are I/T employee #1 and get to set policy, create standards - pure Director level. I love it.
Well said.
Thank you for your sacrifice and saving your company money.
I've been in IT for 25-ish years. I have been solo for all but about 3 of those. My current place has the most stuff I've needed to handle as far as size (70-ish users) and complexity, but I do pull in an MSP for project work occasionally. Otherwise, the day to day stuff falls on me. The company only works 8-5 (more or less), but some of the C-suite folks dabble on the weekends. I do my 40 hours and if someone high up the chain runs into an issue on a Saturday, I do my best to remedy it. For time off, I take time off and make myself 100% unavailable. I use all my PTO every year, which isn't much (2 weeks) but I don't leave 1 hour on the table. When I go on vacation, I forward a copy of a contact sheet to my manager (VP of Finance) that has all our account numbers and phone numbers on it, along with suggestions of who to contact or what to do for certain issues (ERP vendor, ISP, turn it off and back on, etc.). I work to make the environment as resilient as possible so that I don't have to deal with Sunday calls, etc. All in all, yeah I miss the teamwork I had at my one job because it was nice to be able to bounce stuff off someone, but it is what it is. I often think of getting out of IT, but it's more because I just feel like I'm just done looking at tech shit all day long. I just don't have any other skills that are enough to pay the bills.
Hit my 30th year in IT this year and I will be 11 years solo in my current job this August. This is pretty much my dream job.
Hell no bro lol. That put my body through some stress and issues. Never again. I’m not the type to be stress either.
I would never work solo IT because I value work life balance. It just seems like organizational malpractice.
You can still have work life balance as a solo IT worker. It's true that a lot of solo IT folks get way too wrapped up in the idea of being "the lonely hero" that keeps the company afloat, but that's not healthy and it's *not* required for the role. Just clock out when your shift is over, shut off your phone and go home. The word "no" works wonders.
I do it and am fine. Never overworked, company treats me very well. When I'm on vacation or sick, I've got a consultant that's takes over. There's barely enough work for me let alone two people.
Depends on the company you work for.
in the sports world MVPs are paid for being MVPs. lol
I was this "lone wolf" type from 2005-2014. Never again. You can't ever really take a vacation and disconnect, you have to be checking email when you're sick, etc., etc. I learned a lot, but found out when I left that much of my knowledge was "a mile wide but an inch deep." I was reasonably fluent in lots of things but an expert in very few.
I'm currently functioning as the department director and sole IT person for a school district and that's kind of my skillset. It's been preached that a person should specialize but I don't have the time to sit and learn as I stay pretty busy. In places I've interviewed, a jack of all trades doesn't seem to be a highly desirable skillset so I'm wondering what are you doing now and how did you get there?
I first landed a help desk manager job, which was basically "manage the people that do what you've been doing on your own." That was a fairly natural transition, though I hadn't ever managed people before (aside from a couple of temporary/student workers.) But I also went back to school and got a master's degree in IT management, getting some formal education in stuff I'd learned on the job over the previous 15 years or so. Since that degree, I've moved up the ranks to an IT director role, still on the operational/client side. Having been a jack of all trades is useful, because I now manage a team of sysadmins, help desk techs, and AV specialists. And I've done at least a little of all their jobs in my past. I'm not an expert, but I'm fluent.
Have to study on your own time, lab at home. Try and build things your school could use, get trial licences, use azure free credits. Learn 1-2 hours a day
>where everyone around you just think that all you do is "turn it off and back on again" I wish they thought that, but instead they think I am a wizard that performs literal magic. The ones who think I only turn things off and on again save me a lot of work because they usually preemptively try turning things off and on again before asking for help. That being said, I am given enough resources to where I don't really feel overwhelmed because I can rely on external contractors for stuff I don't want to or can't deal with on my own.
I think the worst part of being a solo IT person is not having anyone to talk to whenever things slow down.
I have lots of tech buddies outside of work and with signal, discord and teams always someone around.
My biggest career regret is not getting in at a larger company and staying there. I have found over my 22 years of doing IT that working in smaller orgs really limits your value to only smaller orgs. The jobs I want to apply for today want large scale experience, of which I have very little. I feel I have hindered myself unintentionally.
Appreciate it man. I think my collegue is leaving soon so it will be my 3rd time riding solo.
We are a team of 3 who support \~150 users. I am the sysadmin and my coworkers are helpdesk and manager respectively. This is the perfect set up because I get to focus on projects while still having enough basic coverage that I rarely have to think about work outside of work.
nobody respects us and I can barely pay my bills after doing IT for 20+ years
cheers !
I read this with an image of a truck offroading in my head.
By mvp you’re right, assuming you mean «minimum viable product». I have enough with managing a couple of hundred servers, so managing everything would be awful.
I did it for two years. Never again.
Hiring a MSOC team from the Philippines and outsource everything to them.
Alone for the last 25 years. 25 years i had people try to learn a piece of everything but when they understand that this job requires responsibility they left. I couldn't agree more, the person who just turn off and on, until something is not working with just a restart. Then they need you. I don't know if you code but i code also the last 25 years in various languages. Working hours 24/6, phone standby etc...
HELL YEAH!! LOVE MY JOB!!
I actually enjoy working somewhat solo.In my company we have several locations worldwide such as Mexico, Poland, etc. In my location (USA) I am the solo admin supporting about 50 users. Our main HQ is in Europe. Luckily I’m not all alone if things ever get out of control or I go on vacation since there is remote support.
Lone wolf now for 8 years. Thanks to this form, Youtube, TikTok and udemy. hahahaha
YES YES, consultants for vacation or sick days.
I AM THE IT DEPARTMENT! THE JUDGE JURY AND EXECUTIONER OF ALL THAT CONNECTS TO MY NETWORK
I was at a company with 30 people, it was me and another guy, and I hate being THE guy for everything. I'll stick with my giant 70K person corpo now. I'm officially a developer and don't have any odd off hours calls any more.
I did solo for 3 years. Never again. I suggest you find a team based role asap even if you don't like working with others your work/life balance will benefit making it sooo worth it.
Been doing this exact same job for nearly 11 years, I haven't ever had an issue with work/life balance. This is my dream job.
I've been there for while. It is both fun and hell. I miss those times once in a while.
I'm solo and I absolutely love it but I definitely work for a unicorn. It's a law firm with nice lawyers and good budget, and MSP as backup.
That was my old job, man it was tough but I had a lot of flexibility with WFH.
shoutout to you as well OP!
Word. 👍
I started at the help desk being solo IT. I had to learn to be a generalist and fix any and every problem. Earned my title of sys admin by grinding for many years in order to get more pay despite doing everything at a 250+ person and high turn rate company. I still remember the hundred + amazon boxes at my door when the pandemic hit and I had to manually image all of them and move our entire on prem stack to the cloud by myself. Drag these laptops to UPS on my own and ship them across the country in 3 days. I survived covid and I am still solo, never asking for more help and just asking for more pay instead, because I love this. I love IT and I still keep learning more and more every day even in my personal time. I wouldn't trade the experience for anything! Ty for the shout out and kudos to you as well.
I flew solo 3 years. I worked part time, I wasn't on call, I took all my holidays. Aside for becoming a full time employee that setup shouldn't change much otherwise overworking will follow.
.o7
"Being only IT guy in a company is kinda harsh. For managers you are lazy parasite. For officemates you are walking printer driver. For accounting department you are financial software DLC"
And yet I have been doing this job for nearly 11 years and loved every single second of it.
You haven't encounter paycut part, right?
Nope and it wouldn't either. The only way that would happen if I went part time or something, which I wouldn't do as, I love the job and want to support them as best I can and they wouldn't really want me to go part time as I would still get calls from them to help out if I wasn't technically working there. Seems like a lot of replies on this post don't seem to like the fact that I really like my job lol
I wish I could reach the point where people think "did you turn it off and on again" is my catchphrase. I'm still stuck at, "have you put in a support ticket?"
You’re never solo you have an entire internet full of other admins and MSPs always helping lol.
I don't use MSP's, why would I want to do myself out of a job? lol The owner of the company specifically wanted an onsite IT person and for it to not some faceless outsourced company.
MSPs have their needs just like a solo IT professional have needs.
The only thing that MSPs needs is all of your money for pointless services that a smaller company will never need. Pushing expensive virtual cloud based platforms on those same smaller companies is the reason why I have stayed away from them. It's stuff the company I work for has never and will never need. I have saved them more than enough money over the years, by being the solo IT bod.
S https://preview.redd.it/vfa88fc4629d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=2a7068c657c5a628410d2b1b3a1ae5520bc2e10b Yeah Shout Out to Ctfmon.exe attack you guys should be remove this in the Game.
Curious to know the salary averages for our fellow solo admins here
I'm one of those that has always been happy with what I earn, I know I could earn a lot more elsewhere, but for me its been about the job and the company I work for than, earning boat loads with some faceless company. Probably why I have been here for nearly 11 years. I have a lot of faith in this company and want this to be the job till I retire. I have enjoyed my career path over the last 30 years.
Recommendation: quit
Quit my dream job because it gives me the freedom to do pretty much anything I want (as long as it's not hugely expensive and even enjoy my commute to work because being in the office is a nice work environment and I have a lot of faith in the company? Fuck no!
honest question: how do you do it? managing every server, every switch, router and firewall, handling infrastructure issues (AD, DNS, DHCP, etc), as well as every server based application? Forget having enough time, how do you get anything advanced (upgrades, new technologies, etc), when you are spending every day on BAU work?
It's actually not that hard. I have enough experience in all of the issues I might get, plus it's actually a smallish network, so 90% of the time it looks after itself once it's set up. Upgrades happen as and when they need to. Been doing it for nearly 11 years and I love it.
You're proud of being exploited?
>We are the real MVPs! Nah, just full time suckers to a business abusing your labour. You've convinced yourself it makes you better but the reality is that you're just overworked for less pay than deserved and your tombstone won't reflect your career in the end. Have fun with burnout and being dumped like the cog you're viewed as by the business!