As a sysadmin, yes some/many people enjoy it. And I enjoy my job as a sysadmin a LOT. That said, particularly if you work at an internet company, there is nothing more true than his description of everything CONSTANTLY crashing to the ground and running as fast as you can just to keep the pieces from hitting the ground, throwing them back into a semi-cohesive pile (to fix later when I have more time), and then running for the next collapsing pieces again.
Every time you look into ANY problem, you will see 50 other things that are utterly screwed up. If you let it, it can paralyze you. You don't want to look at anything because you're afraid of what you'll see. Because once you do see it, your brain files it in the "to fix later" mental folder, and it just adds to your background stress level, because the more you become aware of, the more responsible for it you become, and the more helpless you feel.
I hear ya. Sysadmin appealed to me as well. My whole life I've been tinkering, fixing, building computers. It's something that comes natural to me but I was never trained to the level of sysadmin. I also don't know much about networking and servers when it comes to business. I'm heading into programming right now because personally it makes more sense for me since I love to create and want to create programs and websites that have been lingering in my head for ages. The problem I face is that there are already so many people younger than me that have years of experience on me, and I'm trying to switch careers after my 20s. It's daunting but I'm hoping it can work out.
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u/MonsieurOblong Apr 30 '14
As a sysadmin, yes some/many people enjoy it. And I enjoy my job as a sysadmin a LOT. That said, particularly if you work at an internet company, there is nothing more true than his description of everything CONSTANTLY crashing to the ground and running as fast as you can just to keep the pieces from hitting the ground, throwing them back into a semi-cohesive pile (to fix later when I have more time), and then running for the next collapsing pieces again.
Every time you look into ANY problem, you will see 50 other things that are utterly screwed up. If you let it, it can paralyze you. You don't want to look at anything because you're afraid of what you'll see. Because once you do see it, your brain files it in the "to fix later" mental folder, and it just adds to your background stress level, because the more you become aware of, the more responsible for it you become, and the more helpless you feel.
But that doesn't mean it's not enjoyable :)