"There are system administrators, and there are System Administrators". Man, this statement has never sound so apt before.

I used to think system administrators are the best in the IT industry. We have to have very good grasp of computing hardware and software fundamentals. We have to know how to work on a variety of operating system platforms. We have to know how to set up and maintain the myriad types of software systems on these platforms. We have to set them up such that we know what happens when something breaks, and we have to fix them as fast as possible. We even have to deal with hardware and licensing issues. And we still have to find time to deal with technical support calls from our users, and be cursed by them when something breaks. What a lot of skills and work for an under-appreciated job!

But now, I seem to find this isn't true any more. In just barely 1 month of working, I have seen so many incidents of inept system administration. From marked inability to do log tracing, to disasterous software deployments which are absolutely unmaintainable and so insecure that multiple trucks can drive through the holes. I have even seen and heard of companies who moved out of Unix/Linux platforms into Windows, simply because they CANNOT find Unix/Linux administrators.

In despair, I went to seek my guru for advice. And he told me, "There are system administrators and there are System Administrators". Apparently, good system administrators are very hard to find. He even congratulated me on being able to see all these problems. Man, my bubble of pride in my profession has really burst.

How can the IT industry grow when there's such a big lack of skills? Where are the good System Administrators?

Sigh....