Do you focus on a few specific technologies or are you the goto person for everything under the sun?
I was discussing this with a few people yesterday
How being a jack of all trades could potentially hurt your career when you try to move on to another company…
Any input?
jack of all trades here. I handle everything from Exchange, AD, server setups, hardware issues, software issues, desktop support, all group policies and lockdown of desktops, vpn tunnels, remote access, citrix, phones, printers, “how do I make a signature for my emails”. All of it.
There are times where I would like to concentrate on just one thing but I think that would get boring after awhile.
im a mile wide. a 10 miles deep in some topics and less in others. but im not in IT :snky:
i’ve seen larger companies put employees in specific roles, which is a good and bad thing… allows for specific accountability and potential ability to replace them quickly.
However, I’ve seen companies that have one person admin’ing a server and they’re responsible for the firewall for that server too.
If i were IT, I would focus on security. get your cissp. then dwell in other specializations like firewalls/routers/server mgt.
edit:
it also matters where you work… if your a consultant, you could be expected to be a mile wide and a mile deep in every topic… which is why consultants get paid what they do… but i can see that in a small company too… they need someone to be the go to person for all IT needs… its a never ending cycle… learn as much as you can. don’t stretch yourself too thin… know enough to be able to talk to someone thats an expert in that field and make sure you specialize in something specific… for you, it would be hacking :tinfoilhat:
I went on a couple interviews and they go “So what did you do at your last job”
this then turns into a 45 min conversation about everything and then they automatically assume you can’t be good at all that :lol:
Thats the plan 
Everything.
Focus on wiping shit off of the VPs and MDs
The company I work for is a bunch of older ATT/Avaya people who know phones and just phones. We have about 100 people between sales, engineers, customer service, and support. Currently there is about 5 guys in Syracuse who is our tech resouce who have MCSE certs and Avaya who we go to for our primary business issues with phone systems since we are a platinum partner with Avaya.
Recently, we picked up a Elite partner status with Juniper and Microsoft and Aruba so we have a few of us younger guys who came from the data networking side into that and help push the company forward beyond traditional PBX setup and now full blown networked phone systems, IP trunking, SIP, and even SSL VPN and other networking hardware such as firewalls, IDP, and wireless.
I dont see how having too many skills would be bad unless you just read a book, take a test, and then move on and don’t actually learn anything. I have two juniper certs and going after 2 more next month along with an Avaya one. Everyone has specifics they are good at and have more experience with but the more you know, the more adaptable you are and the more flexibility you have in your career moves.
Certs are good tho. I have had two interviews, one in Las Vegas and one in Niagara Falls that would not look at anyone without 2 years of working experience and at least a CCNA or equivalent. Their reasoning was that everyone says they know “networking” or “IT” but these certs are a way to prove you at least know the basics.
I am a sys admin for a large system of servers which runs an Electronic Medical Records system. It is a client/server package. I manage the servers and the software client/server software running on the servers. The software runs on a mixture of RHEL 4 servers and AIX servers. Also houses multiple Oracle DBs.
That means I get Linux, Unix, Oracle experience. I also use a lot of other tools to help me monitor things. I use a lot of other technology which I am an Admin for. However, I dont touch other areas like networks, email servers, SANs, and things like that. So this is far from a “Jack of all trades” job.
I did outsourcing for 6 years, so I know a lot about a lot.
Now, I am a system administrator for a government organization. I do not handle the switches, but I am glad I know a lot about them. I control the servers, AD for my branch offices, and all of the workstation support. I am in charge of everything that can and will go wrong, as does any admin.
I am glad I did the jack-of-all work for years, as now I am a capable admin. If I just learned servers forever, or just workstation helpdesk, I’d have severely limited my chances of ever being a senior admin.
I think the best option is to keep learning. Stay strong with what you work with, and be knowledgeable about stuff you don’t. At least that way you are trainable.
Ya. Esp as you get older, you lost the ability to pick up stuff so quick. You just gotta keep reading and staying on top of modern technologies. IPv6 is one that is gonna shake the IT world. A lot of the higher level engineers are gonna see it more but its something to start learning becuase its not as simple as IPv4.
Every industry has its own new technology coming out so again, keep on it.
Lets see…
So far today…I worked on a Juniper, HP Blades, Xenserver, Windows 2003, Citrx Presentation server, Redhat boxes, HP switches, Proprietary Firewall, Nortel switches… :lol:
It was a lot easier in DC when my main focus was Mac Servers/XSan…
Oh well at least this company is paying for a CCNA class, Certified penetration testing expert and some others before the 1st of the year…Hopefully I can bang out a bunch of certs over the next year and shift my focus to just security.
I wanna be a certified penetration testing expert. I’d be more than happy to test penetration.
Incoming penetration or outgoing? Internal or external?
:lol:
My boss missed the joke…
I was like after this class can I get certified penetration testing expert on my business card?
He was like sure np just let me know…as I walk away laughing…
So much fun to be had at the bar…No see baby it says right here… :lol:
IT guys…what do you do for any mobility solutions?
Go to for everything 
customer ----> my consultant — if dumbass —> Me (I fix it here or refer it to where it needs to go cause my consultant was a moron)
I hate stupid people
focused, doc imaging, but this requires broad knowledge as well
however my specific doc image app knowledge ups my pay a lot, i can make 20-30k above a standard break fix job because i have that exp…
either way none of this matters, my sales skills > it anyways
sales > *
Are you talking cell phones? Laptops? Remote access?
iPhones
Company has about 6-10 of them total in our 100 person company. We get toys. Haha.
not really cellphones, more mobile solutions.
WWAN stuff - Hwic/Digi routers
Rugged handhelds - symbol/intermec
Embedded laptops
telemetry
Smartphone/BB TOTAL solutions (hardware, activation, licensing, software, t-support, etc.)
edit: cell phones are a part of what I do, but not really what I try to concentrate on.