by Hello – I’m running for the LOPSA board in the 2011 elections.
I have been a sysadmin, a manager of sysadmins, and a conduit of sysadmin training and mentorship, for about three decades. I’ve worked with mainframes, minicomputers, microcomputers – and the new “mainframes” (everything is circular!). I’m currently the “pet systems person” in an IT Automation team at a large network equipment manufacturer.
I believe that LOPSA needs to continue to lead and encourage ‘systems administration as a profession’. Personally, I’m less interested in creating certifications than in providing direction, education, and information resources to create and improve systems administrators in a professional capacity. I would encourage educational institutions to provide more specialties in systems administration, which LOPSA can help influence curricula to aim at an eventual professional designation.
To me, systems administration should be considered an engineering function, not a trade or guild. The former is a profession, the latter is either certified training or insiders’ club. All have their place, but professions expect much more autonomous, continuous learning – but don’t have ‘Certficate 1.0, 2.0…’. Professionals are supposed to learn-how-to-learn and keep their skills up to date, and once stamped as a ‘professional’ – that’s for life. Certifications are ephemeral.
I spent the first two decades of my career at a university. I was in the IT department, but worked with the Computing Science and Computer Engineering faculties as they were creating and building their department. I understand what drives faculties in different directions. We need to encourage more universities to start or broaden programs to teach the profession of systems administration as part of their curriculum. This is a long term project, influencing faculties is a slow process, but can have a large impact over time.
LOPSA also needs to continue to encourage, mentor, and develop systems administrators directly – now, and ongoing. One principle of moving forward is that you have to work at the level that you expect to be recognised and compensated for before you will get that recognition or compensation. This applies to systems administration as a profession as well – we have to look and be professional before we will be recognised as professionals.
I am willing to help in that effort of developing and mentoring sysadmins who are new to the profession, or who are improving and widening their skills. Professional education is a continuing process – I myself am not done yet, and continue to look for new challenges and mentors so that I can progress – and not get bored!