Your Career as an It Professional

Abstract

Information technology, or IT for short, is the backbone of today’s advanced technology. Network and computer systems administrators design, install, and support business’s computer systems. Responsibilities include maintaining a LAN or WAN, Internet and intranet structures. These IT professionals maintain network hardware/software, analyze and repair problems, and oversee networks to make sure it is available to users. Administrators tailor the company’s computer network to be unique and efficient to that specific business. Benefits of being a network and computer systems administrator abound. They range from a comfortable lifestyle to all the different areas you can get into as an IT professional. An individual seeking a career in this node of Information technology will enjoy a rewarding, fulfilling, and balanced knowledge of computer information systems.

Proposal

Information technology, or IT for short, is the backbone of today’s advanced technology. IT is integrated with so many areas of our lives, that to list every facet of integration would take up more space than this paper has room for. Since the advent of the Internet way back in the 1950’s when networking was done via mainframe systems and limited to inter-departmental workstations, there has been a need for individuals to maintain and operate essential components of IT. This has led to several areas of the IT field. This paper will bring focus to one such particular field of study we call Network and Computer Systems Administrator.

I will present a variety of information for your consideration as you advance your interest in a career as a network and computer systems administrator. I will discuss what most of you might think at this stage of your life is one of the most important reasons to choose a career: money. Is this a financially stable career for me? I will also present the educational requirements, typical daily schedule, and the types of companies searching for individuals in this field, what the steps are to enter this field and the benefits to this rewarding area of IT.

So, why have I chosen this career? What sparked my interest? What do you have to know? What do people do at this job? These are common questions high school students ask as they make their career choices. Sometimes it can be helpful for a student to speak with someone in the field of particular personal interest to base a career choice on. Since you are reading this paper, it can be assumed you are seeking guidance towards a career as a network and computer systems administrator.

Let us take a brief moment to answer these questions before we get into the nitty-gritty of this exciting career. I chose this career for a wide variety of reasons, but the main reason was a natural aptitude for computers. Early on I discovered I had a natural ability to use computers and understood how they worked as stand alone units as well as how they interacted on a network. My interest was sparked with much the same reason. I thought to myself about 13 years ago that it would be nice to have a computer in the house to keep track of expenses and maybe play some solitaire or space invaders on; the hottest gaming console at the time was the SegaÐ'® Genesisв„Ñž. Computer gaming as it is known today did not yet exist. The first computer I owned was a blazing fast 80386 running 8MB of RAM, 200MB hard disk, and MicrosoftÐ'® Windows 3.11 for Workgroupsв„Ñž. This was the networking version of Windows; I learned early on the ins and outs of the environment that was networking. What do you have to know? What are the job duties of this career? We should save the answer to those questions for the basis of this paper. There are many areas of information to cover so let us get started.

A Career as an IT Professional

What does a network and computer systems administrator do? A system administrator is a supreme being who maintains and troubleshoots your computer systems (Techsoup, 2000). Simple enough but let us take a look at the following table (figure 1) to get an idea of a network and computer systems administrator job functions.

Basic Responsibilities

of a Systems Administrator Skills of a Systems Administrator that

also Manages the Network Day-to-Day Support Tasks

staff training and support knowledge and experience with the type of network you have performing backups of your staff's computers and of the server, if you have one

software installation,

maintenance, and upgrading knowledge and experience with your office applications adding and deleting new network users

hardware installation,

maintenance, and upgrading knowledge and experience with network software installation making sure that virus protection software is up-to-date, and cleaning any viruses that infect staff computers

research and troubleshooting knowledge and experience with hardware installation and upgrades training and assisting staff in using hardware and software efficiently

routine network administration and maintenance ability to teach and train about network use and software skills troubleshooting any routine problems that staff cannot fix on their own, such as a problem with the printer or a computer that freezes repeatedly

network documentation knowledge and experience with network e-mail is helpful

database supervision dedication to appropriate uses of computer technology, including the ability to use and adapt older equipment

figure 1. Table assembled form data found at Techsoup.org

A more complex job description based on the data from the table is network and computer systems administrators design, install, and support business’s computer systems. Responsibilities include maintaining a LAN or WAN, Internet and intranet structures. These IT professionals maintain network hardware/software, analyze and repair problems, and oversee networks to make sure it is available to users. Network and computer systems administrators gather information to identify resource needs and use it to interpret and evaluate system and network requirements or demands. They also plan, coordinate, and implement network security measures, changes, and design. Almost every computer user runs into a problem from time to time. This might be retrieving a forgotten password or hardware issues such hard drive crashes and lock-ups or freezing. The constant increasing

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