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Sysadmins, how did you find your job?
How did you find your job and what kind of experience would you say is required to make the jump from basic help desk to sysadmin status?

How did you find your job and what kind of experience would you say is required to make the jump from basic help desk to sysadmin status?
I started off doing help desk at a high school once I finished university. My mentor was very helpful and pretty much taught me all I know, I took over as Network Admin when he took a year off and got a lot of experience. Stayed there a couple years before moving onto a larger company doing level 3 and 4 support, but the hours were too long and could never get away from work, so decided to get back into a smaller organisation. Now I am a Sysadmin for a medium sized company.
I think most important is experience, you learn by doing. Next would be to work in a company that has people that are willing to teach you, this will help you learn a lot faster. Lastly but also very important is getting certified, CCNA, CCNP, Microsoft Certs etc. The more you have and know the more chance of you getting a job a level up from help desk support.
Almost every normal (8-5 kind of a gig) job I've had, I found on CraigsList. I've been in IT since the late 90's, so my experience usually speaks for itself. Although I don't have a lot of experience with really big companies, or really complex set ups, I've been a geek for so long, I know small/medium networks very well.
The change was gradual, I was working at local small businesses, then one day when I was interviewing, I was interviewing for a bigger job. Then I moved away from hourly to salary, it's all just experience really.
I started off as tier 2 support in college then afterwards got hired by internship to do Sharepoint stuff. I got my current gig through a reddit post, and they wanted some junior people. I put on my resume that I was looking into python, aws, and automation tools which is what they were looking for. Learned a lot on the job.
Started out doing ISP Support, then just sorta gradually took over Web Design and Solaris Administration because it needed to be done, and there was nobody to really do it so.. just jumped in, then as I learned more, moved to other companies doing the new things.
A lot of experience came from what I did at home and enjoyed tinkering with. Then as opportunities presented themselves 'etc.
I think I went from Solaris -> Windows -> Solaris -> Linux
The more you do and get into things, also the more people you meet it makes it easier to progress to different areas. I think smaller companies / Startups generally tend to be easier as they NEED people to wear more than one hat, so to speak.