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Reddit SystemAdmin. Thanks @reddit2telegram and @r_channels.
Reading is the most underrated career hack - daily reading rebuilt my brain and my career
I got laid off from Amazon after COVID when they outsourced our BI team to India and replaced half our workflow with automation. The ones who stayed weren’t better at SQL or Python - they just had better people skills.
For two months, I applied to every job on LinkedIn and heard nothing. Then I stopped. I laid in bed, doomscrolled 5+ hours a day, and watched my motivation rot. I thought I was just tired. Then my girlfriend left me - and that cracked something open.
In that heartbreak haze, I realized something brutal: I hadn’t grown in years. Since college, I hadn’t finished a single book - five whole years of mental autopilot.
Meanwhile, some of my friends - people who foresaw the layoffs, the AI boom, the chaos - were now running startups, freelancing like pros, or negotiating raises with confidence. What did they all have in common? They never stop self growth and they read. Daily.
So I ran a stupid little experiment: finish one book. Just one. I picked a memoir that mirrored my burnout. Then another. Then I tried a business book. Then a psychology one. I kept going. It’s been 7 months now, and I’m not the same person.
Reading daily didn’t just help me “get smarter.” It reprogrammed how I think. My mindset, work ethic, even how I speak in interviews - it all changed. I want to share this in case someone else out there feels as stuck and brain-fogged as I did. You’re not lazy. You just need better inputs. Start feeding your mind again.
As someone with ADHD, reading daily wasn’t easy at first. My brain wanted dopamine, not paragraphs. I’d reread the same page five times. That’s why these tools helped - they made learning actually stick, even on days I couldn’t sit still. Here’s what worked for me:
- The Almanack of Naval Ravikant: This book completely rewired how I think about wealth, happiness, and leverage. Naval’s mindset is pure clarity.
- Principles by Ray Dalio: The founder of Bridgewater lays out the rules he used to build one of the biggest hedge funds in the world. It’s not just about work - it’s about how to think. Easily one of the most eye-opening books I’ve ever read.
- Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins: NYT Bestseller. His brutal honesty about trauma and self-discipline lit a fire in me. This book will slap your excuses in the face.
- Deep Work by Cal Newport: Productivity bible. Made me rethink how shallow my work had become. Best book on regaining focus in a distracted world.
- The Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel: Super digestible. Helped me stop making emotional money decisions. Best finance book I’ve ever read, period.
Other tools & podcasts that helped
- Lenny’s Newsletter: the best newsletter if you're in tech or product. Lenny (ex-Airbnb PM) shares real frameworks, growth tactics, and hiring advice. It's like free mentorship from a top-tier operator.
- BeFreed: A friend who worked at Google put me on this. It’s a smart reading & book summary app that lets you customize how you read/listen: 10 min skims, 40 min deep dives, 20 min podcast-style explainers, or flashcards to help stuff actually stick.
it also remembers your favs, highlights, goals and recommend books that best fit your goal.
I tested it on books I’d already read and the deep dives covered ~80% of the key ideas. Now I finished 10+ books per month and I recommend it to all my friends who never had time or energy to read daily.
- Ash: A friend told me about this when I was totally burnt out. It’s like therapy-lite for work stress - quick check-ins, calming tools, and mindset prompts that actually helped me feel human again.
- The Tim Ferriss Show - podcast – Endless value bombs. He interviews top performers and always digs deep into their habits and books.
Tbh, I used to think reading was just a checkbox for “smart” people. Now I see it as survival. It’s how you claw your way back when your mind is broken.
If you’re burnt out, heartbroken, or just numb - don’t wait for motivation. Pick up any book that speaks to what you’re
AI Slop at MSPs/Support Providers
We use a 3rd party (not gonna name any names etc) for additional support with MS products/Services.
Had an SCCM issue that made us scratch our heads too much so we opened a case.
Been pretty good in the past but lately all the responses seem to include hallucinated powershell cmdlets and/or procedures/checklists that don't make sense and some of them could have actually been dangerous.
If you are one of these fake-it-till-you-make-it vibe coding wunderkinds, please stop to at least take a moment to read the output and think about what you bill your clients for, before you piss all of them off and the bills stop getting paid.
Thank you.
https://redd.it/1kvzm2r
@r_systemadmin
get paid 4 dollars over minimum wage and am struggling physically, mentally and financially and am at a lost as im over worked and underpaid and treated like dirt most days, am I being taken advantage of? Or am I just crazy for thinking that.
https://redd.it/1kvuzs8
@r_systemadmin
Made a list of SaaS tools that actually support enterprise SSO
Hey folks –
We were evaluating a bunch of SaaS vendors and got tired of digging through docs to figure out who really supports SSO (like Okta, Azure AD, SCIM, etc.).
So… we made a public directory of 100+ SaaS products that have legit enterprise SSO setups. Grouped by categories like AI, security, productivity, etc.
Might save someone here a few hours:
🔗 https://ssojet.com/b2b-sso-directory/
No signup. Just sharing in case it's helpful.
And if you know a tool that should be on there, feel free to ping me.
https://redd.it/1kvus93
@r_systemadmin
Is Windows RDS still relevant in 2025?
We currently use a few RDS servers in our production company. Later this year, we’ll be migrating to new servers. However, our MSP is advising us to move away from RDS entirely and go for local installations instead.
I’m not entirely convinced by that advice.
In our case, the production users only perform very lightweight tasks mainly clocking in/out, registering time, and some basic operations. There’s no heavy workload involved.
So my question is:
Is Windows Remote Desktop Services (RDS) still a relevant solution going forward, say for the next 3–5 years? Or is it becoming outdated/obsolete in modern IT environments?
Would love to hear your thoughts, especially from others still using RDS or who’ve recently migrated away from it.
https://redd.it/1kvrdej
@r_systemadmin
Heads up: Personal Data Encryption says Windows Hello is required... well, guess not
Microsoft says you need Windows Hello for Business to unlock PDE-protected files.
But guess what? Logging in with just a password still gets you access to the protected data... which is weird... with it, the PDE feature seems a bit broken.
Read the full story here: Personal Data Encryption: A Password Can Unlock Protected Data
https://redd.it/1kvp41m
@r_systemadmin
Tracking down a Kernel Api Reboot?
We have a Hyper-V Server which is patched at 2am and rebooted.
On that Host, is a guest which requires a database to be shutdown prior to reboot/shutdown, and the way the patching works via our RMM seems to be allowing the guest to shutdown gracefully.
Periodically, and the pattern isn't established yet, the guest is being shutdown not gracefully, causing the DB to sometimes have issues.
The last instance was at 4am (ish) and rebooted the host, but the guest was shutdown improperly. That reboot was off the back of event 109 and attributed to Kernel API.
I am trying to determine what Kernel API generated event, could/would skip the graceful guest shutdown process?
The RMM Vendor is confident it's not them. I don't see any GPO's that would do patching, and in theory, 2 hours after it was already patched and rebooted, there shouldn't be a patch to install. There are no scheduled tasks.
Anyone got any ideas where I can check to find the source?
https://redd.it/1kvkoau
@r_systemadmin
Worst password policy?
What's the worst password policy you've seen? Bonus points if it's at your own organisation.
For me, it's Centrelink Business - the Australian government's portal for companies who need to interact with people on government payments. For example, if you're disabled and pay your power bill by automatic deduction from your pension payment, the power company will use Centrelink Business to manage that.
The power company's account with Centrelink will have this password policy:
Must contain a minimum of five characters and a maximum of eight characters;
Must include at least one letter (a-z, A-Z) and one number (0-9);
Cannot be reused for eight generations;
Must have a minimum of 24 hours elapse between the time you change your password and any subsequent change;
Must be changed when it expires. Passwords expire after 180 days (the website says 90 days so who knows which one is true);
Is not case sensitive, and;
May contain the following special characters; !, @, #, $, %, ^, &,
https://redd.it/1kvio3u
@r_systemadmin
Underperforming or overscoped ?
Hi All
Just chasing some advice here,
I look after the IT of a medium sized company, 70 \~ laptop users and another 50 or so basic licenses for email use on laborer's phones. I am a solo IT manager / Sys admin / user support and we have a domainless environment and have had been tasked to achieve ML1 then ML3 ( no longer required ) now ISO27001 with no established IT policies in place. In the beginning I thought I could achieve this, boy was I wrong. In between the top to bottom user support and admin, business support and admin, I've found it very difficult to make any proper progress, also driving change in an organisation where generally people don't want it. People get bent out of shape over a wallpaper changing and I am supposed to implement pretty severe changes to the IT landscape. Needless to say, as I am generally hard on myself and I would say it's my first Sys admin role where I feel I am underperforming - have I reached my ceiling at this point in time or is this an unachievable task for most ?
https://redd.it/1kvfdsa
@r_systemadmin
Any tips for getting to know a new IT environment faster/better?
So, to make a long story short I will be out of a job by July as my employment contract won't be renewed and I'll have to find a new job. For context, I have around 5 years of experience.
One of the main reasons for letting me go is 'not living up to the standards' and 'not showing enough growth in my role'. However, one of the main limiting factors was that I was basically thrown into the deep end in an environment that was way bigger and complexer than anything I had seen before, and I did not know how to properly handle it. Proper documentation is also severely lacking.
Did I get unlucky with a crappy company, or was it completely reasonable for them to expect me to up and running within a year? I want to avoid making the same mistakes again at a new company, so any tips are welcome.
https://redd.it/1kvbow2
@r_systemadmin
Calls While Phone is Silenced
Woke up today with multiple calls that I missed because my phone was on silent. We don’t operate an on-call service, but that is a separate issue..
For a quick and dirty solution..Is there any service or product that just give me a single number I can add to emergency contacts to ring aloud? I don’t want to add X amount of contacts into my phone to bypass silent mode.
I don’t care about tracking.. just call the number 2 times and it rings.
Appreciate the insight.
https://redd.it/1kv6eih
@r_systemadmin
https://mmsmoa.com/ Endpoint conference I believe is worth attending...
I went to this last week and it was pretty nice to be able to meet with Microsoft Architects to discuss if you are doing things as intended or if there is a better way. While I have significant experience using Microsoft Endpoint management products I have field experience that is related to my environment. These folks have experience across many environments and they can give you a perspective that is invaluable.
If you decide to go I would highly recommend meeting with as many people in your organization as possible and get a list of your top issues or roadblocks. They will listen and they will do their best to help you figure out what is going on.
The speakers are not just from Microsoft, they are from a broad cross section of the endpoint spectrum. All the speakers are very open to talking to you and listening to you. They might not tell you exactly what you want to hear but the advice they give you is still top notch and worth a listen.
The vendors at this show are extremely engaging and NOT pushy of course they are passionate about the product they represent but they are looking for a good fit between your issues and their products. There is always the swag and the raffles.
If you can squeeze the $$ out of your boss you wont be sorry and the boss might even thank you for bringing to their attention.
As usual just my opinion your milage may very.
https://redd.it/1kjpwhd
@r_systemadmin
What are the potential risks of disabling the path character limit system wide? We tend to run into issues with the default limitation.
Our org has as lot of paths like:
W:\\VeryImportantDataThatAbsolutelyNeedsToBeNestedDeeplyForSecurityReasonsAndNoOneWillEverFindItUnlessTheyKnowTheExactPathBecauseItsSoRidiculouslyLongTheyllGiveUpTryingToNavigateThroughAllTheseFolders\\TopSecretFilesThatContainInformationAboutThingsThatAreSoSecretWeCantEvenNameThemButJustKnowTheyreSuperImportantAndIfTheyGotOutItWouldBeVeryBadSoWeNeedToHideThemReallyWell\\ProjectAlphaOmegaSuperDuperConfidentialStuffDoNotOpenUnderPenaltyOfLawSeriouslyWeMeanItThisTime\\InternalDocumentsForAuthorizedPersonnelOnlyBeyondThisPointYouShallNotPassUnlessYouHaveTheSecretHandshakeAndPasswordWhichChangesDailyAndIsBroadcastViaCarrierPigeon\\PhaseThreeContingencyPlanExecuteOrder66ButOnlyIfTheSituationIsReallyReallyBadLikeAlienInvasionOrSomethingEquallyUnlikely\\SubFolderLevelFortyTwoTheAnswerToLifeTheUniverseAndEverythingIsProbablyNotHereButWhoKnowsMaybeItsHiddenInThisRidiculouslyNamedFolder\\EvenDeeperIntoTheRabbitHoleWeGoWhereTheFilesAreShyAndDontLikeToComeOutToPlaySoWeHaveToSneakUpOnThemVeryQuietly\\JustALittleBitFurtherAlmostThereKeepGoingYoureDoingGreatDontGiveUpNowYoureSoCloseToSeeingTheMostSecretFileEver\\TheFinalSanctumOfTheHiddenFilesPrepareToBeAmazedByTheSheerLengthOfThisFolderPathItsTrulyAWorkOfArtInItsOwnRight\\ThisIsTheActualFileNameYoureLookingForBelieveItOrNotItsFinallyHere.txt
Then we get the occasional issue with "it's not saving" or "it won't open." Without the more obvious solutions which would involve the users doing something, would a simple reg change to remove the path limit on workstations as well as the file servers pose much of a risk? We're on Win 10 22H2 Ent LTSC, file servers on 2019. However I think (gotta confirm) that we may be on the 32 bit version of Office 2021.
Thanks.
https://redd.it/1kjfher
@r_systemadmin
How understanding are your girlfriend/wife of your job?
I just had that topic with my GF and she wasn't very understanding (complaining about how i was tired in the evening/falling asleep very often) and i am curious how that situation is on your end.
IT Work isn't seen as real work in most ends and i think i might ending up marrying my old Windows XP 256MB Intel Pentium, because it is the only reliable thing in my life so far.
Edit: Everybody, please feel included - i can't change the post topic anymore. I wanna hear all situations, doesn't matter what your gender is :)
https://redd.it/1kjigjc
@r_systemadmin
Stuck with Legacy Systems
I’m so fed up with legacy systems. Every time we try to modernize, we’re held back by outdated tech that no one wants to touch anymore. Zero documentation, obsolete software, and hardware that barely runs updates without breaking something. And when you try to push for upgrades, it’s always “too expensive” or “too risky.” Meanwhile, we’re spending so much time just trying to keep these ancient systems alive. Anyone else dealing with this constant nightmare?
https://redd.it/1kjd9dp
@r_systemadmin
Has Anyone Found a Security Awareness Training Vendor They Don’t Regret Picking?
We’re re-evaluating our current security awareness training stack, and I’m looking for honest, experience-based feedback from the community.
I’ve used KnowBe4 and Proofpoint in past roles. They each had their upsides, but also some major pain points mostly around LMS integration, weak phishing simulations, and reporting that just didn’t deliver the insights we needed.
My problem is: all the demos sound polished until you’re six months deep and realizing user engagement is low or reporting is next to useless.
So:
-What do you look for when choosing a SAT vendor?
-Are there red flags you’ve learned to check early?
-Would you stick with your current provider if you had to choose again?
Not here to bash anyone just trying to learn from folks who’ve been through it. Thanks in advance!
https://redd.it/1kvzgq8
@r_systemadmin
How do I actually utilize IPv6 /56 Prefix Delegated to me from Comcast Business, from behind their required Gateway?
Greetings all.
I am new to actually getting around to attempting to utilize IPv6 for my static IPs provided to me from Comcast and have found that it is not as straightforward as I assumed it would be from the information I had researched.
I simply want to access the /56 they have given me in a similar way that is utilized for the IPv4 block of five ips on /29 subnet, however, when I setup the CPE-facing interface to hold a :1/64 or :1/128 or just the general ::/56 and setup the dhcpv6 configuration on my Opnsense router, nothing ever actually gets exposed to the public internet.
Can anyone provide a bit of clarification for this topic for me?
https://redd.it/1kvxq3e
@r_systemadmin
Help Desk/IT Support job, yet doing Sys Admin tasks and underpaid, am I being taken advantage of?
Hi everyone, I am 22 male, im still new to the IT world in the sense of actually working, I did a 2 year course spanning computer systems and networking, ive been graduated for almost a year and ive been working since I graduated, I work at a company where I get paid 19 an hour (CAD) and I only get paid for 75 hours every 2 weeks, so i get around 36k a year before taxes, after taxes maybe 28-30k if im lucky, and yet my tasks aren't help desk or just it support like i was hired for, I do mostly all the updates for servers and machines (all 200+ machines) and i do networking and am expected to know how to maintain and manage and update all the vpn's, certificates, websites, servers, software, hardware, everything. It is hell some weeks, as its barely been a year since I graduated college, and I was given NO training when I got here and had everything thrown at me.
Yet im expected to know EVERYTHING and do everything while also managing help desk and fixing any issues that arise, im not allowed overtime so im forced to figure everytbing out as quick as possible without breaking things and disrupting people and im at a loss for words, everyone I know who I graduated college with works in Helpdesk (which was what I was supposed to be doing and was hired for) and everyone i know gets paid close to 30-32 and hour, while one guy gets 25 at his position.
I get the lowest pay and the shittest job and work, and due to the market theres nothing open anywhere for a new job (newfoundland canada moment), im struggling financially as paying rent and bills and everything for 2 people (me and my gf who current is finishing college) while getting paid only 4 dollars above minimum wage while doing work that people would be getting paid ALOT more for is insane, my mental and physical health is at a all time low but I cant quit as id end up homeless.
Its a struggle and I have ADHD and other physical health issues that make my health even worse so I tend to miss days alot now and I get thrown through the ringer when I come back and put in the dirt by my boss and other co workers because i miss alot of days now but i just cant help it with my struggling health, theres only 1 real other IT worker here, one older guy who only sets up new things to do with our network and servers and then doesnt show up after its setup, and then im expected to maintain it knowing nothing about it while he goes on vacation for 8 months out of the year, and the other guy is a programmer so he doesnt do much IT anymore and refuses most stuff so it ends up all on my plate, he used to do all the IT and all the programming for all the programs, I was hired to help with the IT helpdesk stuff and yet now I do everything and I dont even know what im doing most days anymore as I wasnt trained or prepared for this.
And this isn't a small business, its a smaller business compared to some, theres close to 100-200 employees (possibly even more i havent dealt with) across all the companies my boss owns, he owns hundreds of businesses and we're almost like a MSP as we do all the servers and stuff for all the businesses and one or two of the businesses are small ISP's thankfully i dont touch any of that and theres actual proper people for that part but rverytbing else i do.
I just dont know how people put up with this stuff, like I feel like im being taken advantage of but am I just thinking about it too much and overreacting or am I actually being taken advantage of?
If anyone got any tips or know of some online helpdesk jobs hiring that would be amazing, i had interviews with Microsoft and Sophos but nothing ever worked out. Also sorry for any typos or if some of this is worded weirdly, this is somewhat a rant so I just let everything I could out, sorry!
TLDR
I am about a year out of a 2 year college computer and networking course, I do all the IT work and am basically the Sys Admin and Network Admin for a decent sized company that manages multiple other companies, yet I
Disable prompt "Before you can save files on this drive, you need to encrypt it using BitLocker" but keep behavior.
Hi,
I've set the GPO setting "Deny write access to removable drives not protected by BitLocker" what is something I want to achieve. However as a side effect I'm getting a prompt:
"Before you can save files on this drive, you need to encrypt it using BitLocker"
every time when the external storage device is insert to the laptop. It is somehow problematic as it also applies to memory card or devices like Barco. I would like to keep the setting but disable the prompt. Is it possible? I wasn't able to find any way of doing this.
https://redd.it/1kvqd2j
@r_systemadmin
Moronic Monday - May 26, 2025
Howdy, /r/sysadmin!
It's that time of the week, Moronic Monday! This is a safe (mostly) judgement-free environment for all of your questions and stories, no matter how silly you think they are. Anybody can answer questions! My name is AutoModerator and I've taken over responsibility for posting these weekly threads so you don't have to worry about anything except your comments!
https://redd.it/1kvqnbd
@r_systemadmin
Defender DLP
Hey All,
We’re needing to implement a basic DLP - nothing overly complex, we’re a small team with other priorities.
I was unsanctioning Dropbox and Google drive when we had a call about it. Turns out one of of suppliers is storing critical documents when a team and they can’t use alternative solutions….
We don’t want staff to use these tools (obviously). Is there a way to restrict uploads using defender for cloud? I’m sure I can’t the first person to run into this issue.
Thanks in advance !
https://redd.it/1kvngwn
@r_systemadmin
Hybrid Autopilot PKCS certs
There's a ticking time bomb coming in September in the form of strong certificate mapping.
Intune cert connector allows the SID to come through with the registry key change, but the problem is for hybrid autopilot builds, the two device objects are split through the build process. The entra joined device objects has the intune configuration and doesn't know of the hybrid object. These duplicates eventually merge/delete one and things are normal. However, if PKCS certificates are applied via intune configuration during build, the cert will be missing the on prem security identifier. Once the two objects are merged, if the cert is reissued, it'll come with the OPSID.
I've discovered that no device AP built since I made the OPSID change has the attribute and I cannot work out a way to make the cert have one with the build process without having to wait for the duplicate devices to merge.
Has anyone come up with a solution to this? I've seen a post previously saying to make the cert profile target dynamic group of devicetrusttype, but new build computers intune objects don't fall into that group until the duplicated devices merge.
https://redd.it/1kvlmbi
@r_systemadmin
CompTIA A+ , Network + or CCNA for System admin career path ?
So I've got years of experience with IT support with no current certificates that I've listed.
The most I have is an azure fundamentals that I did for no specific reason.
I currently handle all IT requests for a small insurance company with what I would assume be Level 2 support.
I have 8 years experience at my previous job dealing with customers directly(Level 1)
I have been very fortunate in my life to gain my experience on the job with university not being an option.
I would like to eventually become a system administrator and would like to make active steps to gain necessary certification to achieve my goal.
My research into CompTIA A+ makes it seem like it's used more than anything for the fundamentals of IT and gaining an entry level job. My experience and current employment makes me question whether or not it would actually be of any use to me for progressing my career path.
Network + seems like a valuable certificate for expanding my knowledge within network that may not be explicitly aimed towards sys admin however the knowledge gained from it would not hurt my resume.
CCNA comes accross as a very well respected certificate about 5 years ago, though it seems like it's not as required or holds the same amount of weight it used to due to it being Cisco focused.
Would it still be viable to do the CompTIA A+ course just to have it or would my work experience outway the lack of CompTIA certification?
Should I go for the Network + or CCNA instead?
If there's a course more suited for my career path, please do let me know.
Appreciate any and all advice.
https://redd.it/1kveewy
@r_systemadmin
Heads up: Beware of this fake WizTree site (wiztree.co.uk)
The fake site wiztree.co.uk has been appearing on the first page of Google search results for WizTree for a while. Beware of downloading anything from this site. The official WizTree web site is diskanalyzer.com
Every page contains contact details at the bottom (a Pakistan phone number and Gmail address) which have nothing to do with Antibody Software.
I've reported this to Antibody Software and they are aware of it and suggested I report it to Google Safe browsing: https://safebrowsing.google.com/safebrowsing/report-url
And also report to the UK's NCSC:
https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/section/about-this-website/report-scam-website
If enough people report the site it should help to have it removed.
https://redd.it/1kvcu1u
@r_systemadmin
Unofficial leadership in teams — how do you handle it?
I've noticed a recurring pattern in IT teams where someone naturally becomes the "unofficial leader" — the go-to when the direction is unclear, mentoring juniors, etc. all without a formal title or management role.
If this is you, how do you handle that situation?
Do you eventually push for an official title or recognition?
Have you asked for a raise to match the extra responsibilities?
Curious to hear how others in the sysadmin world approach this. Thanks!
https://redd.it/1kv3jq8
@r_systemadmin
Heads-up for fellow IT leaders: SIM swapping is no longer just a consumer problem—it’s a legit business risk.
I run a managed IT services company and was recently reviewing Verizon’s SIM swap protections for my own account. They now offer options to lock your number and prevent unauthorized transfers. Here’s the link if you’re with them:
https://www.verizon.com/about/account-security/sim-swapping
But this goes way beyond Verizon.
If you or your users are on AT&T, T-Mobile, or any other carrier, call them or dig into the account settings. Most major providers offer some version of SIM lock or port-out PIN, but it’s buried and rarely enabled by default.
If someone pulls off a SIM swap, they can intercept your 2FA codes, reset passwords, and gain access to email, cloud portals, banking, you name it. This could cripple an exec or compromise sensitive business systems in minutes.
What we recommend to clients:
• Add a SIM lock or port-out PIN with the mobile carrier.
• Avoid SMS-based 2FA—use app-based authenticators or hardware tokens.
• Review account recovery methods for all critical services.
It’s one of those overlooked attack vectors that’s easy to prevent if you do it ahead of time. Might be a good time to review this with your leadership team—or better yet, your entire user base.
Curious what others here are doing.
https://redd.it/1kv7fjy
@r_systemadmin
My head is spinning - overwhelmed
Dear lord - I’m absolutely overwhelmed with my job.
I work for a mediumish MSP/MSSP of around 25 employees. Been here for about 2 years, worked my way up from the only Sysadmin to running the department in a “director” position which is separate from our service delivery portion by design.
Now with 5 direct reports ( sys admins and security analysts) I feel like I have no idea what I’m doing in leadership and the owner changes direction with technical tools / company direction and micromanages constantly. The entire team except for one member is not experienced enough for the role honestly. But, with the amount of technical work I still do I have zero bandwidth to coach the team. I’m a leader, senior sysadmin, project manager, network admin, VCISO, and the only guy that can onboard new clients or has the technical knowledge to do so (which we are growing.. FAST and this workload is increasing)
Documentation is terrible across clients, with almost everything living in my head from drowning in “tech debt” when I first started and not having time to properly document. Talking constant 60+ hour weeks to catch up on how behind the company was when I started. Better now, but not a ton.
Now I’m burnt out, wanting to leave. My boss isn’t a mentor really at all. Im on call 24/7 for after hours critical client support, and SOC/SIEM as well as my team but we don’t have enough members for a proper rotation. Underpaid imo (60k), stressed out constantly. But, I have zero industry certifications or degrees. Just very, very good at the technical role, and have 7 years of experience between this and small business sysadmin work.
I don’t want to jump ship, and not sure I could with the lack of formal education. I’ve applied places just to see, and haven’t gotten anywhere yet other than other MSPs.
Looking for some words of encouragement (or brutal honesty) as well as advice on where to go from here.
https://redd.it/1kjn61c
@r_systemadmin
For the Linux guys, what distros are you running at work?
Would it still be worth it to learn Red Hat Enterprise Linux in 2025 or no? I know Red Hat has done some shitty things in the last couple of years.
Is a Linux cert worth the trouble of getting?
https://redd.it/1kjk89l
@r_systemadmin
Got fired yesterday
Company didn’t like that I was friends with an ex coworker and I got let go for interacting with them. I’m gonna go get drunk today.
https://redd.it/1kjea3x
@r_systemadmin
If you’re going to hire someone to join a remote first tech company, make sure they at least know how to work a computer
Just a highlights from the conversation I had with this new hire.
“I can’t find the start/menu button on my laptop”
“On your desktop, it’s the icon button on the bottom left”
“The only thing I see on my desk is my keyboard, laptop mouse and coffee”
This persons looked on their actual physical desk…
https://redd.it/1kjbjqg
@r_systemadmin