System Administrator

Career Guide
Marlese Lessing | SDxCentral

What’s Inside
• What is a System Administrator?

• Top 10 Skills

• Top 10 Interview Questions

• Interview With a System Administrator

• Related Definitions
SYS T E M A D M I N I S T R ATO R CA R E E R G U I D E

What is a System Administrator?

System administrators — also known as sysadmins — administrate, manage,
monitor, and troubleshoot IT systems. This includes servers, networks,
computers, and routers.

Notes
Average Salary: $64,892 (via Glassdoor)

Growth Projection: 5% per year (via the Bureau of Labor Statistics)

Minimum Education: Bachelor’s degree (via the Bureau of Labor

Statistics)

Average years of experience: Average Years of Experience: Fewer

than five years in a related field (via the Bureau of Labor Statistics)

“Sysadmin” is a fairly broad term, and can be delineated into more specific roles such as database
administrator, network administrator, and site reliability engineer. This guide focuses on the field of
system administration as a whole.

System administrators tend to be jacks-of-all-trades. One minute they could be designing a virtual-
ization cluster; the next, they can be crawling on their knees trying to find a frayed wire. As servers
and networks move more to virtualization and automation, eliminating many of the more low-level
administration tasks, sysadmins are expected to take on more high-level tasks such as security
administration or managing the virtualized processes themselves.

Security in particular is becoming increasingly important; though many organizations will have
a separate cybersecurity engineer or information security analyst. As threat levels continue to
increase, a sysadmin needs to have security skills to help the network stay safe end-to-end.

While sysadmins can start in the field with just a bachelor’s degree in computer science or a related
area, having previous experience in customer service is essential — especially if that experience
comes from working at an IT help desk.

As well, many higher-level sysadmin jobs, such as senior sysadmin, require a master’s or a Ph.D.,
since senior sysadmins are expected to architect and build advanced automation systems to run on
the network.

This system administrator career guide includes:

● What is a System Administrator?
● Top 10 Skills
● Top 10 Interview Questions
● Interview with an Expert
● Related Definitions

Check out SDxCentral’s How to Get A Job in Tech Guide for resume and cover letter tips, top IT
skills, and other insights into the tech workforce.

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Top 10 Skills
Sysadmins need to know a bit of everything. Depending on the systems they’re
working with, sysadmins will need to have more specialization. However, these
top system administrator skills will be required across the board.
1. Problem-Solving and Administration
Network admins have two main jobs: Solving problems, and anticipat-
ing problems before they happen. This requires a critical mindset and
concrete process to approaching issues. Red Hat sysadmin David Both
recommends a five-step approach to tackling problems within a system:
knowledge, observation, deduction, action, and testing.
2. Networking
More organizations are turning to network virtualization, so understand-
ing SD-WAN, vLAN, SD-branch, and SASE is a must. Understanding
VPNs is also essential, especially as the shift to remote work is putting
an emphasis on security.
3. Cloud
According to RightScale’s 2019 State of the Cloud report, 94% of all
businesses use the cloud in some form. Sysadmins should be aware of
cloud architecture, the nuances of the major cloud providers such as
AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, and the security issues around storing
data on the public cloud.
4. Automation and Scripting
Automated processes have taken over many of the more tedious net-
work maintenance tasks. However, this doesn’t mean a sysadmin can
simply ignore the network. Instead, they need to be able to administer to
automated processes, and possibly write a few of their own.
5. Security and Monitoring
Security has become a major concern on all levels of IT due to the spike
in phishing, ransomware attacks, and data breaches over the past few
years. Sysadmins need to address security issues before they start,
such as enforcing protocol and educating users about security best
practices. As well, they should be familiar with monitoring platforms
such as SolarWinds and DataDog.
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6. Account Access Management
Part of security is managing user accounts. Poor password hygiene can
lead to disaster, which is why two-factor authentication is becoming
essential to keeping accounts secure.
Sysadmins should also be familiar with account management applica-
tions and software such as Okta or OneLogin, which provide an easy
and secure way of managing passwords and credentials.
7. IoT/Mobile Device Management
IoT devices are some of the most vulnerable devices on the network,
due to their barebones built-in security. The trend of bring-your-own-de-
vice (BYOD) also poses a risk to the network, which means sysadmins
must know how to secure those devices and protect the system from
these new threat vectors.
8. Scripting Languages
The most popular scripting languages for sysadmins include HTML and
JavaScript; Red Hat also recommends Go, Bash, Python, and Node.js,
especially in a DevOps environment.
9. Hardware Management
Sysadmins work with physical servers as much as they do with their
virtual interfaces. Sysadmins may have to set up physical server con-
nections and racks, manually configure devices such as printers, or set
up ethernet ports.
10. SQL
Structured Query Language (SQL) is used to manage databases. It’s
used to write APIs, as well as handling structured data.
It’s one of the most basic and important aspects of database manage-
ment, and becoming an increasingly desired skill in sysadmins.
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Top 10 Interview Questions

Sysadmins are expected to know a bit of everything. These questions cover
some of the more broad topics to expect, though more specific roles will have
more specific technical queries.

1. What’s the most frustrating support issue you’ve ever Notes

encountered?
Interviewers won’t want to hear about your successes alone. When recounting a frustrating issue,
be sure to highlight the reason it was so frustrating — the time crunch, the finicky system, the lack of
support, the short-tempered client — as well how you handled and overcame these issues. Highlight
the process you took when figuring out the fix, as well as why this process contributed to discover-
ing the issue.

2. What’s your troubleshooting process?

Similar to the question above, interviewers want to see how you tackle an issue and what factors
you take into consideration when doing so. There are a couple of ways to do this. The traditional
approach for an interview is to use the STAR (situation, task, action, and result) method to describe
the problem and how you handled it.

Red Hat also recommends a five-step process — knowledge, observation, deduction, action, and
testing — which can be used to both illustrate your answer and tackle future issues.

3. Tell me about a time you tried a fix and it failed.

Fixes don’t always work the first time, and your interviewer will know this. Don’t bluff. If you’ve never
had a fix that didn’t work, you’re either lying or have only been in the field for a grand total of three
minutes.

Explain the situation, your rationale for using the fix you did, why you believed it failed, and how you
eventually came to the correct solution. Be thorough and detailed.

4. What is your stance on security?

Security is becoming an issue for every level of network administration. Interviewers will want to
know how you follow security best practices in both building and managing the system — from
ensuring that servers are kept under lock and key, to backing up files frequently, to educating users
about good password hygiene and multi-factor authentication.

Expect to get questions about preventing ransomware and phishing attacks, which are on the rise.

5. You’re asleep at 3 a.m. and your phone goes off. Every server in the
system is down. What do you do?
The correct answer, no matter how tempting, is not “roll over and go back to sleep.”

Sysadmins, especially more junior ones, or ones who are the primary administrator for a system,
are expected to be on-call for technical issues at all hours. The first step in this process should be to

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evaluate the problem where you are — call the office and talk to the sysadmin on location, if possible, Notes
and get the details of the situation at hand.

Many virtualized networks allow for remote troubleshooting through monitoring and orchestration
platforms, though this isn’t always guaranteed. Hardware problems, for example, will need to be re-
solved in-person. Be sure to run through the troubleshooting process as you would any other issue.

6. How do you handle shadow IT?

Shadow IT is when users install and implement unauthorized applications and fixes onto their
devices without the IT department knowing. This can cause issues with security, especially if these
applications bypass normal protocol meant to keep the system safe.

This can come in a two-pronged approach. Sysadmins should have processes and protocols in
place to prevent users from downloading unauthorized applications, such as administrator-only
access blocks and ways to detect unknown applications. As well, they should educate users on why
using those apps poses a threat to themselves and the system as a whole.

7. What is DNS? How does it run in the network?

Sysadmins can expect technical questions like this throughout the interview. A domain name
system (DNS) translates domain names to IP addresses. It’s often called “the phonebook of the in-
ternet.” When a device is attempting to connect to the internet, it connects to the DNS server, which
resolves the IP address of the site to the domain name.

8. What are the best practices for backups?

ISACA recommends having a concrete backup plan, choosing the right storage medium (physical,
cloud, or a combination of both) based on the data’s nature, establishing an appropriate backup
schedule, having a documented disaster recovery plan, and keeping knowledge and tools up to date.
Backups themselves should follow the 3-2-1 rule: Keep three copies of the data, store two of those
on different storage media, and make one of them offsite.

9. Draw me a simple network diagram.

Usually, the interviewer will give you further details as to the nature of that network — the number
of users, what protocols there are, how many servers there are, and so on. Make sure to ask for
additional information as needed and justify your reasoning.

10. What do you do if you encounter an issue/system you’ve never

seen before?
A variant of this question is for an interviewer to ask you about something obscure or that you can’t
possibly know about — such as a made-up programming language. Don’t lie and say you know. The
interviewer wants to know what you’ll do when confronted with the unknown — which resources
you’ll use, what steps you’ll take, when and who you’ll ask for help. Be honest, and be thorough.

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Interview with an Expert
Colorado-born Katie Zellner originally studied communications
in college — however, a tech internship made her realize that she
wanted to move into IT. She’s now manager of IT operations at
Alterra Mountain Company. Here are her experiences, and what
it’s been like working in a male-dominated field.
How did you get your start in IT? What about it
appealed to you?
I’ve liked computers forever. I learned a lot from my dad growing up, and I
was doing minor HTML coding and stuff like that when I was a teenager. I
was the go-to person for all my friends to help them fix stuff, so I enjoyed
things like desktop support and understanding how a computer actually
works, which I learned while working at Best Buy.
When a tech internship opened while I was in college, I thought it was just
another job for me to have — I never would have imagined that I would be
here six years later, which is kind of crazy to think about.
What was the roadmap like from then until now?
When I graduated, the construction company I interned at brought me
on full time as an IT generalist. While I was there, I was learning about all
the different fields in IT — networking systems, security, desktop support,
management, pretty much anything.
I just was trying to figure out for myself if tech was something that I
wanted to do and if so, which field I would want to be in, because there’s
so many different things you can focus on with an IT career. Eventually I
realized that I really enjoyed working on the server and system side.
When I moved from Fort Collins to Denver, I quit and worked at a school
district, and that was my first system administrative job. Then the con-
struction company that I was with asked if I could come back and be the
system administrator.
At that point, I was really enjoying what I was doing. I was learning a lot. It
was my first system administrator job, and it was at a smaller company, so
I had an opportunity to implement a lot of things for the first time and learn
a lot about Windows server administration and all sorts of different sys-
tems, all that jazz. Now I’m at Alterra and have been since November 2019.
What are your job duties at Alterra?
Right now I’m in charge of all desktop support systems and infrastruc-
ture for the Denver office, and making sure that the 300 employees there
have everything that they need to do their jobs. That includes deploying
hardware and software, which I’m in charge of all the budgeting for. I also
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serve as the liaison between the technical teams and the rest of the users
and employees.
Alterra is a different company — they’re much bigger, which I like, because
I’m learning a lot more. There’s a whole network team and a whole system
team, we well as our team and a cloud team. I get to work with all of those
teams, and figure out what we need to do to get everything up and running
for the rest of the users.
What aspects of being a sysadmin really appeal to
you?
I like seeing everything come together, and being the one that puts every-
thing together on the back end that allows all of the users to do their jobs
and use the system on the front end. I enjoyed learning how all that stuff
operates, rather than being a person that just uses a piece of software or
a system and it just works. I like fully understanding what on the back end
was making that stuff happen.
As well, since I did major in communications, I’ve really enjoyed that piece
of it. Every job that I’ve been in, I’ve been the person who is great at com-
municating and speaking about technical topics in plain English. That has
come in handy in all of my positions — that communication piece is huge.
What skills have you relied on most as a sysadmin?
Besides communication, figuring out how to create some sort of business
plan, or explaining what you need and why you need it to an executive
team or VPs that have no idea what tech support needs. When I got my
master’s in technology management, a lot of the classes that I took were
about proving what the tech team needs is important, and proving that
to executives. If you’re looking for higher education beyond a bachelor’s
degree, focus on that management piece and how tech can fit in with
management.
What’s a typical day like for you?
I am a working manager, if you will, so I’m out there knocking out help
desk tickets as much as anybody else on my team might be. I am also in
charge of all procurement for hardware, and getting licensing up to date
for anybody that needs software licensing. I pretty much touch on every
single part of it at this point in my current position.
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What experiences and skills have been most
helpful to you in becoming a sysadmin?
Communication would be number one. The most important part of my job
is customer service, whether it’s employees or customers — my number
one priority is that they are satisfied with the IT service that my team is
providing them.
Listening is a big factor as well as communication, and then being able to
interpret customer needs into technical terms. All of my customer service
experience has helped me learn something new every single day, so if I
see something in our queue that I haven’t seen before, I can say, okay, time
to learn how to fix this. Being adaptable and willing to learn comes into
play in my job every day, more than anything else.
How has the field changed over the past six years?
It has changed a ton. I mean, if you’re a system administrator, you always
have to be on the lookout for what’s new, because as soon as something’s
a year old, it can get out of date.
I found, at a previous company that I was at, they were very hesitant to
implement new technology, and they are suffering for it — just because it
is more expensive now to make such a large leap rather than doing incre-
mental updates every so often to their technology. It has changed a lot,
and it’s going to continue to change regularly as new technologies come
towards us.
It’s changed so much even in the past three months — I’ve been so much
busier since work from home started, just because we had to implement
new systems and additional resources to get all these people remotely set
up on our network. It’s a whole new ballgame now, which is interesting.
What’s it been like navigating a very male
dominated landscape?
It’s been tough at times, definitely. It’s uncomfortable a lot of the time to be
the only woman in a room everywhere you go. But I think I’ve really been
true to myself, and I’ve made it a point to not change how I act or who I am
when I’m around on an all-male team.
Luckily for me, I’ve had few negative experiences with somebody being
rude to me or talking down to me or treating me differently just because
I’m a woman.
Even so, it’s obvious and I notice it everywhere I go, and every team that
I’m on, even in college, in my computer science classes, I was the only
woman in the room. So it’s hard.
Now I’m excited because the further I get into my career, the more women
I see, and I think that they bring a different element into it, with their
compassion, communication and customer service skills that a lot of men
haven’t had to think about. I think women are bringing a different element
into computer science because of their more nurturing side, if you will.
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What steps do you think workplaces can do to
encourage more diversity and more female
representation in their tech departments?
For classes, it’s definitely hard, because you need to get girls to be interest-
ed in those majors. I think showing them that there are females out there
that are just like them would definitely help with that.
I think we really need to encourage women to get the training and apply
for the jobs that they are interested in, and not be discouraged. The more
that women get together, the better it’ll be for all of us. I’m in a few meetup
groups in Denver that are for women in tech, and getting together with
like-minded women that are experiencing similar things as me in the
workplace has been great. So creating alliances there is super important
as well, so that you don’t feel so alone.
What kind of challenges have you encountered?
A lot of it has to do with my age in addition to being female. I am on the
younger side for being in a management role, and that, combined with
being a woman, I get comments. People call me sweetheart. They don’t
focus on my skill —- their mindset will be, oh, thank god we have Katie,
she can be the token girl on our team. I’ve had a manager in the past that
definitely talked down to me, and just like downplayed my role because I
was leading the IT department at the time for the whole company, and he
just did not take me seriously at all compared to how he took the man that
was in my position beforehand.
Sometimes guys will tell me, you’re just like my daughter, and I think they
can’t get past that — “You’re like my daughter, how am I supposed to treat
you like an equal?” And it kind of sucks, but I’ve gotten used to it. And
honestly I don’t take it personally — I am confident in my skills and I have a
great job, and the people that I work with now are phenomenal.
I would definitely say if you’re a woman in a position where you’re being
treated unfairly, or you aren’t valued because of your gender, move on and
find somewhere that isn’t gonna treat you like that.
What advice would you have for someone starting
out as a sysadmin?
For students, I’d say branch out a little bit with your elective classes that
you have an opportunity to take and try to fit in some business classes or
communication classes. Don’t solely rely on your technical skills, because
that can be taught on the job — whereas things like communication skills
you’re going to need from the get go.
For women: Try not to let them give you that “sweetheart, you’re just like
my daughter” kind of attitude from the beginning. Make it clear from the
start that you know what your skills are, and you know your value. Don’t
let anybody make you feel otherwise and don’t settle because there are
opportunities and places that will hire you and treat you equally.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
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Topics You Should Know
What is SD-WAN?
A software-defined wide-area network (SD-WAN), is a network that is
abstracted from its hardware, creating a virtualized network overlay. Oper-
ators can remotely manage and quickly scale this overlay, which can span
over large geographical distances. It is an application of software-defined
networking (SDN).
Read more
The Essentials of SD-WAN Architecture
SD-WAN is an overlay architecture providing a networking foundation
that is much easier to manage than legacy WANs, essentially moving the
control layer to the cloud — and in the process, centralizing and simplify-
ing network management. This overlay design abstracts software from
hardware, enabling network virtualization and making the network more
elastic.
Read more
SD-Branch vs SD-WAN: What’s the Difference?
The difference between SD-branch and SD-WAN is that SD-branch is
the broad concept of applying software-defined principles to branch net-
working, and SD-WAN is a tool to help make that happen. Thought about
another way, SD-branch advances SD-WAN by holistically extending the
virtualization and intelligence of a software-defined WAN into the branch
IT infrastructure.
Read more
SASE vs SD-WAN: A Comparison
Secure access service edge (SASE) and SD-WAN are two networking
technologies designed to connect geographically disparate endpoints to
a central source of data and application resources. SD-WAN uses a virtu-
alized network overlay to connect and remotely manage branch offices.
SASE focuses on connecting individual endpoints to the cloud.
Read more
What is Cloud Infrastructure?
Cloud infrastructure is the collection of server hardware, networking gear,
storage resources, and software that is needed to build applications that
can be accessed by the cloud. In a cloud infrastructure, applications can
be accessed remotely using various types of networks, such as wide-area
networks (WANs), telecom services, and the internet.
Read more
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What is Cloud Migration?
Cloud migration is when an organization transfers applications and asso-
ciated data from on-premises data centers to the cloud. These applica-
tions can be applications an organization made itself or were purchased
to serve a business-critical function.
Read more
Rapidly Scaling IT Infrastructure For Remote
Workers
Scaling IT infrastructure to support the sudden shift to remmote work
was a struggle for IT teams, resulting in a migration to cloud-based
applications and solutions, a rush on hardware that can support a remote
environment, and challenges scaling VPNs .
Read more
Datacenter Security and Network Virtualization
Datacenter security refers to the process of using physical and virtual
components (such as firewalls) to protect a data center from malicious
activity. In recent years, network virtualization has improved and expand-
ed the security tools available to data center operators.
Read more
IT Security Risk Management Best Practices
IT security risk management is the practice of identifying what security
risks exist for an organization and taking steps to mitigate those risks.
Those steps can include using software, hardware, and personnel training
to keep an environment secure from multiple threat vectors.
Read more
How is the Internet of Things (IoT) Vulnerable?
Internet of Things (IoT) vulnerabilities stem from the tendencies of the
devices to have low computational power and hardware limitations that
don’t allow for built-in security features. On top of that, IoT devices may
sacrifice security in order to be first to market.
Read more
Notes

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