Windows System Administrator Profiles

The SA Profiles below represent a sampling of the various types of Windows System Administrators we've encountered.  Of course, the list is not all inclusive but we're pretty sure you'll find something in common with at least one of these profiles.

Take a moment to see where you fit.  Many of you will see yourself in more than one category.  Some of you will fit part here and part there.  A few will not fit anywhere.  We realize that everyone's experiences are unique.

In the near future, we plan to implement a coding system throughout all of our web sites and product lines that will help each type of SA find information targeted for their particular needs.  To send us a comment or suggestion about this page, see our Contact Page.

1. You're the SA because...well...it's your house.  Plus---you're the only one who (sort of) knows how you connected all of your stuff together.
2. Your job frequently requires you to bring work home.
3. Your home network is used mainly for sharing the Internet connection, printers and various other gadgets you have accumulated.
4. The network includes at least one personal desktop PC, one business desktop PC, and usually a business notebook computer.
5. You have the barest minimum amount of time and money (and sometimes, expertise) to administer this setup.
6. If it works, almost works, barely works or can be made to work for right this moment that will be good enough and you'll fix it later when you get some time.
7. Free software and free advice are put to maximum use.

1. You're the SA because you're the boss and all jobs that you don't hire someone else to do, are automatically your job.
2. You can't afford to hire a dedicated "computer" person.
3. You know enough to get by but you don't have the time to keep up with all the computer stuff and also run your "real" business.
4. You have probably had at least one major situation occur where you had to call in a local computer company and pay whatever they charged to get you back "up and running".
5. You know that there's a lot more you could do, even with the computers you already have, but you can't spare the time (or the money) right now to find out where to start.

1. You're the SA because your company can't/won't hire a dedicated administrator and you're the one who knows the most (or is perceived/expected to know the most) about computers, networks, the Internet, or your company's major application.
2. Your "real" job demands most of your time, and the little time you have for SA duties is usually spent answering end user questions and putting out fires.
3. You know that help is available (usually for free, or at a low cost) on the Internet but you just don't have the time to devote to researching and evaluating solutions.
4. Even a "free" solution takes time to understand, implement and maintain, especially since you're the one who has to live with it.
5. You know that if you could just get organized one time, you would be able to provide a much more stable and reliable network, making your job, and the jobs of your users, a whole lot more productive.

1. You're the SA because you (or your department) were the first to really use/need computers in your company/plant/office.
2. You learned what you could, wherever you could, (mostly by trial and error) and now you're the (only?) one who knows all those little detail things that are vital to the day to day operation of your company.
3. Over the years, you've set up all kinds of databases, spreadsheets, templates and batch files for yourself.  Now everybody in the office uses these and they all rely on you to update, maintain and explain everything about each and every one, almost every time they need to use them.
4. You would really like to export your brain and put it on the network so that you could get your work done while everyone else in the office gets the answers they need by querying the YourBrain database.

1. You're the SA because you were hired you to be the "Network Administrator".  It sounded like a good job but you never expected that most of your time would be spent doing "other stuff".
2. You average 50-60 hours per week, not counting on-call time, dialed-in time and general "thinking and worrying about the network" time.
3. If the network is down or an application is unavailable, it's up to you to find out why, fix the problem, and then explain why you didn't "plan better" so the problem wouldn't have happened in the first place.
4. All the bad guys in the world are trying to break into your network 24x7x365 but, even though you patch, update, upgrade and monitor for what seems like "all day, every day" you do have to sleep SOMETIME!

1. You're the SA because you built this network and nobody knows it like you.
2. You were hired when the network was (much) smaller than today, and although your responsibilities are much greater now, your staff is not.
3. You have several scripting and admin tools at your disposal but have a very limited time in which to learn or use these tools.
4. You tend to stick with the tools you know, even if better ones are available, because all your time is taken up just keeping the place running.
5. The scripting/automation that is in place is one of those things that (mostly) works, if you're the one running it.  But if something breaks, only you can fix it.
6. Nobody ever wants to let you take a day off because there are too many things that ONLY YOU can fix.

1. You're the SA because you were a good Engineer and now you've been "promoted".
2. You spend a major part of your time trying to organize yourself, your staff, your help desk and your many projects.
3. Another big chunk of time is spent in meetings, sending and responding to email, and other "admin stuff".
4. You have a lot of semi-mostly-automated scripts and processes running on a lot of servers and workstations but no one person or one method to organize the process of writing, maintaining and updating these scripts.
5. Every one of your staff has their own "toolbox" of utilities that they use for "their  scripts".  A single toolbox would go a long way towards making sure anyone's code can be made to run on anyone's else's server.  Scripting code that is NOT EASILY RE-USABLE is causing MUCH WASTED TIME.
6. It sure would help if scripts could be easily understood and maintained by someone other than the person who wrote the script.  Maybe even a less experienced staff member.  But your scripts do some complex things on a lot of different machines and the less experienced staff just can't follow all that cryptic code.

1. Your REAL JOB is probably one of the other SA types.
2. Your "test" network is usually in your house, which has the fastest Internet connection available in your area.
3. You have a variety of systems running as many different OS's and applications as you can get your hands on (for "testing", of course).
4. You try to apply the same methods and tools that you use for your network "at work" to your network "at home", but on a severely limited budget.
5. Most everyone you know is aware that you work "in computers", so they direct many of their questions/problems to you.
6. You frequently test new admin tools at home and then bring them to work if they're useful (and vice versa)

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