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AIX Angst
I have been involved in AIX support and administration for neigh on 10 years and have over 15 years experience overall in many aspects of IT from service desk implementation to service management and problem management. After a couple of bad career moves within my last company I found myself faced with redundancy thanks to outsourcing to India.I've never been mentored and really want to move into solution design and architecture. I felt opportunity had finally found me when I took on a position on one of the largest IT projects in the UK as a senior AIX sys admin which I hoped I could use as a springboard to move on after a year or so working on the latest Series-P kit.
After fighting to get the basic controls in place whilst also building the infrastructure and working closely with project management, my current management team has done nothing but seek to push me backwards and away from infrastructure builds back down to basic support and change management, and I can't get a straight answer as to why. Consequently after 18 months my confidence is at rock bottom and my skills are becoming extremely rusty because I just don't have the opportunity to use them.
I now feel stuck because I'm not allowed on any courses, we have no test environment so I can't practice anything unless it's in support of a production environment issue. I don't feel capable of fulfilling the most basic of user roles, nevermind sys admin, and don't know how I can make the move into architecture.
I just don't know what to do to move on.
Comments
'Fighting to get the basic controls in place'. Is this a clue to why you find yourself in this situation?
I suspect you are thorough, passionate, detail-conscious individual who knows from your significant IT experience that there is a right way and a wrong way of approaching Systems projects.
That experience probably drives you to confront inadequacies in the Project and Solution, pushing hard for the optimum solution. Your passion is probably one of your greatest assets but at the same time your greatest weakness.
In my experience there are few Projects that have the funds or timescales to allow for the optimum solution and most experienced Project personal know this.
Depending on levels of committment and personal objectives they will do there bit to push for the best they can, but they are pragmatic in accepting something less, in fact sometimes you have to accept far less even though it goes against the grain. If you don't, you become another challenge within the project, unable to accept the status quo and potentially obstructing miles-stones from other peoples perspective.
People who do this will be sidelined, but often nobody will have the guts to tell them straight.
I don't mean to be patronising but you sound like you need a hard talking to and in the absence of a physical mentor I'll deliver it (take it in the spirit its meant):
Re-read what I've said and work out if I'm right. I might not be, but if I am it will easy to be in denial about it.
Realise you have passion and specialist IT skills. You have extremely marketable skills in the current economy.
Identify your weaknesses, I suspect you need to focus on your inter-personal skills, and that might be it!
Read the following exceptional books to understand where you might be going wrong: 'How to Win Friends and Influence People' and 'Emotional Intellegence'.
Consider going on a privately run Communications type course focusing on the approaches described in these books. It might sound wishy-washy, but a really good course could be life changing. The principles outlined in these books are applied by Millions worldwide.
Take ownership of your development. You can probably afford to go on courses yourself if you are serious about it, if not perhaps a Career Development Loan is an option. Invest in yourself.
Find a mentor. Open your eyes to those around you, you could find a mentor in unlikely places. A friend, a family member, a colleague that you respect. Don't assume people are not a right mentor for you without investigating their potential. Someone you have known for years might be a fantastic mentor.
Create an action plan to get back to your old-self (and some), perhaps this was the first step...
Good luck.
Ade - June 29, 2007 10:31 AM