the ADMIN pages

Today I spent the day shadowing a system administrator at The Palladium Group, a consulting firm on the north side of Chicago. Emile Harding, along with his boss, Danny Martin, and programmer Jim Watkins showed me the ropes and gave me an idea of what a day in the world of IT is like.

My first impression: hectic. Emile (who I spent the majority of my time with) was consistently working on 3-4 projects simultaneously. He seemed fairly used to it, but was not completely adjusted to the multi-tasking aspect. I got the impression that he was in IT for a career, and not for a love of technology. Not that there's anything wrong with that, it's just a different type of person than myself. And he definitely knows his stuff: Windows Server 2003, Exchange Server 2003/2007, print and file servers, domain controllers, Active Directory, Cisco hardware, mobile data networks...

I could definitely see myself getting into the whole routine of dividing my time and multi-tasking on projects, so this experience reaffirmed my desire to work as a system administrator.

My first few hours were kinda slow. I sat in Emile's office, taking everything in, watching him work, touring the server room, etc. But once he and Jim started working on a task that required the use of a mission-critical Linux box, I found my element. It turns out nobody in the office was highly specialized at Linux, so I helped them through configuring a remote backup agent, opening firewall ports, and other miscellaneous tasks. We spent the majority of our day working on the aforementioned backup software: Backup Exec by Symantec. Two phone calls to two hard-to-understand enterprise technical support agents took up most of our time, but because of our multi-tasking frenzy, we kept them on hold more than we were.

Other projects today: configuring a user's Blackberry to connect to the Exchange Server, waiting on a Dell technician to come in and replace the LCD screen on a busted notebook, locating and installing 64-bit drivers for the office printer, migrating a user's files to a new notebook, calling the phone company to change the caller ID name (from a recent merger), and troubleshooting password problems for a user from Palladium's Boston office.

I had a really enjoyable time today. Actually, I think "eye-opening" is the best word to describe it--I learned about the system architecture, software, and other skills needed to make it in IT. Not to mention the invaluable networking and personal connections I made--my LinkedIn profile is growing as I write this.

Looks like my goals for the next 10 years are set.

Another good article in today's Wall Street Journal.

The same Silicon Valley that outsourced thousands of IT jobs to India is bringing them back. Increasing salaries of skilled computer programmers are negating the value of keeping the jobs in India. An example from the article states salaries in India started at a mere quarter of what American programmers with similar experience would be paid, but the salaries demanded by skilled workers in India have now increased to 75% of a comparable American salary. This increase, combined with the time difference drawback, has caused companies to stop saving money by outsourcing high-level computer jobs.

The CEO of Intel was quoted as saying the wage inflation rate for engineers in India is four times that of America, and other estimates put it as much as 50%. America, by comparison, runs about a 3% wage inflation rate for the software industry.

This shift puts a new twist on the globalization debate. A 2005 study estimated that only 25% of India's computer engineers had the "language proficiency, cultural fit, and practical skills" to work for U.S. employers. Therefore, the highly skilled workers, supplemented by the half-million engineering graduates from India annually, have to keep up with the influx of U.S. software companies looking for their services. At the levels U.S. companies have been turning to outsourcing, answering this high level of demand was just improbable.

I'm a staunch libertarian at heart, but a (future) IT professional above all else, so I deviate slightly from the pro-outsourcing view of my political party. I'd like to think that a certain level of job security exists for those in my profession, so news like this gives me hope for the future (when I actually enter the job market).

Article: Tam, Pu-Wing, and Jackie Range. "Some in Silicon Valley Begin to Sour on India." Wall Street Journal 03 July 2007: A1, A15.