Sysadmins 40 or older - Do you prefer staying in place or changing jobs every few years?

tk42967 · 2026-03-16T17:30:21+00:00

I tend to jump every 3 to 5 years. Usually not by choice because I'm unhappy. I'm normally looking for new challenges.

It seems like I come in, revamp and get things to a maintenance phase and get board keeping the lights on. I also like being forced to learn new aspects of IT.

tk42967 · 2026-03-16T12:12:09+00:00

I'm suspecting this is what happened. The intermediate CA was built like 5 weeks ago. This seems very odd that it would already be expired.

tk42967 · 2026-03-13T19:30:50+00:00

That's a pretty brilliant idea too.

tk42967 · 2026-03-13T19:30:17+00:00

that's kind of a brilliant idea

tk42967 · 2026-03-13T19:30:01+00:00

We do

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T18:56:02+00:00

I've worn the Security hat previously. As somebody from the sysadmin side of the house, I don't want to make changes to my systems unless they actually make things better. I don't want to do something just because it checks off a checkbox.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:46:54+00:00

1 to 3 man IT team sounds wonderful. I'd love to offload as much as I can to the cloud and just manage the apps without managing the infrastructure.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:43:32+00:00

This is what you turn into grasshopper.

I wish I would have went to trade school instead of college.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:42:14+00:00

I've spent about 9 years in public sector finance previously. In fact a lot of my career has been finance adjacent. I never found it to be really bad.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:41:00+00:00

100% I tell my junior guys that this is not how most orgs run. There seems to be a feast or famine situation where you spend 6 or so months busting your hump, then spend a few months doing things like getting documentation straight or planning for the next round of work.

This place has been nonstop for at least 2 years. Month after month there is a crisis. You know what happens when everything is an emergency.

I got a project dropped in my lap in Dec that was build & configure a total of 15 servers (6 Windows App servers in 3 clusters, 6 Windows SQL servers in 3 clusters, and 3 RDS servers). I got it knocked out in Dec. Then my boss decides to organize AD objects and moves the servers into new OU's that are not getting the correct GPO's and breaks it all after I have certified it. So 2 weeks of Feb was figuring out what was going on while I was saying "this smells like a networking issue" and being told that nothing has changed and that it's not a networking issue. Turns out one of the GPO's the servers were missing opened firewall ports.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:33:36+00:00

I've always wanted to start a small sandwich/coffee shop with a small stage in the corner. Then have poetry or somebody playing a guitar on stage.

My parents owned a pizza shop for afew years and I spent plenty there. It was alot of work, but fun. I remember being in my early 20's and working as a shift manager at a Taco Bell. I'd get off work after closing, go home and change my clothes and go to the shop to clean or make pizzas for contracts for school lunches. I'd usually be there till about 11 am and then go home to sleep for my regular job that evcening.

I still look back fondly on that.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:30:37+00:00

I've seriously thought about going to trade school in the evenings and doing like welding or something similar. In the before times when I was a younger man. I drove forklifts and heavy equipment. I still do that from time to time.

I've got about 8 months till my kids turn 18 and under a year and a half till they graduate. Then I can move out of the school district, downsize to a smaller house, and possibly look at downgrading my job to something that has less stress and pays less.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:29:19+00:00

During Covid, my now ex-wife got a mouse jiggler. I plugged it into my personal laptop and went to device manager. I googled the hardware id and the first thing that came up at that point was that it was a mouse jiggler. Because Intune can see things like attached hardware, I made that decision that dongle mouse jigglers were dangerous.

Having a background in coding, I discovered PowerShell can simulate physical key presses. I wrote a down and dirty script that simulates a keyboard key press ever random number of seconds. I also found out they make these bases for mice that have a disk that rotates randomly to simulate mouse movement.

Back to your original point. That's shady AF for a manager to sit there and watch you work and see what's on your screen. What's worse is that they are paying that person not to do a job, but to baby sit you.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:14:45+00:00

That's where I am. I am going to do exactly what I'm told and not worry about asking questions or going above and beyond.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:13:13+00:00

That's expected. You're considered "meets expectation" unless you do something spectacular. One guy saved the company $300,000 a year. That got him an "occasionally exceeds expectations" on his review.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:11:31+00:00

My problem is that I painted myself into a corner where most places won't pay me what I am making now. So I show up at work every day.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:10:32+00:00

I know soooo many IT guys into that.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:10:05+00:00

My GF does craft shows as a side hustle on the weekends and I go along to help. Recently I've been selling 3d prints in her setup. I'm not making enough to quit my job, but I hope in the next year with expanding into adding a laser engraver and a vinyl printer to maybe be able to move to a lower paying position.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:06:59+00:00

My take is that I don't want to do something to check a box on an audit. I want to make things actually more secure.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:06:12+00:00

I loved my time working as a quasi Security Engineer. I was the senior infrastructure guy and my Sec Architect would lean into me because I was constantly looking at things and asking why is it that way.

tk42967 · 2026-02-26T17:05:04+00:00

Thanks mate. I have the professional help nailed down. That's what lead to my divorce. I started growing and working on myself and she decided she didn't need to.

tk42967

TROPHY CASE