A Title To Replace "Systems Administrator"?

sjanich writes "A discussion has begun at SAGE on an updated title to replace "Systems Administrator". I figure more sysadmins are reading Slashdot than are reading SAGEwire. Rob Kolstad of SAGE wrote: 'What in the world do we call the collective group of those people who make computers work properly? I'm not talking about users, and I'm not talking about software developers. I am thinking of: system administrators, LAN administrators, network administrators (both kinds!), security administrators, e-mail administrators, desktop support groups, database administrators, and all the other kinds of support that keep the IT function of an institution running -- what is this huge group called?' My favorite options are "Computer Infrastructure Practitioner" or "Computer Infrastructure Specialist". The original discussion can be found here at SAGEwire."

Comments

Um...

[lommer]

Computer Techs?

Seriously though, what's wrong with all the current names for these people? It's not like "Computer Infrastructure Specialist" is less verbose, which is the only problem I see with the current designations. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Re:What's wrong with the status quo?

[Anonymous Coward]

because they are becomming too common place. Everyone now knows what a Sys Admin does. As well as IT guys, etc.

If they make it more complicated their status goes back up to where they know more than the average person...

Just work it out...

[lakeland]

System administrators, LAN administrators, network administrators, security administrators, e-mail administrators, database administrators.

What do all these terms have in common? That's right, administrator. And what about System, LAN, network, security, email and database. Well, you'd have to go for something generic like computer.

Voila, new term: computer administrator. Though personally I don't see what is wrong with the specific terms they had before.

Each person should have the right to choose

[Blaine Hilton]

There are so many names that are possible. I see two solutions. One is where people can make up whatever title they choose, this is basically what's happening now, except only the managers and other bigwigs get to decide. The more thoughtful practice though would be to set some (inter)national standards, much like the W3C web standards. That way if you carry a certain title, it means a certain something, not like now where anybody can (and do) say they are anything and that really doesn't help anyone either.

Why does it need replacing....Is it broken?

[Dimes]

While my professional title changes per job(currently 'Sr. Systems Engineer"...oooo, impressive huh? ;)), my resume has said Systems Administrator for a while now. Personally I worked very hard to get that title.....and feel no need to change it. Sounds like the same as giving Unix a new name cause no one really knows what it means or is...what really matters is that the people who hire me(and they have yet to stop doing that) know exactly what it means and how important I am to them.

So? why do I need a new title?

Dimes

long titles == low status

[wfmcwalter]

There's a strong inverse correlation between job title and importance. Influential, important people have jobs like "doctor", "lawyer", "president". Doctors _aren't_ called "advanced internal healthcare treatment professional". Consequently, if you want to sound like a lowly prole with a job title that's supposed to make up for your tiny salary, get yourself a long title full of "power" words.

And my job description? I'm a

I prefer "Patrician" myself

[Black Jack Hyde]

A thousand years ago, we'd all be priests. Think about it.

1. There's a small number of priests who care for a much larger number of supplicants.
2. We speak arcane tongues (Perl/C/assembly/etc) not accessible to the general public.
3. The deeper areas of our server rooms/places of worship intimidate the masses.
4. Even the purported leaders defer to us when questions related to 'greater knowledge' come up in discussion.
5. Admit it, you'd love to indulge in an Inquisition at your workplace.
6. People come to us for deliverance when no one else can aid them.
7. Few beings are more frightening than an evil priest/BOFH.
8. Priests mostly do not socialize with the public at large.
9. Bread and wine == pizza and beer.
10. No priest or admin will turn down a monetary offering.

Jack

Re:Descriptive

[disc-chord]

Keep it simple and descriptive:
technological janitors.

I prefer the term "Custodian". It is a better description of the job. Face it, if you're not a developer you're a care-taker.

My suggestions:
Custodian of Technology
Infrastructure Custodian
Grounds-Keeper Willy

To quote a letter my friend wrote to his boss

[t0qer]

I'm sick and tired of being the corporate whipping boy for the executive staff.

Re:You call them...

[mmol_6453]

As the tech support for a small ISP, I'm usually referred to as "that nice {boy|man}" or "the help" depending on which customer you ask.

My bosses (two of them), when talking about me, refer to me as "my son," "our son" or "Mike." Makes sense, as we're just one small happy family.

But believe me, I hear ya. After serving as tech support for four years, I occasionally twitch when I hear the phone ring.

I recommend the following Scale

[EvilTwinSkippy]

First off, most professional titles confer a level of expertise, as well as the area. I propose the following for the computer field:

Specialites:

• Server - Management of a specific system, OS, and hardware
• Database - Management of a data set
• Network - Management or routers, switches, and network infrastructure
• Workstation - Helpdesk functions
• Systems - Management of all data-center operations (Server, Database, and Network)

Levels of Ability

• Apprentice - Your average precocious kid, or computer dude in the lab.
• Journeyman - Has worked with several different networks with at least 1 year of professional experience.
• Master - Has assembled a complete system within his/her specialty and kept it running for one full year.
• Engineer - Has designed a novel new system, published the design, and has supported the development for one year.
• Guru - Has been active in the Computer community for at least 5 years. Has a strong enough opinion about an issue to piss off as many poeple as he/she turns on. Is generally regarded simultaneously as Insane and Genius. Has a day job, but most of his/her fun stuff is done after hours.

Re:Joke

[drunk_as_in_beer]

Why not call them network engineers. Seems like every profession has stolen the engineering name to make themselves seem more important, why not IT people too?

Network engineer is taken, it refers to someone working in telecommunications.

Maybe administration engineer?

I thought they already stole the title "Systems En

[skintigh2]

Once upon a time my wife was a systems engineer. She engineered large defence systems for a gov't contracter and dealt with components and suppliers and integration and testing and documentation. Nothing to do with computers or networks.

Now that everyone who knows what a book looks like calls themself an engineer, it was only a matter of time before non-engineers began calling themselves systems engineers.

I suppose the arguement could be made that sysadmins are "computer system engineers", but there is no excuse to steal someone else's title. Go steal "computer engineer" as no real electrical engineer would call himself that.

Today, if my wife does a job search on her title, she gets a thousand hits for things she's never heard of.

My Titles

[JWSmythe]

Do I need a title change? I've changed the names I use online more frequently than my title. :)

I use "Senior Systems Administrator". If anyone questions what that includes, the answer is "yes". As far as I'm concerned, the full description is "The person directly responsible for any event within any part of the company."

I'm the company psycharist, listening to people's personal problems.

I'm the company mechanic, fixing broken cars in the parking lot.

I'm the company plumber, fixing broken sinks usually.

I'm the general handyman, fixing little things here and there.

I'm the electrical repair guy, changing fuses in microwaves, and repairing broken speaker wires.

I'm a customer support rep on occasion, when stupid calls get handed off to me.

I'm the always-available tax consultant.

I'm the free and usually right legal advice department (go find a lawyer, dammit)

I'm the company librarian, who can always point you to the right book or reference.

I'm the senior transportation coordinator, when someone needs a ride somewhere, or equipment needs transported between locations. Usually that also makes me the company driver too.

I'm the company accountant, explaining bills from various vendors to the boss, or even the vendor. (ask UUNet why they billed us $30k for a line they never installed).

I'm the air conditioning repair guy, resetting thermostats, replacing broken thermostats, repairing electrical problems in the A/C unit, and diagnosing further problems. I also end up designing ways to cool overheated rooms, and counsel people who are always too hot or too cold, and very frequently both.

And now on to more reasonable tasks.

I'm the printer and copier tech, fixing paper jams and cleaning rollers.

I'm Microsoft Technical Support (tm), helping every poor user who's MSIE, Outlook, or Windows (tm) product that doesn't work right. Oddly enough, Unix and Mac users don't come to me whining like the Windows users do.

I'm the bastard that has to explain that Microsoft programs do crash, and you will have to accept this. It doesn't matter to me that you worked on an Excel Spreadsheet for 6 hours before your machine blue-screened. No, I can't save your data when your machine is locked up. Yes, you should have saved it.

I'm the LAN specialist, diagnosing every time someone kicks a cable out of the wall.

I'm the Nortel tech, configuring, reconfiguring, and yet reconfiguring again the phone systems.

I'm the tech that cleans up the mess after you try to subcontract out the work for the phone system, and he leaves all the lines down and says "I don't know, maybe you need an upgrade. That'll be $6,000".

I'm the PC tech, repairing every little hardware problem they may have. No, covering all the holes on your PC to make it quieter is *NOT* a good idea (had that last week)

I'm the monitor repair guy, resizing you screen because you played with the buttons too much.

I'm the mouse repair man, cleaning the guk out of your mouse.

I'm the bastard that has to explain that when your drive crashes, the files are gone. And I love listening to users complain that they had their life's work on there, and I absolutely *HAVE* to get it back. Bribes don't help drive crashes, they tell me you think I'm lying to you.

I'm the Cisco engineer, who selects your routing hardware, and then configures it.

I'm the hardware engineer who selects the parts, and builds the servers to handle the requested capacity.

I'm the guy that uses a hammer, torch, and dremel to make your old case accomodate your new hardware, just because you refuse to do the simple thing and buy the right case.

I'm the network engineer who makes a network that'll handle your load, and laughs when you want a GigE lan for your 2 workstations on a 384K DSL.

Re:Wait a sec...

[bn557]

the one that always pissed me off was "techie".

"Hey Techie, how do I get it to print to this little dohicky printer thingy sitting on my desk again?"

"hey techie, blah blah blah"

I was in the Sirsi war room for a library... I don't believe it gets much worse than that.

P

Pixel Pusher...

[buffy]

I actually like my current title, as far as those things go...Chief IT Architect. Of course, I'm still also known as "The Computer Guy."

At a previous job, I made the progression in titles of Systems Engineer, Sr. Systems Engineer, Director of IT, and then VP of IT. Pretty spiffy title to end up with, but the kicker is that my job pretty much stayed the same the entire time. I only got to add doing client-facing meetings and some occasional power points or excel sheets. Most of the time I was left to do the real engineering work.

Regardless, my favorite title of all time has to be "Pixel Pusher." That was just a great business card to have.

-buf