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Marketing Yourself as an IT Jack-of-All-Trades?
ultimatemonty asks: "As an IT professional looking for a new job, I'm trying to figure out how to market myself as a 'jack-of-all-trades' IT worker. I'm currently employed at a medium sized university as a video conferencing specialist. I'm good (competent) at many IT related tasks (Linux server management, programming, Windows/Linux desktop support, video conferencing support, etc...), but specialize or excel in none of them, sort of like the lone IT manager in a small shop. What kinds of jobs would the you look for with this kind of work experience, and how would you market yourself (design your resume, cover letter, and so forth) to prospective employers so they get the full-breadth of your capabilities, without over-stating your abilities?"
Oh wait! You said Jack of all trades! My bad! I thought I saw 2 'f's there.
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
If you list a bunch of divergent technologies on your resume, and you describe yourself as a jack of all trades, employers basically see you as a junior admin with exposure to a lot of different technologies that really doesn't know all that much (especially given the huge number of resumes out there that list technologies in the "skills" section because the applicant once read about it in a magazine or something).
Tailor your resume to fit each specific job you apply for. If the job is Windows heavy, emphasize your Windows work on your resume. If the job is Linux heavy, emphasize your Linux work. Also, don't just list what you know, list what you've done. Tell them about your big project that saved the company $10 million. That sort of thing holds a lot more weight than telling them you once logged in to a VMS machine.
Basically, employers don't need to know and don't care about the full breadth of your capabilities: they care about what you can do for them. Do not just shotgun a laundry list resume to a thousand different companies, make sure each resume you send out specifically addresses how you can fill the need the company has, as evidenced by their job posting.
While a "Jack of all trades" is great you a hook to sell yourself on. Pick something you enjoy doing both as a hobby and for work and then become an expert in that field. If you really are competent then the step up from "good" to "great" shouldn't be that hard and great should be enough to get you the job except for very specialist roles.
Also be honest when you get interviews. There is nothing wrong with saying you have recently decided to aim at a particular area in which to become an expert.
You are worrying more about the problem than just getting on with it.
as a generalist, you could qualify as "sysadmin" at a smaller shop, which because of their IT budget, usually means "guy that knows how to do everything for us". I'd emphasize creative problem-solving abilities and a drive to arrive at good solutions quickly.
Of course, you'll want to avoid coming off too arrogant -- no one wants to hire an I.T. jackass-of-all-trades, but we all know a few!
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I found myself in a similar situation, and found a place that suits me perfectly. It's a small development shop. I'd definitely recommend trying to find a smaller company; the smaller, the more freedom you have to use all your skills. Seems the larger the company, the more specialized they believe their IT folks need to be. The smaller, the less particular jobs are a specific person's responsibility. Just my two cents.
"Actually, I enjoyed this in the same vague, horrible way I enjoyed the A-Team" P. Opus
I'm afraid that I have to report that, in my personal experience, this is a bad idea. Every time I have tried to qualify myself as being a specialist in more than one area (even when true) it has lead to me not getting the job in question. For your own sake, pick a specialty to sell yourself on. The rest of the knowledge will help you once you get in the door - but it will not help you get in the door.
I would say overstate what you know in your resume, any technology you have touched for more then 5min should be on there. If you are good at picking things up and understand how technology works in general you are way better off then 95% of IT workers out there. I work as a consultant and I see people with 10+ years of experience on a single product and in 20min of reading a manual i am more proficient in it and able to do more. There end up to be two types of people that interview you, one that looks for the bullet points and if you don't have them you don't move forward, second the tech person who should be more interested in your base knowledge and your ability to learn then knowing some small detail.
1. Apply for every job that looks halfway decent
2. Lie and say your an expert at whatever it is they want you to do.
3. Learn everything you don't know as fast as possible.
Isn't that essentially how I people become Jack-Of-All trades? Claim you can do something, learn it, do it.
If you're OK being THE IT guy, or one of very few, then any small shop is a good place to look.
As far as marketing, just be honest and be yourself. The better, smaller employers look for that, and being yourself helps make sure it's a good personality fit, which matters more in small shops as well.
while you may here this said quite a bit, tailor your resume for each position. Some are looking for server admins (knowing both solaris and windows) while others (like myself) hire very specific skills (Storage admins). For example,
I know many people go to EMC, HDS, IBM classes. Or because they know how to configure VxVM (veritas volume mgr) they consider themselves Storage Admins. I'm looking for what have they specifically done in their job as it pertains to the skillset I'm looking for. Have you implemented SRDF over FCIP? Explain in detail how you migrate from a disk array coming off of lease, to a new array.
Also, if I see a resume that has 500 technologies on it. It is my every right to ask about any one of them. Just to give you an example, one guy mentioned token ring, and I brought in a CCIE coworker that helped migrate quite a few token ring companies to fastethernet. I would much rather see a resume that showed exactly what you can contribute to my team, rather then the 500 technologies that you know how to use.
Surely, you don't put 'firefox, gmail and winamp' on your resume, but you probably know how to use those.
I've been on both sides of the desk with regards to IT staffing and interviews. The resume and cover letter were the least important factors. For me, the interview was most important, followed by professional references. This is not meant to belittle the value of a comprehensive and professionally done resume. I'm of the opinion that you should place more emphasis on the interview(s).
If I were the interviewer, I'd want to know that you can solve problems without creating more problems. That you know when you don't know an answer. That you know how to find the solution. That you're presentably dressed and groomed. That you are at least competent when it comes to communication and interpersonal relations. To me, these factors are more important than a list of operating systems you've administered. The "IT" part of "IT professional" is relatively easy, a solved problem at the very least. It's the "professional" part that eludes some people.
k.
"In spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart." - Anne Frank
I really think the next easiest option is to look at the things you have done and specialize in what you like the most. If you like programming, learn to program well, be able to answer basic questions like what is a linked list (or more complex questions) - learn one language well, as well as the basics of programming that you find in books like "Code Complete". If you like server management do that.
I am a UNIX systems administrator, and for me, even this is a very broad definition. I understand that firmware/time-of-day should be in sync across CPU/memory boards on Sun Enterprise 4000's, or that the file /etc/redhat-release is the file which shows which version of Red Hat you are running, but I can tell you it is very, very rare in interviews to find people who would know both those things. You're lucky if someone "strong in Linux" even knows that about Red Hat. I have to say that Solaris people tend to know their stuff better (and this is coming from a Linux fan). So I consider it difficult to bridge these two things, which are very close, and you are talking about all over the place.
My suggestion would be to specialize in one thing, and learn it well. I had to rank a Google job application on how well I knew something, I forget if the scale was 1-10 or not, but you should specialize in something and get to know it as a 9. Being a jack of all trade is fine, meaning having 3-6 ability in other things, but you should know one thing well - something you enjoy and think has a future. Once you master that one thing, then you can work on getting other things up to 9, but I meet so few people who are at level 10, 9, or even 8 for what I need, I would reiterate to learn one thing well. A real jack of all trades knows multiple things at say an 8 level, but that is rare. We have one where I work, but he knows many things at a high level. Someone who knows lots of things at a 4-6 level I generally find useless, in any environment.
I saw the headline and thought, "Why would I want to market myself as an IT Jack Ass?" and the thought crossed my head that it must work because so many IT people I meet should probably have a tail pinned on. Anyways I'm a programmer so this isn't exactly my discussion, but for me I am sort of a jack of all trades, with an extra emphasis on C/C++. This fits well with the modern shop that does a lot more C# these days, but still has needs for someone who has a good background in C.
"but money is the God of Algiers & Mahomet their prophet." - Rich. O'Bryen June 8th 1786
I am a unix sysadmin pimp, a really good web developer, a strong network admin, and I even know windows pretty well (and will tolerate a little of it when needed). So I have several resumes, one for each kind of job I might apply for. The current list is:
Unix sysadmin
Windows and Unix sysadmin/network admin
Network admin (cisco shit)
web developer
web admin (people who specifically want apache, tomcat, mysql, postgresql, etc)
Then just send the resume that suits the job. If you try to put all that on one resume, most people will assume you don't know any of them really well, or are just lying. Lots of people spend 6 months learning something, then the next 8 years trying their best to avoid learning anything else, so they are suspect of people who keep learning all the time.
If you are truly a generalist, then it should be easy to tailor the information on your resume to suit the position you're applying for and market the "extra" skills as a bonus when you land the interview. So if the position you are looking for is say an Exchange Administrator you list that as being a "Primary" skills and then list your other skills seperately. When hiring managers or HR people have to hunt around your resume to find what they are looking for they'll pass you over.
That said, if you want to do a mish mosh of just about anything you want to look at a smaller company that has a small IT team or maybe a start-up but start-ups eventually grow (or die) and you might find your self having to pick a role. Your other option here could also be contract work, it's a great way to do varying things provided you're only landed quick contracts.
In the end I'd advise you pick a specialty and see it through. Generalism is fine but if you want to be the best you specialize. Pick the one thing you're best at or love the most and pursue it with everything you got. You're general knowledge will never be wasted, everything ties together in one way or another. I was a bit of a generalist too and when I really focused on my speciality my general knowledge really paid off since I could always talk about my work in the larger context of what was going on.
Oops, how did this get here?
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I currently work as the "sysadmin" at a small business (100 employees) and it is a hassle sometimes.
They (management) don't provide an adequate IT budget, so I basically can only buy things when something breaks. They don't take IT very seriously, and have no foresight, so when something does break, it causes a lot of problems. So for example, instead of replacing a server after a reasonable time, they prefer to wait until it dies before replacing it.
They are constantly looking to cut corners, which has become very tiring. The network infrastructure was installed by a previous sysadmin who didn't know how to do wiring. He was aparently fired because the network performance was terrible and he couldn't fix it. Needless to day, it has been in serious need of upgrading for years. Management refuses to pay to fix it because "we're moving". Of course, the move to a new building is constantly being delayed, more than a year at this point.
Luckily, I just received a job offer at a less small business (200 employees), so hopefully it will be better.
When your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail. By commanding diverse technology, you're able to develop solutions to best suit the customer rather than just doing what you did everywhere else. If you want to make an analogy to the medical field, while there are specialists for feet, brain surgery, etc, at the end of the day, you call a doctor for your initial diagnosis, not a neurosurgeon.
Another thing you can do that no one else can is a nuts-to-bolts solution from the bottom up from a problem -- you can manage a solution from the get-go rather than being "the oracle guy". Large consulting companies like IBM do solutions that are sometimes agnostic w.r.t. implementation.
Lastly, you're an independent worker -- you can find solutions where none exist! This is terrific for many positions.
Some ideas of places where you'd be good: I work for a large software company who does road shows regularly. There's an IT guy who goes to set up our servers/clients/etc who needs to know how all of it works -- he can't call the database guy to help him. Freelance IT Professional -- there's quite a few places (car dealerships, small businesses, etc) which need IT infrastructure but can't pay for a full-time IT guy. Just ask around, you'll be surprised at how many places need help (and how well it pays) and you're one of the few people who could do it (warning: requires people-skills). Last idea: larger consulting company like IBM. IBM builds call centers and stuff all over the place and needs people who can implement solutions as well as think them up to work in existing IT environments.
You sound like a very qualified employee who I'd rather hire than the "oracle guy", since I bet you can learn oracle whereas other IT guys get stuck in specialization ruts.
-- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
That's the title.
Some places think a Network Admin is someone who administers a network. They're wrong.
Those are called Network specialists or something like that.
Generally a company of 20 to 100 employees hires one IT guy to support all desktops, the servers if any, the website, Internet connection, managers' blackberries, the occasional phone issue and the president's home computer (and his children's Xbox). That my friend, is a network administrator, occasionally called a system administrator.
IT Technician, IT Administrator or IT guy are also used. As soon as you hit 2 IT employees, you are called an IT manager and everyone stops worrying about what to call you while you start looking for IT Director jobs on dice all day.
"Give orange me give eat orange me eat orange give me eat orange give me you." -Nim Chimpsky
Jack of all trades, Master of none! Pick something.
Si vis pacem, para bellum! For evil to succeed good men need only do nothing!
I have a computer information system: web design bachelors and currently work at the university as a peer tutor. I'm a jack-of-all trades. I have an animation associates as well. Some programming experience, some graphic design experience. I know the whole Microsoft Suite, Photoshop, XHTML, CSS.
I figured I'd just go for an Masters in Business Administration, then go for management. As a manager I would be able to use most all my skills.
I'm still trying to find that first job to get the experience, while going to graduate school, so I'm in the same basket as the poster. If anyone knows how I could market myself, as a jack-of-all-trades, that'd be great. Thanks
"To be is to do." --Socrates
"To do is to be." -- Aristotle
"Do-Be-Do-Be-Do..." --Sinatra
It really depends. Your targets probably are small shops and startups, particularly if you have any real experience, unless you can find a position that touches the bulk of your skillset.
My own resume is about 5 years of programming, a year or so of build/release, and 6 years of QA, along with a lot of general IT and strategic skills. For a while, I had problems with dilution--I wasn't really in the programming space anymore, didn't have enough build/release to be more than junior there, and didn't have enough QA to make it a slam dunk to pay me at my overall experience level.
In my case, I went to software test automation, which synthesizes all these skills, and have done quite well in that space. But in addition, I regularly get hit up by startups who want to cover two or three hats with one person. Eventually, with enough experience, you'll be in demand if you can ride out those early years.
The trick, if you go that route, is you really need to be quite competent in everything you sell yourself as (or at least be able to inspire confidence until you can get to the man page or O'Reilly book). Otherwise, you're only really as marketable as your best skill. That's why it can just be a lot easier to concentrate on one thing. Of course, if that skill goes overseas or otherwise becomes obsolete in the local workforce, you're screwed.
Because companies that aren't looking for specialists are usually too poor to hire all the positions they require. In fact, look up the origin of the phrase "Jack of all trades" and you will end up at the word journeyman. It pretty much is a concept that is interchangeable with systemic poverty. Go find a specialty, or get used to being underpaid.
I scream. You scream. I assume that means we're both acquainted with the problem. We proceed.
Jack of all trades is usually what I'm referred to. As a result, I have a 3 page long resume with experience ranging from simple desktop tech, Win32 admin, Unix admin(Solaris, AIX, HP-UX, System V), Linux admin (RHEL 2-4), AS/400 ops, VAX admin, and now including QA and Test engineering. The scope of the resume leads potential employers to look at me as someone that adapst very easily (said to me by my current employer), and in this environment they need people like me. Soon I'm adding Java and C/C++ Developer to the resume, as they're asking that I brush up on these skills.
Try expanding your resume. The days of the one page resume are long gone.
Fifty watts per channel, baby cakes.
Those that employ Hammer-Engineers and Screwdriver-Engineers, as opposed to those who employ carpenters.
... "3, but I've been a sysadmin for 15 and did other backup software etc etc..", "No, we're looking for a Veritas Netbackup Engineer who did this for at least 5 years". These people see me as a junior netbackup "engineer" of 3 year experience and lots of totally irrelevant other history. As far as they care, I could have been shoveling shit for the rest of my career, it wouldn't matter. They can't see the relevance.
I'm in the same spot you are. I'm a coder, a sysadmin, I do server support, desktop support, network support, firewalls, routers, topology planning, you name it. Geek through and through.
My experience teaches me I'll NEVER be happy in a place that hires Hammer Engineers. Why? for one thing, because I'd be undervalued from day one ("How many years of experience do you have managing Veritas Netbackup?"
Now, if by any odd fate you'd end up working there, you'd be sitting among people who made a career of running Netbackup, or Solstice Disksuite, or BMC, or notepad, or whatever. People the majority of whom cannot manage their own windows box. People who don't meddle and tweak and experiment what they're given to, seeing themselves as specialists in their field and knowing nothing but ("You're a SOLARIS administrator! WHY are you wasting your time on practicing your coding skills?!")
This is, of course, an extreme case, but it's a real-life one I've worked on and hated every second.
Contributing factors are size of company, non-technical management (the level of management directly responsible for hiring the tech people, not senior management) that have limited capability of gouging how well a candidate fits a role other than by narrowing down the scope of the role to something their non-technical minds can grasp and putting a numeric estimate (# of years experience) on that. Companies with high employee turnover rates that use these narrow-scope-job-roles to easily replace people, etc.
I'm not an Open Source fanboy. I'm pragmatic both ends of the divide, and am just as good using paid solutions as unpaid ones. I'm for *thinking*, then doing what's best. These hammer-engineer-hiring companies typically stay away from the thinking bit, some having policies dictated by FUD-overfed clueless management. When I mentioned simple solutions like using some Open Source tools, I ran into a fucking concrete wall, just making me more frustrated.
I've since moved to a company that hires carpenters. ONLY carpenters. When I hit here, there were 3 of us taking care of a 300-odd-employee organization, ~100-200 servers, 3 int'l subsidiaries, and everything from PABX to desktops to servers. Needless to say, all three of us were complete JOAT's that had the required skills to put into production anything the organization required, given access to google, the net, and a reasonable amount of time to learn and implement the topic.
We've since become 8 people, and being a Jack-of-All-Trades is the only way one would ever get to work here. The sysadmins code, the coders can do their [linux!] desktop box without desktop support changing their diapers.
This kind of employer is YOUR home court. Whereas you would almost always be undervalued, underpromoted and underpaid at the former kind, here you are valued significantly higher than a specialized candidate. Needless to say, the proximity of likeminded individuals will very simply and in the most literal sense, make your work really really fun.
If I had a gazillion dollars, I'd quit my former job, yet I would keep working at this one because I enjoy it.
To narrow down the places you want to be looking for, look for the following:
1. Places that are not afraid to use open-source. More often then not (obviously not always) this requires people who "know their shit" to properly piece together and manage.
When I was looking for a job, I found the following search criteria to plug into job-ad searches to
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I'm a developer, sysadmin, software architect, system architect, business and functional analyst, in both unix and windows environments, and senior in a few high demand development environment: no one gives a flying duck. If its a software architect job, they don't give a flying duck about the system architecture. If its a developer job, they don't care about my Java experience if its a C# job. Even worse? They don't care about my C# experience if its a VB.NET job, and vice versa (wtf, there's like 6 keywords of difference and a slightly altered event model). So what I do? 1 resume per job I apply to. That works. Well. Just have to creatively word things out: "X years experience in .NET environments including Y years in C#". That catches the fish, while stating things as they are do not.
There are an awful lot of "that doesn't work" sort of replies, but I'd beg to differ.
The jobs are MUCH harder to find than specialized jobs, because you'll be working for a small firm- a startup, or some other limited size organization. They wont' be the ones posting on monster.com - craigslist, maybe, but not the big job sites.
If you don't find anything by casually looking around, you might want to get creative and inventive. I landed a job once by directly approaching the owner of a company who was growing 300% per year and selling the idea of "do it right from the start" sort of IT approach. Actually, it was a 6 month contract with the option to hire me at the end (which I refused, even though he wanted me). I set up Active Directory, established policies and procedures, built up their infrastructure, data storage, accounting and upgraded their workstations. I built their website into something useful instead of boring and empty and I built a helpdesk that could help manage the company as it grew bigger.
I'm currently "IT Director" for a small company. I only have one person working for me, but I'm paid alright. I think folks are right when they say that generalists have a salary cieling. It's a unfortunate truth that unless I'm willing to go into corporate middle-management where I could potentially make a ton of money, but be busy in board meetings and very rarely get my hands dirty, I'm stuck with a 5-figure salary. High 5-figures, but still stuck. However, within a startup, you can position yourself as a driver of ideas and perhaps end up in upper management as the company grows. There are additional benefits such as stock options, profit sharing and such, that are not available to your average specialized techie within the corporate world.
The stock options from my previous employer are starting to look very tantalizing as there are rumors of a buyout or IPO circulating. Suddenly, 10,000 shares begins to look like $500,000 and my time stuck behind a $70k salary quickly begins to morph into an actual paycheck of more than $200k per year, but on the other hand, a poor startup can end up costing you money as you find yourself working without pay now and then when money is tight, only to see the company fold just as you are expecting a Christmas bonus.
Fortunately, my recent experience has set me up as a bit of a security specialist and I've begun to do some contract work for a large security company, deploying firewalls, security appliances and such. This job, if i were to take it full time, would definitely be a 6-figure opportunity and would lead to potential future contracts with customers that often pay 6-figures for 6 months of work doing highly specialized security deployment and management.
There are 10 kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary and those who don't.
To rehash what others have said, you basically have two options... General purpose IT guy for a small company, or consulting. If I were you, I'd look at consulting. I think that any company in their right mind would be hesitant to turn over all of their IT operations to a guy who just came out of college. They are going to want someone with experience in the business world. The person who lands the JOAT position in a small shop needs some managerial experience, and proven skills when it comes to project management and interacting with other executives.
The consulting company that I left to work at my current position would be a perfect fit for you. They do general purpose IT consulting for small/medium sized businesses. They need a person who they can throw into the deep end of the pool who won't drown and won't bring down the systems while trying to troubleshoot the problem. Competent IT consulting shops are a lot like plumbers... there are a lot of them, but there are few competent ones. Therefore the competent ones are always up to their eyeballs in work and are often times looking for help. For what it's worth my boss found my replacement on Craigslist of all places. When I was searching around for jobs, I found that Dice was pretty tech recruiter biased and very position specific. They weren't looking for JOAT people. They were looking for "Systems Admin Level II" kind of positions.
Most sysadmins are jack-of-all-trades, so really your skills aren't out of the ordinary at all. In fact, they seem a bit lacking. I am a programmer by trade, however, I am also a hardcore networking enthusiast (should have gone for my CCIE when I had the chance) as well as Windows/UNIX sysadmin (for a few years of my career I was a NT admin).
If you really want to fatten your resume, you should beef up your networking expertise because that seems to be your weak point. No one cares about video conferencing specialist. Get your CCIE (probably the only cert that has any meaning whatsoever).
As to career path, depending on how young you are, take a crappy low-level job at a big company like a bank where you can get exposure to a lot of different technologies, but specialize in networking. Networking will always be crucial. If you want maybe sysadmin stuff, however, sysadmin work might just be relegated to India going forward.
You don't have 3 years .NET experience with RUP and Agile development methodologies. Forget it.
Another option is a field engineer. Many times, different remote jobs don't have the budget to hire a slew of specialists, and need a person who can deal with sysadmin work, but also do hardware troubleshooting, and general "anything to keep the system running" work. They'll know a little bit about everything in the system.
Your reality is lies and balderdash and I'm delighted to say that I have no grasp of it whatsoever. - Baron Munchausen
Aim higher. 10 years ago, I found myself in the same boat as you, just swap some buzzwords fpor my skills at that time (C/C++/Corba, X/Motif, POSIX-UNIX, Win32, MacOS, Admin, telephony, InstallShield, Oracle, DB2, MS-SQL, Nortel, Cisco, VPN, ...). I landed a consulting gig at double my prior salary as a Technical, Application, Network, Security, and Database Architect. I barely code anymore. Schedules, budgets and overall "Solution Designs" are what I do now. Nultiple teams of folks follow my designs through implementation. Everything from "add 3 disk drives to server", to upgrade our WAN for 20 locations from T1s to redundant DS3s (or better), to tell us what we need to run this $40M peice of software (about 76 servers it turned out).
There's enough technical work to be fun, enough control to be satifying, and enough really smart people working with me who are experts in each of THEIR fields, but I'm responsible for the overall architecture, budget, schedule, and any problems during and post implementation. We form a team, work together, I document what we plan to do, how much, how long, and present it to upper management for approval/rejection. The end customer usually works a business case, unless this is something like an email server migration, or other enterprise infrastructure project.
And the paycheck isn't bad either.
You really didn't specify what kind of company you prefer. And the answer to your question will come down to that particular preference.
If you want a job in any Mid-Enterprise ($200M to $1B annual revenue) size company or above, you will generally *NOT* be a jack of all trades. These companies generally have HR personnel, and are big enough that managers are generally not plopping down on Monster.com and finding resumes. As such, any HR person or recruiter is going to cull resumes (no matter where they get them from) based on a few keywords. If their looking for a NOC technician, they'll search for network, monitoring, Cisco (or whatever the infrastructure is) and maybe a few other key pieces (CiscoWorks, etc.). If they find a resume with those keywords duplicated a few times, especially over a few jobs, they'll pass it on to the hiring manager. If they don't see those words, they generally just bit-bucket it and move on.
As such, as many other have mentioned, if you are looking at any larger organization, you need to target your resume to a real job. Sending in resume's randomly not knowing what jobs are open won't work. Sure, they'll have a policy that resume's submitted need to be kept on file for X months, but my experience is that older stuff, which isn't fresh in the persons mind, just never gets dredged up.
For full disclosure, my company does IT staffing, although I'm not in that portion of the business. However, I've now seen that from the inside and out, and every company we work with, and every staffing firm we work with, they all work the same way.
Now, if you're going for a small company, with fewer than 100 employees and not much in the way of critical needs, then you can play the jack of all trades and get away with it. These companies can't/won't afford an expert in each technology, and mostly need someone with enough knowledge to keep the running on a day to day basis, as well as plan for the future as it comes along. However, such jobs can be a pain (you'll never know when you'll simply get deluged with 20 broken laptops in one day right after the email server gets hit with a spam onslaught and the local phone company suddenly decided to route your main DID number to another county. And they can also cause stress in the sense that in many of those companies you'll be close enough to top management that you'll be forced to interact with them, but many, if not all, won't have a clue about what you do. Justifying upgrades can be a real pain in the a$$, and the overtime can get old.
I have a good friend who works for a fairly famous small firm here in my town. He's the go-to guy for everything more complicated than an electrical pencil sharpener. The smartest thing he ever did was go to the owner early on and let her know that there were some things he couldn't do, some things he wouldn't do, and there were times when he wasn't going to be able to do them. For each of these things, he gave her a strategy for supporting them (say, having service contracts on ultra-high end printers, or having a local company that could provide on-site and phone support when he went on vacation a few times a year.
So it really depends on what you want, and what kind of company. You have to tailor your resume and job search to that segment.
And remember: the best jobs never get posted on the internet, but get snapped up via word of mouth within days of someone deciding they're going to hire someone. Never, ever underestimate the power of networking and talking and keeping in contact with people from your past.
Bill
I've been where you are and have found something out along the way. Specializing in a problem or set of problems will net you more than specializing in specific technologies. I personally specialize in architecture scalability largely in the web 2.0 sphere. It is something that requires fairly extensive knowledge of (and being able to design and implement) many technologies including systems, networks, storage, databases and code. Consulting marketed towards specific sets of problems might be your solution. Once you gain that kind of reputation, you won't be worrying about employment for a long time.
List all the schtuff you know and have done and send it to a professional resume writer. You won't like the result at all, but it is not meant for you, it is meant for the human resources manager that is standing between you and the job you want. Try this place: http://www.theladders.com/ You'll find the resume writers there too. It works. Believe me!
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
"If you're writing skills are that bad,"
Talk about how you saved somebody money and/or how you used technology to make people more productive. When you describe how you contributed to an organization you show that you know how to add value to an organization. Listing a half of a page of technologies does not say much about your ability to produce results.
Although you see yourself as a Jack of All Trades (Master of None), what you are really doing is connecting any and all kinds of computer systems together - Windows, Linux, Sun, Telephones, Video, ISDN, TCP/IP, Satcom, yadda, yadda - and integrating them into a working system. Sir, you are a Network Specialist. Market yourself as a Network Administrator. The reality is that there are many people like you out there, but most of them are not very good at it, since most don't know Jack about anything...
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
I provide user support in a medium-sized goverment enterprise. My users expect me to provide support for all things electrical, up to and including electric staplers, pencil sharpeners and personal space heaters! (Always fun to find those plugged into the same surge protector as their CPU...) Jack of all trades indeed.
And, no, not the kind that computers use. I'm wondering why no one has mentioned networking yet.
Some know just how to work HR, but I find I can't cold call on the typical HR weenie. They aren't geeks-- they don't care about technical stuff. They have extremely narrow views, and will dismiss as bragging and puffing up anything that doesn't fit their assumptions about what is possible. Might even count against you because they'll think you're lying. And they won't test you because they can't, they lack the imagination or knowledge. Or they'll do the "anything I don't understand can be done in six minutes" assessment and will totally fail to see the significance, difficulty, and greatness of some accomplishment. And count it against your communication skills if you try to explain, because you should've made it clear on the resume. Besides, they've got hundreds of resumes to get through for 2 or 3 positions. Short shrift is common and necessary. How exactly to tailor a resume for this arbitrary environment I've never figured out.
The best way is through recommendations. Get a trusted person's glowing recommendation, and skip right past HR to someone who has a need and so isn't going to fool around, can hire, and does have a clue. The resume is then just a list of the things you'd like to do, still needed, but no longer a target for a dart throwing contest.
Intellectual Property is a monopolistic, selfish, and defective concept. It is "tyranny over the mind of man"
ultimatemonty, we are a small software development company in Torrance, CA (Los Angeles area) and we have a really hard time finding a qualified system administrator. Send me your resume: zpdixon at gmail.com if you are in the Los Angeles area or willing to relocate. This is a serious request. We have Linux/OpenBSD/Windows servers, Windows/Linux workstations, we rely on and believe in open source, we buy and build most machines from newegg, the ambiance is great, and we are growing.
So send me your resume (or anybody else who is interested in this position).
I found myself in the same boat a few years ago, and rather than seek the low-paying, junior desk jockey jobs, I created a different resume for each field in which I was interested. They all listed the same positions, but played up specific aspects of each past job. For instance, if a potential employer was looking for a Linux guru to run a server farm, I listed my admin duties at the top of the bullet stack for my dot-com IT position, and followed them with a final "Other duties include graphic design, web programming and ferret farming." If the target employer was seeking Java development skills, however, I played that experience up first, and listed the network administration duties among the "other duties." Don't apply for jobs you don't think you're competent to perform, of course, but don't sell your skills in any particular field short if you know those are the ones they want to see (and you're qualified to do). Truth is, I've never seen an IT job (or wanted to see one) that ONLY required one skill. If you're a decent programmer and a quick learner, for example, it doesn't take long for you to become the expert your resume makes you out to be.
Help desk
dnuof eruc rof aixelsid
As much as everyone's telling you to specialize, play up a certain aspect of your resume, I say forget it.
... I ended up right back where I started, 10 years later. I've taken all the experience I learned along the way, in project management, in working with large scale systems, working with server farms, starting a business, developing products and even all the little grunt work in between and am applying it all at the company I first started out at. I'm highly compensated now and my future's pretty well set.
Bill yourself as the guy who can do everything. More importantly, convey your ability to learn new things, how flexible you are and how you can cut across different areas of knowledge and come up with novel solutions. But most of all, let them know you're the guy to go to. That you can be responsible for a project and see it through.
I started out in a small shop working for an extremely smart guy who believed in my potential. And while I left after six months, and went through a series of jobs where I fell in to half through dumb luck, the other half by marketing myself the way I told you to, and a myriad of consulting jobs picked up by both reputation and more dumb luck
What did take awhile to develop was the attitude and the accumulated experience to get recognized. It mostly happened for me around year 7 - everything began to change. Not only was I starting to look at work not as something to be suffered through and where I was underappreciated - but that it was a place where I could benefit by 1) making money 2) learn how to take care of business and 3) execute. This is also when the big money offers started to come in, for strange sounding or odd positions you can't find a million people to fill such as Technical Account Manager, Operations Expert etc.
Looking to hit a small shop where you're the jack-of-all-trades IT manager might not be a bad place to start. It'll help get you get used to being responsible to a T.
Always remember: you will be limited only by your imagination and the integrity you keep not only with others, but with yourself. Good luck.
... is watching you jack of!
Actually one of the hot IT areas now are working in Techical and Quality Analysists for Offshored ERP's and CRM's.
To design and test ways to assure that the company is getting back a product that they can use in their business, you need a wide background in IT fields: Multiple Server/Workstation Platforms, LAN, WAN, Routing, and Firewall deployement configuration Knowledge.
Could be areas you can look into.
27 years in IT. Hired before finishing 1st degree to manage mini-main systems. Novell certified and did many installs since '88. MSCE and TCP/IP proficient '94. Many large infrastructures CAT/Fiber I pulled and installed the racks. ... are a detriment to working in IT.
About 6 years ago, when I started to have trouble getting work to the newly degreed, I went back to school for a "new" CS. I have continued my graduate education in IT security.
I haven't worked in 6 years since At&t sold Broadband (previous @Home) to Comcast. I have little choice but to show on my resume that I have done it all. 23 of the 24 companies I worked for in the '90s went out of business within 6 months of my leaving. I know of at least 3 situations where outside vendors have lied about me to get me removed to sell their products to the companies. The one that is still in business told my employer that I am an ax murder to get me removed and literally only replaced the IBM CASES with Gateway CASES and said that with the new CASES would mean the company no longer needed ANY IT staff. It cost the company over 1 million and 6 months downtime to repair and the company today still has over $500,000 in costs per year due to the incident. So, I think their are a many situations on my resume that when or if contacted, my leaving caused the end or great loss of the business as well as a number of lies from murder to leader of a drug cartel.
I am a member of a number of UGs and am well known throughout the industry, but seem to be blackballed because of loyalty to the companies I worked for, not vendors. As a jack of all trades in IT, I will have to accept the fact that I am un-hire-able for the present time. I am a great interviewer, but it is inevitable that the department heads end up realizing that I am much more knowledgeable that they are in a number of areas and that their programs are wrong and vendor oriented. It turns out that being able to program, admin, sysop, manage, install
Luckily, I'm a kind of smart guy. I realized in '84 that data was worth money, not software or hardware. I started a data processing company that 23 year later is still considered the "great one" amongst the smaller DP firms. We had always been a "east coast" company, but 6 months ago we dropped all out east coast accounts and started working "west coast" It was a great decision and we are more profitable and management is much easier.
I have missed out on a number of opportunities over the last 27 years, but have caught the wave on others. One of my biggest detriments in IT is that I am honest. When MS said that Office was better than WP, I said it was a lie, and worked for WP. When they said that AD was better than NW, I said it was a lie, and supported Novell (still do today). When linux 1st got hot in the late '90s, I said it was great and wouldn't "disappear". I am part of a major LUG today and considered among many in the movement an expert on linux projects. I came out strongly against outsourcing and still today as the recent 2 year report states that outsourcing is much more expensive and the only money made in outsourcing is by the manager. I worked for ComputerWorld and made a ton of money on PC sales when the PC was introduced. I made a ton of money installing Novell in the late '80s. I made good money working for Fox Software and later for DB programming companies. Since I'd sysop'ed unix mains for 8 years, I made good money setting up network administration in IT departments in the early '90s. When cable moved into ISPs, I was responsible for 80% of the area installs with NT servers and routers. I made a number of web sites in '94-5, but after that the companies that were requesting web sites did not need them and were going to lose a lot of money, so those willing to lie to them telling them they'd get rich made sites for them. I taught CS for 6 years at a major institution. When the startups (i.e. @Home) started to get eaten up by the big boys with thousands of cisco routers, I made money.
Showing that you know a lo
Send me an email with resume if you would be interested in a consulting job in Spokane, WA.
"Friendly, experienced and motivated network admin who is comfortable working side-by-side with the client at their place of business. Duties include network installation and support. Some travel. "
I need someone who can learn to program and design databases also. Network Admins/Programmers are few and far between. Most people specialize-but we need people who can do both (works better for our small company).
email me at consulting a-t nhspokane*d o t*com
Veritas patesco per quaestio questio. Truth is revealed through questions.
Are you a wage slave? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wage_slavery
Slashdot = Sarcasm
This is the reason I submitted this to Slashdot - the community never fails to thoroughly answer a question that is asked of it! Thanks for all the advice and tips, and even the couple of job offers that were posted! I'm currently located in south Georgia (Valdosta, GA) and looking for something in the Atlanta, GA area (preferably north metro area), so if anyone has something to offer in that area, email me at ultimatemonty[at]gmail[dot]com
What I got out of all this is either start out with a small company where I can use my full skillset, or specialize and look at larger companies. I think I prefer small companies. Working at a mid-size university (12,000 students, ~5,000 employees) the past 7 years has taught me that I definitely can't stand dealing with the politics and bureaucratic BS of mid-size and larger firms. Unfortunately, I also know that I'll have to deal with it to some degree no matter where I end up, but a smaller shop seems more manageable and generally seems to be more relaxed, which I love. My current boss doesn't care what time I show up to work or what I wear, as long as what needs to get done, gets done. I doubt I find something even remotely close to this out in corporate America, but I can always hope =)
Thanks again for all the feedback!
--Monty
You don't really know what a true Jack of All Trades is, if you think there is one for IT. IT is only one trade.
In the IT world, the job title with a wide range of IT skills as you described is called a Systems Administrator. If you have some networking and telecoms experience on top of that, you can call yourself a Network Administrator. This is what corporations, large and small, hire. When larger companies need a specialist to perform a highly complicated job, say setting up a new windoze AD domain, they find someone who can do that job internally and task them with it. Small shops have JoATs out of necessity, but there is no real job growth, adventure, or chance to make it big. Your best bet is to network and find some startup with potential, as everyone at the startup will be performing every necessary job because they can't afford specialists.
I've met some Jacks of All Trades in my life, and they had one thing in common, they were willing to work in remote locations and they had one extremely valuable skill on top of the breadth of other skills. Ex-military for the most part, having learned a few extreme skills during their hitch, then combining those skills with many others. Deep sea underwater construction, land mine clearance, petroleum exploration, or supporting relief missions in trouble spots.
For a true Jack, IT (all of IT combined) is just one trade. Everything from compiling kernels, rebuilding power supplies, setting up satellite communication networks, fixing email servers, twiddling databases, configuring routers are all rolled up as just a single skill, a bullet point in a long list of other trades. When they are in a remote location and faced with technical problems, they overcome and move on. No corporation with an IT department ever needs someone like that.
In addition to IT skills, add to that a whole bunch of real world skills.
Be a pilot, able to fly both fixed and rotary wing craft. Be able to file international flight plans, deal with airport and fueling fees, and negotiate customs at airports. Many organisations want aircraft repair skills as well, for jobs far from civilization.
Drive a truck, one of the big ones for hauling 40 tonnes of goods, and the ability to get the truck across national borders. Diesel repair skills go along with that.
Welding seems to be a necessary skill for every JoAT I've met, along with some basic metalworking, carpentry, and electrical. 19" racks may be plentiful and in good repair in data centres where you work, but in the field you probably have to lash up a rack and cooling systems from the materials at hand.
Press relations, diplomacy, accounting, and a whole host of other trades that will allow you to work autonomously are necessary.
On top of all these other skills, every Jack I've ever known (and a few Jills), had one extreme specialisation. Doctors and nurses, ordinance disposal, undersea welding; each one required a tremendous amount of specialised learning, usually at the beginning of their career. They then added onto that base many other skills necessary for jobs that take them far from cubicle farms and obnoxious managers.
The myth of a Jack of All Trades also being limited to Master of None possibly stems from some hack Sci-Fi writer in the early 1980s, and just doesn't exist. If you don't have one skill completely in depth, abandon any hope of ever being hired for your breadth of skills.
If you want a job where your JoAT skills can help, you have to move completely outside of corporate IT life. Look at Medecins Sans Frontiers for an idea of what a real life JoAT needs to know. They often need support personnel for their medical missions, volunteers with a stipend. They won't even consider you without IT skills, radio communications, truck driving, repair of medical equipment, multiple languages, and a knowledge of security in hostile environments. You can learn some of it as you grow into the role, every ex-MSFer I've known swears it was
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
So, lemme gezzat straight :
Companies outsource their IT dev tems.
Companies then need new IT teams to make sure the Indians at the other end really understood what was asked.
So they're NOW hiring LOCAL people because it was SO MUCH CHEAPER to outsource the job in the first place? Is that even profitable?
Making laws based on opinions that stem up from false informations leads to witch hunts.
I chose to focus on UNIX/Linux and Enterprise Storage. I gave up on Networking/VPNs and Windows side administration. I think the focus helped my career path.
I am a "jack of all trades", and when I go to job interviews, they ask me what "I do". I list lots of things - starting with what they're looking for, and say "I'm a jack of all trades". And when they ask what I'm an expert in, I say (truthfully) "whatever I last used/did". And then go for the examples. As a contractor, this strategy of honesty has worked well for me. Don't over toot your own horn, and be frank. My 2 centavos worth.
And pranking my boss. He'll be very sad when he discovers we sold his mouse pad. http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1 &item=110148680540&ssPageName=STRK:MESE:IT&ih=001
Are you hiring, or do you see yourself doing so in the near future?
Aw screw that, just tell me what part of the world your located nearest (preferably large-city-wise) and I'll see if I can't move that way and impress ya.
At least give us a chance to obtain the sort of happiness you enjoy...
2^3 * 31 * 647
Small companies always need generalists to fill in the gaps in their IT structure. Just make sure you have a good cover letter that explains your skill philosophy.
Also, if you're interested in doing management or PMing, having a background as a generalist is golden.
if you like being hired for those sort of positions where they offer you $500 and a couple of weeks to build a cross-platform (windows 95 AND 98!) ACID multi-user threadsafe networked content management and document control system.
I recently graduated with an IT degree and looking to bolster my resume and experience. I am currently working in IT for a Fortune 500 company but I really low on the totem pole. I am mainly a network/server person w/ experience in Unix/Linux systems. Also, in importance of programming as a network admin what languages are important to have? Bash, perl, sql etc?
My question is what certifications would be worthwhile having? A+, CCNA, RHCE, MSCE etc? I have read that CCNA is really good to have for those looking to be network admins.
I have a similar background and tackled it the way you are considering and found it to be a huge waste of time, extraordinary stress on the marraige and a big-money sink.
Step 1: Get to a Senior management position first. You will need to burn a few personal relationships in the transitions. Surely a manager will disagree with me, but they will _never_ see it that way.
Step 2: Get a lot of management experience preferrably at multiple companies.
Step 3: Get MBA.
Step 4: Profit!
Going at it from the bottom has a very low probability of success. The only exception I can think of is an MBA from an East coast Ivy League school. Stanford is the only viable West Coast school big corporations consider valuable.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Take your wide breadth of knowledge and experience, and look beyond those specialty jobs people are talking about so much(e.g., sysadmin, db admin, pc tech). Consider something beyond that like computer forensics, or even network security or incident response, where broad knowledge and general theory can be more beneficial then specific expertise.
I think I should hope to be about that for this year, after my deducs, however I just started this position, so I'm trying to gauge myself against others who do about the same thing. I tend to undervalue myself, and have to break the habit.
Thanks for the response.
Unfortunately for myself I live in the Houston metro area, so yeah, cost-of-living is sufficiently higher than it was where I lived previously, but only by about ten percent.
Again, thx
2^3 * 31 * 647
In that case I probably also should mention that I started this job in 2000 and had significant pay raises (like, a dollar an hour type stuff) each of the first three or four years, though now with the budget cuts and the new director my raises have come down to earth a bit (more in line with inflation or a little higher, cost-of-living type stuff).
OTOH, like I said, this is a city of twelve thousand people in central Ohio, so the cost of living is fairly tame. If I took a job in a big city (even a big city in Ohio, like Columbus, much less someplace like Houston) I'd be looking for a substantial pay increase in the bargain, or else I wouldn't take it.
On the gripping hand, that may be partly because I do have several years of meaningful experience to put on my resume. When I didn't, I might have been willing to take less than what I got, if it was all that was on offer.
Finally, money is nice to have, but it is not the only consideration. My current job is about three blocks from my house, so I can walk to work; we're closed on Sundays; and I'm a little bit of a bibliophile, so working at a library is nice from that perspective. Plus I'm part time, which leaves me enough time for some of the other things I do with my life, without burning the candle at both ends. These things are all worth something to me as well.
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.