Ask Slashdot: Getting Exchange and SQL Experience?

First time accepted submitter william.meaney1 writes "I'm the sole network admin at a 25 person company. I was lucky enough to get the opportunity less than a year after getting a technical degree in IT. I've had some huge opportunities here (for a first time network admin). After my schooling, I went ahead and I'm now CompTIA A+, Network+, and CCNA certified. Now, being hired out of school, I was grateful for the job, and the boss hired me for peanuts (Less than $30,000/year) I've been living at home, using that money for loan payments, car payments, and certification expenses. I've started looking for other work, and I feel more than qualified for most of the requirements I'm seeing. The big hurdle I'm coming across that EVERYONE seems to want is experience with SQL databases, and Microsoft Exchange. I was wondering if anyone had any ideas for getting usable experience on a low budget. I have some SQL experience, I deployed a source control program here that uses a SQL express backend, but what else do you need to know for database maintenance?"

Comments

Just do it

[gewalker]

Install some critical app (without permission if necessary) on your current corp. network that uses SQL server -- Presto, instant experience.

Re:Just do it

[jellomizer]

Well to avoid getting the experience of getting yelled at for being stupid.
You can get Microsoft SQL Server Express. While it doesn't have some advanced features it does have enough to give you some experience.
Go threw Micorosfts SQL Server Management Studio, and Check out each feature and do some test examples until you understand them.
Make a Database, Add Tables, Create Views, Write TSQL Stored Procedures, Add triggers....
Install an other Type of Database server. and create a Link Server. Try to get them all to work togeter.
If you don't know how hit F1 for Help or Google it.

Re:Just do it

[thomasw_lrd]

Sometimes de-normalizing is better than normalization. It all depends on what you're requirements are. If you love normalization, then go work fro DMSI. They take normalization to the highest level.

Re:Just do it

[erpbridge]

"I see here on your resume that you have SQL experience. Can you tell me about some of the SQL deployments and experience that you were doing in your last job? How did you integrate that into your business requirements?"

Its exactly THIS sort of question, which I'm getting a bit, which trips people up who self learn. I'm getting it with VMware... I had VMware experience building, maintaining, updating machines... but never anything server side, and never anything on the farm level of things like vMotion. After I was let go at end of contract after 5 years on build team/CMDB remediation team, all the interview screen questions tended to focus toward vmWare and Exchange. So, I went out, got myself a beefy machine, installed vSphere 5.1 on it, and have done quite a few things with it... but that experience means SQUAT when you're sitting in front of a board which includes interviewing manager, vmWare SME, and a couple other general members of the IT team who are trying to probe you for you BUSINESS level experience.

There's a heck of a lot difference between test lab, and business level, and interviewers can ferret that out REAL quick.

Re:Just do it

[pastafazou]

You keep following the path you're on, you're liable to get burned....

Re:Just do it

[DuckDodgers]

I think the ability to learn on your own is itself a skill - and an essential one if you want to be good. Get SQL Server Express. Install it. Then use the official web documentation or a highly rated book on it. Start at page 1 and walk through the features. When it gets to a section on setting up foreign keys, use your SQL Server Express to set up foreign keys. When it describes backups, set up backups.

However, this is only half the work required. If he can't point to work experience with SQL Server, then a lot of potential employers don't care what he claims to know from self-study.

Re:Just do it

[BitZtream]

Then you are in the wrong industry.

Being able to learn for yourself is kind of a requirement. Its not hard, and yes, anyone can do it ... assuming you're not lazy.

Join MSDN Technet

[David E. Smith]

Nothing beats hands-on experience, so get some on the cheap. Get an MSDN Technet subscription; for $199 a year, you'll get free personal/learning licenses of SQL Server, Exchange, and just about every other big Microsoft program. Play with them. Set them up. Try to break them, then fix them.

Re:Join MSDN Technet

[tekiegreg]

^^^ This

I'd also like to add that if your budget is zero, SQL server express editions exist for free, they have a few restrictions on things such as DB Size, but should suit you well enough.

Re:Join MSDN Technet

[raydobbs]

Sadly, personal experience != 'experience' in the corporate sense. I've had this fight with IT recruiters and headhunters - they want experience in a corporate setting with corporate problems, not 'I dorked with it at home for x months or years'. Of course, people who actually know what the hell they need value ANY experience, so its not a complete waste - just getting to interview with them versus the HR drone can be the biggest problem.

Good advice on TechNet though - helps you get a leg up on new OSes and obscure software without having to buy those licenses separately. BIG COST SAVINGS!

Re:Join MSDN Technet

[jerpyro]

Personal experience can be 'experience' on your resume. What you need to do is to put them as 'personal projects' or 'side projects' instead of listing them as your job functions. Then, they will still trigger the keyword search, and it's enough to justify saying you have 'entry level experience' (which is MUCH better than not listing them at all). Better yet, once you have a little experience with them do a little consulting that makes use of that skill set.

ALWAYS work on your skill set. Don't wait for a position to come along to allow you to do it.

Re:Join MSDN Technet

[Volshebnyj Molotok]

You can also see if you can get some of this software through Dreamspark for free. They have Windows Server editions, SQL Server Std editions, and other software that is at no cost to you as a student (or former student). You might have to check with your school first to see if they've set this up, but if they have, it's a great resource. You won't be able to get Exchange this way, but full versions of WinServer that you can use to set up a sandbox VM with a full version of MSSQL.

Re:Join MSDN Technet

[AmiMoJo]

This is good advice. I got my current position based on experience with open source projects I wrote and was able to demonstrate. Going to the interview with code print-outs in hand really helped.

Specialist IT recruiters barely know enough to turn their PCs on. All they do is look for keywords, copy/paste requirements from other similar jobs and then try to bullshit both you and their client into getting together. As long as you really do have the skills to do the job don't be afraid of bullshitting them too.

Re:Join MSDN Technet

[mjwx]

Specialist IT recruiters barely know enough to turn their PCs on. All they do is wait for the software to look for keywords, filter out any applicants with names like Gomez or Singh, copy/paste requirements from other similar jobs and then try to bullshit both you and their client into getting together. As long as you really do have the skills to do the job don't be afraid of bullshitting them too.

Fixed that for you.

Oh, they'll also reformat your CV into their standard and remove all your personal contact details.

Interviews with recruiters are 100% personality interviews. They dont give a crap about your professional skills, as we've both said they have no idea what they mean in the real world. The interview with the recruiters is just to size you up personalty wise, figure out if you fibbed (very obviously) on your resume and get permission to contact your references.

Take samples of your work to the actual interview. There you'll meet the technical interviewer although the non technical interviewers will be more interested in how you do things, not what you know (this is good because as a sysadmin, I cant cart a server farm around).

Re:Join MSDN Technet

[Xest]

Well said. Don't be afraid to lie to recruiters because they don't know what the hell they're on about, because it's a dirty messed up industry that pursues borderline illegal (and sometimes outright illegal) practices in the UK at least. It's a skill in itself knowing how to play these guys. There are a few good ones, but they're so very few and far between - you'll know them when you find them though, they're the ones that'll be genuinely honest with you, and you can be honest with. When you do find one of the few good ones, build up a rapport with them and stay in touch. They'll be happy to do this because if you're any good they know that one day it may be you paying them to find you some hires and not just them finding roles for you.

But to highlight AmiMoJo's point, I've had recruiters ask me "Do you know .NET 4?" to which I answer yes, and then they say "What about the .NET framework, do you know that too?" to which you don't even bother wasting your time trying to explain they're the same thing because half of them then think you're trying to blag your way out of not knowing it if you do anything other than say yes/no, so it's easier to actually blag, and just say "Yes". Similarly if they say "Do you know Visual Studio?" or whatever, just say yes, and if they ask what version, just say the highest, because yes, sometimes if you just say "2010 is the highest I've worked with" when 2012 is out then they'll literally filter you out because they don't understand that the difference between versions is so meaningless that it's entirely irrelevant to filtering you in/out for a job. Effectively you just have to tell them what they want to hear, even if that doesn't necessarily make sense or is utterly meaningless in terms of suitability for the job.

I used to think it was okay to bend the truth a little if you had an interview with someone who wanted you to know something that you didn't know that well but knew you could know inside out before you started if you got the job too. I'm not talking lying about SQL when you don't, but if for example they wanted to know if you had experience with a specific subset of it, like say, triggers, and you knew what they were, knew what they did, but didn't know the keywords and so forth off by heart and didn't have commercial experience with that specific small subset. But you know what? It's not worth it - if they want you to out and out have experience in that technology rather than simply recognise you're more than capable of learning it and being effective as anyone in it in short order then it's not the sort of place you want to work anyway so don't even waste your time - there's no point working somewhere that values rubber stamping of buzzwords over real actual ability to learn and do.

It's stupid of them to demand that level of knowledge because no one takes a job where they know everything in the job inside out and can do it with their eyes closed, if they did then they would be getting zero career progression from the role and would be bored within a day. Good employers recognise this explicitly and recruit based on you knowing a decent amount of what they need and being capable of learning the rest fairly easily. Bad ones expect you to know the most pointless minute details off by heart such as rarely used function names in the depths of some massive framework and aren't offering you any career progression so don't even waste your time trying to blag yourself a job with them.

So in summary, don't worry about what you say to recruiters, you'll be less full of shit than they are whatever you say to them, but don't waste time lying to the actual employers, if you feel you have to then you're either going for a job where you'll be genuinely out of your depth (and they'll probably find out shortly after in the interview when they probe you further), or you're going for a job where the employer is shit and has really nothing of value to offer you.

In all the best jobs I've ever had I've been able to be complet

"Just do it"?

[ArcadeMan]

Nike would like to have a word with you.

Work for a local IT company

[kullnd]

Work for a small IT company that provides services to small / medium businesses. Prove yourself there and get involved on as many projects as you can - You will get a ton of experience and learn more than you ever will sitting in corporate IT. It's not easy work if you are doing it right, but if experience is what you want - that is a good place to find it.

Re:Work for a local IT company

[Anonymous Coward]

So go out and get the support contracts on your own. Charge what you feel is acceptable. Let me know how well that goes for you.

Re:Work for a local IT company

[kullnd]

That's a bit extreme of an example - but yes - you are failing to take into account everything that goes into running these types of operations such as Software Licensing (Which is crazy expensive for their ticketing systems and remote management tools), tools, rent, utilities, insurance (General liability and Errors / Omissions, Bonding (really good idea if you have employees in this type of business), your benefits, your payroll taxes, marketing, the cost of doing sales (i.e. not making money to get money) ... the list goes on. If you think it's such a great deal for the owner, why don't you try it yourself - It's a lot harder to get by than you think.

Re:Work for a local IT company

[kullnd]

Considering I was being paid $20 an hour and when the company I was working for charged $95 an hour. I do believe that there is a problem.

$95/hr is split into:

Your $20/hr + (Plus any benefits, Federal taxes, blah, blah)
Plus the time that someone spent getting that client you just did $95 worth of work for
Plus the money that was spent marketing to get that client you just did $95 worth of work for
Plus the admin time that will be spent billing that client
Plus dealing with the clients that don't pay
Plus office rent, utilities, other office overhead that you probably have no clue about
Plus tools used to perform the work (ticketing system, remote access tools?) . Again, you probably have no clue how much that actually costs
Plus you were paid to drive to that client, and if using your own vehicle should have gotten mileage
In addition to the drive, you are likely not billing 100% of your time anyway - Company still pays you when you are not billable right?

Believe it or not, the Margin on those accounts is not that much. Does it make money? Well I hope so or your company will no longer exist - Does it make someone filthy rich? Probably not.

[OT] A+ = F

[Anonymous Coward]

Offtopic, but I'd drop the A+ certification from your resume. When we get applicants with A+ listed, then we assume that they don't know enough to know that it means nothing and we bin them.

Re:[OT] A+ = F

[alta]

Not sure who's rating this down but I agree with it. A+ screams geeksquad. We look at A+ as people who have low expectations in life. It's a pretty poor way to look at it, but that's life.

Re:[OT] A+ = F

[Bugler412]

Having interviewed a bunch of sysadmin candidates in recent history (technical interviews, I'm not an HR or management type) the single most important thing in our interviews is having enough knowledge to work through infrastructure or app scenarios "on the fly" in the course of the interview. We typically whiteboard a common simple app scenario (web front end/app server, sqlserver, storage, authentication source, fat client, and web client mix, firewalls, etc.) and discuss the architecture and securing of each section or connection of the scenario. Sufficient understanding to "think on your feet" is what's most important for us. We are somewhat atypical that way in my experience (I've been through a LOT of different shops in govt, private industry and now education), but thinking on your feet skills will never hurt you!

Re:[OT] A+ = F

[cbhacking]

Hell, if at all possible, customize your resume for *every* job. A pure Windows shop is unlikely to care how much Linux knowledge I have, so I remove that and use the space to play up my skills in Win-specific areas and soft skills. A non-developer job (for example, security test) may care that I know how to program, but isn't going to be very interested in my knowledge of software development lifecycles and so forth. A job in a leadership role (even if nobody reports to you) requires different soft skills than one where you're part of a team, which in turn requires different skills from one where you work alone.

Customize everything. Don't lie, and do have a good, general-purpose resume that you can use for almost any scenario, but if you really want to get hired you should go the extra mile and at least tweak things for each job where you have the opportunity. Additionally, you definitely need to write cover letters wherever possible. Keep them short, professional, and on topic, and ensure they are as well edited as is practically possible - poor grammar can lead to a mark against you just by making you look sloppy or uneducated - but unless your writing is absolutely terrible, they are well worth the time it takes. You want to stand out from the crowd.

Re:[OT] A+ = F

[greg1104]

I can usefully interview for sysadmins with a single question: "if you were paged that a [type of server used at the company] system is out of disk space, what would you do?" There's no right or wrong answer, but more experienced people will normally include a long list of things they've run into when that exact situation hit in previous work. Great answers include details on how to write a shell/Perl/Python program looking for common disk hogs. Bad ones discuss how to click on icons to check disk space.

In theory I can be fooled here by someone who just studied the topic deeply enough. But anyone who's done enough of that to rattle off a good sized list is someone likely to pick things up on the job too. And that's the most valuable skill of all.

The Software is Free

[paysonwelch]

I have been developing .NET apps for a long time and prior to that I was using LAMP. If you want to learn SQL you can get a free copy of Microsoft's development tools, specifically Sql Server Express 2012, and Visual Studio Express 2012. If you have zero sql experience I recommend picking up a book and learning that way to get started. As far as Exchange you should get some computers / servers to practice on, or a really good one and use Hyper-V for lab setups. Spin up several of their eval licenses and configure the eval version of Exchange on Active Directory. I also recommend going through the features / roles of Windows server. Basically jump in, get books where you need the deep knowledge, but nothing beats hands on experience. Learn to talk the talk and walk the walk. If you want a good practice server I recommend getting a Dell XS23-SB on eBay, I paid about $300 for mine, it has four "blades" that you can use. Or like I said get a kick-butt system and use Hyper-V.

Self teaching, followed by volunteer work

[they_call_me_quag]

I see this as a three step process:

(1) Use the other resources mentioned above to teach yourself SQL server and Exchange.

(2) Find a nonprofit agency in your area who needs help with their computing environment. Offer to help them on a volunteer (ie, unpaid) basis. Be sure this help includes working with SQL Server and Exchange. Be picky about this. Do not get involved with an agency where the work will not help you build your practical skill set. Also be sure that there is someone at the nonprofit agency who is willing to act as a reference for you at some point in the future. You don't have to explicitly ask this upfront, just be sure that the senior most person you can find knows enough about who you are to say nice things about you.

(3) Use this real life experience to help you land the next job on your way up the ladder.

(4) Optional: Continue working with the nonprofit agency if it makes you happy.

BTW... you can do steps 1 & 2 in parallel, ie start looking for a nonprofit while you are learning SQL Server and Exchange. Both steps might take a little time.

Re:Self teaching, followed by volunteer work

[Giskard Reventlov]

#2 can be substituted with "help solve other people's problems on online forums". There's a lot of homework BS on MSDN Forums, Stack Overflow, etc - but there are quite a few great, diverse, relevant questions as well. When I was learning SQL Server in an environment where it wasn't a large part of my job, I combined extensive reading (books & blogs) with solving other people's problems on online forums. I went from zero to intermediate/advanced in a couple of years, using this method.

Re:Self teaching, followed by volunteer work

[they_call_me_quag]

Helping on forums is not a bad thing, but I don't think it's an equal substitute for getting out of the house and doing real work for a nonprofit. Getting knee deep in the weeds at a real organization gives you a different level of experience than helping out on forums. Besides, there's nobody on the forums you can call on as a reference. Imagine how great it would be to have some senior person from the local food bank / animal shelter / literacy program / homeless shelter give a glowing reference to a potential employer.

Again... helping out on forums is not a bad thing, but I don't think it's a substitute for step #2.

Re:SQL

[jedidiah]

You bring up a good point. It's good to know the jargon. You don't have to necessarily have direct experience with all of that stuff or even expertise. But it is useful to know what nonsense is being thrown at you.

Start with SQL proper.

[Let's All Be Chinese]

Start at the beginning. Too many SQL users (including developers!) haven't a clue how to properly use it. As a DBA, you'll be called upon to provide that, among other things. So start with the theory and practice of SQL. Especially since it actually is founded upon fairly solid theory, meaning that if you know the theory the practice suddenly becomes a lot smoother. The rest will follow from that.

See db-class.org for a MOOC intro. If you've worked your way through that you'll know where to start looking for learning about the DBA-type things you'll need to do: Schemata, indices, query tuning, and then the subtler tuning like moving tables and indices around on disk or solid state or in-memory or what-have-you. And the basic knowledge will be useful any time a user asks for your DBA-hatted help.

As to exchange, it's crap, and you'll be better off knowing less about its internals. It's hairy and quirky and apt to eat your mail. In fact, it's not even a proper mail server: It's a suitable server for outlook, just as outlook is not a proper email client, but a suitable client to exchange. The combination means a lot of interop trouble that could've easily been avoided.

Since you'll be called upon to make it play ("nicely" is not in the books) with the rest of the world, again, start from principles. Learn how to set up an MTA, know how SMTP and IMAP work. Send yourself an email by telnet. Know what the various headers do. That MTA set up with matching IMAP server, don't have to be exchange at first, in fact it's better not to. Once you know how the rest of the world does it, you can learn how exchange fscks it all up, and how to keep the thing on a leash.

For bonus points, learn how to provide everything that exchange purports to provide ("collaboration" and calendaring and "syncing" and so on, as well as half-assed not-entirely-unlike-email type "messaging") using open-source software. Get that down smoothly (there are several ways and alternatives available these days) and you have another selling point: Providing a better experience with less cost.

That was what you're looking for, right? Points to sell yourself with?

Re:Start with SQL proper.

[asmkm22]

It doesn't matter if Exchange is crap or not. Your personal opinion is pointless if the companies he's applying for use it. Having said that, I personally don't see many issues with the Exchange servers I've maintained over the years, if they're setup properly.

Anyway, back on topic. Going into an interview for a position that requires experience with certain software, only to tell them that not only do you not have that experience, but that they shouldn't even be using the software in the first place, isn't likely to make for a good first impression.

Re:Start with SQL proper.

[Let's All Be Chinese]

It doesn't matter if Exchange is crap or not. Your personal opinion is pointless if the companies he's applying for use it.

It does, and the reason why is already in my previous post: It's a bad start to learn running email with. The question wasn't about running the software, it was about getting started, about learning to run it.

So learn this email thing properly first, then learn to tame exchange. It's not even much work, and certainly less than having to find out down the road, the hard way, your learned habits are bad ones, unlearning them, and re-learning better habits. It's about getting in the right frame of mind before filling it in with brand-specific experience. Might as well do it properly right away.

Beyond that, experienced admins (ie. a bit more capable than "operator" aka tape monkey) should be able not only to run multiple types and brands of systems, but also advise companies as to what are proper choices, in terms of both functionality to the user ("use") and administration ("maintenance").

Exchange is notorious for offering functionality that doesn't translate to the rest of the world (eg. "un-send"), among other tricks, while being high on maintenance and resource requirements. That is, there are opportunities for better service delivery and lower costs. But you won't be able to offer them if that one program is all you know.

That is another reason not to get hung up on one vendor's offerings, and for that you need interop. So start with software that does interop well, not with software whose vendor has a long, long track record of sabotaging interop in myriads of ways. Once you know how to do it properly, taming the improper stuff also becomes a lot easier.

Nowhere did I say to tell potential employers at the interview that they ought to be doing things differently. That doesn't work, of course. But if the employer is any good as an employer, you'll stick around for a while.

And then you can prove time and again that their decision to hire you was the right one (and get raises, if played right) if you can offer more than "exchange monkey"-type skills; if you can tell them how to get the same or more functionality out of less cost and resources. But to do that you need to do better than stick at "this one application"-level. It's a poor comfort zone to be in.

Might as well lay the groundwork now, even if the payoff is way in the future. We're talking building careers here. That's a multi-decade view.

Re:fresh grad as network admin

[SecurityTheatre]

For 30 staff? With a budget of $20k?

Sure... better than asking the Marketing director or sales admin to do the IT work (which is the other choice, given this budget).

Or do you expect them to hire an elder neckbeard at that salary?

this why IT need more trades / apprenticeships tha

[Joe_Dragon]

this why IT need more trades / apprenticeships that have ways to letter people learn. The trades schools are nice but should be more drop in to learn X skill.

Ask for a raise

[guruevi]

If you can't get a raise, then look for other work.

Given you know nothing of either Exchange or SQL... what do you do right now for websites, databases and e-mail? Get a handle on your own environment first, know how it works down to the detail.

Exchange and MSSQL Server are just implementations of an MTA and a database server. You've got to understand the principles first. I had minimal experience with MSSQL but when I moved from a hosting company using primarily MySQL to a manufacturing company using MSSQL, I had no issues understanding that it was slow because the tables didn't have any indexes or that it was unsafe to use in-code SQL statements.

I was going to just go eat...

[AdmV0rl0n]

But, I started out long ago. Here is how it rolled.

Started by accident. Foot in the door was someone I knew needed an AS/400 night operator. This job basically entailed loading tapes at given times, and handling print runs and batch jobs, and escalating where needed to 2nd line. That job ran for a while..
That place decided to downsize and change, but the AS/400 stuff gave me enough to go look for more. I ended up in a place with AS/400 and Novell. They moved across adding Win 3.1 and 3.11 and NT4 with MS mail.
This worked through 95 and 95b (at the same time at home at this stage I was running a mob of stuff, a Cyrix IBM 5x68 and some mixed Amiga gear. The office was moving through 286, 386, and 486 gear.
Carried on as AS/400 and PC support continued to cross over, with growing aspect on PCs and support.

Moved to London, carried on, the AS/400 stuff faded and I ended up full on covering PCs, Networks, Servers.
I've been through the whole MS family and I started on Exchange 5 through to the current 2010 release.

Cutting to the chase.
1. Get Technet. I don't know if current circumstances allow MSDN, but get a technet account. Anyone, and I mean anyone working with MS software, PC stuff in their job aspect should have a Technet account. No discussion. No If's, no But's.
2. One of the short comments above was one of the best. Get an MS virtual academy account, and get a trial of Azure.
3. I'll assume you already use virtualisation. If yes, hit 4. If no. Stop everything else. Now go explore Hyper V. Learn it. Learn how to set it up on domain (easier) - and off domain (who made this shit) - and go find a tool called coreconfig from codeplex.
4. Check 3 carefully. Check it again. Anything you are going to build in MS-SQL or with Exchange going forward will likely sit on Hyper V.
5. The requirements of single handedly working on a large scale MS structure of AD, MS-SQL, and Exchange - have basically gotten pretty huge. So large in fact you'll then need to become expert in System Centre. So, slow down. Start to work this carefully. If you plan to do this, and you really mean it, start with some core parts, like Hyper V, and build an exam path and qualify what you can as you go.
6. 5 is an enormous workload today in 2013. If anyone claims otherwise, I think they are talking shit. You are likely to end up majoring in parts, and being laymen in others. My suggestion is that if you choose to do Exchange, and you like it, then built it, test it, exam on it, and make the cert grade. If likewise you work on MS-SQL - and you like it, commit to a focus.
7. The world is full of laymen. Then numbers of people who know enough to be laymen is legion. There are way too few people who really know their shit. In the near future, the laymen are the ones who are heading out of this, don't be one of them.

8. IMHO, although I have said stuff in the above, I believe the above is an environment Microsoft are actively looking to kill, damage, reduce, and replace. As such, be exceptionally aware that you may take the above path and be heading for oblivion. Microsoft are buying more servers than anyone else at this time, and have done this for an extended period of time. Their sole intention to a greater degree is to make cloud their business, and make everyone else out there run their business on the MS cloud. And by MS cloud, I mean a non user serviceable cloud run by Jeffrey Snover level powershelling autobots, because the size and scale by intention is to make what I do now, and what I think you seek to do in near future - too expensive, too slow, and legacy. AD, PC management, Mail, and SQL won't be staying on our Local Lan's, and our users are already mobile. Areas like backup and system management will get automated out, or reduced. So, go look at point 2 carefully. The trial azure account, and learning azure to a level you were considering for Exchange and MS-SQL may be your first step along with Hyper V - and then you may take modifed roads on handling Exchange and MS-SQL azure versio

SQL?

[niado]

After a quick perusal of the comments I haven't seen this mentioned yet.

Dude, you have a CCNA.

You aren't exactly clear what your experience has entailed so far, but, (if you enjoy networking) you should try to continue down that path.

You're already a considerable way down the networking road with the CCNA. If you have been getting hands-on experience with Cisco gear at your current job, I would definitely leverage that to try and get a more networking-intensive position somewhere, where SQL experience would be superfluous.

Re:this why IT need more trades / apprenticeships

[mjwx]

this why IT need more trades / apprenticeships that have ways to letter people learn. The trades schools are nice but should be more drop in to learn X skill.

IT moves way too fast for that.

I didn't learn SQL until I was 5 years into my career. Virtualisation didn't start to take off until late last decade, now it's everywhere. The versions of Windows and Linux I would have done my apprenticeship on would have been obsolete a year after I finished. A carpenter almost never needs to update their skills after their apprenticeship, sysadmins always needs to be updating theirs.

IT education needs to be more focused on how things work, then extrapolate what you need to do, not how to do things by rote memorisation. In this regard it's more suited for the university style of education as opposed to an apprenticeship.

That being said, more companies need to offer paid internship (as opposed to an apprenticeship) for new sysadmins to get experience. Taking on juniors and giving them enough real world experience to turn them into seniors in a few years. This is the way it works in Australia where unpaid internships are illegal (The ATO and FWA will nail you to the wall for not paying staff).