Q: What are basics of what your daily job entails?
Client/server maintenance, package creation and deployment, user/group policy, user/groups creation/importation, end user support, scripting and keeping the back end running, and working with any other department on technology issues.
Q: Is Computer Networking Administrator what you thought or expected it to be?, Why, or why not?
It is different at every job, and it all depends on your duties. I have seen Network Admin and Project Manager share the same title/duties before at certain jobs. So a lot of times the Network Admin will be the Network Admin plus other things.
Q:What major obstacles did you have to overcome to get where you are now?
Major obstacles? None really, just hard work, dedication and time. Also a good willingness to learn new things. I never really stuck with any one single platform for a long time until I sort of specialized, but even then gotta learn new stuff.
Q
o you have interest in expanding on your education?
Every single day. Taught myself how to write code in bash and apple script, and currently teaching myself python and C++. After that I am going to probably learn a bit about Ruby, and I definitely want to learn more about networking hardware like Juniper and other non Cisco devices.
Q: What advice could you give a student such as myself?
Work hard, keep up with new technology, spread your knowledge into other things. I may not be a Network Administrator but I know plenty about routing, subnets, DNS, network protocols and ports, and so forth. So, always expand your knowledge as much as possible. Knowledge never hurts to have, only benefits.
Also, most importantly, don't be afraid to start somewhere. You won't land the best job for a few years to come. Just keep at it, and keep working. In IT you can almost take the mercenary approach and jump from job to job when the pay gets better and people actually expect you to do so in IT. Where as in other fields, it sort of looks bad on your resume when you jump from job to job so often. Each job is a stepping stone.
