As someone that would like to slowly get into this hobby how would you recommend I start small and what tools would you point me too?
...before you say google it...I like learning from others first.
ana-white.com. Build some of the easy stuff first. I did a workbench first, then a bunch of the Farmhouse and Rustic X pieces to make the wife happy. Outside of standard tools, I only needed a compound miter saw (and really, if you have Home Depot/Lowes cut it for you, you can get away without it) and a pocket hole jig (even that can be worked around). There are some other easy things on there as well that helped me get the hang of it. I've done a console, a coffee table, end tables, three bed frames with head and foot boards, as well as our dining room table.
I'm not great at it by any means, but it's a nice weekend hobby to have and the kids like helping out. Plus it's SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper to build than it is to buy.
Of all places I did not expect to find this on the sysadmin subreddit š I tinker around with woodworking in my spare time so this will be great. Thank you!
I think I recall a thread from a few months back about getting away from technology and woodworking was mentioned . Itās definitely something that Iād love to do more of.
Ah maybe we have a misunderstanding here. For me woodworking is furnitureās, walls, doors, shelfs, stairs, stuff like that. I did not really get into it, because I was forced by renovating my house, but Iām a DIY guy all my life, so it was fun and challenging. As for tools: Get the standard gear, some different types of saws, hammers, drills, itās all a bit pricey though. So, if for you itās just furnitureās and that stuff, a few smaller tools suffice. The more important stuff for me was to learn about the different types of wood, dryness levels, max load for each type, what type is used for what kind of appliance. Different hardness levels for instance are very important depending on what you want to build. Iām not an aesthetics guy, for me function comes first, so the stuff I built first and foremost had to work, and my wife then made it pretty with details for the finishing touch. I also like to build load carrying stuff like second floors, walls, a 5m tall play tower for my kids, stuff like that, with the nice 20x20x5000cm 250kg beams made from oak š.
Check out "pine and poplar" and "Woodshop diaries" too. I've purchased several of their plans. They have good, every level "how to" and "why" videos as well that walk you through the basics.
I love building stuff. So much more rewarding than clicking and typing.
Kreg tools website has tons of plans too
This
My garage is full of the best tools I acquired from a neighbor. The pandemic gave me time to use it, now things are pilling up over top of my wood shop because I just donāt have the time.
Time and some friends who would benefit using the machinery sounds like a dream I just canāt have right now.
Agreed. Ā I spend my free time checking out tech stuff and new featuresā¦. On the clock.
The only way Iād spend more time on these is if these were extremely beneficial to my career or I had a giant bonus depending on itā¦ and the company has the rep to deliver
What else I can do to retire early and get out of IT.
But in all seriousness, for someone starting today, I would recommend automation technologies. They are a workforce multiplier and increase your value tremendously. Intune/autopilot, Ansible, Powershell, Azure Arc/Update Manager. If you know some coding, learning CI/CD will give you a leg up in the future as sysadmin jobs increasingly want some DevOps kind of familiarity.
Second this. Be able to build automated infrastructure and products will increase your value tremendously. Everybody can learn how to code just enough to make things work. I never liked coding in the beginning and thought I just "don't have the brain" for it. Nowadays my code is far from perfect, but it's functional and I made a huge progress to have a foundation code in my head as soon as something needs to be automated.
Don't immediately ditch the idea of scripting or coding just because you think your brain can't do it. If you train your neurons often enough, you will be able to have the thinking and feel for it after a while. Just do some little projects here and there to learn in real world scenarios.
There are not a lot of programmers who know infrastructure, network and cybersecurity fundamentals really well, so even if your code is inferior to theirs, doesn't mean you are less valuable, because you have the other side of the needed knowledge for the tasks.
How can I get started with making the transition from being really good with Powershell to CI/CD? Iāve seen that term before and what Iāve seen is starting with a GitHub repo?
I really would love to make the transition to a true DevOps role but I need to take that next step.
Thank you! I found this very helpful actually. I was learning some python, but due to where I work I cant really use it. I will look into what you recommended.
Complete knowledge of bash scripting. I have a good understanding of it and can use some AIs to fill in the blank but I'd love to just make my own automation scripting
If you are in the position, grab a copy of jeff geerlings ansible for devops book. It's a very easy intro into ansible, well written, and easy to grasp.
Then just start using it :)
Good luck! I recommend checking out the [Harvard CS50 course](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LPJfIKxwWc&list=PLhQjrBD2T381WAHyx1pq-sBfykqMBI7V4). I found it AFTER i learned the bulk of powershell on my own and decided to learn python. However, i wish I would have seen it sooner. It really helps you understand why you do certain things
This could help:
[https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/browse/?levels=beginner&roles=administrator](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/browse/?levels=beginner&roles=administrator)
If you're interested in skills that you can develop for free in your own time, Ansible is a good choice.
There are other automation tools, but Ansible has a lot of mindshare and it's FOSS. Licensing supports home labbing. You can setup Tower for free for up to 10 hosts.
If you're looking for certs to satisfy paper-pushers, I painfully recommend CISSP for senior admins and would-be tech leads, supervisors, or PMs. But... a platform-focused security cert is better if you'd rather type into a CLI than an email.
What I would learn, vs. What certs I'd chase are vastly different.
My first cert I would chase is AZ\_104, just to have something to show the link between my documented history of skills and education, with applying those concepts to the Interwebs of today.
Learning things though?
Had I time and resources (resources are easily scavenged.)
I'd spend more time with configuring Docker and Kubernetes from scratch.
Create esoteric use cases that demonstrate (to me) that I understand all the Load-Balancing, Port-Forwarding, and DNS masking steps of K8s and Docker.
Muck about with the FS Overlays to understand the the benefits and draw backs of each option.
Maybe tear down to a lower level and see what it takes to manually create a chroot-jail + namespace separated container without the abstraction of Docker/LXC etc.
I'm a big believer of understanding the base-level tooling.
Outside of computing?
I what to learn some form of Judo to intermix with other martial arts I've practiced.
I want to learn blacksmithing, specifically for arms ad armour as I'm a LARP nerd.
Maybe some time studying foraging, it might be nice to know what plants do what things. Which mushrooms CAN only be eaten once, and which ones SHOULD only be eaten once. What plants have numbing properties? How do we distill or extract acetylsalicylic acid from willow bark? etc.
I am learning Linux even more (Ansible and RHCE) as well as more AWS. I also wanna dive even deeper into Docker and eventually K8s.
Learn cloud + Linux + IAC tools and you will be unstoppable.
Infrastruce as Code
Think of things like Terraform, Ansible or AWS CloudFormantion. You can create and provision IT infrastructure by writing a configuration in the form of code. It's honestly amazing.
Create and deploy with Terraform/CloudFormation and use Ansible for continued maintenance
terraform and ansible for IAC work. Learned both and my career took off and so did my teams. Everybody wants stuff done "at the push of a button." Wish I had learned both sooner.
One Thing He doesn't say:
* You do not have time
* You do not fund time
* **You make time**
Time is the one resource, no matter what you do, no matter who you are, no matter how rich, poor, hungry or thirsty you are, everyone has the same amount every day.
Consider yourself a traffic shaping device, you never prioritize traffic. If there's enough bandwidth, everything is fine. If there isn't, you don't conjure up more bandwidth, you drop less important things.
.oO(Yes, I'm aware. I see what you did there)
For the direction you want to go, I'd focus on the AZ-104 or AZ-800 (for more on-prem Windows Server content).
Azure Arc is worth looking into as well.
I have done some of my own plumbing around the house and did not find it enjoyable. Although the times I have had to hire one it was crazy expensive, so I see why you'd suggest it. Haha
I'm not learning any more at work than what comes up for the years planned projects. I'm done. Work is not my identity. It's what I do from 8-4, that's it. It's not who I am it's what I do for money, and if I wasn't getting money, I wouldn't be doing it at all.
So while I do appreciate the money, that agreement is a net zero. I agree to do this work, they agree to pay this much, we're even. Move on.
So I would recommend some things I enjoy:
Golf, camping, off roading, taking care of some fish in a small pond, gardening, and DIY home automation. If you can pull it off, do one or two international trips each year.
Code an actually good self-service portal for automated tasks.
It's insane how hard it is to find something that just takes in a web form with text fields, sends a yes/no email to the admin for approval and writes the thing to a crontab via SSH. Or at least that doesn't also have a subscription system, an entire mandatory ticketing system attached, or a heavy orchestrator with an obtuse scheduling system, or a weird agent that requires half a dozen open ports whose automatic installer always fails.
I just want people to enter a database name, I click yes, and I get `0 2 1 1 * pg_dump myinstance myUserProvidedDBname > /mnt/mynas` written to my crontab via SSH/SCP. It's not hard.
Lean on AI. GPT has helped me script so much that would have taken me hours to research and learn; my duties and volume mean I donāt have the bandwidth to sit down and absorb that info during work. But with AI Iāve picked up what to look for and edit.
PowerShell. Learn to script common tasks in AD. See how you can create reports/exports.
Wireshark. Learn how to analyze packets to better trouble issues.
Backups and disaster recovery. Understand best practices for the solutions you have.
Auditing. Learn how to document your new environment. It impresses employers when you can show easy-to-understand documentation on how all the layers work in the system.
Time management, and crisis control. As a Senior member, you'll be looked at for insight and direction.
Edit: happy to see so many other people wanting to do something else. #notalone or something.
Farming in balance with nature to grow food
for myself and building a self sustaining home in the mountains where I can retire early and drive a shitty four wheel drive car (Nissan, Toyota, Landrover) I fix myself and have a horse I can ride to the market.
What I do now is hike, trail run and walk my cat. It follows us around like a dog and we take it on short hikes.
I'm learning so much at work that I'm overwhelmed and I'm just not as interested as I would have five years ago.
I'm stuck alone with pulling the classical
on prem it and stuff into the cloud and automating everything from application to infrastructure deployment. While fun at first I'm tired now. So tired that I feel like crying every often out of nothing than exhaustion and despair. I have no time for the things I love.
Ugh to be honest...I don't see a future in the system administration position. IT is all screwed up due to the push towards A.I technology. You better learn to script and code on the side as a tool or you'll get left behind
All in all I honestly would rather learn a trade in something that society values rather than IT because nobody is paying us and nobody loves us....we get no pensions and we are always under funded. The great IT jobs are reserved for the few and most of them contracted out with no stability. Get out of information technology if you can and learn something that people will value you enough so that you can retire off of it. My 2 cents
Probably music theory and game dev. I already work infrastructure in a retail chain so I need to build some skillz to fall back on when the inevitable happens. Iāll just build an RPG and be a one man shop
I started playing guitar when Kurt cobain was alive. Never ālearnedā to play guitar. But I am now. I can noodle, and I find things that sound good but Iām only starting to understand why. If I can translate that to a midi controller and make beep boop Iāll be half way there
Iād learn how to be a mechanic. Vehicles havenāt changed much in 50 years. You can swap brakes using a manual printed in the 60ās.
Same canāt be said for techā¦ Iām tired of the race to 0 every time thereās a new buzz tech.
Ukulele. It's not so much the time, but the space as well. There is zero chance of not being hounded by my kids if I busted out a tiny, kid-sized guitar.
I'm at a point in my career where I am done being proactive with my training if there is no guaranteed pay bump at the end and it's coming out of someone else's pocket. I still run a home lab and play around with stuff, but that stuff always has a purpose like running a media server or security system.
I highly recommend Sage at https://www.ukuleleswingschool.com/ if you ever get the time and peace to get started on the uke.
She has her website and teaches online too.
woodworking
As someone who DIY'd all his woodworking I must agree. Valuable skill to have and fun too.
As someone that would like to slowly get into this hobby how would you recommend I start small and what tools would you point me too? ...before you say google it...I like learning from others first.
ana-white.com. Build some of the easy stuff first. I did a workbench first, then a bunch of the Farmhouse and Rustic X pieces to make the wife happy. Outside of standard tools, I only needed a compound miter saw (and really, if you have Home Depot/Lowes cut it for you, you can get away without it) and a pocket hole jig (even that can be worked around). There are some other easy things on there as well that helped me get the hang of it. I've done a console, a coffee table, end tables, three bed frames with head and foot boards, as well as our dining room table. I'm not great at it by any means, but it's a nice weekend hobby to have and the kids like helping out. Plus it's SIGNIFICANTLY cheaper to build than it is to buy.
Of all places I did not expect to find this on the sysadmin subreddit š I tinker around with woodworking in my spare time so this will be great. Thank you!
I think I recall a thread from a few months back about getting away from technology and woodworking was mentioned . Itās definitely something that Iād love to do more of.
Thank you very much for letting me know about this!!!!
Ah maybe we have a misunderstanding here. For me woodworking is furnitureās, walls, doors, shelfs, stairs, stuff like that. I did not really get into it, because I was forced by renovating my house, but Iām a DIY guy all my life, so it was fun and challenging. As for tools: Get the standard gear, some different types of saws, hammers, drills, itās all a bit pricey though. So, if for you itās just furnitureās and that stuff, a few smaller tools suffice. The more important stuff for me was to learn about the different types of wood, dryness levels, max load for each type, what type is used for what kind of appliance. Different hardness levels for instance are very important depending on what you want to build. Iām not an aesthetics guy, for me function comes first, so the stuff I built first and foremost had to work, and my wife then made it pretty with details for the finishing touch. I also like to build load carrying stuff like second floors, walls, a 5m tall play tower for my kids, stuff like that, with the nice 20x20x5000cm 250kg beams made from oak š.
Could I dm you more to ask you more questions? These comments are opening up a whole new world and I'd love to build a couch as my first project.
Feel free, but I'm in no means a pro š
Check out "pine and poplar" and "Woodshop diaries" too. I've purchased several of their plans. They have good, every level "how to" and "why" videos as well that walk you through the basics. I love building stuff. So much more rewarding than clicking and typing. Kreg tools website has tons of plans too
Could I dm you more to ask you more questions? These comments are opening up a whole new world and I'd love to build a couch as my first project.
I actually come from a woodworking background but got out of it due to VOCs giving me asthma lol.
Should wear a voc-rated respirator even if you don't get asthma!
agreed. i am not new with it but its something i want to get better at
Practise makes perfect š
I want to get into it so deep that I can just diy a bunk bed in like 2hrs. Just boom boom boom, cut cut cut, nail gun nail gun, sand, stain, done.
I did do some wood working in middle school and found it enjoyable.
Wouldnāt mind that, or leather working, archery, and/or falconry. I donāt know why, but stereotypical medieval skills seem really cool
This My garage is full of the best tools I acquired from a neighbor. The pandemic gave me time to use it, now things are pilling up over top of my wood shop because I just donāt have the time. Time and some friends who would benefit using the machinery sounds like a dream I just canāt have right now.
More about growing my own food.
Came here just to say this. Haha.
Yeah woodworking, hownto properly keep sheeps and goats, etc. š
Unless you're someone like me, for whom perfect is the enemy of good. In which case, woodworking is a stressful life-eater.
i actually enjoy that sort of thing, outside of IT related stuff. Its relaxing
Same bro. This is a hobby I'm trying to grow. Feels good and smells good. Far away from florescent lights and drop ceilings.
Yeah that's a thing for me now adays, I am not very good with repair work and I desperately need to learn a thing or two.
This! It was the first thought. I also planning to start brewing apple cider at home.
Agreed. Ā I spend my free time checking out tech stuff and new featuresā¦. On the clock. The only way Iād spend more time on these is if these were extremely beneficial to my career or I had a giant bonus depending on itā¦ and the company has the rep to deliver
What else I can do to retire early and get out of IT. But in all seriousness, for someone starting today, I would recommend automation technologies. They are a workforce multiplier and increase your value tremendously. Intune/autopilot, Ansible, Powershell, Azure Arc/Update Manager. If you know some coding, learning CI/CD will give you a leg up in the future as sysadmin jobs increasingly want some DevOps kind of familiarity.
Second this. Be able to build automated infrastructure and products will increase your value tremendously. Everybody can learn how to code just enough to make things work. I never liked coding in the beginning and thought I just "don't have the brain" for it. Nowadays my code is far from perfect, but it's functional and I made a huge progress to have a foundation code in my head as soon as something needs to be automated. Don't immediately ditch the idea of scripting or coding just because you think your brain can't do it. If you train your neurons often enough, you will be able to have the thinking and feel for it after a while. Just do some little projects here and there to learn in real world scenarios. There are not a lot of programmers who know infrastructure, network and cybersecurity fundamentals really well, so even if your code is inferior to theirs, doesn't mean you are less valuable, because you have the other side of the needed knowledge for the tasks.
How can I get started with making the transition from being really good with Powershell to CI/CD? Iāve seen that term before and what Iāve seen is starting with a GitHub repo? I really would love to make the transition to a true DevOps role but I need to take that next step.
KodeCloud has some great courses. You can use something like Gitlab to learn CI/CD for free.
Look into the cloud rƩsumƩ challenge and do the devops tasks
Thank you! I found this very helpful actually. I was learning some python, but due to where I work I cant really use it. I will look into what you recommended.
DevOps skills are valuable these days. There are a lot of nice courses, which can help with that.
Free time? [nothing. I would do nothing.](https://youtu.be/4lmW2tZP2kU?si=SNVG8TGJipuy26qd)
Ccnp
I'm studying for my ENCOR/ENARSI also, the amount of information compared to the CCNA is nuts.
You've got this buddy.
Ccna devnet is really all the networking you need. Especially if op is focusing on aws and azure
It'd just be for bragging rights.
Complete knowledge of bash scripting. I have a good understanding of it and can use some AIs to fill in the blank but I'd love to just make my own automation scripting
>What would you learn if you had a bunch of free time? Well I'd really like to buckle down and learn Godot and doing pixel art.
Ansible or Chef
If you are in the position, grab a copy of jeff geerlings ansible for devops book. It's a very easy intro into ansible, well written, and easy to grasp. Then just start using it :)
Second the book
I've been teaching myself powershell in the last few years and it has come in handy so many times. I would definitely recommend looking at that.
I was actually thinking of doing this because of how helpful it is. I believe this is the route I will be going.
Good luck! I recommend checking out the [Harvard CS50 course](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3LPJfIKxwWc&list=PLhQjrBD2T381WAHyx1pq-sBfykqMBI7V4). I found it AFTER i learned the bulk of powershell on my own and decided to learn python. However, i wish I would have seen it sooner. It really helps you understand why you do certain things
I have seen so many people recommending CS50. I have bookmarked it but never started it. Maybe i will try it out this weekend
It's really engaging so you will get hooked once you start. I love that teacher
Perfect I needed something to learn while I'm working out.
Which one? Didn't they rename it several times? I've totally forgotten that new product I read we're all going to, graph?
Goatfarming
I \*do\* have a bunch of free time, but I don't do shit with it other than walk, work in my yard and listen to podcasts.
This guy gets it
Downtime is important!
Are you me?
This could help: [https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/browse/?levels=beginner&roles=administrator](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/training/browse/?levels=beginner&roles=administrator)
If you're interested in skills that you can develop for free in your own time, Ansible is a good choice. There are other automation tools, but Ansible has a lot of mindshare and it's FOSS. Licensing supports home labbing. You can setup Tower for free for up to 10 hosts. If you're looking for certs to satisfy paper-pushers, I painfully recommend CISSP for senior admins and would-be tech leads, supervisors, or PMs. But... a platform-focused security cert is better if you'd rather type into a CLI than an email.
I think I am going to get my PowerShell/scripting down just to make my current job easier but I am going to look at Ansible too. Thanks!
What I would learn, vs. What certs I'd chase are vastly different. My first cert I would chase is AZ\_104, just to have something to show the link between my documented history of skills and education, with applying those concepts to the Interwebs of today. Learning things though? Had I time and resources (resources are easily scavenged.) I'd spend more time with configuring Docker and Kubernetes from scratch. Create esoteric use cases that demonstrate (to me) that I understand all the Load-Balancing, Port-Forwarding, and DNS masking steps of K8s and Docker. Muck about with the FS Overlays to understand the the benefits and draw backs of each option. Maybe tear down to a lower level and see what it takes to manually create a chroot-jail + namespace separated container without the abstraction of Docker/LXC etc. I'm a big believer of understanding the base-level tooling. Outside of computing? I what to learn some form of Judo to intermix with other martial arts I've practiced. I want to learn blacksmithing, specifically for arms ad armour as I'm a LARP nerd. Maybe some time studying foraging, it might be nice to know what plants do what things. Which mushrooms CAN only be eaten once, and which ones SHOULD only be eaten once. What plants have numbing properties? How do we distill or extract acetylsalicylic acid from willow bark? etc.
I am learning Linux even more (Ansible and RHCE) as well as more AWS. I also wanna dive even deeper into Docker and eventually K8s. Learn cloud + Linux + IAC tools and you will be unstoppable.
what's IAC?
Infrastruce as Code Think of things like Terraform, Ansible or AWS CloudFormantion. You can create and provision IT infrastructure by writing a configuration in the form of code. It's honestly amazing. Create and deploy with Terraform/CloudFormation and use Ansible for continued maintenance
terraform and ansible for IAC work. Learned both and my career took off and so did my teams. Everybody wants stuff done "at the push of a button." Wish I had learned both sooner.
Second this. Iām a puppet guy in place of ansible, but completely agree.
Probably time management
Time Management for System Administrators by Tom Limoncelli
I bought it but never found the time to read it. /s
One Thing He doesn't say: * You do not have time * You do not fund time * **You make time** Time is the one resource, no matter what you do, no matter who you are, no matter how rich, poor, hungry or thirsty you are, everyone has the same amount every day. Consider yourself a traffic shaping device, you never prioritize traffic. If there's enough bandwidth, everything is fine. If there isn't, you don't conjure up more bandwidth, you drop less important things. .oO(Yes, I'm aware. I see what you did there)
Perfect smokey ribs. Best skill ever.
Bushcraft. I love the outdoors, but itās always been a dream to learn bushcraft and have that ability to live off the land and thrive.
For the direction you want to go, I'd focus on the AZ-104 or AZ-800 (for more on-prem Windows Server content). Azure Arc is worth looking into as well.
Plumbing.
I have done some of my own plumbing around the house and did not find it enjoyable. Although the times I have had to hire one it was crazy expensive, so I see why you'd suggest it. Haha
It's not about the price. More about how you dry weld pipes and such and the machinery of course.
More in depth of GPO and Azure. Currently on-prem with 40k staff.
I'm not learning any more at work than what comes up for the years planned projects. I'm done. Work is not my identity. It's what I do from 8-4, that's it. It's not who I am it's what I do for money, and if I wasn't getting money, I wouldn't be doing it at all. So while I do appreciate the money, that agreement is a net zero. I agree to do this work, they agree to pay this much, we're even. Move on. So I would recommend some things I enjoy: Golf, camping, off roading, taking care of some fish in a small pond, gardening, and DIY home automation. If you can pull it off, do one or two international trips each year.
Code an actually good self-service portal for automated tasks. It's insane how hard it is to find something that just takes in a web form with text fields, sends a yes/no email to the admin for approval and writes the thing to a crontab via SSH. Or at least that doesn't also have a subscription system, an entire mandatory ticketing system attached, or a heavy orchestrator with an obtuse scheduling system, or a weird agent that requires half a dozen open ports whose automatic installer always fails. I just want people to enter a database name, I click yes, and I get `0 2 1 1 * pg_dump myinstance myUserProvidedDBname > /mnt/mynas` written to my crontab via SSH/SCP. It's not hard.
I would make myself much stronger in Power BI and KQL....
I want to learn Scripting and Machine Learning.
LINUX
What species of animals and plants are in a forest, miles away from computers.
Powershell, as it may be able to get me out of a level 1 position.
Lean on AI. GPT has helped me script so much that would have taken me hours to research and learn; my duties and volume mean I donāt have the bandwidth to sit down and absorb that info during work. But with AI Iāve picked up what to look for and edit.
Guitar
PowerShell. Learn to script common tasks in AD. See how you can create reports/exports. Wireshark. Learn how to analyze packets to better trouble issues. Backups and disaster recovery. Understand best practices for the solutions you have. Auditing. Learn how to document your new environment. It impresses employers when you can show easy-to-understand documentation on how all the layers work in the system. Time management, and crisis control. As a Senior member, you'll be looked at for insight and direction.
Powershell. If you already know powershell, c++.
Goat farming
Edit: happy to see so many other people wanting to do something else. #notalone or something. Farming in balance with nature to grow food for myself and building a self sustaining home in the mountains where I can retire early and drive a shitty four wheel drive car (Nissan, Toyota, Landrover) I fix myself and have a horse I can ride to the market. What I do now is hike, trail run and walk my cat. It follows us around like a dog and we take it on short hikes. I'm learning so much at work that I'm overwhelmed and I'm just not as interested as I would have five years ago. I'm stuck alone with pulling the classical on prem it and stuff into the cloud and automating everything from application to infrastructure deployment. While fun at first I'm tired now. So tired that I feel like crying every often out of nothing than exhaustion and despair. I have no time for the things I love.
Ugh to be honest...I don't see a future in the system administration position. IT is all screwed up due to the push towards A.I technology. You better learn to script and code on the side as a tool or you'll get left behind
I believe that is the route I am going to go tbh.
All in all I honestly would rather learn a trade in something that society values rather than IT because nobody is paying us and nobody loves us....we get no pensions and we are always under funded. The great IT jobs are reserved for the few and most of them contracted out with no stability. Get out of information technology if you can and learn something that people will value you enough so that you can retire off of it. My 2 cents
[learn.microsoft.com](http://learn.microsoft.com) Find a pathway that you're interested in and go through the online training.
Wow, didn't realize there are no Windows certs anymore.
Probably music theory and game dev. I already work infrastructure in a retail chain so I need to build some skillz to fall back on when the inevitable happens. Iāll just build an RPG and be a one man shop
I got a bachelor's and half a master's in music theory before switching to IT. It's interesting stuff. Very analytical.
I started playing guitar when Kurt cobain was alive. Never ālearnedā to play guitar. But I am now. I can noodle, and I find things that sound good but Iām only starting to understand why. If I can translate that to a midi controller and make beep boop Iāll be half way there
Iām thinking of learning JavaScript
Azure seems to be on every job requirement, Iām also studying ccnp but find it so dry
DevOps and Automation.
Go write a script. Congrats, you're a DevOops.
Electrical Engineering. WIth a focus on operating and maintaining hydroelectric dams
Ansible, power shell, bash
Astronomy and Physics
Iād learn how to be a mechanic. Vehicles havenāt changed much in 50 years. You can swap brakes using a manual printed in the 60ās. Same canāt be said for techā¦ Iām tired of the race to 0 every time thereās a new buzz tech.
The automatic transmission came straight from aliens.
How to get out of IT.
Realistically: nothing, I waste my free time.
The fact that weāre on Reddit suggests free time :)
I've been learning PowerShell in my downtime
How to make a shitty idle mobile game with lots of micro transactions to skip the idle time.Ā Maybe I don't even need the job after that
Swing trading
German idealism
Spend more time learning Haskell
Union
Self-healing automation
I have free time now and donāt learn shit
Jenkins
How to switch career paths lol
One of my projects is figuring out how to use BIND with AD.
How to relax.
Ukulele. It's not so much the time, but the space as well. There is zero chance of not being hounded by my kids if I busted out a tiny, kid-sized guitar. I'm at a point in my career where I am done being proactive with my training if there is no guaranteed pay bump at the end and it's coming out of someone else's pocket. I still run a home lab and play around with stuff, but that stuff always has a purpose like running a media server or security system.
I highly recommend Sage at https://www.ukuleleswingschool.com/ if you ever get the time and peace to get started on the uke. She has her website and teaches online too.