Need some focus!

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Hi All,

I'm 22 and have spent my IT career so far managing a medium sized network in a secondary school. In this role i've got to grips with each aspect of the system and know enough to manage it well. As time marches on and I'm looking to move on to broader horizons I can't help but think that I should really decide upon a sepcialist avenue (such as Infrastructure, Active Directory, Security etc) so I can focus in my career and my qualifications. I’m spending much of my time right now studying a broad range of technologies at a basic level to give me a solid foundation of understanding to work from.

Does this sound right and if so does anyone have any thoughts on the areas which are popular or good to specialise in?

Thanks for any thoughts and a Happy New Year to all!

 

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I think you're and have indeed gained valuable experience from your current role and studying. On the other hand if you feel specialization is the path you want to follow then that has its advantages as well as shortcomings.

Well, to cut a long response short the more you exposed to varying and different technologies the better your job or career prospects. Lastly, specializing in storage, database administration and network infrastructure also has its place. Ultimately, you a lone can make that call or decision. Cheerio and best wishes

 

22 and managing a school network at a senior school. Your doing well!

How many techs you got? Clients etc.

 

Very impressive. I'd love to be in your role by that age :P

From what I've read, Security guys are always needed. It's also a pretty interesting topic, not likely to go stale any time soon. That'd be my choice.

 

Thanks guys for the confidence boost!

Right now there is myself (Systems Manager) and a Senior Technician of whom I'm responsible for but we have such as great working relationship that we work together.

The system is made up of 8 servers and around 400 clients. The servers are running Server 2003 and the clients run XP Pro.

 

How many kids at your school then and how you manage to get that job?

First I.T. job etc?


Anyway fair play to you.

Cheers

 

I was taken on by the school when I was 18 as a Technician to support the Network Manager at the time. The system then was a joke, so badly managed and unreliable. The Network Manager suddenly went off sick long term and I filled his shoes. It was difficult as it was my first real IT job and I needed a lot of training. Lots of Google searches and plenty of reading got me through and I picked up the basics quite quickly. When the guy was eventually dismissed I was asked to be the ICT Systems Manager and build a new domain from scratch my way. That was in 2004 and the new system was launched in Easter 2005 and, touch wood, has never had any problems. I'm really lucky to have had that start to my career and am now doing things a little backwards by getting certified after doing the job but hey, that’s life sometimes. The school has about 1000 pupils so it's not huge but has plenty to keep busy.

How does your school operate things?

Gareth

 

Well fair play to ya. Got a good poso there for starting out. Specially with council pension etc if you get it.

I am @ a girls school, I think its about 1200 pupils. Off the top of my head laptop/pc's its about 800 and 60 printers - though this may not be accurate. We also have a virtual reality suite.

There is a network manager + plus two technicians. Ive just started there and previously there was just the two. So we have exchange, 2003 etc etc. Usual stuff.

 

Hey thought I would tell you about www.edugeek.net if you don't already know about it.

Cheers