Passionate System Administration

I’m a believer in having passion for your work. If you’re not passionate about what you do for 8+ hours every day why are you doing it? Surely there’s a job for everyone that they can be passionate about. It’s good for your company and it’s good for you. Win-Win sort of thing.

Passionate system administrators do the best work. They go above and beyond and treat their systems like their babies. They are the ones you can count on when the poop hits the fan. They are the ones that will constantly improve your IT and make things better for your users. They are the ones you want in your organization. Unfortunately System administration seems to have systemic low numbers of truly passionate professionals so hold on to the ones you find. Kathy Sierra has a quick test for if you have passion about your work:

• When was the last time you read a trade/professional journal or book related to your work? (can substitute “attended an industry conference or took a course”)
• Name at least two of the key people in your field.
• If you had to, would you spend your own money to buy tools or other materials that would improve the quality of your work?
• If you did not do this for work, would you still do it (or something related to it) as a hobby?

System Administration (and leading IT groups/projects for that matter) *IS* something I would do as a hobby and I’m proud to be a member of the profession. How do you feel about your work?