Ask HN: Are you happy that you switched from a sysadmin to a programming career?
14 comments
At the risk of sounding blasé: My sysadmin skills make me a much better developer, and my developer skills make me a much better sysadmin.
At this point in my career I really don’t see them as different domains anymore – if you want to create useful services, it’s one skillset.
At this point in my career I really don’t see them as different domains anymore – if you want to create useful services, it’s one skillset.
I've been fortunate enough to have worked across pretty much every portion of the stack with the exception of hardware or core networking protocols. Everywhere else, I have experience and am comfortable.
Yes, you are definitely going to be trading for more stress and it is highly possible that it will be less fun, but that's not necessarily guaranteed especially if you land in the right role, right dev culture, and right leadership; however, that's a lot of things that have to go right, which, it almost never does.
I started with database admin, then sysadmin, then dev. Sysadmin is more fun and the people and environment are generally more fun; however, dev is more fun to understand depending on what you want to do with the knowledge gained. If you plan to build something in tech, you want to use this opportunity learn to be an effective developer.
That being said, if you don't care about that, then, maybe the stress isn't worth it. I personally now value having time to myself. That's really hard to do as a dev because whether you like it or not, you are carrying those hard problems around with you all day, every day, until they are solved. It's like a weight being placed on your chest from the moment you wake up, until you crawl into bed from your work desk.
Like all things in this industry, YMMV and you'll have to weight the pros and cons.
EDIT: also, daily standup meetings kinda suck.
Yes, you are definitely going to be trading for more stress and it is highly possible that it will be less fun, but that's not necessarily guaranteed especially if you land in the right role, right dev culture, and right leadership; however, that's a lot of things that have to go right, which, it almost never does.
I started with database admin, then sysadmin, then dev. Sysadmin is more fun and the people and environment are generally more fun; however, dev is more fun to understand depending on what you want to do with the knowledge gained. If you plan to build something in tech, you want to use this opportunity learn to be an effective developer.
That being said, if you don't care about that, then, maybe the stress isn't worth it. I personally now value having time to myself. That's really hard to do as a dev because whether you like it or not, you are carrying those hard problems around with you all day, every day, until they are solved. It's like a weight being placed on your chest from the moment you wake up, until you crawl into bed from your work desk.
Like all things in this industry, YMMV and you'll have to weight the pros and cons.
EDIT: also, daily standup meetings kinda suck.
I programmed as a teenager and through university but didn't find it as enjoyable as Linux.
My first job was as a sysadmin. I then chose a career path to DevOps then Platform Engineering.
Finding people who have a depth of Linux and systems skills but can code is like hens teeth. Companies will pay a premium over Devs for that intersection of very niche skills.
As well, Platform teams are often smaller and bypass some of the processes like having product owners, unnecessary agile rituals and are far more empowered than many Devs are who often work to already designed/scoped/architected tickets which while understandable from a business point of view takes much of the fun out of the job.
As Platform all Devs teams are our (internal) customers so we talk to all of the dev teams, some of which don't talk to each other, so we get to see a more complete picture of the engineering org and because of that we are brought into architectural discussions and lots of open-ended fun engineering problems.
Sysadmin is (like QA) sadly a rather disrespected (almost janitorial) title now. Don't fight a battle you can't win - but you don't need to jump all the way to Dev to do it.
My first job was as a sysadmin. I then chose a career path to DevOps then Platform Engineering.
Finding people who have a depth of Linux and systems skills but can code is like hens teeth. Companies will pay a premium over Devs for that intersection of very niche skills.
As well, Platform teams are often smaller and bypass some of the processes like having product owners, unnecessary agile rituals and are far more empowered than many Devs are who often work to already designed/scoped/architected tickets which while understandable from a business point of view takes much of the fun out of the job.
As Platform all Devs teams are our (internal) customers so we talk to all of the dev teams, some of which don't talk to each other, so we get to see a more complete picture of the engineering org and because of that we are brought into architectural discussions and lots of open-ended fun engineering problems.
Sysadmin is (like QA) sadly a rather disrespected (almost janitorial) title now. Don't fight a battle you can't win - but you don't need to jump all the way to Dev to do it.
Same here - my first programming jobs were low-level (working for a compiler company, then a 3D graphics company), but over time I switched from being a developer to being a sysadmin at a largish hosting company.
These days I'm all "devops" / "cloud engineer", and people seem surprised that I write utilities to automate my work and infrastructure.
It seems that people familiar with cloud-stuff often lack a developer-background, and don't understand how things really work.
These days I'm all "devops" / "cloud engineer", and people seem surprised that I write utilities to automate my work and infrastructure.
It seems that people familiar with cloud-stuff often lack a developer-background, and don't understand how things really work.
First of all, the traditional sysadmin role is not going away any time soon.
It's changing constantly as any tech job is not the same as 10 years ago (obviously there are some rare exceptions).
You gotta adapt and constantly learn new stuff, and there are enough roles to grow into like DevOps, security or cloud architecture.
But if you love programming go for it, you can always change back if you don't like it.
You gotta adapt and constantly learn new stuff, and there are enough roles to grow into like DevOps, security or cloud architecture.
But if you love programming go for it, you can always change back if you don't like it.
Never was a sysadmin ao I can't speak to that.
As for being a developer, the experience differs by the company. As a dev with no college, my first 3 jobs in software development systemically took advantage of me and my coworkers. These places exist and aren't uncommon. It's like trying to get blood out of a stone, they just want more. Very stressful and I switched jobs every year to year and a half because of it.
The other side of the coin is there are really great companies to work for that aren't part of FAANG and have an asinine interview process. My current company has great leadership and invests in their people. Totally a different experience.
There's a real need for senior to mid level devs right now. Not so much for entry level/junior. The demand is there, but it's not crazy hot like the upper end of the experience level. You may have an easier time looking if you can try to somehow leverage your other experience to skip being a junior dev. Not sure if that'll fit, but I mean in a job search or negations it may.
Good luck
As for being a developer, the experience differs by the company. As a dev with no college, my first 3 jobs in software development systemically took advantage of me and my coworkers. These places exist and aren't uncommon. It's like trying to get blood out of a stone, they just want more. Very stressful and I switched jobs every year to year and a half because of it.
The other side of the coin is there are really great companies to work for that aren't part of FAANG and have an asinine interview process. My current company has great leadership and invests in their people. Totally a different experience.
There's a real need for senior to mid level devs right now. Not so much for entry level/junior. The demand is there, but it's not crazy hot like the upper end of the experience level. You may have an easier time looking if you can try to somehow leverage your other experience to skip being a junior dev. Not sure if that'll fit, but I mean in a job search or negations it may.
Good luck
My first job out of college I was a help desk guy on track to become a sysadmin. As fate would have it, an opportunity came to let me transition into a coding role*. The rest is history. I am so incredibly thankful for this happening and I think my career turned out significantly better both in terms of compensation and enjoyment than my friends/colleagues who stayed on the sysadmin path.
*Back then there was no concept of leetcode interviews. Otherwise, this transition would probably have been extremely unlikely.
*Back then there was no concept of leetcode interviews. Otherwise, this transition would probably have been extremely unlikely.
This is the path I want to be in but like you said, very unlikely. People see IT in my resume and move on to the next guy.
I don't think that would be the problem. I have both read about, and personally witnessed, people of completely non-technical backgrounds (ex-chef, ex-aesthetician, ex-Uber driver, etc.) get SWE jobs - even at FAANGMULA companies at that.
The reason I used the word "unlikely" is in the context of leetcode interviews being the gatekeeper nowadays. That wasn't the case when I made the jump.
That ex-Uber driver, ex-chef, etc. all became SWEs despite their backgrounds because they were able to successfully grind leetcode enough to pass the technical interviews. If you can too, then there's no reason why you couldn't become a SWE also. However, it is definitely easier said than done.
More recently and personally, I have a friend who used to be ex-QA for Facebook. He was given chances to jump to a SWE role, but failed to do so because he couldn't pass the leetcode interviews. But the opportunity was there.
The reason I used the word "unlikely" is in the context of leetcode interviews being the gatekeeper nowadays. That wasn't the case when I made the jump.
That ex-Uber driver, ex-chef, etc. all became SWEs despite their backgrounds because they were able to successfully grind leetcode enough to pass the technical interviews. If you can too, then there's no reason why you couldn't become a SWE also. However, it is definitely easier said than done.
More recently and personally, I have a friend who used to be ex-QA for Facebook. He was given chances to jump to a SWE role, but failed to do so because he couldn't pass the leetcode interviews. But the opportunity was there.
I wonder whether you could jump onto the Cloud as DevOps person or something? Found a little O'Reilly book on Cloud security, might be helpful:
Practical Cloud Security: A Guide for Secure Design and Deployment by Chris Dotson
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Cloud-Security-Secure-Deplo...
Practical Cloud Security: A Guide for Secure Design and Deployment by Chris Dotson
https://www.amazon.com/Practical-Cloud-Security-Secure-Deplo...
Even better, I left a 6 figure sysadmin job to be a office manager with only slightly less pay and 90% less stress.
Alternatively, you could go for a DevOps role and dip your feet into both worlds.
At the very least, you can remain a sysadmin and add more automation and spend a lot of your time programming.
At the very least, you can remain a sysadmin and add more automation and spend a lot of your time programming.
+1 This is the way to go. You'll do way more programming and your current background is super useful.
Yes. Wasn’t super hard, tho tbh I learned to program quite early, but then my jobs were all sysadmin for a while. So finally moving to coding was actually a relief.
The sysadmin niche seems less common these days, so I may also have little choice but to find other opportunities going forward.
Was making the transition to a programming career hard for you? How has this decision affected your happiness and day-to-day life?