This really resonated with me as it's what I've observed but couldn't word quite as well.
I too am too young and late to the party. Raised and taught by Windows sysadmins who got their start in the early 2000s just before the dotcom crash. I was basically molded into a Windows sysadmin from a young age. I started to hate Windows around when Vista came out because of the UAC restrictions my old man would place on my PC, preventing me from playing with new software or using my computer late into the night, so I started experimenting with Linux live CDs. Fast forward 10 years. Debian is my daily driver. I only use Windows at work. I can't really code (cognitive thing, doesn't quite click), but I'm comfy in a terminal environment, I can rewrite config files, deploy OSes, do other hardware, admin, and network tasks easily.
Tried to find anybody that would take me for this type of work, but in this area, everyone making under $100k is remote IT from companies with names like "G.S. International Computers", and the environments are always outsourced call centers with headsets, techs being forced to drive into the city to do something that's still remote. Ended up in a call center like that, slowly dying inside, trying to get out but every role I can find is a worse version of this one. It's homogenized as you put it, no more room for the IT crowd kind. Tickets and timers and management cracking the whip, out of touch with you, and you have no idea what the customer's network looks like until they call. On the hook for an army of decaying Windows machines at remote sites, that the business side says it's too expensive to replace.
Friend's dad is still a sysadmin, one of that dying breed, has a lot of free time to write poetry and shitpost. My old man is a project manager somewhere now, he hasn't touched hardware in 15 years. I still can't find a niche despite all the people I seem to know. Thinking about giving it up as a career.
I too am too young and late to the party. Raised and taught by Windows sysadmins who got their start in the early 2000s just before the dotcom crash. I was basically molded into a Windows sysadmin from a young age. I started to hate Windows around when Vista came out because of the UAC restrictions my old man would place on my PC, preventing me from playing with new software or using my computer late into the night, so I started experimenting with Linux live CDs. Fast forward 10 years. Debian is my daily driver. I only use Windows at work. I can't really code (cognitive thing, doesn't quite click), but I'm comfy in a terminal environment, I can rewrite config files, deploy OSes, do other hardware, admin, and network tasks easily.
Tried to find anybody that would take me for this type of work, but in this area, everyone making under $100k is remote IT from companies with names like "G.S. International Computers", and the environments are always outsourced call centers with headsets, techs being forced to drive into the city to do something that's still remote. Ended up in a call center like that, slowly dying inside, trying to get out but every role I can find is a worse version of this one. It's homogenized as you put it, no more room for the IT crowd kind. Tickets and timers and management cracking the whip, out of touch with you, and you have no idea what the customer's network looks like until they call. On the hook for an army of decaying Windows machines at remote sites, that the business side says it's too expensive to replace.
Friend's dad is still a sysadmin, one of that dying breed, has a lot of free time to write poetry and shitpost. My old man is a project manager somewhere now, he hasn't touched hardware in 15 years. I still can't find a niche despite all the people I seem to know. Thinking about giving it up as a career.