HACKER Q&A
📣 noknownsender

Should I move from in-house SysAdmin into Development


I've been working as IT Support, then as a(mediocre-at-best) Sysadmin for about five years, with a few years of Tier 1 Help Desk before that.

Currently, my job pays well enough ($85k in rural PA, US) But I don't have much growth potential where I'm at, and am looking to advance my career.

Would it be a worthwhile endeavor for me to build my development skill on the side, in the hopes of moving into the developer job market, or should I look for more advanced work in the SysAdmin realm?

Thanks in advance.

  👤 Alex63 Accepted Answer ✓
If you are looking for salary growth, then moving into an Operations management role is probably your fastest path. If you want to stay involved in the technical side of service delivery, building on the investment you have already made in your sysadmin skills is probably the safer bet. SysAdmin and developer roles are quite different, so you may find that moving into a developer role is a bigger change than you anticipated. If you are really interested in software development (do you do it as a hobby?), then by all means try landing a junior developer role.
👤 noknownsender
I should note that I work at a non-technical company, and my exposure to new technologies is essentially non-existent. Which is why I am looking for a change.

Most of my experience is in maintaining servers and networks in offices and manufacturing, as well as supporting end users with all of their various issues.

I don't have much of a network to learn from, as I'm essentially entirely self taught, and have been googling my way through every job I've had for most of a decade.