The Duties of a System Administrator
A system administrator has quickly become one of the most important jobs in any company. Virtually all businesses these days rely heavily on their computer network so it should probably not come as a surprise that the guy who looks after that network would become important. There are quite a few different duties required of a system administrator depending on what kind of company he works at.
The main duty of a system administrator is to set up the computer network. This usually requires that they design the network as well. Once they have worked out a design for the network they are responsible for actually building the network, they are the ones who physically install any hardware and they are also the ones who test the system to make sure that it is working properly. Most of the job will involve installation and upgrade of the server. Depending on how complicated the network is the system administrator may have employees to assist him with this.
The other big part of the system administrator's duties will involve fixing any problems that occur with the network. A computer network can be quite complicated so there is a pretty good chance that at some point something will go wrong. Since most companies are heavily reliant on their network getting it fixed quickly is critical. In a lot of cases the problem will not actually be with the network but with the people who are using it. Patiently explaining to the other employees at the company what they are doing wrong is another important part of the job.
In some cases the system administrator will also be responsible for network security. However given how important security has become this is becoming less and less common. Most larger companies will now have somebody who specializes in network security to handle this part of the job. However many smaller companies don't have the resources to do this so network security will fall to the system administrator. In some cases this may actually become a major part of the job since network security is such a major concern. Nowadays the use of wireless networks is very popular because it reduces the burden of having too many wires, but it's more complicated to make it secure. If you are going to work as a system administrator you should make sure that you are very familiar with network security.
In some cases a system administrator may be required to do some light scripting. This is not all that common but it is a skill that you should have if you are going to work in the field. Again this will be more common if you work at a smaller company where you are likely the only person who has any expertise with computers, they will likely just assume that you also know how to program. If you are required to do this it will mainly be scripting and probably won't be all that complicated but you should make sure that you know how to do it.