Making the transition from small office to larger environment 1

[gbl]

I am working in a smaller accounting firm as the network administrator, looking after 20-25 workstations and other tasks. I would like to branch out into a larger environment but am gravely concerned about the way I might be perceived in terms of lacking skills for larger environments. For example, I have not had any experience in building servers, and our workstations are all clones. No experience in unix, just windows, no experience in exchange server 2000 or sophisticated Active directory issues, and no database management experience as my office does not require use of databases.
I have very little to spend on self development.
Has anyone else made the transition from small to larger environments, and if so, how did you do it? ANy other advice would be greatly appreciated!

 

[dwarfthrower]

What about looking at companies which, while larger than where you are now, are decentralised. Something with a number of regional offices where you could perhaps move into a regional admin role and learn the ins and outs of the bigger issues from the person responsible for the overall operation.

 

[jrbarnett]

I did the reverse - moved from a large company to a smaller one. What you find is that because in the smaller company there are fewer people, your responsibilities are more varied.
For example, in the large company, my responsibilities were pure first line support, the only "administrative" right I had was the ability to delete junk print jobs from the Novell print queues, but in the smaller company, I had full server admin access, database admin, was postmaster and intranet webmaster and did support tasks ranging from the "Any key" type to those that had me stumped for a while.

John

 

[willir]

gbl / jrbarnett

I have worked for both small and large, and there are pros and cons to each. They have different cultures.

In a small compnay, tends to
- fewer resources - low end equipment, less tools
- fewer resources - few people to brain storm with
- fewer resources - lower pay, less vacation relief
- less opportunities
- less flexibility when you outgrow your position
But
- Have more control over your environment
- More your own boss
- Wear many hats, and learn many skills (including the all important transferable skills)
- Your planning, expertize, accomplishments and ethic is reflected directly by you. If you are good, so is IT = pride and self esteem.


In a large company, tends to
- less control over your evnironment -- policies, procedures in place and entrenched
- less control -- standards followed regardless of what appears to be common sense from your perspective
- the quality of the IT department reflects management
- management changes and all of a sudden so may policies, procedures and standards
- forms, forms, forms, forms.... = more time on waiting and dealys, and less time spent on the problems
- Tend to focus on very specific and limited tasks -- may get old real quick
- Can have finger pointing and politics
- Your life is greatly influenced by good or poor decisions made by management
- Can have poor moral, less pride and self esteem.
BUT
- More opportunities to move up or transfer
- Better equipment and tools
- More professional presence
- Some form of training (but usually CBT's unless you are a key team member)


Mid-size business offer an in-between the two -- both good and bad.


The grass is green where you plant the fertilizer, and not neccessarily on the over side of the fence. A Good large company may be just what you are looking for; so may a small comapny.

Richard

 

[Stevehewitt]

To be fair, are you ready to move? If you say that you don't have time to personal development, then are you really ready for a larger enviroment?

I used to be IT guy for 30 clients. I was Webmaster, Support, PBX Admin, Network Administrator, PC Technician, Programmer/Database Admin (Access/VBA/SQL), Postmaster and looked after the Intranet.

Yet most of the things above I self-taught (With help from Tek-Tips! ;-)) myself. The Database, Networking, PBX and Postmaster side of thing I had no experience in.
I am no expert in most of the items I have listed above, but I know enough to get by and I am always ready to learn more.

Saying that, its only IMHO!

Whatever you do, Good Luck!


Steve.

 

[sleipnir214]

I think willir has done an excellent job of summarizing what you can expect from the corporate culture, job opportunities, and personal growth you can expect from different-sized companies.

One thing that I would add is that if you are going from a small company to a larger one, expect not to be able to know your coworkers as well. You'll know the coworkers in your group or division or shop well, but a lot of the rest of the company will be strangers, regardless of how long you work there. This functions in direct relation to the size of the company. A Primatologist will tell you that above about 150 people, it's not possible for you to maintain any kind of real relationship with everyone.

It may seem obvious, but friends of mine that have made the transition from smaller companies to larger companies have universally stated the closer personal relationships with coworkers as something they miss. And something they did not expect to.

Want the best answers? Ask the best questions:

http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

TANSTAAFL!!

 

[gbl]

Those are all very good, valid and helpful points, everyone. Just to clarify, time to train is not the issue; its money that is the issue. Unfortunately I do not have the opportunity to work with some of the applications some of you seem to have access to even in the small environments you are working in. And my firm will not pay for any training beyond what they need me to know. In fact they are not offering to provide training for me for Windows XP except what I can learn on my own via a home installation and reading some books. Based on my experience with them for Windows 2000 server, I will not get any training on Windows Server 2003, and will not be allowed to install it myself.
Perhaps small environments have their pluses, but in the type of firm I am in the employers want to pay below average and go cheap on training while expecting you to have well above average skills and knowledge.

 

[MasterRacker]

Unfortunately I can't give you much cheer here either. I was the sys admin for a mid-size co. (120 users) that was owned by a larger company but ran semi-independently. I did everything up to even building my own servers as long as I followed their standards.

Our company was dissolved and I have been looking for a few months. Looking at larger companies, you will defninitely be considered to be missing skills. Even if I could immediately pass the MCSE tests I would not have the hand-on experience with server clusters, Windows Enterprise version, network attached storage, server farms, large call-centers, multi-server databases, etc. that large companies (at least in this area) are looking for. I would have to take a step backward and practically start over as a help-desk technician in a large company and work my way up again.

Read all you can (don't forget your public library for a source of free books) and practice what you can at home. Short of changing jobs though, I don't know how you'll get any other experience.

In my own case, I've decided to branch out and am going back to school update my programming skills. I've programmed before and it's definitely looking like development will have more staying power that support.

Good Luck!


Jeff
If your mind is too open your brains will fall out...