Career direction?

trailingKnives

Hello,

Thought this would be a good place to ask. I am a recent CS graduate and have been offered a Systems Admin job with decent pay. I have some placement experience in more of the software side (Being CS and all) but none really in Admin. Some System Admin experience would be great to broaden my skills, the way I see it. (Not that any of my CS skills are particularly fleshed out!)

I am inclined to accept it, BUT I am just worried that doing this could hurt me later on getting into the Software Engineering side? Would I be silly in thinking that?

I was looking to apply for grad schemes sometime ago but many only open late in the year, so was too late. So in that regard too, I don't particularly want to sit around for months waiting for the 'perfect' job. I could work now and apply later for other positions.

srsly78

Sure take it, you can always quit. But yes if you really want to be a developer you should avoid being sidetracked.

Is it unix admin stuff? Might learn some useful stuff then.

trailingKnives

srsly78 wrote: »

Sure take it, you can always quit. But yes if you really want to be a developer you should avoid being sidetracked.

Is it unix admin stuff? Might learn some useful stuff then.

Um, yes it is all unix supercomputer admin I believe, no windows. Sort of why I was inclined to accept it, *nix skills are great whether it be dev or ops IMO. Again as it is unexplored, I might love it

Colonel Panic

I got into dev from sysadmin. Unix skills on your CV = yep.

That was 10 years ago. It has served me well.

trailingKnives

Colonel Panic wrote: »

I got into dev from sysadmin. Unix skills on your CV = yep.

That was 10 years ago. It has served me well.

Yeah, I did find in my limited experience that devs had the software knowledge but ALWAYS stumbled with unix stuff, even though it was part of the job, thus slowing them down.

UCDVet

I was CS too, but my first job after uni was more infrastructure/system admin. It wasn't my cup of tea, so I left. I found it a lot easier to find a development job while working full-time, even though I'd only been there for a year I was able to move on to another company as a developer.

My roommate was also CS - and after his first job as a developer he switched into admin stuff. Now he's a hardcore *nix guy and works 100% from home. So, who knows, maybe you'll really like it?

Anyway, to answer your question - I think as long as you're looking at 'junior' roles - it won't hurt. If you have 10 years of admin stuff, and 0 of development, you might have trouble transitioning (or you'll be looking at a pay cut).