Hey everyone, my first post here and it's pretty long. I'm completely self taught in the IT field and have about 12 years of experience split between tech work and network setup and administration, I also know how to do some basic programming in java, VB, and PHP. The first time I set up a server and domain, it was at a customer's place of business; you can imagine how well that went. I've learned a lot since then, but never had any formal training or even anything like a mentor to work under. When something goes wrong or needs to be set up, I hit Google or post to various tech forums to get me through. This has worked well in the past, but my workload has increased dramatically over the last year and I need some advice on where I should focus the time I have available to pick up new skills and become a proper network administrator.
I've been at the same place, a small medical clinic, for going on 7 years now as a one man IT show. If it has a cord attached to it, they bring it to me and expect me to be able to support it. I do the day to day desktop support, all hardware purchases and setup, 2008 sbs and 2007 exchange support, telephony, database and website administration, BES admin, backup management, manage our patient information system, IT budgeting, reports, any audio/visual setup, conference call setup, HIPPA compliance as it applies to IT and network security, develop IT policies and procedures, and just about anything else you can think of that could come up at a 2 building medical clinic with 2 physical servers, 50 workstations running xp and win 7, a dozen or so laptops in the field, a handful of droid/blackberry smartphones, and 6 to 7 remote users. I work about 50 hours per week and spend about 5 to 10 hours per week in meetings.
It wasn't much of hassle when we only had about 30 people, but we have added more than 20 people and associated equipment over the last year, and I'm starting to feel like I'm stretched too thin. I just don't feel like I have the skills or background to properly administer this network anymore. I'm probably the ultimate example of the phrase "jack of all trades, master of none" and I'm constantly being challenged to become an instant expert on one subject or another that I've never dealt with before and probably won't ever again.
The executive staff and users have enormous confidence in me, but my confidence in myself is starting to wane and I don't like the feeling. It's reached a point where come into work, sit down, and don't have the slightest idea of what I should be focusing on anymore. I can look around my office and notice a dozen things that need to be done, but can't decide what should be the priority. Luckily, that doesn't last long as the phone will soon ring and one crisis or another will eat up half the day.
I'm feeling pretty lost right now, and could use some input from people under similar loads and how they organize their time. Should I be shopping for books, taking classes? Work would pay for either.
They have mentioned getting me an assistant, but having never had one before, I'm not sure I would know how to use one to best effect or if I should even need one at all.
I've been at the same place, a small medical clinic, for going on 7 years now as a one man IT show. If it has a cord attached to it, they bring it to me and expect me to be able to support it. I do the day to day desktop support, all hardware purchases and setup, 2008 sbs and 2007 exchange support, telephony, database and website administration, BES admin, backup management, manage our patient information system, IT budgeting, reports, any audio/visual setup, conference call setup, HIPPA compliance as it applies to IT and network security, develop IT policies and procedures, and just about anything else you can think of that could come up at a 2 building medical clinic with 2 physical servers, 50 workstations running xp and win 7, a dozen or so laptops in the field, a handful of droid/blackberry smartphones, and 6 to 7 remote users. I work about 50 hours per week and spend about 5 to 10 hours per week in meetings.
It wasn't much of hassle when we only had about 30 people, but we have added more than 20 people and associated equipment over the last year, and I'm starting to feel like I'm stretched too thin. I just don't feel like I have the skills or background to properly administer this network anymore. I'm probably the ultimate example of the phrase "jack of all trades, master of none" and I'm constantly being challenged to become an instant expert on one subject or another that I've never dealt with before and probably won't ever again.
The executive staff and users have enormous confidence in me, but my confidence in myself is starting to wane and I don't like the feeling. It's reached a point where come into work, sit down, and don't have the slightest idea of what I should be focusing on anymore. I can look around my office and notice a dozen things that need to be done, but can't decide what should be the priority. Luckily, that doesn't last long as the phone will soon ring and one crisis or another will eat up half the day.
I'm feeling pretty lost right now, and could use some input from people under similar loads and how they organize their time. Should I be shopping for books, taking classes? Work would pay for either.
They have mentioned getting me an assistant, but having never had one before, I'm not sure I would know how to use one to best effect or if I should even need one at all.
