EPTAll of my life I've been a jack of all trades. I have A LOT of things I find interesting but that is both a blessing and a curse. It's great having bits and pieces of knowledge about everything, it makes for interesting conversations with basically anyone. The downpart is that those conversations rarely lead to anything other then me going "Oh that's over my head, but please go on" or me simply faking my way through half a conversation based on who I'm talking too.
So about a month ago I wrote a post on my personal, non-liquid, blog saying I wanted to get good at something. Like really good. And that I think I need to focus on one thing. I'm at a point of my life where I don't want more general knowledge, I want to get into the specifics of a topic I like and become very good at it. I want to find my passion. The problem with having very broad interests in life is that chosing one topic to focus on can be really hard. And it is really hard for me since in my mind this isn't just getting deeper into something exciting, it's also choosing not to get deeper into any other subject for quite a while.
I have managed to get through this though and I think I've managed to narrow it down to two fields. Two possible careers. System administration and programming. The two are very similar but still not the same thing in my eyes. Programming to me is more about application development and system administration is more about getting to know OS/hardware/networking on a deeper level. There is some overlapping areas so choosing one does not mean the other is out of the question at a later point. So how do I choose between those two? Time to make a pro/con-lists
System administration
Pros:
* I like Linux and I'm proficient in it
* I like the idea of running big, important, clusters of server
* I'm not locked in front of a computer all day, there can be some physical work included
* I do enjoy the server/os/client interaction and find it really fascinating
Cons:
* Need certificates and getting them is expensive
* Need a lab environment at home to train on, which is expensive even if I viritualize everything
* I know nothing of the field
Programming
Pro:
* I know some programming already
* I like the challenge it presents me every time I code
* It's cheap to setup and maintain
Cons:
* While I can code I have trouble building a program. To clarify: I know how to use UML but I'm terrible a doing the actual planning ahead of time
* When software I write become big I have trouble keeping track of everything
* Higher level languages like Java can confuse me with it's "magic" sometimes
* My imagination sometimes limits me when it comes to programming. Give me a problem and I will come up with a solution, no problem but I have problems coming up with ideas for what I should make myself.
Why I'm writing this blog is becasue I want to get in touch with people already in the fields. Are you a sys admin or a programmer could you please write a couple of lines explaining a normal day for you. What you do and how much you enjoy your job.
