[OSOT] Distinction between Network Admin and System Admin

From: jab3 (manual_at_helpdesk.org)
Date: 09/13/04 

Date: Mon, 13 Sep 2004 01:02:48 -0400

[OSOT] = Only Slightly Off Topic :)

Hello everyone -

I have a question about how you all would distinguish Network Administrators
from System Administrators and the separate duties for each function.

A quick background - I recently applied for a job to a company that is a
serious networking company and they are looking for another Linux System
Administrator. I applied, got a call-back, filled out a self-analysis form
and then a questionnaire about my experience with Linux and administration.
I had told them this would be my first job like this - I am mostly
self-taught and professionally inexperienced (which may show soon ;)).
Well, I talked to the IT Human Resources person and she told me that they
had two Network Administrators and one System Administrator, and they were
looking for someone to lessen the burden of the SysAdmin. Later I received
another call-back, this time with the IT HR person, the Director of Human
Resources, and the SysAdmin himself. This was supposed to be a 'more
technical' interview. Well, he then proceeded to question me about my
experience with what, to my mind, are networking admin functions. He asked
if I had ever set up a box as a router and firewall/masquerading machine,
if I had ever set up a DNS server, if I had ever used any MTAs for mail
servers, if I had used Samba/NFS, etc. About the only thing he asked that,
to me, was about System Administrating was how I kept up with security
issues and whether I knew Bash and/or Perl scripting.

It seems _to me_ that most of his questions were geared more toward Network
Administration functions, which I would think - having 2 Network Admins -
they had covered. To me, if you are going to split the jobs (2 Net, 2
Sys), a Network Admin would deal with the DNS, MTA, Firewalling, NFS,
Samba, etc; and the SysAdmin would deal with the updates, patches,
tweaking, maintaining, configuring, installing, monitoring, etc. Am I way
off in my callowness and ignorance on this? Or was he interviewing me for
a Network Admin job instead of a SysAdmin job?

I am indeed asking with full knowledge that I have no first-hand knowledge
of this :). I'm just trying to explain how I see it, based on my reading
and personal experience - and am asking for correction and elucidation from
the experts. :) Is networking so prevalent these days that the line
between the two jobs has been blurred into an indistinguishable haze?

Thanks for any comments/help -
jab3

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