CS grad (soon) with niche 5 YOE. Looking for general career direction.

Bit of an odd situation and hoping for some outside perspective.

I'll have my CS degree in hand soon (T150 public university). One semester of credits left. Not very motivated on the software side anymore; the last few years of school have felt like a drag and I have no interest in going the dev route. On paper I have 5+ years as a technical support specialist, but it's in a niche corner of the industry (game server hosting support) that doesn't translate directly to corporate IT.

I'm currently doing an IT co-op where I've been given a lot of freedom. More sysadmin-level exposure than I think is typical for a co-op. Examples: packaging/deploying a laptop OEM's firmware and driver auto-update tooling through Intune, deploying an emulator application fleet-wide for a business need, and writing PowerShell remediation scripts to make sure machines properly check in and report to our Tenable vulnerability scanner. Also general Intune app deployment, AD/Entra ID/Okta identity work, and ServiceNow ticketing. Goal is a systems administrator role. Resume included for context.

Worth mentioning: this isn't a typical co-op with a set end date, and the overall vibe on return offers doesn't feel that promising. The last 3 co-ops before me never got a return offer , 2 left for other companies, and 1 only ended up staying by getting picked up by a different department. My manager and the team genuinely seem to like me and my work, but based on that history the odds don't feel great, and I can't help but wonder if it's a budget/HR thing where interns get treated as a rotating cycle of cheap labor rather than a pipeline to full-time. That said, my manager has been genuinely supportive and has made clear I can stay as long as I need until I land a full-time role. So even with the return-offer uncertainty, there's no immediate pressure to rush out the door. I really like my manager and the team, and I'd take a return offer in a heartbeat even if the salary came in lower than what I could get elsewhere.

Right now I'm studying for AB-900, then MD-102 next since it lines up with my daily Intune work.

I've also got two interviews lined up and could use outside perspective on how they fit my path:

1. IT Support Specialist at a smaller company in a unique industry (satellite/space-based connectivity). More entry-level. Helpdesk tickets, onboarding, workstation deployment, basic network troubleshooting. 1 year helpdesk experience required, Network+/Linux+ as bonus points, no hard degree requirement.
2. Jr. Systems Engineer at a national MSP. More senior scope. Level 2 escalations across client environments, M365/Entra ID/Exchange Online admin, Windows Server/AD/DNS/DHCP/GPO, network troubleshooting, RMM/PSA platforms, some on-call. Requires 3+ years experience and at least 3 of: Network+, Security+, MD-102, AZ-900, or SC-300 (or equivalent experience + cert commitment within 6 months).

Given where I'm at, which would you prioritize if I get offers from both? And anything you'd change about my cert sequencing or overall approach given these are the roles I'm actually interviewing for right now?

Also, even if I manage to convert one of these into a full-time offer, should I just prioritize finishing my degree first, or is it reasonable to take the job and finish the semester alongside it or even put school on pause?

https://redd.it/1v40dc4
@r_systemadmin

Thickheaded Thursday - July 23, 2026

Howdy, /r/sysadmin!

It's that time of the week, Thickheaded Thursday! This is a safe (mostly) judgement-free environment for all of your questions and stories, no matter how silly you think they are. Anybody can answer questions! My name is AutoModerator and I've taken over responsibility for posting these weekly threads so you don't have to worry about anything except your comments!

https://redd.it/1v49fkp
@r_systemadmin

LPIC 101

How the hell did you guys pass the LPIC-1 101 exam?

I've been studying for it and trying to learn the man pages, command options, and flags, but it's honestly starting to overwhelm me. From every practice question I've seen, it feels like almost every question expects you to know specific flags by heart. As far as I know, you don't get access to man pages during the exam.

Did you actually memorize all those options, or is there another way to approach it? It just seems impossible to know every flag for every command.

I'm honestly terrified of spending $200 on the exam and failing it. I mainly want the certification to strengthen my CV, but right now it feels like there's just too much to memorize.

How did you prepare, and what made the biggest difference for you?

https://redd.it/1v49sue
@r_systemadmin

Has anyone had a good experience with Ivanti?

I am so confused about this vendor. Our company (MSP) is trying to sell it more, and I'm the one assigned to implement it for clients, but I genuinely can't wrap my head around their products. Some of their products have bad UIs er UXs, and sometimes seem like a bunch of scripts held together by a menu, and I find them difficult to administer and maintain.

Can anybody share their experiences with some of their products ?

I kinda want to hear someone's positive experience with them, cuz I feel like I'm overly negative about their products, but I can't convince myself of the opposite.

https://redd.it/1v4a7o5
@r_systemadmin

Sharepoint issues - no MSFT status posted yet

Have a couple clients getting errors when accessing Sharepoint. DownDetector is already showing a significant spike. Just a heads up to everyone before you start getting calls.

https://downdetector.com/status/microsoft-365/

https://redd.it/1v4ghq8
@r_systemadmin

I spend the majority of my day at work on Reddit and X

hello fellow IT comrades

I work as a one man IT and this job doesnt really have me DOING WORK the entire time, I am sure it is expected of me to but that is just not the reality of my role.

I fix issues and user complaints and make sure things are as they should be (server, network etc), and thats pretty much it, no one hounding or micromanaging me on what I am doing or have "accomplished".

So majority of the time as I count the hours down I scroll X and browse Reddit subs majority of my days.

Anyone else in similiar boat or??

This may not be the best for my career progression and skill building and what not but just wanted to share how things are at my current workplace or does majority all sysadmin roles lead to something of this nature eventually?

https://redd.it/1v4in84
@r_systemadmin

Azure Outage?

Anyone hosting VMs on Azure WestUS having network connectivity issues? We are unable to RDP into our servers this morning. Boot diagnostics shows that our VMs are up and showing current time.

https://redd.it/1v4h50e
@r_systemadmin

I really felt like everyone knew I was faking my knowledge in my new role, but the last admin had "Admin1!" as the password for everything

He worked with the company for 10 years, doing IT for like 20 or more years.

No MFA enabled on anything unless youre a global admin (so just me),
the mobile phones arent enrolled in an MDM
no documentation on anything
let the front desk go instantly to voicemail for a year or more, instead of taking 10 minutes to fix the call forwarding.
hard drives not encrypted
barely had any spam filters enabled
gambling not blocked on the wifi
devices people are actively using are considered inactive in the RMM/MDM so i cant fix them
no forced updates/patching for antivirus software or windows itself
hard drives not encrypted on devices or sim cards with protection on

how are you going to have the keycard code admin password be "Admin1!" and then scold employees about clicking phishing link simulations

there are literally nonprofits in my area that will look at your org and determine how to make it more secure in a technical sense. There is no excuse for this

If this is something I can notice after doing IT for one year and working here for 2 weeks, I have no idea how this man let this slide for this long.

If the staff knew how badly he was compromising their info, he would've been fired so long ago. especially for a small social services org

https://redd.it/1v4ngvi
@r_systemadmin

Anyone else having issues with images not loading in Teams Chat today?

I tried clearing cache to no avail, and M365 hasn't posted any advisories or service degradation notifications about it.. images just show up as white boxes in chats.

https://redd.it/1v4ijc5
@r_systemadmin

HR requesting a policy from 15 years ago. Where does retention/archiving end??

Seems like this company expects us to retain all data created ever. We're up to 19 TB in our M365 backups because we keep all versions of backups indefinitely. We are a company of less than 200 people. Someone help me.

https://redd.it/1v4qxyx
@r_systemadmin

MSP to supplement lack of staff

Anyone else ever offloaded work to an MSP only to end up spending more time fixing their mistakes?

We handed the firewall side over to a third party so we could focus on internal issues and new projects. At this point I’ve easily spent 3× the time troubleshooting and cleaning up after them than I would have spent just doing it myself.

The original logic was “at least someone will be there if things go to shit.” I’m not even confident in that part anymore.

Curious if this is just my experience or if this is the new normal with MSPs (or an old normal).

https://redd.it/1v4muk8
@r_systemadmin

Satellite Hotspot on remote trip for Exec

Hello everyone I got a new request I haven't encountered before today. I have a c-suite member that is taking a vacation to a remote area of Africa and will not have access to internet or cell service during part of the trip. They've insisted the need access to email incase something urgent comes up, and have presented me with an option for a Iridium Satellite Hotspot. Has anyone encountered a request or solution like this before?

https://redd.it/1v4qhtr
@r_systemadmin

Cautionary tale - someone I know got fired for pulling RAM from laptops

Cover your rear and make sure all equipment you take home or work on is documented. Person I know got fired for yanking ram from laptops to keep in the office but the issue was he did the work from home and no one knew he was doing that work. Now hes looking for a job in one of the hardest markets Ive seen in a long while.

https://redd.it/1v4ueoc
@r_systemadmin

Teams outage Aus/Syd?

Anyone else experiencing microsoft teams unable to connect huddles/meetings?


Seems to be affecting KL and SG also


edit: seems 1:1 arent working or at least intermittently



11:30 AEST seems to be working again

https://redd.it/1v4wfe0
@r_systemadmin

what are things that your IT department used to do for users?

A lot of this would be laughable to younger IT people, but a huge portion of running an IT department involved performing tasks for the users that simply would never happen today.

We used to set out of office messages for the users. We had a mail server running on solaris and the users did not know how to use the shell so they'd create a ticket and we'd set a vacation message for them, and they'd create another ticket when asking us to remove it.

We also used to burn CDs for people. They'd give us the files they wanted burned and then we'd burn the CDs on a dedicated machine with a CD burner at the help desk. And at that point the help desk was an actual desk you'd walk up to which is why it was called the help desk.

(The help desk had some equipment people could borrow and check out and bring to their desks like zip drives. There were also copies of manuals at the help desk that you could check out and use at your desk and then bring back.)

We also had someone go around our buildings and stock the laser printers with paper every day and check toner levels.

A different group in IT would print out reports on a dot matrix printer over night, then separate them out and sort them, and deliver them to people's offices or cubes first thing in the morning. The people doing this work were available to answer the phone as a sort of backup help desk over night. They also would change backup tapes over night.

https://redd.it/1v4ylyp
@r_systemadmin

Weekly 'I made a useful thing' Thread - July 24, 2026

There is a great deal of user-generated content out there, from scripts and software to tutorials and videos, but we've generally tried to keep that off of the front page due to the volume and as a result of community feedback. There's also a great deal of content out there that violates our advertising/promotion rule, from scripts and software to tutorials and videos.

We have received a number of requests for exemptions to the rule, and rather than allowing the front page to get consumed, we thought we'd try a weekly thread that allows for that kind of content. We don't have a catchy name for it yet, so please let us know if you have any ideas!

In this thread, feel free to show us your pet project, YouTube videos, blog posts, or whatever else you may have and share it with the community. Commercial advertisements, affiliate links, or links that appear to be monetization-grabs will still be removed.

https://redd.it/1v54wvy
@r_systemadmin

Both work.

Every now and then I see a post like “Is it okay to use Fireball on a PC?”, and I have to check to see if I’m in a sysadmin or a DnD forum.

https://redd.it/1v50qjg
@r_systemadmin

Anyone else feel more exhausted by their manager than their actual - Part 2 workload

Hi Everyone,

Around a month ago, I made a Reddit post about my toxic manager and workplace, and I received mixed opinions. I'm seeking advice again because I'm honestly struggling to continue in this job.

I'm only staying because I need to support my aging parents, pay my room rent, and continue paying my education EMI. The stress has become so bad that I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night thinking about work.

Here are a few things I'm dealing with:

My manager refuses to give me access to infrastructure resources like Active Directory and Microsoft 365 Admin Portal, even though I've worked on them before.
Even something as simple as changing the USB port of a mouse requires his approval.
For months, I've only been assigned Windows installations, printer issues, and basic hardware tasks, despite having more technical knowledge.
I feel that if he realizes I can handle infrastructure work independently, he might see me as a threat.
A few previous IT guys were fired after becoming too confident. I've survived by keeping my head down and making him feel important.
I'm also worried that if I resign for a better opportunity, he might create problems with my relieving process.

At this point, the workload isn't the issue—it's the environment that's mentally exhausting.

Has anyone here worked under a manager like this? Did things ever improve, or did you eventually leave? I'd genuinely appreciate your advice.

My Previous Post - https://www.reddit.com/r/sysadmin/s/yHwgtXrtMX

https://redd.it/1v57v7a
@r_systemadmin

And here we go again...

Noticed Ericsson Cradlepoint NetCloud is down, can't login. Check down detector and a ton of crap is down. Guessing AWS or Azure.

https://redd.it/1v58bd3
@r_systemadmin

Would you move to an MSP role?

Hey everyone

Been in IT now for nearly 10 years, worked on numerous things and companies.

Stagnated at the company I'm at now, no more ceiling to hit and most of the time I spend my times bored out my head.

Been approached by an MSP for a Lead role but having never worked for an MSP, I don't know what I could be getting myself into.

Can anyone share some insight on life at an MSP, type of stuff you do, day to day etc?

https://redd.it/1v592x4
@r_systemadmin

Meraki to Ubiquiti sanity check

I wanted to see if my team and I are crazy. The past few years we started to take the direction to go from Cisco switching and Ubiquiti APs to all Meraki. We rationalized the cost and it wasn't the end of the world. Still felt a little bad but what we have installed feels good.

We have new leadership and an opportunity for a real change of direction. Ubiquiti has been stepping their game up on the switching side the past few years and we could do a full UI refresh for the cost of replacing a handful of switches and the other half of our APs.

We have about 48 switches and 60 APs with lots of fiber. I know a lot of schools have been making the switch as well as multi site businesses so it seems possible.

Are we crazy?

https://redd.it/1v5d4h5
@r_systemadmin