What skills should an assistant system administrator (ENI) have?

Question

System administration

Hello everybody!

Interested in the question above - What skills should an assistant system administrator have?

Introductory - 21 years old, 4th year of IB, St. Petersburg, read / studied books by Tanenbaum and Olifer about Computer networks, studied the "course" "Networks for the smallest", I have little experience with CPT, Winbox, I know what a thin client is, well and of course, the difference between a switch and a router, from November to quarantine, he worked as an assistant to the SA in an outsourcing company.

The problem is that since April I have been trying to find a job as an enikey worker - but they don’t take me anywhere: either the schedule does not fit, or simply without explaining the reason. Therefore, I am also interested in - if (most likely) I am a prof. skills are not up to, what else do I need to learn, so that it’s straight ", as they say (so that in any company where an enikey worker is needed, such skills are required, and not due to the specifics of the company's work), so that my chance of being employed is at least 40-50% higher ? In which organizations (and, preferably, in which area besides telecom) is it better to submit a resume to gain practical experience : in large ones like RT / MTS and so on, or in small ones? And what salary can I expect (my personal expectations are 30 tr, as in my previous job, although 50 would be ideal, but this is from the category of "wet dreams")?

Therefore, I ask a question here in the hope that they will help me with advice / an answer, or at least they will not let me down. Thanks in advance for your reply.

PS I understand that the path of the administrator is difficult and thorny, however, like the path of any other position. I understand that now I know quite a bit, I need to finish my education, and I have no right to count on much.

P. ss I also have a little knowledge in the field of web vulnerabilities, I participated in various CTF competitions, suddenly this is also important ...

P. sss Maybe there are those who need a smart student, I will be glad for a side job / job.

Answer 1

If you pass an interview, but you are not invited for a trial period after half a year of searching, you are definitely doing something wrong. Most of the interview questions are very similar. After going through 3-5 social services, you will find out a pool of basic (80% percent) questions or topics that are the same for everyone. You only need to memorize this set of questions as in an exam. No one can give you an answer like "learn this, this and this and they will take you." First, because you simply didn't list your skill set. Because taking a course or reading a book does not mean learning all the knowledge from it. The reason why such a question is stupid is simple: there are too many things. If you ask any professional what he knows, he will not be able to name exactly what, and if he starts listing, in a couple of hours he will find out that all that he said is only for the first half a year of work. Look for vacancies. They ask you to be able to embroider crosses, go to study.
Apart from that, I suspect you have a poor resume and need to learn how to write it. And also record all the interviews and re-listen, I analyze the questions. And this applies to all areas in it.

Answer 2

Good afternoon. With regards to knowledge - there is no standard of knowledge for any company, there is a certain set of requirements that varies from company to company. For telecom, it is important for you to understand networks at levels 1 and 2, for a data center, you will most likely only need to know the hardware of the servers, be able to insert them into a rack and turn them on, know what a raid is and how to replace a disk in it, for the usual companies - to be able to set up and install dohrenlierd programs, most often pirated ones, tweak the 1sku there, deploy a file dumper here, fix the printer, etc. This is a brief summary of the market situation, then specific recommendations:

• It is impossible at the first stages of a job search to simply make 1 resume and send it by mailing to 10 companies. Now I have enough profile on LinkedIn, because there is a background, experience and recruiters write themselves. When I was looking for my first job, I had 6 different resumes for different profiles and I edited each one a little before sending it. This greatly helps to increase the likelihood of being called for an interview. If a company is looking for a technical support specialist, and your resume says "Assistant system administrator / Enikey" - the chances that HR will choose you are less than if it says "Technical support specialist". Also by skills: If the job asks for the ability to: Set up Win10 OS, work with office equipment, be able to build a LAN, be able to kick 1sku, etc. services, then the probability
  
• 
  The second moment, besides on skills. The recruiter is looking for a non-specialist who will at least have this set of knowledge and more for the n-th amount. He needs to find a person who will work in the company for at least a year. If you are proud of your knowledge of networks, but the company does not have a serious LAN, then you will most likely not be hired, corny because your interests do not coincide with the tasks in the company and you are unlikely to like it. Example: If I write a DevOps engineer in my resume and put Kubernetes, Ansible, Docker and Gitlab in the main knowledge, then even if I have a background in Windows and Linux administration, and I am completely suitable for a company that is looking for a system administrator, they are most likely they won’t call me, because with my skills I clearly show what exactly I plan to do in a new company and I won’t be interested in anything else.
  
• 
  Third. Again, it's about skills. Please make it easier. Do not write "studied Tannenbaum", it sounds like "knew everything." Do not write "search and elimination of vulnerabilities in web applications", this implies a really deep understanding of the topic of information security, and not just knowing how to close unnecessary ports in iptables and what is sql injection. "I know networks a little, I taught from Tannenbaum's books. I have a little idea what IS is, I even went to CTFs, because I like this topic." Be simpler, most likely because after the interview they don’t take you, because according to such descriptions, you are 100k special, but in fact, knowledge is only superficial. Of course, I will not take your knowledge to judge, but I am only ready to assume, based on your situation.
  

In any case, good luck in your search!
PS. As for which company to choose, decide for yourself. I chose the path from telecom to a small sysadmin-enikem company, where I had no supervision from above, in order to get maximum freedom. But you can also go to a large one in order to immediately touch, so to speak, "adult" pieces of iron and services. But enikeya, as a rule, will not be allowed there.

Answer 3

Yes, none, be able to press any button on request

Answer 4

Look for companies with a shift schedule or outsourcing support (only a very dubious office from this category shines for you). The problem is that you cannot work on your own, which means that your schedule must match the one who will clean up after you. With 3 days a week, this kind of work is very difficult to find.