Advancing from Unix Sysadmin to Programmer

From: Martin McMahon (nospammac_at_yahoo.com)
Date: 05/20/04 

Date: 20 May 2004 05:05:33 -0700

Hello there.

I am a 33 year old Unix System Admin and am currently at a stage
in my career where I have identified a change is needed in my career.

I am nearly finished (one year left) a B.Sc. in Information Technology
and have approx. 8 years of solid Unix System Admin experience behind
me. I am also proficient in Shell Programming, Perl and reasonably
proficient in C. I do not have experience in OO programming, but am
practising at home on personal projects.

I would be very grateful if there is someone out there who could
answer this question for me, or who has gone through the same scenario.
My question is:

Is it possible at this stage of my life to transfer (by whatever
means) to a purely programming role, considering my age,
experience and education?

Any experiences, opinions and criticisms are all appreciated.
I realise some may say that Unix Sysadmins *are* programmers,
but I do not believe that to be the case - we are more like
mechanics who maintain what has been designed and occasionally
repair or tack on certain additions of our own.

Finally for anyone who might believe I'm being rash -
I did not suddenly decide this, but have been thinking and mulling
this over in my head for over a year now. A conversation I had with
my boss recently (by far the best and open minded manager I have
ever worked for) is what enabled me to realise I needed to make a
decision.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Advancing from Unix Sysadmin to Programmer
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    ... > I am a 33 year old Unix System Admin and am currently at a stage ... > in my career where I have identified a change is needed in my career. ... I am also proficient in Shell Programming, ... There are many types of programming jobs. ...
    (comp.unix.programmer)