Maya Karp won a $100 Apple gift card and Tshirt from
Opengear for her entry:
"I work with the systems teams at DreamWorks Animation. Being a SysAdmin for me, is about conquering my own insecurities. I come from an artist background with no formal education in computer science at all. I always felt unsure around computers, much less Linux. I became a SysAdmin to build my confidence and grow. I know have an Ubuntu media server at home and run all three OS.
Truly, I believe the difference between a job and a career as a SysAdmin is attitude. I come in curious every day to learn something new. In this field, the change far outpaces anyone who is not voraciously learning. My career goal is continually raising the challenge and curiosity bar as I progress- being a SysAdmin has been an awesome way to stay curious and challenged!
################################
There once was a shell within Linux
Whose returns were feeling like gimmicks
Whether up arrow or tab
It was all becoming drab
Every day, every minute
Was just another init
Until Red Hat saw the symptom
And changed over to system ... D"
Jennine Townsend won a Raspberry Pi 2 Ultimate kit from
Silicon Mechanics for her entry:
"Almost a billion seconds ago, my mentor taught me that system administration is at its core:
Manage the hotel
Clean rooms, sheets, hot water, roof
Prevent guest murders.
Norman taught me a few other things, too, but that analogy that I have recast into haiku has informed my approach ever since."
Patrick C won Laptop bag from
Druva for his entry:
"To me being a S.A. is being the dependable when there is no doubt a situation could be fixed. There is no such thing as 9-5pm in a S.A. job. It is expected that you handle the highest priority matters with the know how and spending zero money to accomplish said tasks. One might say we walk on water at times, especially if your racks are close to a pump room. Smiling and being cheerful when really you know we're all screwed. Most of all doing the best you can at the job at hand, even if it's the light bulb in the server room.
To me working with so many aspecs and variables any other job wouldn't make sense being a career. With the S.A. career path you could start with the intention to work with NASA and end up at a yogurt factory supporting the same systems. To progessively move forward and self educate is what makes this a career. Always looking to learning new things daily. To think we have careers in a industry that can change in a week is mind blowing. You can call us what every you like but the career will never change just the job at hand."
Peter Ferriola won an Ansible book and prize pack from Ansible for his entry:
"To me, being a sysadmin means taking the tedious things people have to do with systems and making nobody have to do them again (at least not regularly). If people don't really remember a problem a few months later that used to plague them every week, I'm doing my job."
Thanks to all our members who entered the contest and again to our sponsors for their support of system administration, LOPSA, and this contest.
