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I am a 26-year-old Network Administrator. On track to move into a more Engineering focused role. I enjoy what I do. Network or Systems Administration seems to be the older man’s game. I am always the youngest on the team by about 15-20 years. Sometimes I feel like I am at a disadvantage for not knowing some of these legacy technologies that still persist in the environment.

I feel like it could be useful to learn some of these things, however learning about dying technology seems counterproductive. Not looking for a solution so much as wondering if anyone else has felt this way and their own personal observations.

16 Spice ups
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I can understand where you are coming from, but you could also say, there’s no point learning to drive a manual car or a petrol or diesel vehicle since EVs will be the future - in this case most will disagree, however old technology will always be old and it will be around forever, even when EVs get replaced by something else, they’ll be classified as old, but someone still needs to know them.

That said, you’ve not mentioned what old means, or what you consider to be newer technologies.

Are you meaning 365, SPO, and other ‘cloud’ services or docker/Kubernetes, AI/ML or something else?

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365 is a good example. Knowing 365 administration but not knowing jack about managing an on prem Exchange Server.

Knowing Windows Server Desktop experience, lost with Server Core (I know server core != old, you probably know what I mean by this).

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So old technology in your eyes isn’t Windows 85, NT server, we’re talking about what you see as legacy on-prem systems.

So Server core is underused, but should be people’s first choice from a security perspective, learning that will be a benefit, but only if you work somewhere this exists, that said, it wont hurt to know how to control Server with desktop experience via PowerShell, WAC or other remote tools in the same way you would server core.

Exchange is slowly becoming a smaller on-prem setup, however, Exchange server 2025 is an on-prem install, so if you end up working for a company that does not want cloud services, this is also not a bad option to learn - and by learn, I mean beyond installing it and creating user mailboxes.

Where your focus should be, is where your employer is and where they want to be. If they have no intentions of moving to the cloud and you, none in moving on from said company, learn what they have, if however you want to be at the forefront and you’ve lined up a job with a company of the same mindset, learn that.

It never hurts to understand older technology though.

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I learned through experience that the only “old” technology you need to learn is the oldest thing you have to support. If you walked into a manufacturing center, you might still see XP Embedded running million-dollar equipment. We were just talking about the fact that Windows 95 with floppy drives runs the majority of the US air traffic controller infrastructure. What is it at your place that has you wondering about ‘old’ stuff, exactly?

If you go to a job interview and they show you around, make it one of the questions to ask whatever tech-rep is interviewing you. “What’s the oldest tech you’ll need me to help with” then go study the heck out of it for the follow-up interview.

Otherwise, time marches on and as things drop off, there really isn’t any reason to know them, until you land in a place where you do.

Helpful, I hope?

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Be mindful that you are referring to job title, not what one does.

Job titles change with adaption of the role, so a systems administrator may now be known as infrastructure engineer, operations administrator, cloud/virtualization architect, or some other fancy, meaningless name, but you still do the same tasks with a % of newer technologies in the mix.

It’s only when you are dedicated to a specific task your title may be really relevant

Cloud is just someone else’s datacentre accessed over the public internet, but it’s still a datacentre - new title, new sales.

The point of this waffle is don’t get hung up on titles so much, many contracts usually have an ‘and any other business’ type wording meaning, you’ll do your job and whatever else we ask of you.

There are many topics on here lately where people are looking or work and/or have been unemployed a while, so be sure you have what skills the other company needs before you leave any you are in now.

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I try to learn all the production technology I can at the current job I have. I don’t necessarily go out of my way to learn technology that’s not in the production environment. I feel it’s good to have general knowledge of the past, but every company needs those in admin/engineering roles to look to the future & how technology fits to fulfil business needs.

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I’m old as dirt (My age is actually an anagram of yours ) and I never bothered to learn the Cisco command line. It was already dead and just hanging on. And now I’m switching to meraki and not looking back! :slight_smile:

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Not sure it is counter-productive. For example, I drove a stick shift car/truck for 20yrs or so. Knowing the relationship in how a transmission shifts in relation with engine rrpm’s helps me out with paddle shifting in my current vehicle. I know when, how, and why to downshift.

From a computer IT perspective, I know DOS and Windows command line and that helps when you need to troubleshoot a virus issue or in automating tasks, among other things.

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If you ever want to help a company transition from the old to the new, you’ll need to understand the old to a degree! Companies are slow to change and need help understanding why it’ll be benefiial, how exactly to do it well, etc.

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I would say it is not an older man’s game, but those roles encompass much more diverse knowledge.

It seems today that the “hot” IT jobs are all focused all most with blinders on, not really seeing what everything else that is going on.

Today, my “title” is Network Administrator for a SMB. But within that, my duties are far and wide:

  • MS SQL Server administration
  • MS Exchange server administration
  • Printers administration, support, and maintenance
  • Windows 11 and Windows 10 workstations administration, support and maintenance
  • Email gateway administration, support and maintenance. (Dealing with to/from the entire globe)
  • Virtual environment administration, support and maintenance
  • Windows Server administration, support and maintenance
  • Network devices and connections administration support and maintenance.
  • Microsoft IIS websites administration support and maintenance.
  • All various software used administration support and maintenance
  • Etc, so forth and so on
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I’ve gotta disagree with this one. I’m not a network admin anymore but I still use it on the regular. And it mostly translates to CLI in HP and Fortigate. It’s like talking to someone who speaks a different dialect; you’ll have some misunderstandings at the beginning but eventually come to understand each other.

A very useful skill.

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Totally agree…it’s not necessary to memorize Cisco CLI but it just works so much better than the Cisco GUI. I still prefer to look through the switch’s GUI first, to get a whole overview of everything without having to stare at the lines of code, but then I’ll go and make any major changes via CLI…

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If they still persist in your environment, you should learn about it so you can support it. Even if others support it, you being familiar with it will be hugely helpful in understanding how to migrate from it when the time comes.

I started my first IT job at 26 just after Y2K was past. I had the title of “Network Administrator”, which was ironic since I was really doing helpdesk, computer setups, etc. I really wasn’t doing “network administrator” tasks until I started my second IT job at 31 years old, and my title there was “IT Specialist”…I had to learn a LOT of legacy stuff at that job, including Nortel phone systms (CICS and MICS, along with Call Pilot voicemail). I became a “Network Administrator” again in title at my 3rd IT job, and truly started learning real Network Administrator duties there, though that really only made up 10% of what I did (still mostly desktop and server support). At my current job, I’m a “Systems Administrator” and I do more network admin duties than I did in the past, but still do desktop and server support, I run wire, install PoE cameras, and “other duties as assigned”. If it plugs in, I probably support it…I even help manage the buildings HVAC.

I started out as the young guy…about the time you were born! Now I’m reaching the age where I’m the legacy tech…at least that’s how I’m starting to feel! LOL

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Do we need to learn adding, subtracting, etc. if we use calculators?

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Well to be honest, it is not the technology or the tools you need to learn. You need to learn the concept.
For example, network administration on a linux of a windows network is the same, the difference is the tools that you use.
These old guys can teach you about the work, you will have to learn what tools are needed and what tools are outdated.

Also, most people in technology are a different kind of breed, we are open to learn new things, so you can also teach them the new tools. Tech each other.

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Good question, @jaydenf8. I work in State Government, so old systems is, “oh, you mean everything that we have”. In my situation maintaining the status quo IS the job. I am fond of saying we’ll use anything until it breaks beyond repair. I wish we would adopt some cloud infrastructure, but there are some among us who will stream, “The Cloud WILL TAKE ALL OUR MONEY!!!” Unfortunately, those scare tactics work very well, so nothing much changes from one year to the next.

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A lot of companies in the private sector too. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

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I have a love/hate relationship with this saying…first I love it because it keeps me from having to work weekends more often than not (as in, I didn’t “fix” it because it wasn’t broken and now I’m not spending the weekend undoing my “fix”) but it also means I can’t “fix” something that’s working according to the bosses, even if it’s only working as a technicality and not as intended…There are always new solutions to old problems, and having a “fix” means I can’t implement a new one. That temporary band-aid that’s working can’t be permanently fixed, so temp becomes prod…

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“Sometimes I feel like I am at a disadvantage for not knowing some of these legacy technologies that still persist in the environment.”

It depends what you see as a disadvantage. Certainly, having a deep understanding of a particular subject is to be celebrated and desired - but is not the only thing that makes one a huge value to a company.

As someone who has worked for a long time in the industry, I think the best trait among the brightest that I’ve worked alongside has always been; willingness to learn, and resourcefulness at finding the person or technology that can solve the underlying problem or meet the business need.

Systems evolve and change each day. As others have said on this thread; it is a good goal to have a depth of knowledge in areas that you directly support, but sometimes replacing a system (or even evaluating if it is still needed) is a better approach than being able to support something that is legacy.

My advice; ask some of the folks you work around to tell you a few stories that stand out in their mind of challenges they faced, and how they solved them. Ask them if they were 20 years younger, what they would have focused their time on learning or mastering, knowing what they do now.

All the best.

5 Spice ups