I work in a european country branch for an international company with thousands of employees globally. My job is to administer the network and infrastructure. Actually what I am doing is:
I am responsible for everything hardware and software related for 150 people working inside a multi level building: format computers, install software, tweak settings, call on-site support from third party vendors, maintain, backup and make sure everything is healthy and working I am responsible for IT related projects like new IT features migrations and deployments I am supporting the users in whatever IT related - from Outlook to restore data from the file server and their AVAYA telephone centre lines. I am something between an IT Systems administrator, an IT Manager, Support technician, IT consultant, Network administrator and Infrastructure administrator at the same time. I am doing a lot of non-productive work, however there are "good times" where I learn new things and be happy. But at the most part it's depressing.
I am almost 32 and working professionally for 4 years. I have no prior experience to that and I was at the right spot the right time to get this job. Many people could say I am lucky because I have the benefit to work in a huge international company. My problem is that I do not know where I am going from there. In parallel with my 9to5 job, I work for personal and limited clients' projects in the field of web developent: this is what I have graduated from university (a programmer). I have been progressing and did good job in php/sql/js - recently I started creating stuff in python and django. I could easily fit in a junior developer job.
What path should I follow from here ? To be more specific, do you believe that my job as an IT systems & network administrator has something to offer to my profession ? Should I abandon and risk my job now to be a junior developer with less money and by working from the beginning more hours with less professional benefits ? Or should I stay where am I and try to "fit" my development work with IT ? I created an assets-users database and a ticketing system for issue statistics and reports - could I sell it to the company ?
In simple words, how could I "use" my current position to benefit the most I can ? I am thursty to listen to your opinion however "hard" should it be !