I'm surprised no one has replied to this yet.

I work for a company that employs three people in its IT department, so I'm pretty much a jack-of-all-trades. The three of us do, however, have "specialties", and mine is Network and Server Systems Admin.

First, I'll give you a run-down of our environment, which I think is pretty typical of companies these days. We run IBM servers, all except for one running Microsoft Server 2003 Standard Edition. The odd-ball runs IBM AIX Unix. We use Cisco Systems network gear for all of our routers and managed switches (there are some smaller switches out in people's offices and such, but we don't worry too much about those), and wireless access points. We have 13 locations which are all linked via dual T1's, all serviced by AT&T. To complicate the issue further, we also run a VoIP system (ShoreTel) over our WAN, which means that all locations are running multiple VLANs.

My job is to make sure all this stuff works right. I've been through Cisco's CCNA Bootcamp (though I haven't taken the test yet), which is how I know how to plumb around in the switches and routers, and I've completed training on Microsoft Server products, so I can work with the servers. The AIX box, fortunately, almost runs itself, but I've got a few years of Linux experience that helps me there. I don't deal much with the actually programming of our phone system, though I am responsible for cabling and telephone lines.

The work is very challenging. Since we "do it all", so to speak, every day is a new day. Network and Server Systems Administration is a lot of maintenance work, however sometimes failures occur, which can make the job somewhat stressful. I've always enjoyed very technical work, and this sort of stuff satisfies that need. It's also very detail-oriented (setting up 20 switches using the exact same configuration template, for example), and documentation-oriented (then making note of all the differences between the configurations on those same 20 switches).

I love what I do. If you have any further questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.