I’ve been thinking about this topic for quite some time and it’s probably the biggest issue I have with the aspect of “Information Technology” as a department.  There is no real standardization to titles, structure or even management as a whole.

For example, some companies decide to use the title of “Systems Administrator” to define what would normally be considered to those in the field as a Help Desk Level 2.  I’ve even seen companies give this title to those that would mostly be considered paper pushers of the digital age.  People who get a document that asks them to create a new user, and they run a script or copy a template base account and just enter the required information, then move on to the next one.  On the other side of things though, I’ve seen people with this title who could be classified as Engineer level.  They manage and maintain a companies Exchange environment, AD Infrastructure and sometimes go so far as to manage SAN utilization and configuration.

My problem with this is that it varies the understanding of what an Information Technology position is.  What means “System Administrator” to one means something completely different to another.  When I was interviewing people to hire a Junior Systems Administrator position at my previous job, no one understood even basic concepts of Active Directory and out of the 12 I interviewed for the position, only one didn’t try to lie to me about what he knew.  He wasn’t afraid to say, “I don’t know.”

How, as a department, are we supposed to gain any respect when positions are given out to people who have no idea what they are doing, but are expected to perform at a level that those in the field consider a truly Administrative role?