Most of the jobs that we do as a sysadmin in a large company can be done by another intern

And this is scary. This is why the pay is low. Are all sysadmins(linux) jobs like this(easy). Can you share some job vacancies in your area as a sysadmin?

Most of the times we just send logs to developers and they fix the issue, we don't even provide ideas to them. That's what we're instructed for.

I've automated most of the logs clearing system so we don't require to do basic stuffs like clearing logs anymore manually. (The fact that it wasn't automated earlier is like LOL even though this company is 30 year old company (which is when the IT started booming in my country)).

I really don't know. If this is what sysadmins do, I need to change my careers because I don't believe doing a job like this will ever lead me towards more salary.

Most of the times we're doing mundane tickets and it's getting boring and frustrating to me.

Normally a sysadmin should be present at the beginning of all new project in IT , with his peers from networks and storage..
the sysadmin is in charge of defining what the server will be, its architecture... for the given project , when its containers you agree or not on its size AND you be sure you have the resources etc...
Since everybody is cutting in budget, what used to be the unix market is left almost agonising because those vendors platforms are 4-20X the price of servers running Intel or clones (AMD...) forgetting also that the processors are on thing the rest another...
But this also has an impact on wages, a sysadmin working on MS servers is far from getting the same salary on linux, and of course when you have a multi-million$ vendor cluster, you will not let it in the hands of non qualified system engineers but pay what it needs to have a good system engineer or level3 sysadmin

About the work on logs, they are not there to look pretty or show the server is working, we agree we are talking of system logs, as the others, the sysadmin can help putting them in place BUT it's not his job to look after them..
The job of sysadmin is not to clear the logs, but to see what they contain, when errors, investigate on why, learning to be pro-active: things getting regular and more frequent, what does it mean?? what is going on?
And not wait for a crash, but being able to say hmmm I need to plan a maintenance with perhaps a downtime of XX hours, I need to check some hardware, or I have some sensible firmware to upgrade, or the server needs security patching etc...

There is plenty to say about the job... now it's more up to you to defend your role, and explain to your hierarchy their mistakes, you have big responsibilities, and as, you are entitled to a just salary

All the best
Vic

Also my observation:
with the move towards cheap hardware and free software the sysadmins are paid less.

A severe incident now and then, would underline the importance of the sysadmin.
Unfortunately the good sysadmin will proactively prevent all kinds of incidents...

To quote that well known fire fighting legend….

“If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.”

Red Adair

@Ihattaren:

Well. I think that's absolutely only a characteristic of your specific environment and job. IT can be extremely complex these days with continuously growing complexity.

Take a look at the Cloud Native Landscape what amount of different software products are available to consider, learn and use in the Cloud Business:

The amount of money paid is - among other things - dependant on the number of available experts for the needed task. The number of available experts is declining drastically the more complex and difficult a task gets.

Just to further illustrate complexity: A kubernetes fundamentals book for a beginner is for example about 1000 pages long.

I can understand, that you're not happy with your situation and of course, if one has a very simple job, the salary is at a corresponding low level.

Options for you maybe to just look in to current technology development and educate yourself to raise your skills. You may also look more closely at the different areas and tasks of your current job: Where and what can be improved there? Typically there is a lot. There is a vast number of directions and opportunities, especially if you have plenty of time.

For me and myself, I was ever interested in diving more into the different software pieces. I liked to automate and improve things. So I learned things bit by bit on my particular jobs. And everything you learn improves your overall IT-problem-solving capacity.

For example:

So far you were only able to create shell scripts. Now you just have learned some scripting language like python. So with this new skill, you are now capable to solve more complex tasks efficiently, which are not suitable for the shell.

Finally I think high salary may not be an enriching goal. I better recommend to have fun in doing what you do. Some people may disagree. But if you have fun, you like what you do and you willingly dedicate more and more time into your task, which will lead to continuously improving your skills which in consequence automatically raises your salary on the long run.

There's a great motivational video from Steve Jobs about that. (Steve Jobs - On of the Greatest Speeches ever). I do not post the video link, because I'm not sure if it is desirable to post video links here.

@ joker: Being you are not a new user, nothing is stopping you to post a link as long as it is in relation with the discussed topic

Feel free to share...

That said I agree with you, that being happy at work is the most important, when it is no more the case, then it is time to think why... and perhaps change job or environment

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