When experienced IT professionals share hard-earned wisdom, smart careers are listening. A comprehensive discussion in Reddit’s r/sysadmin community generated hundreds of responses from seasoned system administrators, network engineers, and IT managers sharing their most valuable career insights.

We’ve analyzed the top-voted comments from this career advice goldmine to bring you the most battle-tested wisdom from professionals who’ve successfully navigated the complexities of IT careers. These aren’t theoretical tips from career coaches – they’re real insights from system administrators, network engineers, and IT managers who’ve spent decades in the trenches.

From work-life balance strategies that could save your sanity to technical wisdom that could save your career, here are the 15 most upvoted pieces of IT career advice that every technology professional should know. Whether you’re just starting your IT career or looking to advance to the next level, these insights will serve you well.

1. The Golden Rule of IT Work-Life Balance (969 upvotes)

“Work is a never ending process. Go home on time and take care of your loved ones.” - u/ElevenNotes

This simple yet profound statement received nearly 1,000 upvotes because it addresses the number one career killer in IT: the toxic myth that working endless hours demonstrates dedication. The reality is far different, and experienced professionals know it.

Why This Wisdom Matters:

  • IT work is genuinely endless – there will always be another ticket, another system to optimize, another “urgent” request
  • Companies that normalize overwork are often poorly managed and represent unsustainable career environments
  • Your personal relationships and health are the foundation that supports your entire career trajectory
  • Burnout doesn’t just hurt your current job – it can derail your entire professional future and damage your long-term earning potential

Implementation Strategy: Set hard boundaries from day one. When you establish that you leave on time and handle genuine emergencies professionally but don’t live in crisis mode, you train your organization to plan better and respect your time. The professionals who consistently work late often find themselves trapped in a cycle where their availability becomes expected rather than appreciated.

Red flags to watch for:

  • Regular “emergency” deployments that could have been planned
  • Managers who praise overwork while ignoring work-life balance
  • Company cultures that measure dedication by hours worked rather than results achieved

The Business Case: Well-rested professionals make better decisions, write cleaner code, and solve problems more efficiently. The most successful IT careers are marathons, not sprints.

2. The Communication Game-Changer (432 upvotes)

“Best advice I’ve ever received was, ‘shut the f* up’.”** - u/KoSoVaR

This blunt advice resonates deeply with IT professionals because our technical expertise can make us overconfident in meetings and discussions. Learning when to listen instead of speak is one of the most underestimated career accelerators in technology.

When Silence Is Golden:

  • Salary negotiations: After stating your case, let silence work for you
  • Troubleshooting sessions: Listen for clues before jumping to solutions
  • Leadership meetings: Observe dynamics and politics before contributing
  • Customer interactions: Let frustrated users vent before problem-solving

The Psychology Behind It: Technical professionals often feel intense pressure to demonstrate their knowledge immediately, especially in meetings with non-technical stakeholders. However, the most respected IT professionals are those who speak thoughtfully and listen actively. Your technical competence will be evident in your work – your professional maturity shows in how you communicate and collaborate with others.

Career Impact: Managers notice who listens well during meetings. Clients trust professionals who understand their problems before proposing solutions. This single skill can differentiate you from equally technical peers.

3. The Triple Foundation of IT Success (415 upvotes)

“Don’t overcomplicate. Cover your ass. Document.” - u/spidernik84

These three principles form the bedrock of sustainable IT careers. Each element protects you from different types of career damage while building your professional reputation.

Don’t Overcomplicate

Complex solutions might seem impressive, but they create long-term problems:

  • Maintenance nightmares: The person who built it often becomes the only person who can fix it, creating unsustainable dependencies
  • Knowledge silos: Overly complex systems trap you in roles you might want to leave, limiting career mobility
  • Business resistance: Stakeholders trust solutions they can understand and will hesitate to approve changes to overly complex systems
  • Documentation challenges: Complex solutions require extensive documentation that’s harder to maintain and update

Professional Strategy: Choose the simplest solution that meets requirements. Your reputation should be built on reliability, not complexity.

Cover Your Ass

This isn’t about paranoia – it’s about professional protection and accountability:

  • Document decisions: When projects fail, you need records of what was decided, by whom, and why
  • Email follow-ups: “Per our conversation…” emails create paper trails for verbal agreements and decisions
  • Change management: Following proper procedures protects you when changes cause issues and demonstrates professionalism
  • Meeting summaries: Send follow-up emails summarizing key decisions and action items to all participants

Document Everything

Documentation serves multiple career purposes:

  • Knowledge transfer: Helps you move up by making yourself replaceable
  • Problem solving: Your future self will thank you for good notes
  • Professional credibility: Well-documented work demonstrates thoroughness
  • Legal protection: Clear records protect you in disputes

4. The Printer Warning That Could Save Your Sanity (338 upvotes)

“Never, no matter how much they ask, how much they pay you, how much you want to help them… never, ever get yourself responsible for printer issues.” - u/pentangleit

While this seems humorous, it represents a crucial career principle: avoid becoming known for low-value, high-frustration tasks that don’t advance your professional development.

Why Printers Are Career Quicksand:

  • Hardware-dependent: Often require physical presence and vendor support
  • High visibility failures: Everyone notices when printing doesn’t work
  • Low technical growth: Troubleshooting jams doesn’t build valuable skills
  • Endless support requests: Success means more requests, not recognition

The Broader Career Lesson: Identify similar traps in your environment:

  • Becoming the permanent “password reset person”
  • Taking responsibility for consumer-grade equipment
  • Supporting software that’s being phased out
  • Accepting unclear responsibilities without appropriate authority

Alternative Strategy: When asked to handle such tasks, position yourself as a consultant who helps find proper solutions rather than becoming the permanent fix-it person.

5. The Loyalty Reality Check (282 upvotes)

“I got laid off during the pandemic from a job I worked at for 8 years with no raises and found a new job at 33% higher pay within two weeks. I learned not to let companies take advantage of me, they aren’t loyal to you, look out for yourself.” - u/zakabog

This story illustrates a painful but essential career truth that every IT professional must understand: company loyalty is often one-sided, and looking out for yourself isn’t selfish – it’s necessary for long-term career success and financial security.

The Eight-Year Lesson: Working eight years without raises demonstrates loyalty, but it also demonstrates accepting below-market compensation that compounds over time. The immediate 33% salary increase obtained by switching jobs shows exactly how much this misplaced loyalty was costing – not just in current income, but in lost retirement savings, reduced lifetime earnings, and missed opportunities for skill development.

Market Reality Check:

  • Annual reviews: Salary increases should track with both market rates and your skill development – if they don’t, it’s time to investigate why
  • External benchmarking: Research your market value annually using sites like Glassdoor, PayScale, and industry salary surveys
  • Opportunity cost: Every year you’re underpaid costs you money that compounds over time through lost salary, benefits, and retirement contributions
  • Skills assessment: Stagnant compensation often indicates stagnant growth opportunities and should trigger career planning conversations

Strategic Career Management:

  • Update your resume and LinkedIn profile regularly with quantified achievements
  • Build relationships with recruiters in your specialization area
  • Interview periodically to understand your market value and practice your skills
  • Maintain skills that are transferable across companies and technologies

6. The Network Engineer’s Cardinal Rule (276 upvotes)

“For Network Engineers. Be 100% certain you will be able to access the device after the config change is committed.” - u/TC271

This technical advice represents a broader career principle that extends far beyond networking: always have a rollback plan and consider the consequences of your actions before implementation. Network engineers who lock themselves out of devices become expensive problems requiring physical intervention, emergency vendor calls, and potential downtime – all career-damaging outcomes.

Beyond Networking Applications:

  • Database changes: Always test schema modifications in dev environments
  • Security policies: Ensure you won’t lock yourself out of systems
  • Server configurations: Have console access before modifying SSH settings
  • Application deployments: Plan rollback procedures before implementing

Career Risk Management: The professional who consistently thinks about rollback plans builds a reputation for reliability and strategic thinking. This mindset protects you from career-damaging mistakes and demonstrates advanced professional judgment.

Implementation Strategy:

  • Document rollback procedures before making changes
  • Test changes in non-production environments
  • Have out-of-band access methods available
  • Use version control for configuration files

7. The Friday Deployment Rule (153 upvotes)

“Don’t release to prod on a Friday. Or business has its highest trade on Friday and Saturday nights.” - u/twr-92

This classic DevOps principle teaches strategic thinking about timing and business consequences, not just technical feasibility. It’s advice that separates experienced professionals from those who focus only on whether something can be done, not whether it should be done at a particular time.

Why Friday Deployments Fail:

  • Weekend support issues: Problems that surface over the weekend require weekend work
  • Limited resources: Key personnel may be unavailable
  • Monday morning chaos: Issues that brewing over the weekend explode on Monday
  • Reduced user feedback: Lower weekend usage makes problems harder to detect

The Strategic Career Lesson: Consider the broader implications of your technical decisions:

  • Stakeholder availability: Who needs to be available if something goes wrong?
  • Business cycles: When are the highest-risk times for your organization?
  • Personal sustainability: How will this decision affect your work-life balance?
  • Team resources: What support systems are available when you need them?

Professional Growth: Managers notice professionals who think strategically about implementation timing. This type of business awareness is what separates senior professionals from junior ones.

8. The Logging Lifesaver (109 upvotes)

“Best one was ‘look in /var/log’” - u/81mrg81

Simple advice that saves careers. Logs contain the answers to most system problems, but many IT professionals forget to check them when under pressure.

Why Logs Are Career Savers:

  • Objective evidence: Logs don’t lie about what happened and when
  • Pattern recognition: Historical data reveals trends and recurring issues
  • Root cause analysis: Symptoms might mislead, but logs show actual causes
  • Professional credibility: Systematic troubleshooting impresses stakeholders

Advanced Log Strategy:

  • Centralized logging: Implement systems that aggregate logs for easier analysis
  • Log retention: Ensure important logs are kept long enough for trend analysis
  • Alerting: Set up proactive monitoring based on log patterns
  • Documentation: Note unusual log entries and their resolutions

9. The Recognition Reality (108 upvotes)

“If you are the type of person who enjoys receiving thanks and accolades then you are in the wrong line of work.” - u/misterfast

This harsh but honest truth about IT work addresses a fundamental psychological challenge that many technology professionals struggle with: excellent IT work is often invisible to end users and management, while failures are immediately and highly visible to everyone in the organization.

The IT Recognition Problem:

  • Invisible success: When systems work perfectly, nobody notices or acknowledges the effort required to maintain that perfection
  • Visible failures: When something breaks, everyone notices immediately and often assigns blame before understanding root causes
  • Business perspective: IT is frequently viewed as a cost center rather than a profit enabler, making it difficult to demonstrate value
  • User expectations: Perfect operation becomes the expected baseline, making any improvement seem incremental rather than significant
  • Attribution challenges: Business successes are rarely attributed to the IT infrastructure that enables them

Coping Strategies:

  • Find intrinsic satisfaction: Focus on the intellectual challenge of problem-solving and the satisfaction of building reliable systems
  • Document achievements: Create regular reports showing your impact on business operations, cost savings, and risk mitigation
  • Build stakeholder relationships: Proactively educate business leaders about IT’s value and the complexity of what you manage
  • Seek roles with visibility: Consider positions where IT contributions are more apparent, such as customer-facing technical roles or project leadership
  • Measure what matters: Track metrics that demonstrate business value, not just technical performance

Career Adaptation: If recognition is important to you, consider specializing in areas like:

10. The Documentation Trinity (82 upvotes)

“Documentation Documentation Documentation. That, and ‘if you make a mistake, own up to it immediately. Don’t lie’” - u/idownvotepunstoo

This comment combines two career-critical principles: the power of documentation and the importance of integrity.

The Documentation Imperative

Documentation serves multiple career purposes:

  • Knowledge transfer: Enables delegation and promotion opportunities
  • Problem solving: Your future self will thank you for good notes
  • Professional credibility: Demonstrates thoroughness and planning
  • Legal protection: Clear records protect you in disputes

The Integrity Advantage

Honesty in mistake management builds long-term career value:

  • Trust building: Managers know they can rely on accurate information from you
  • Problem resolution: Teams can solve issues faster with complete information
  • Learning opportunities: Mistakes become valuable data for process improvement
  • Professional reputation: Integrity is a differentiator in competitive career markets

Implementation Strategy:

  • Create templates for common documentation needs
  • Use version control for important documents
  • Regular review and update procedures
  • Build documentation time into project estimates

11. The Networking Philosophy (73 upvotes)

“Hang out with the smokers.” - u/punkwalrus

This unconventional networking advice highlights a crucial truth about career advancement: the importance of informal relationship building in professional growth. While literally hanging out with smokers isn’t necessary (or healthy), the underlying principle about finding informal networking opportunities is incredibly valuable for IT professionals who often work in isolation.

The Smoking Break Principle: The smoking area becomes an equalizing environment where hierarchy temporarily disappears, allowing for genuine connections across organizational levels. This creates opportunities for:

  • Informal information sharing: Real business decisions often happen outside formal meetings
  • Relationship building: Personal connections influence professional opportunities
  • Organizational intelligence: Understanding company culture and politics
  • Mentorship opportunities: Access to senior professionals in relaxed settings

Modern Networking Equivalents:

  • Coffee breaks and walking meetings
  • Cross-departmental project teams
  • Industry meetups and user groups
  • Online communities and forums
  • Volunteer activities within the company

Career Strategy: The most successful IT professionals understand that technical skills alone don’t guarantee advancement. Relationships and organizational knowledge are equally important for career growth.

12. The Curiosity Factor (67 upvotes)

“Be curious. Why does that work? How does that work? Break it, fix it, make it yours. The hardest thing that everyone always will struggle with until the end of time: when to call for help.” - u/sammy5678

This comment captures the mindset that separates exceptional IT professionals from average ones. Curiosity drives continuous learning and deep technical understanding.

Cultivating Professional Curiosity:

  • Question procedures: Don’t just follow steps – understand why they work
  • Experiment safely: Use home labs and virtual environments for exploration
  • Volunteer for unfamiliar projects: Stretch assignments build valuable skills
  • Read beyond requirements: Study documentation, blogs, and technical forums

The “Break It, Fix It” Philosophy: Hands-on experimentation builds competency that can’t be learned from books:

  • Use virtual environments: Safe spaces to experiment with system failures
  • Practice disaster recovery: Simulate outages and practice restoration
  • Contribute to open source: Real-world experience with collaborative development
  • Set up test labs: Replicate production environments for safe experimentation

Knowing When to Call for Help: This skill balances independence with efficiency:

  • Time boxing: Give yourself a reasonable time limit for problem-solving
  • Document attempts: Show vendors or colleagues what you’ve already tried
  • Escalation paths: Know who to contact for different types of issues
  • Learning opportunities: Use support interactions as educational experiences

13. The Simplicity Principle (60 upvotes)

“Slow down and learn how to say no.” - u/moderatenerd

This advice addresses two critical career skills: patience and boundary setting. Both are essential for long-term success in IT.

The Power of Slowing Down:

  • Quality over speed: Rushing leads to mistakes that take longer to fix than doing it right initially
  • Strategic thinking: Taking time to plan prevents costly rework
  • Stress management: Constant urgency creates burnout and poor decision-making
  • Professional image: Calm, methodical work builds confidence from stakeholders

Learning to Say No: Saying no professionally is a critical career skill:

  • Scope protection: Prevents projects from expanding beyond reasonable boundaries
  • Priority management: Ensures focus on high-value activities
  • Resource allocation: Protects time for important work
  • Expectation management: Sets realistic boundaries with stakeholders

Implementation Strategy:

  • Alternative solutions: Instead of just saying no, offer alternatives
  • Clear explanations: Help stakeholders understand constraints and trade-offs
  • Documentation: Record decisions to prevent repeated requests
  • Escalation paths: Know when to involve management in priority decisions

14. The Emotional Detachment Principle (45 upvotes)

“So not getting emotionally attached to your work or job. It’s just a job, don’t bring it home with you, don’t even think about it once off the clock.” - u/Practical-Alarm1763

This advice addresses a common career trap: over-identifying with work to the detriment of personal well-being and professional effectiveness.

Why Emotional Detachment Matters:

  • Objective decision-making: Emotional attachment clouds professional judgment
  • Stress management: Work problems don’t follow you home
  • Career flexibility: Easier to make strategic moves when not emotionally tied to current role
  • Professional relationships: Less likely to take workplace conflicts personally

Healthy Professional Boundaries:

  • Time boundaries: Clear separation between work and personal time
  • Mental boundaries: Develop shutdown routines for leaving work mentally
  • Identity boundaries: You are more than your job title or company
  • Investment boundaries: Care about quality work without emotional over-investment

Long-term Career Benefits: Professionals who maintain healthy detachment often have longer, more sustainable careers with less burnout and better decision-making capabilities.

15. The Indispensability Paradox (38 upvotes)

“No one is indispensable and you shouldn’t try to be.” - u/oldmuttsysadmin

This wisdom challenges the common misconception that job security comes from being irreplaceable. The story shared illustrates how even key contributors to decade-long projects can be replaced.

The Career Paradox:

  • Indispensable employees often can’t be promoted: They’re too valuable in their current role
  • Replaceable employees become promotable: They’ve built systems and trained others
  • Knowledge hoarding limits growth: Sharing expertise demonstrates leadership potential
  • Team building creates opportunities: Enabling others’ success reflects well on you

Strategic Career Building:

  • Document processes thoroughly: Make your knowledge transferable
  • Train team members: Build others’ capabilities in your areas of expertise
  • Focus on leadership skills: Develop abilities that work across roles and companies
  • Build transferable expertise: Avoid becoming a single point of failure

The Long-term View: The most successful IT careers are built on enabling others’ success and building systems that work without constant intervention. This approach creates opportunities for advancement while building professional reputation.

Implementing This Wisdom: Your 30-Day Action Plan

These insights from experienced IT professionals provide a proven roadmap for building a sustainable and successful career in technology. Here’s how to start implementing this battle-tested wisdom immediately, with specific actions you can take starting this week:

Week 1: Boundaries and Balance

  • Set specific work hours and stick to them – communicate these boundaries clearly to your team and manager
  • Practice the “listen first” principle in your next three meetings before contributing your thoughts
  • Start documenting one critical process you handle regularly, focusing on knowledge transfer and clarity
  • Identify one low-value task (your “printer problem”) that you can delegate or eliminate

Week 2: Professional Relationships and Communication

  • Identify informal networking opportunities in your workplace (coffee breaks, lunch groups, cross-team projects)
  • Begin building relationships with at least one person from a different department each week
  • Practice owning up to a small mistake immediately and professionally, demonstrating integrity
  • Send follow-up emails after important conversations to create paper trails and ensure clarity

Week 3: Technical Excellence and Risk Management

  • Choose one technology or process to investigate more deeply through hands-on experimentation
  • Set up a simple test environment for safe experimentation and skill development
  • Review logs for a system you support to understand normal patterns and identify potential issues
  • Create rollback plans for any changes you’re planning to implement in production systems

Week 4: Strategic Career Management

  • Research current market rates for your role and skill level using comprehensive salary data and multiple sources
  • Update your resume and LinkedIn profile with recent accomplishments and newly acquired skills
  • Schedule a career planning conversation with your manager about growth opportunities and skill development
  • Begin building relationships with recruiters in your specialization area
  • Assess your current role for signs of stagnation or underpayment compared to market rates

Conclusion: Building a Career That Lasts

The collective wisdom from these experienced IT professionals reveals a fundamental truth that transcends any specific technology or role: successful IT careers require more than technical expertise. They demand strategic thinking about work-life balance, professional relationships, continuous learning, and proactive career management.

These aren’t just tips from a career blog – they’re battle-tested lessons from system administrators, network engineers, and IT managers who’ve navigated the complexities of technology careers successfully over decades. Some learned through positive mentorship, others through painful (and expensive) mistakes. All of them are sharing their insights to help you build a more sustainable, satisfying, and financially rewarding career.

The Timeless Nature of This Wisdom: While the technology will change and specific tools will evolve, the human and professional principles shared by these experienced professionals will remain relevant throughout your career. Whether you’re troubleshooting servers, managing cloud infrastructure, or leading IT teams, these insights will serve you well.

Your Next Steps: Start with the advice that resonates most with your current situation and challenges. Don’t try to implement everything at once – instead, gradually incorporate these practices as you continue building your career. Focus on:

Remember the Marathon Mindset: Your IT career is a marathon, not a sprint. The professionals who shared this wisdom understand that sustainable success comes from building good habits, maintaining healthy boundaries, and thinking strategically about long-term growth rather than just surviving the next deadline.

The most successful IT professionals are those who learn from others’ experiences rather than making every mistake themselves. Your future self – and your bank account – will thank you for implementing these lessons now, rather than learning them the hard way later in your career.

Take action today. Choose one piece of advice from this list and implement it this week. Your career transformation starts with a single step.

Looking for more career guidance? Check out our comprehensive IT career advice guide and learn about realistic salary expectations in today’s market. For those considering a career change, our guide on transitioning into IT without a degree provides actionable strategies for success.