RIIIGHT. Sysadmins: Have you ever even MET an overly suave IT guy? System administrators don't figure a lot in the public imagination, other than as exceptionally dull weirdos or Jurassic Park's villainous Dennis Nedry and his “you didn't say the magic word” mantra. More thoughtful depictions, like sysadmin-as-hero Randy Waterhouse in Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon, tend not to reach the …
Scott Adams made the same observation in a Dilbert four-panel cartoon, showing the dress of four office inhabitants. (I couldn't find a link to it, sorry).
The poorly dressed guy: "I am a worthless peon, treat me like earwax"
The smartly dressed guy with slicked hair: "Be nice to me, I'll be your boss one day."
The bearded guy wearing sandals, shorts and a tie-dye t-shirt: "I am the only one who knows how the IT system works; treat me like God"
"I am the only one who knows how the IT system works; treat me like God"
The problem with this approach is that in order to protect their domain, this particular breed liked to develop esoteric code to perform some kind of essential business function. No-one would get rid of them because no-one else could understand the code and fix it when it went tits up (built in fail-safes I would imagine).
Unfortunately this isn't a long game.
I took a different path and made my knowledge freely available to anyone who showed that they would be inclined to pass it on likewise. My wife hates this approach and thinks I get shafted a lot - but on the other hand I have a 6 figure salary and other techies respect me enough to help me out when I'm being thick (I help them out when they're being thick or overworked) so all in all I think it's a better approach for the long-term. Senior management see you as a team-player, and even though I deflect any position of responsibility over others I usually get to have my say and have it taken seriously because of my varied experience and track record.
However, you do get the odd scumbag who just takes the piss. They don't seem to understand that the security world in this country is *very* small and your reputation is everything.
Excessively low - you're a developer, a support person, etc. What's wrong with wearing a death metal t-shirt and cropped cargo pants to work?
Excessively high - you're in sales. Your cologne sets off the halon gas in the data centre
Middle - you're a manager. You'll live to a ripe old age, having spent your entire adult life wrapped in polyester
Note - this is all about suaveness -as distinct from genuine style and charm
I worked with a Romanian net-sec guy last year who dressed like an 80's yuppie stockbroker, whippet-like physique, bald, yet had all the airs of a highly efficient machine. Sat ram-rod straight in his chair, was 100% organised and I never heard him at a loss for an answer except when being asked something 'soft*'.
I can't explain how weird it was.
After hours however, he had a great sense of humour and irony - they grow strange people in Eastern Europe :)
*soft - if he was in work mode it was like his emotion chip was switched off.
I used to work with a very charming, funny and competent [1] sysadmin. He and his wife (she is a lawyer) had no children and they worked for 2 or so years at a stretch and when they had saved up enough money, they blew it all on 18-month-trips around Oz or other exotic places on a big 3-wheeler motorbikes. Needless to say, he worked contract.
This seems to me to be the way to live.
[1] Well, he came across as very competent.
One day, the Director said to me, "This new accounts computerisation project, we'd like you to manage it."
I asked, "Why me? I don't know anything about computers!"
He answered, "Neither do the rest of us, so why not you?"
He could just as well have said, "Because you look the part."
But he didn't know that, and neither did I, then, as I started out by taking the first Unix manual off the shelf...
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