Aspies For Freedom

The job of a system admin is pretty much making sure that all software continues to operate. Depending on what sort of system you're operating on, knowledge of the underlying OS is either recommended or mandatory. Hence, a solid understanding of multiple OS'es is a great plus.

Similarly, any knowledge of networking and hardware is appreciated. Therefore, you can definitely make a good impression by saying that you built your own beowulf cluster. I didn't even know what a beowulf cluster was until you just mentioned it (and I looked it up).

The kind of wage you can get, depends on the type of job, your country and your employer. A friend of mine is an SAP basis consultant (he does client side system administration for an SAP environment) with two years of experience. I think he earns approximately 1500 Euro (or 2300 USD) net plus company car, gas card, meal vouchers and a cell phone for that. It's one of the better paid IT jobs, though, and it requires you to be client side (meaning your company sends you to another company to be their system admin). I'm not very familiar with the wages of other types of system admin or the wages or people with more seniority. Please note that I have only two years of working experience myself.

In my country, wages are usually expressed per month. So I was talking about 1500 Euro net per month + extras for someone with two years of experience. As a starter, the wage is a few hundred Euro less (I started at 1200 Euro net + extras). You should expect an increase of 5% to 10% per year during your first few years. The exact percentage depends on your employer and your performance.

Please note that we pay a lot of taxes in my country. A net wage of 1200 equals a gross wage of 2000 and a net wage of 1500 equals a gross wage of 2400... more or less.

Just get yourself any college degree with a major in IT. There's a great demand for IT specialists at this moment, so unless that demand crumbles it shouldn't be too hard for you to get a decent job. If you want to learn extra skills, choose them depending on what kind of job specifically you like to do. If you want to run an AS/400 system, then get yourself familiar with AS/400. If you want to run an SAP system, get yoursemf familiar with SAP. etc. Extra skills as a junior could mean a bigger paycheck. Most of the skills will be learned at the job, though.

Just get yourself a degree that tells the business world you're proficient in IT. It's different for every country. A university degree is recommended, but a regular college should do fine.

We don't have any majors in my country either, but I'm used to discussing with mostly Americans online

For a first job, employers look at your degree/diploma first and your experience second. For a subsequent job, employers look at your experience first and your degree/diploma second. It may sound stupid, but that's the way the industry works.

They do count, but without any on the job experience they are only of secondary importance. For a first job, they tend to be focussed on what diploma you have from higher education.

Why is this such a problem? Don't you think you can get a diploma? If so, why do you think that?

It becomes worthless and basic once you worked for a few years.

Please note that I never said that experience is irrelevant for a first job. If there are two people with the same diploma, the one with the most experience is likely chosen. However, someone with a diploma might be preferred to someone without a diploma in spite of more experience.

Please also note that a job interview is like a sales talk. The most important thing to get a job is that you learn to sell yourself. For an Aspie that can be quite a pain in the ass. Don't give up and learn from your mistakes if you don't get the first jobs you applied for.