BlackBerry Administrator: Is This Title An Appropriate Job Description Yet?

bluehorseshoe
#1. April 8th, 2008, at 11:56 PM.

Hmmmm…Robb, gotta disagree on the Exchange Administrator being a ‘career’ path. I’m in the business of IT consulting and human capital, with large national engagements across the US and I don’t know many people who want to be framed as an ‘Exchange Administrator’. Network Administrator is fine (covers Linux, Unix, Solaris, Windows, Novell if it’s still out there…LOL, etc.), and perhaps leading to Network Engineer with a path to security or infrastructure, but to pigeonhole it to just ‘Exchange’ frieghtens many. Sure, they have the responsibility of manageing the Exhange Server (or even in this case the BB Server), but to have a specific ‘product’ title is something that scares admins out there. It’s not like the DBA side of the world where it’s narrowed down.

I know what you mean by what you stated, but I don’t see many flaunting that title unless they work in an environment that segregates responsibility due to it’s large size and demand. And companies that post such positions are only limiting themselves in the talent that is needed or required for any position in the networking arena.

Ari Wiel
#2. April 9th, 2008, at 10:48 AM.

I don’t know about that bluehorseshoe. My company has about 400 employees and I am one of 5 managers that report directly to the CIO. My role is Messaging Manager and I have two direct reports that do nothing but administer Exchange and our archiving solution.

They both have the title of Exchange Administrator.

To the author’s point, I know the most about BES in my company so I wear the hat of BlackBerry Administrator among other things.

KeNNethX
#3. April 9th, 2008, at 12:18 PM.

I’m a Network Admin for an IT group (for a local government) and
we support almost 1000 users. I am on the E-mail/Messaging team
and I wear many hats…one of which is BES Admin…while it’s not
my official title, i use it when calling tech support, carriers and
my BB users. Now if I could choose the title of BlackBerry guru…
(I would love to get BES certified).

bluehorseshoe
#4. April 9th, 2008, at 2:12 PM.

@ Ari,

I hear ya and agree that some companies do use the title, but it’s not often and usually falls under the title of Network Adm. or Engineer depending on the setup and size of the company. My point is that most IT folks I deal with in that capacity don’t want to be coined as ‘Exchange Administrator’ because it sounds like it limits the amount of work and knowledge they have and perform, and not an indicator of the career path they are interested in. KennethX is a good example of what I’m talking about.

Funny thing is one of my national clients just sent me a request for an ‘Exchange Administrator’ for a consulting assignment. Then again they have close to 100,000 employees, so I guess a little filtering is needed.

Dave
#5. April 10th, 2008, at 8:16 AM.

I am neither a Network Admin or BES Admin, but I do look forward to getting BES Certification. I can only see it as another skill set to add to the resume, and because I actually enjoy the device and RIM architecture I would jump at the “right” opportunity (salary, benefits) to become a BES Admin.
Good question Robb.

Mike Will
#6. April 10th, 2008, at 2:44 PM.

My company has 2000 Blackberries. Our Desktop Engineering group includes Email services, which includes Blackberry as well. Nobody has a Blackberry Specific Title, as many of them are capable of mulitple tasks…everything from Email, to AntiVirus, to BES admin. And probably a dozen other categories. 2-3 people run the BES and related gear as only part of their jobs.