There is no doubt that most BlackBerry implementations are considered mission critical applications, but, do IT shops allocate resources to them as such?
I remember having lunch with 3 “BlackBerry Administrators” a while back and one of the things that I noticed during our conversation was that not one of them officially had the title of BlackBerry Administrator nor did any of them embrace the title that I casually threw their way. It was as though they just happened to be the guy that knew the most about BlackBerrys within their messaging group of their various organizations.
It reminded me of when I first got into IT during the old days of Windows NT administration back in the early to mid nineties. When Microsoft Exchange first came out there was no such thing as an Exchange Administrator. There was the NT Administrator that knew that most about Sendmail or MS Mail that added the feather of Exchange guru to their hat.
Today, of course, Exchange Administrator is a job title and career path in its own light. Has this become the case for the BlackBerry Administrator?
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.
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.
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).
which company you are in to….?
@ 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. 🙂
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.
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.
what is the company name
Pls inform me black berry admin/engineer jobs in Bangalore, India