Last week, we released survey results that highlighted the work and play life of the American sysadmin. You may recall that we were pleasantly surprised at what a generally optimistic group they are (71% of indicated some level of satisfaction with their work) and pleased to see that they share our love of gaming platforms, and “Star” franchises (both the Wars and Trek varieties).
All this led us to wonder… how do US-based sysadmins compare with their counterparts across the pond? Are they as optimistic? Do they prefer Android over iPhone? Have they been burning the midnight oil with their new copy of Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2? So, we did ANOTHER survey, this time to 450 UK-based sysadmins and Bob’s your uncle!
69% of you think that most of your company’s employees have very little idea or appreciation for what you do, which is only slightly better than sysadmins in the US (71%).
Job likes were remarkably similar between the two groups:
- In the US, they get the most enjoyment out of solving problems (75 percent), helping users (62 percent) and thinking on their feet (52 percent). The top three job frustrations included too little pay (22 percent), increasing workloads and responsibilities (16 percent) and not enough budget (13 percent).
- Meanwhile in the UK, while solving problems (71 percent) and thinking on your feet (49 percent) ran fairly close, helping users slipped by 7 points (55 percent) versus the US. The top three issues that keep you up at night included too little pay (27 percent), increasing workloads and responsibilities (13 percent) and too much to do (12 percent).
Scully and Mulder (17%) reign over Kirk OR Picard (16%) on the telly and you prefer the Fellowship of the Ring (22%) over the Rebel Alliance (19%) at the theaters.
You can check out the whole survey: Systems Administrators UK Survey Resultsfrom SolarWinds
We also have another infographic below that highlights some of the best of the data. Compare to the US version and join the discussion here on thwack… Are geeks really the same in every culture? You can also check out our latest foray into the Australian outback here.
Download a pdf copy of the infographic here.
Up next... we went down under!