
What happens if/when my engineer leaves? - tombrady
I have a fear and it may be irrational.<p>I have a solid business idea. High value market, boring industry, very very conservative with loads of compliance issues.<p>The business requires an experienced AWS (or similar) systems admin. Up-time and security is very important and the main selling point.<p>They are a key hire to keep everything running smoothly.<p>BUT, there is not enough work there for 2 system admins and I cannot imagine a bored sys admin would get a lot of job satisfaction and stick around long.<p>If the 1 sys admin leaves, gets sick or gets hit by a bus that puts a lot at risk.<p>What do companies do in this situation?
If they did leave I would imagine there would be a lot of time to get a new one up to speed.
Do companies just bite the bullet and hire two?
Do they contract an outside company who can swop in and out staff as needed?<p>I am trying to figure out all the options so I can budget accordingly.
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angersock
So, you don't seem to know the difference between sysadmins (people that keep
servers running) and developers (people who write the software that run on
servers). This is forgivable, since we kinda conflate the skillsets these days
(lol devops).

Anyways, there are kinda two situations:

1\. Engineer getting bored and leaving. 2\. Engineer getting hit by bus.

The first case can be mitigated by giving significant equity and by including
them in important business decisions, and also by letting them try new things
(within reason, away from the core of the business).

The second case can be mitigated by encouraging them to document everything
really well and to teach you how the system works, and also by giving them a
junior developer or intern to train. Additionally, have procedures in place
for continuity of passwords, credentials, etc. in case of disaster.

Honestly, you're going to have enough trouble getting the business off the
ground that being worried about this particular thing isn't really warranted
until you know the market cares about you.

Good luck!

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tombrady
Thank you. I do mean sysadmins.

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angersock
Ah, cool. Usually people needs devs _and_ admins. :)

