I have a few questions as I want to find out all I can about this career field before I put my time, effort, and money into it.

1) There is a passage from the fourth edition of Unix and Linux System Administration Handbook (Evi Nemeth, et al) that goes as follows: "Sysadmin burnout is rampant.  Most administrators last only a few years."  (page 1196, second paragraph).  Would you tend to agree or disagree with this statement?  If you disagree, why?

1A) What is the career path for a systems admin, i.e., where does one progress from admin duties?

2) What do you see in your crystal ball for employment opportunities in the Phoenix metro area, say in 2012, for someone who has taken the six CIS courses (126, 226, 238, 239, 240, & 271) at MCC and has a couple of certs, e.g., the Linux+ and a Red hat under his belt?

Background info: I have B.A., B.S. and M.S degrees from ASU though none is in IT; the B.S. is in supply chain mgt., the M.S. is in information mgt., both those degrees are from the business college.  I am not working in IT at the moment but am currently employed in healthcare in the materials mgt. area.  I'm looking to do a more interesting type of work than what I do now and have always enjoyed the computer programming classes (C++ and VB most recently) that I have taken at MCC.

Thanks very much for your thoughts.