No clue. I enjoy both a lot. I've worked in server rooms during internships, and my main job here is to keep the in-house applications and C# web-site running) but I do other things, such as set up IIS, fix computers, and the like. I also have an interest in security, and i've been to a couple conferences/competitions (nice avatar btw). So I'm really not sure where I'll end up. I'll probably end up taking whatever job looks fun at the time.
Looks a lot like me. Specially if you have the option of working with Windows and *nix, sysadmin is almost a description of what you said: from writing automation scripts to installing services, from replacing bad disks on a storage unit to manage account permissions.
Today I sold myself to the market and I also do user support (half the time, actually) but it is basically my job description.
I think for starters you're good as sysadmin.
Also, thanks for the cumpliment. I thought nobody would ever notice, let alone comment on my avatar
Full time "PC Network support tech" but in reality I network together flight simulators on a global scale. Not as cool as it sounds but I make 10k less than a guy I can run circles around both IRL and work related. Contracting is bull****. I might start my own E-sports bar next year if I get a good business plan together and some investors.
Being a contractor really sucks. I worked for some time as a contractor on a giant energy company and did the build-ups and Disaster recovery of their database clusters. I had the know-how, did the job and even created root cause documentation. My Team Leader knew sh*t about the actual work, got all the glory and made 3 to 4 times my wage, all because she was an employee.