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Rhymenoserous posted:The mid range of people with six figure salaries you say? It sounds funny, but I'm assuming he is suggesting the median salary of people earning between 100k and 1m is somewhere between 125 and 250k.
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| # ? Jan 5, 2012 14:10 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 09:30 |
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I'm calling mulligan on that post.Rhymenoserous posted:The mid range of people with six figure salaries you say? I'm basing that purely off of anecdotal experience and no research whatsoever.
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| # ? Jan 5, 2012 14:10 |
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psydude posted:About half of the computers in my highschool's library were still running windows 95 in 2004. True story. edit: you know that 1% still using IE6? Yeah. teethgrinder fucked around with this message at Jan 5, 2012 around 15:37 |
| # ? Jan 5, 2012 14:11 |
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psydude posted:About half of the computers in my highschool's library were still running windows 95 in 2004. True story. While we're on the topic of high school IT antics: Back in 2005 my school's library was exclusively composed of a bunch of Pentium 1s running Windows 95. They were the slowest computers I have ever had the displeasure to work with. We used a system called deep freeze to keep people from messing with the computers. At the time I discovered a vulnerability where if you had a boot disc you could delete the image file for deep freeze that it uses to restore the system to a previous state. I knew that if I was able to discover such a vulnerability someone else would. So I kept telling the admin we need to do something about this like disabling boot discs and locking down the bios. He disagreed with me and thought it would make our lives easier to just leave it alone and fix problems as they appeared. The next day all the library computers had their wallpapers set to a picture of another student in a very embarrassing situation with Deepfreeze re-enabled so that subsequent reboots would put back that picture. This isn't the first time no one listened to me when I worked an IT job only to have it bite them in the rear end. Now that I think about it, a lot of people knew that I became a sort of assistant for the school's admin (who also doubled as a teacher). Most of the major problems started when I began volunteering and in hindsight I think someone pretty much declared war on me. It was good experience though and it was thanks to that volunteer work and a letter of recommendation from that teacher that I was able to land my first summer job when I went to college. DerDestroyer fucked around with this message at Jan 5, 2012 around 20:38 |
| # ? Jan 5, 2012 20:27 |
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I've got a career-related question that I'd like to get some outside opinions on - hopefully this is the right thread. First, a little background: - 29 years old - Dabbling in computers all my life, ~6 years working "real" IT jobs - 1 year in a small PC repair shop - 5 years in the same department at a university - The past 6 months at a different department within the same university My old department was a really great place to work, with a group of coworkers that I had become close friends with over the years. Also, it was a very relaxed, low-stress environment. The recent job change came about because of my wife going back to school and working less, so we needed a way to offset the reduced income. Nobody within my old department had been getting raises for the past 3 years thanks to the economy, and the only way for me to make more money was to apply for a higher-paying position in another department. Since leaving, they still have not had a suitable candidate apply for my position. The new department has been a nightmare from the start - I don't want to go into all the little details, but it is a remarkably high-stress position that has started making me hate IT. It's been leaking into my personal life to the point that I get mild panic attacks whenever I see an email come in on my phone after hours. The other day I had lunch with my old boss and it turns out that the department is now handing out raises pretty freely. We discussed the possibility of me returning, and he told me that it's a pretty safe bet that I could come back in making AT LEAST what I'm making in my current position. Obviously I am wanting to do this so bad it hurts, but my question: how bad would this reflect on me professionally? I'm incredibly concerned with reputation, especially with this being a university. I'm going to still be interacting with a lot of the same people in the campus IT community, even my current coworkers. My long term plan is to stay within the university for at least another 5 years, at which point (depending on what my wife and I decide on) we are going to start looking into moving elsewhere. I'm just worried about making any kind of move that will reflect badly on me or look shady on my work history - I've never been one to quit a job 6 months in, but like I said above, I feel like this one is pretty rapidly destroying my soul. Thoughts? edit: Just an additional note - I'm not thinking about just up and leaving my current position. I fully intend to do at least 2 weeks notice, offering to help with things during the transition period, fully documenting any really specific information on anything that I've configured during my time here, etc. chaoticgeek fucked around with this message at Jan 5, 2012 around 21:26 |
| # ? Jan 5, 2012 21:20 |
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Professionally or not, you're saying you can take the more comfortable job with no pay loss, and go back to your old buddies, over the stressful job that's making you unhappy. I'd say you're being offered a good way out here. I say pick the option that makes you hate life less, especially since you're not losing money, but that's just me.
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| # ? Jan 5, 2012 21:25 |
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DerDestroyer posted:We used a system called deep freeze to keep people from messing with the computers. At the time I discovered a vulnerability where if you had a boot disc you could delete the image file for deep freeze that it uses to restore the system to a previous state. I knew that if I was able to discover such a vulnerability someone else would. So I kept telling the admin we need to do something about this like disabling boot discs and locking down the bios. My high school had something similar and you didn't even need a boot disk or BIOS fuckery to disable it. You just had to reboot the machine, get to the F8 boot menu, do selective startup and hit 'N' when it asked if you wanted to load the security DLL (which was named something that made it really obvious). Of course, in 1999 my high school only had about 20 "modern" computers in the labs (90Mhz or less Pentium systems with Win95 and only one had a modem for internet access) and the rest were Apple IIs or IBM XTs that just sat unused in the library.
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| # ? Jan 5, 2012 21:27 |
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HalloKitty posted:Professionally or not, you're saying you can take the more comfortable job with no pay loss, and go back to your old buddies, over the stressful job that's making you unhappy. Yeah, it seems like a no-brainer, but I just want to make sure I'm not making a rash decision.
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| # ? Jan 5, 2012 21:28 |
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chaoticgeek posted:Yeah, it seems like a no-brainer, but I just want to make sure I'm not making a rash decision. You're not. Do it. Also disable mail notifications on your phone. You'll still receive mails, but you won't be pestered with it and only see it when you look at the phone anyway. Personally I moved my mail app to another page than the one my phone unlocks to, so I don't even see the mail counter unless I'm actively looking for it.
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| # ? Jan 6, 2012 12:34 |
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I don't think there is that much of a stigma of returning to your old company making more money. It's done a lot at the large company I'm at. Everyone seems to leave and then come back with a cooler title a year or so later. If anything, it makes it known that you're valuable.
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| # ? Jan 6, 2012 13:44 |
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Cool...that makes me feel better. Thanks everybody!
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| # ? Jan 6, 2012 13:50 |
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Crowley posted:
That's exactly what I do as well. I have corporate mail setup on my phone, but I sure as hell don't have it notify me of anything. I want to be able to easily respond if need be, but I don't want to be too accessible. That's the constant tightrope. The expectation I constantly try to set is you need to actively engage me rather than just expecting that I'm going to see an email off hours. We have no formal policy around any soft of "on call" basis so I don't have any formal policy about when I check my email outside of work hours. If poo poo really goes down, call me, otherwise I'm not replying to your email until the next morning (or Monday if it's a Friday.)
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| # ? Jan 6, 2012 22:29 |
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I just got a job in healthcare IT. Kill me now. On the one hand, I'm going to make myself enjoy it because there's no way it could be worse than working in a pharmacy, or retail, or in manufacturing, like my previous jobs. It won't be anywhere near as rewarding as my current job as a desktop support guy in a small gaming company, but this company's folding, so it'll have to do until I get enough paper experience. Stupid paper experience killing me. I'm pretty good at my current job, and I managed to prove it to the naysayers just fine. I just don't have enough paper experience, which is why I'm subjecting myself to this. Okay, time to get into the mindset of enjoying this place. Who knows? Maybe I'll actually end up enjoying it. Hope the horror stories won't affect me too hard.
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| # ? Jan 6, 2012 23:08 |
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The good thing about Healthcare IT is it is an in demand field, usually very well funded, and the hours and benefits are usually really good. Some environments suck, but if management is decent and you're well funded and staffed it might not be too bad.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 00:56 |
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skipdogg posted:The good thing about Healthcare IT is it is an in demand field, usually very well funded, and the hours and benefits are usually really good. On the flip side, pretty much all healthcare software sucks rear end.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 01:20 |
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skipdogg posted:The good thing about Healthcare IT is it is an in demand field, usually very well funded, and the hours and benefits are usually really good. I don't know. Healthcare IT sure is in demand, but the work environment depends entirely on the clinics you will support. A clinic targetting well-off clients will have a well funded IT department and a command chain that understands IT's role in healthcare. If you're scraping the bottom of the barrel in regards to your costumers, like my company is doing in this city, your experience might be a very different one. Edit: All healthcare software I have encountered sucked rear end, with one exception: our PACS is very nice.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 02:03 |
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Working in healthcare IT has turned me into a single-payer advocate. The panicked scramble to "effectively navigate industry and environmental changes" has to be the absolute least worthwhile way to spend one's day.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 03:31 |
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You healthcare IT guys are really killin' my buzz here over my future job opportunity.  Is it really that bad? The benefits alone in my case are potentially mind-blowing (Salary with no OT, pension, 403b, health, dental, vision, life insurance, tuition reimbursement, accrued PTO, holidays off, etc.) Hell the only thing I don't see in the offer I've been given is a personal ball-washer. Just to compare, I had to work Monday, January 2nd in my current job when other local retail places were closed that day.And I firmly believe my current boss is so terrible at his job, no other "IT Director" can even come close to being worse than him. We're talking about a guy who tries to call me after-hours on my cell phone because he can't be bothered to stand up, find SATA cables in a clear, plastic tote on a shelf in the room behind his desk. He would rather call me and ask me where they are. He also felt it would be a good idea to ask all of us in our department to do homework that consisted of creating a list of what our job responsibilities should be. PUBLIC TOILET fucked around with this message at Jan 7, 2012 around 05:22 |
| # ? Jan 7, 2012 04:57 |
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COCKMOUTH.GIF posted:Just to compare, I had to work Monday, January 2nd in my current job when other local retail places were closed that day. As someone working in IT, I would never expect to get a non-holiday like Jan 2nd off just because some gift shops nearby are closed. Healthcare IT depends entirely on the hospital / health system, so take all the cynicism here with a grain of salt.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 09:12 |
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COCKMOUTH.GIF posted:You healthcare IT guys are really killin' my buzz here over my future job opportunity. You will be fine, it's not worse than anywhere else and your benefits sound incredible for a job in the States. Only twenty percent of my grievances with my current job are directly related to working in healthcare IT. Besides, healthcare IT offers very good opportunities to make mad cash if you specialize in medical imaging software or compliance.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 09:26 |
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What is generally the accepted length of time that you must stay with an employer before switching to another job? I ask this in the context of how other companies will look at your resume. I've been with my current company a year and I plan to spend another year or two with them, however if a better opportunity came up, I would like to take it without worrying about negatively affecting how my resume looks. Since I'm in my 20s, I practically need to be mobile if the opportunity presents itself. I suppose I could justify short term employment by saying "I'm just pursuing a better opportunity" during the interview. However I'm afraid that future employers would be wary of a worker with a trend of dropping out after a year.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 15:31 |
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Vargatron posted:What is generally the accepted length of time that you must stay with an employer before switching to another job? I ask this in the context of how other companies will look at your resume. Nothing like "Virtual Systems Administrator - WANTED", then getting to the interview and getting asked MS Office BS or "what's a router, and what does a modem do?"
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 16:58 |
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3-5 is far too long unless you leave there at the SR/Engineer/Manager level. I feel like someone who spent 3-5 years on a help desk is either the run of the mill terrible IT guy, or has no drive to work on more interesting things. Both are bad in my book. If you came to me with 5 years on TWTCs helpdesk, I'd wager it would be pretty hard for you to pull your head out of TWTCs proprietary software rear end and you'd be almost as useless to me as a guy who just did 6 months on XYZ help desk. If you did 5 years as a sr net engineer for a dc, that's completely different. FWIW, I'm all about the challenge and get bored very easily, so my outlook may be different if you're just a fan of stability.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 17:38 |
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vty posted:FWIW, I'm all about the challenge and get bored very easily, so my outlook may be different if you're just a fan of stability. I think the key here is position, not company. If you're with the same company for 3-5 years, that shows you're not a money hungry job hopper who will eventually cost the company hiring you more money later to replace you. If you're in the same position at the same company, that may be a little bad. I did the same job for 5 years with my company, but that's because i was pretty complacent, wasn't afraid of not having rent, didn't have much of an issue with the work and sorta spent 2 years waiting to get laid off anyway (which happened, but I switched to an IT job instead and have managed to make all the wrong choices after that but hey). Honestly, the cost and challenge of bringing in new people who know nothing and need their hand held for such a long time in some places overrides paying people what they're worth and keeping them around even if it's a lovely job. I say if you get a guy who is good at a lovely job and doesn't need adventure and excitement (most people don't) it sure ain't a bad thing keeping them in the slot for years. I'm much more afraid of the jobhopper who is not great at anything, keeps trying whatever but insists they're an expert at everything despite any real long-term experience. It signals to me attitude problems, attention problems or any number of other things that make you wonder if you're just hiring someone long enough for everyone to hate them or hate their work. References are loving useless, nobody's ever going to admit that someone was a lazy anti-social nightmare who shouldn't be employed ever. They're all going to say that yes this person worked for us and no we didn't fire them so they're eligible for re-hire and all that cause nobody's getting sued for getting someone denied from a job.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 17:58 |
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Yeah, I could've summed up my post with "the actual work you did during those 3-5 years is what matters." 
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 18:12 |
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Telex posted:I think the key here is position, not company. How does it work if you work for a really big company and you want to apply to a different position within the company after a few years? I was thinking of working my current position for a while until my German skills get better and then try to shift over to the German office later.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 18:18 |
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Has anyone done those supposed terrible contract jobs that are offered on Dice.com and other sites? 4-weeks to 6-month contract jobs where you migrate from XP to Win7 or you're setting up a huge server farm. I've heard the pay is great but the hours are long, there's no job security after the fact and there's traveling involved. Has anyone done this? Tab8715 fucked around with this message at Jan 7, 2012 around 21:14 |
| # ? Jan 7, 2012 19:53 |
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What's the consensus on jobs where you have to use your own car for business purposes? Sure, they'll reimburse you for gas, but I don't necessarily want to put that kind of wear and tear on my car - it's not like they'll reimburse me for that, either.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 20:43 |
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Casull posted:What's the consensus on jobs where you have to use your own car for business purposes? Sure, they'll reimburse you for gas, but I don't necessarily want to put that kind of wear and tear on my car - it's not like they'll reimburse me for that, either. Everyone I know who works a job like that typically has a company car. I'm rather surprised you don't.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 20:44 |
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DerDestroyer posted:Everyone I know who works a job like that typically has a company car. I'm rather surprised you don't. Do you only know management types? I know a ton of people that have to drive for company purposes, what Casull describes is really common. edit: If you drive for business purposes (at least in the U.S.) most places reimburse you at a per mile rate set by the US Government. This is higher than just gas, it's supposed to cover wear-and-tear as well. Mierdaan fucked around with this message at Jan 7, 2012 around 21:09 |
| # ? Jan 7, 2012 21:03 |
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Mierdaan posted:Do you only know management types? I know a ton of people that have to drive for company purposes, what Casull describes is really common. No. Most of them are technicians of one variety or another both IT and non IT. To be fair the cars they get are absolutely lovely cars and you'd probably want to use your personal vehicle anyway.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 21:23 |
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DerDestroyer posted:How does it work if you work for a really big company and you want to apply to a different position within the company after a few years? I was thinking of working my current position for a while until my German skills get better and then try to shift over to the German office later. all depends on the place really. One job I had, they barely promoted anyone at all from inside, they preferred to keep people at low salaries and just replace low-level frustrated workers. It was almost impossible to move from one department to another for example, one guy had to literally quit and go work for the company that wrote the software we were using to get a job in the department that maintains it, despite using it for 2 years. This was my really big company experience. Those kind of places sometimes you really do have to quit to move up or learn something new. I got all of my learning experiences from a small place. There was not much learning in the large places, they just want people who conform and follow directions most of the time. Small place, everyone's looking for someone else to do their job for them so it's sorta easier to pick up on things that would be off limits to you in other places.
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| # ? Jan 7, 2012 22:37 |
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I guess my main issue is that I can see how trends are progressing at the company I work for. They just merged with another company and this January will do a massive restructuring of personnel (thankfully, I'm employed by corporate, therefore I am safe from immediate layoffs). I mean this is a great place to get Jr. Systems admin level experience, however I can't justify staying if all they are going to offer me is 3% extra every year. I'm getting way more experience than just helpdesk level stuff though. I kind of feel that they're molding me into more of a systems admin role, but I'll just have to see how things progress this year. I'm pretty happy actually, I just need to make some good decisions to place me in a financially advantageous position in my 30s.
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| # ? Jan 8, 2012 00:01 |
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Casull posted:What's the consensus on jobs where you have to use your own car for business purposes? Sure, they'll reimburse you for gas, but I don't necessarily want to put that kind of wear and tear on my car - it's not like they'll reimburse me for that, either.
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| # ? Jan 8, 2012 20:48 |
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adorai posted:You should get the IRS approved mileage rate, currently $0.555 per mile. Which unless you drive a caterpillar between job sites, should cover your expenses and then some. I used to love being asked to do a 400 mile roundtrip to a remote client site in my own car. If you're worried about your own car and are driving enough that money will be sufficient to lease a new midsize sedan to use instead.
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| # ? Jan 9, 2012 00:37 |
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sanchez posted:I used to love being asked to do a 400 mile roundtrip to a remote client site in my own car. This. If you're driving something efficient (I drive a Civic), then travel time is like overtime.
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| # ? Jan 9, 2012 07:39 |
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Well, of course it will cover you gas mileage, but you have to account for the depreciation on your car and the wear and tear due to it, as well. I guess if you're driving a beater then its a plus, but if you have a nice car, $.50/mile is meh.
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| # ? Jan 9, 2012 13:36 |
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madsushi posted:This. If you're driving something efficient (I drive a Civic), then travel time is like overtime. I drive a Z06 and even I make bank from travel reimbursements.
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| # ? Jan 9, 2012 13:39 |
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psydude posted:I drive a Z06 "I wasn't speeding officer, it's a Sev 1 ticket!"
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| # ? Jan 9, 2012 16:02 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 09:30 |
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devmd01 posted:"I wasn't speeding officer, it's a Sev 1 ticket!" I never get pulled over, I believe due to the cops thinking I can afford to fight any tickets. The ruse works perfectly, though, because I bought the thing for less than a new Camry. e: Re: Healthcare Chat: Looks like CompTIA is pushing a new Healthcare IT cert. psydude fucked around with this message at Jan 9, 2012 around 16:16 |
| # ? Jan 9, 2012 16:14 |
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