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I wish I had an iPad with the ZenDesk app so I could be efficiently roaming the building solving issue tickets. And to use it to slap to the sales guy that puts four tickets in for each banner ad, each containing a little piece of the instructions required to make the posting.quote:9:21 Ticket #1 for banner A: made an insertion order Dude put in FIFTY TICKETS yesterday because he was going on a business trip for the rest of the week and needed to get it all "done". That's not even counting the back & forth because he gets the details wrong more often than not.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 16:54 |
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| # ? May 20, 2013 17:10 |
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the spyder posted:By some strange chance, I applied for a tech position I knew I was over qualified for and was contacted today asking if I would consider interviewing for another position, IT Manger. I have been asked to attend a 4hr interview this Friday and am beyond nervous. I can not wait! My only worry is that I am terrible at tech interviews! I am planning on spending the next few days touching up on some basics, but can any recommend anything I might miss? Very nice guy handling the interview, very cool sounding company. I was straight forward about my previous poor performance in tech interviews and he told me he wants me to draw a large circle surround all I know. Working that one out now... Oh and time to notify my work, but I will most likely finish up the project I am on now before leaving/provide weekend support. I think at some point, management becomes more of an area where competence in directing people takes some precedence over pure technical expertise. I don't think they would expect you to have expert knowledge in every aspect that you'll be charged to manage, but just enough to know how everything comes together. Then again, there are plenty of IT managers who don't know enough about what they're doing and totally gently caress things up for the people working under them. I would say that if you've even been given a shot to an interview, you're at least at minimum requirements for the job. Interpersonal skills and how each department works together will probably be one of the primary focuses of the interview. Then again, I could be wrong.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 17:35 |
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Never work for a family-owned company unless you are one of the family and/or you love a plantation atmosphere.
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| # ? Jan 18, 2012 21:47 |
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Farking Bastage posted:Never work for a family-owned company unless you are one of the family and/or you love a plantation atmosphere. Amen to that. Very, very true. I've worked IT in different flavors: local gov't, family owned company, and self-employed. Working for the family owned company was pure hell. Working local gov't was the least time demanding, capping at around 60-70 hours a week, more or less. On call rotated so you actually got time away from the craziness. While private companies do out pay local gov't, it so was not worth it. The sheer amount of hours (28-32 hour straight work days really happened, more than once), never less than a 80-90 plus hour week, always being on call, how they got out of paying OT and all the extra required personal IT support for the family was absolutely mind boggling amazing. They even cheated me on my last check. It's much, much better to be self employed in IT, than to work for a family owned company that you are not related to.  At least the rewards of your hard work go in your own pocket.
Harnessed Fear fucked around with this message at Jan 18, 2012 around 23:22 |
| # ? Jan 18, 2012 22:59 |
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Vargatron posted:I think at some point, management becomes more of an area where competence in directing people takes some precedence over pure technical expertise. I don't think they would expect you to have expert knowledge in every aspect that you'll be charged to manage, but just enough to know how everything comes together. I think your right, I did quite a bit of research on the company and the fellow interviewing me. The company is doubling in size yearly and needs someone to start building up a solid network, while still providing higher level desktop support. The staff is a bunch of computer folk (software and hardware company) so the new tech and staff handle most of the daily issues. They work around things no one has the time to fix, and even though they are all CS engineers/ect they believe IT should have its own dedicated person. The existing IT manager has been doing less IT and more engineering . It seems like a great place to work. After reading about 4 hour interviews, I am not nearly as worried. Looks like it will be a technical interview and meeting several different people I would be working with. Can't wait!
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 04:41 |
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I have never desired alcohol at work as much as I do today after my experiences I shared in the poo poo that pisses you off daily thread. In fact - I'm taking a lunch break right now to obtain just that.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 05:05 |
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Thel posted:Do not do this. Never tell a company you're planning to leave until you've signed the contract for the new one. (If they can't figure out why you're looking then the management was probably poo poo anyway.) Absolutely right. I should have clarified, the tech there is a goon and is a great guy/friend. I want to let him know, outside of here, I am going to interview. I would never risk my existing job without knowing I had another. And thanks for the advise!
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 05:51 |
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Farking Bastage posted:Never work for a family-owned company unless you are one of the family and/or you love a plantation atmosphere. Having just left one, I can completely agree with this. Everyone was underpaid (including me), employees were unhappy, health benefits were astronomical, the general atmosphere was purely bureaucratic every single day because nobody wanted to accept responsibility for anything.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 15:39 |
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Sounds like my current family-owned job. Someone in the "everyday poo poo" thread pointed out that I'm basically living as a toy in their doll house. That said, I am learning lots here and will leave when my experience will get me a job that's a step up. I refuse to leave for yet another entry-level job. The pay is poo poo, but at least it's secure.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 15:58 |
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It must've been nice in the late 90s when job security was never a huge issue.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 16:04 |
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I'm sure you think you're hilarious and all, but that's just not the way things are done here. People quit. The only people who've ever been fired in the company's 70 year history have been for gross misconduct. Like, theft and harassment. The family are ultra-rich and just run the company as a hobby. I have job security; the trade-off is that I am not compensated adequately for everything that I'm doing. Also been lied to about raises. (Also never gotten one in a year.) During the downturn, instead of letting anyone go, they just gave the company a 10% paycut across the board. A crappy solution, but that's how they do things here.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 16:24 |
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psydude posted:It must've been nice in the late 90s when job security was never a huge issue. Nah, people weren't even thinking about job security, more about stock options, pay, and what their next job would be. I had 4 jobs in 5 years and tripled my salary (went from basic helpdesk to system admin type stuff. Not as impressive as it sounds). Employers were sooo desperate for people that having half a clue, showering daily and showing up on time were about all that was required to get ahead. I guess the last couple of years have been Karma.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 16:37 |
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Anyone have experience working at Softlayer? I want to move back to Texas, and it seems like an okay place that I could potentially get hired with a CCNA and no on the job networking experience. E: Specifically, working at a datacenter. Comradephate fucked around with this message at Jan 19, 2012 around 16:53 |
| # ? Jan 19, 2012 16:45 |
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SubjectVerbObject posted:Employers were sooo desperate for people that having half a clue, showering daily and showing up on time were about all that was required to get ahead. That's true. I was asked if I knew anyone "who's good at IT" and recommended a good friend who didn't have any education at all, but was quick at picking up IT related tasks and was currently running the servers for a (very) small public organisation. They pulled him into a 10-minute interview and sent him off. He stopped by my desk on the way out and thanked me for essentially 5-doubling his salary. It turned out he was actually brilliant at being a consultant, so when the company laid off 2/3 of the employees (including me) he got to stay. He was there until they went under a few years later. Eventually he got tired of working in IT and took up wood turning after his father (I think). He's making a decent living off that now and stess out a lot less. I spent the late 90s getting a crapload of certs and experience with Citrix and WTS - which in turn helped me get into public sysadmin circles. When I graduated CS every student from that year had a job on hand - except one who wanted to go travel. In 2005 when my brother in law graduated only one had a job on hand.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 16:46 |
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Comradephate posted:Anyone have experience working at Softlayer? I want to move back to Texas, and it seems like an okay place that I could potentially get hired with a CCNA and no on the job networking experience.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 16:55 |
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Misogynist posted:Rackspace is also headquartered in Texas and I know they have a big need for junior people. I know a sysadmin in their corporate HQ who was hired with no prior sysadmin experience. I applied for an entry level Linux admin position there, didn't hear back. I'm smarter now, but no better qualified on paper. Their most "junior" networking position requires ~18 months experience, too. I've heard very good things about working at Rackspace though, maybe I should reconsider my approach and finish studying for the RHCSA before working on networking stuff.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 17:04 |
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e^^^: "18 months of experience" is HR speak for "This is an entry level position provided your bullshitting skills are good enough"teethgrinder posted:I'm sure you think you're hilarious and all, but that's just not the way things are done here. People quit. The only people who've ever been fired in the company's 70 year history have been for gross misconduct. Like, theft and harassment. The family are ultra-rich and just run the company as a hobby. I'm not making GBS threads on you, your comment about having to stay in a lovely job due to its security got me to thinking about how this is the case for a lot of people right now, whereas in the 90s people apparently didn't give a gently caress about job security.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 17:43 |
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psydude posted:e^^^: "18 months of experience" is HR speak for "This is an entry level position provided your bullshitting skills are good enough" That's what I thought, too. But I talked to a "technical lead" who was posting for an unrelated job on Reddit, and he said they're pretty serious about that requirement.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 17:49 |
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psydude posted:I'm not making GBS threads on you, your comment about having to stay in a lovely job due to its security got me to thinking about how this is the case for a lot of people right now, whereas in the 90s people apparently didn't give a gently caress about job security.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 20:18 |
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Comradephate posted:That's what I thought, too. But I talked to a "technical lead" who was posting for an unrelated job on Reddit, and he said they're pretty serious about that requirement.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 21:46 |
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Misogynist posted:In some cases, work at a campus NOC would be plenty. The admin I know there used to run two servers here. There's plenty of ways to get that experience on paper. Holy poo poo, I just realized/remembered that I know somebody who works at the datacenter at UH. Did not even cross my mind. I'm gonna see if they are looking for anybody. Thanks for accidentally reminding me. :P
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 21:56 |
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Comradephate posted:That's what I thought, too. But I talked to a "technical lead" who was posting for an unrelated job on Reddit, and he said they're pretty serious about that requirement. The cert is probably the hurdle that they want you to get over, although their server department might be more serious on the experience issue. I wanted to apply for one of their network engineer positions back in October before I got this job, but the CCNA was a hard requirement and I didn't have it finished yet. The person I emailed about it said the cable/switch bitch experience I had would have been enough otherwise.
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 22:35 |
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Over the last few years of my career I have completely switched gears from "I will make you cry in the technical interview" to "I will literally hire you on the spot if you show the slightest shred of competence and ability to learn" and my understanding is that quite a bit of the industry is following suit. The most productive engineer in my group was a mercy hire less than two months ago from a scientist in our organization who was trying to get rid of him. He had no real sysadmin experience at all. Misogynist fucked around with this message at Jan 19, 2012 around 23:13 |
| # ? Jan 19, 2012 23:11 |
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Misogynist posted:Over the last few years of my career I have completely switched gears from "I will make you cry in the technical interview" to "I will literally hire you if you show the slightest shred of competence and ability to learn" and my understanding is that quite a bit of the industry is following suit. Shouldn't it be vice versa? Aren't there a lot more candidates available now?
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| # ? Jan 19, 2012 23:11 |
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three posted:Shouldn't it be vice versa? Aren't there a lot more candidates available now? Doesn't bother me; I like mentoring people who are smart and eager to learn. Plus, you get them for a lot cheaper.
Misogynist fucked around with this message at Jan 19, 2012 around 23:15 |
| # ? Jan 19, 2012 23:13 |
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Misogynist posted:I and our internal recruiter and six different recruiting firms can't seem to find them. It depends a lot on your industry. People from finance tend to only look for other jobs in finance. Plus, we're about an hour drive out of NYC. WTB a hiring manager like you where I apply. I'll bust my rear end to learn anything that is needed, especially linux/networking/storage related things, because those interest me the most, but I just want a new job. 
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 00:29 |
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Today was the first day of my part time helldesk job while I finish my associates. The senior guy training me was sufficiently grumpy. I'm excited. Time to start buying more alcohol.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 02:12 |
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three posted:Shouldn't it be vice versa? Aren't there a lot more candidates available now? Yeah, in SE Michigan we basically had to beg and plead to get a .NET/Sharepoint guy. We posted the job twice, left it up for a few months each time, and got one qualified candidate over that entire span. Needless to say we hired him.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 02:48 |
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Demand in the US is that high for IT people? I had no idea. Anyone want to hire an Aussie? :P
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 03:09 |
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marketingman posted:Demand in the US is that high for IT people? I had no idea. IT's one of the only industries in the US that's hiring right now.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 04:08 |
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Comradephate posted:WTB a hiring manager like you where I apply. I'll bust my rear end to learn anything that is needed, especially linux/networking/storage related things, because those interest me the most, but I just want a new job. Same here. My job is absolutely stifling. I'm not allowed to do all the things I need to be doing to gather the experience I need to get a real sys admin job, unless I get lucky. Bay Area hiring managers - I hope you are reading my resume!
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 04:22 |
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Comradephate posted:WTB a hiring manager like you where I apply. I'll bust my rear end to learn anything that is needed, especially linux/networking/storage related things, because those interest me the most, but I just want a new job. I feel the need to offer these opportunities up, because I was hired there back in 2007 as a Linux admin running 650+ servers. In the environment I came from, I ran 4 Linux servers. I guess my point is that if you're bright and you come across as bright, don't be afraid to send your resume to all kinds of jobs that you feel unqualified for. Just make sure you have some other way of getting yourself noticed (I pay a lot of attention to cover letters because pretty much nobody writes them anymore). Contributing to an open-source project is a good way to get started, but I'd gladly hire someone who had a home lab of decent complexity and sounded enthusiastic about it.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 04:34 |
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That's good to hear. Thanks for the encouragement. Rackspace's website has a place to add a cover letter to your profile, but as far as I can tell there's no way to actually add it to an application submission.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 04:45 |
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marketingman posted:Demand in the US is that high for IT people? I had no idea. Demand is insane for GOOD QUALIFIED people. There's no shortage of applicants, but we're finding it impossible to find good qualified people. My company seriously moved 5 people from India because we couldn't find qualified people in the US to take the jobs. We've had a Sr. Network Engineer position open for months because we can't find someone with the skill set needed and capable of getting along with the team.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 05:14 |
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Anyone looking for a Storage Architect / Engineer with a NetApp bias? I think I might start checking out some US job sites from the sounds of things.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 05:24 |
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skipdogg posted:Demand is insane for GOOD QUALIFIED people. There's no shortage of applicants, but we're finding it impossible to find good qualified people. I think this is the US business world shooting themselves in the foot. In the past, companies had systems set up to train and promote from within. So your sysadmins came from you helpdesk etc. It was a great way to find and reward people with initiative. After so many years of cuts and layoffs, most businesses do not have an internal applicant pool any more. The only people left are those that have the skills to be beyond the reach of layoffs. Unfortunately, those are also the people that starting to get headhunted due to the demand for skilled people. I think a lot of companies would be in a better position in a year if they would just hire some people, even temps, and keep and train the ones with a brain.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 05:38 |
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skipdogg posted:Demand is insane for GOOD QUALIFIED people. There's no shortage of applicants, but we're finding it impossible to find good qualified people. The other side of that coin, is that you gotta pay well to get the qualified people and there are a LOT of websites out there that give you a pretty good clue as to what a company is going to pay for a job before you even throw an application their way. I've been checking out NYC area jobs, and honestly a lot of companies don't seem to have a clue about what they have to realistically pay to get anyone with any actual experience.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 06:49 |
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I'm currently in a contract gig at one of Kodak's facilities (I know the company is dying, but it's going to take a long time), but I really want to move up into Systems Admin (not necessarily with Kodak). In my spare time I do some studying for the MCITP:EA cert, but it would be so much easier if I could get some actual hands-on experience in this environment other than resetting someone's account and adding computers to AD. Unfortunately security is tight as hell and there is no such thing as permissions creep for these folks - I've been here nearly a year and I'm still waiting for my account to be added to the superuser security groups. In the meantime I've had to use a co-worker's ID to do my job, and it's something of a running gag for us. I keep thinking maybe I should ask the on-site admins if I could do some of the stuff they have to deal with on a daily basis, but they are actual Kodak employees and I'm not sure how that would go over.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 13:44 |
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SubjectVerbObject posted:I think this is the US business world shooting themselves in the foot. In the past, companies had systems set up to train and promote from within. So your sysadmins came from you helpdesk etc. It was a great way to find and reward people with initiative. I was passed over for an IT training pipeline by Genworth because they were only interested in people with a business degree, not IT experience.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 15:26 |
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| # ? May 20, 2013 17:10 |
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Misogynist posted:One of the other engineers in my group was basically hired off the street with no IT experience. Within a year he was a CCENT and now he's our Tivoli Storage Manager admin responsible for backing up a few petabytes of data. I got hired for my current position by a manager with exactly the same approach you seem to be using and I think it has paid off for both of us. He gets to "underpay" me for a couple years while I build up to the appropriate rate (for an admittedly very senior role - and I was a serious intermediate when hired) and I get all kinds of experience it would have taken me 5+ years to get anywhere else. I like his approach though, I it has paid off for him since he has used it as his hiring philosophy - there has been a misfire but judging folks is an imperfect art.
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| # ? Jan 20, 2012 17:16 |
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