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Lblitzer posted:I'm interested in the position because I have no education or professional background outside of Dell hardware. I have no direction right now and I basically need to stick with anything if I want to do IT at all in my life. I feel like working under this company while small, would get me a lot of good experience and they've got a guy moving up to their "senior" sysadmin after working there for 2 months and had already talked about moving whoever they hire to his current position and ultimately to their "senior" level within 6 months. Be glad you got torn up on this interview, this place sounds like it has a nasty churn rate. It probably sucks to work there. My stupidly long hours, and screaming users alarms are going off.
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| # ? Nov 10, 2011 20:42 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 02:32 |
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akavan posted:Be glad you got torn up on this interview, this place sounds like it has a nasty churn rate. It probably sucks to work there. My stupidly long hours, and screaming users alarms are going off. Yeah it's really a toss up for me. I'm really trying to get any entry level job right now outside of working with just hardware, but the guy said lately he's had a high turnover rate, probably due to there being 5 guys supporting a larger clientbase than it can handle.
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| # ? Nov 10, 2011 21:05 |
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I started work at a mom and pop ISP about 3 years ago as a hardware person. I had little networking knowledge, but was told I would be taught. Saweet. 3 years in and everything I know I taught myself. I learned Server 2003/2008 on my own, TCP/IP on my own, and learning Linux now on my own. I'm (basically) the only person who works here. I'm the only person who does phone support. I am the only person who does onsite work. I receive no benefits, no job security, and no HR department if anything happens. But they pay my cell phone bill. Also, Old Granddad is the poo poo. I have an opportunity at a bigger tech company. WITH PAID DAYS OFF! Holy poo poo I'm so excited for the interview.
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| # ? Nov 10, 2011 21:10 |
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I'm pretty surprised to see the lengthy response re: ego problems. The day I don't have a DBA dictate to me the RAID layout he expects, or a coder roll her eyes when I give a tutorial is the day I've found nirvana. Having said that 95% of my career has been as an external company coming in to fix/implement things so I'm usually seen as the enemy that was hired by management... hmm I think I may have found the problem Edit: Talk about annoying, I just had a guy from [global imaging company name redacted] Head Office call me and immediately launch into how he expects a particular raid layout and site mirroring and exactly what disks should be in those raid groups. An entire conversation of meaningless words because last week he refused to listen to me when I told him I had worked out the performance profile of the application and would architect the hypervisor and storage environment appropriately. If he has it all worked out, why are they paying us tens of millions of dollars to do this... are we just an audience for his genius? *sigh* Muslim Wookie fucked around with this message at Nov 11, 2011 around 06:17 |
| # ? Nov 11, 2011 06:04 |
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marketingman posted:I'm pretty surprised to see the lengthy response re: ego problems. The day I don't have a DBA dictate to me the RAID layout he expects It's not unusual for DBAs to be fussy about "their" storage, it underpins everything else from a performance perspective.  It's also not unusual for DBAs to be giant cocks. There's at least a little bit of control freak lurking inside every DBA - that, combined with the lack of social skills endemic in IT, means they can quite frequently rub people the wrong way.
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| # ? Nov 11, 2011 10:39 |
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Hey Dont worry guys. I just applied for a Junior IT position and they didnt want any certs or degrees. This will not go wrong at all  internally advertised position and my dads a manager so I might get it and get on the job training according to him
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| # ? Nov 11, 2011 11:42 |
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Solus posted:Hey Dont worry guys. I just applied for a Junior IT position and they didnt want any certs or degrees. Nepotism is the way to go - congrats!
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| # ? Nov 11, 2011 13:07 |
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Daylen Drazzi posted:Nepotism is the way to go - congrats! The oldest truth - it's not what you know, it's who you know. It's also who can't plausibly deny links to you. 
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| # ? Nov 11, 2011 20:24 |
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Thel posted:The oldest truth - it's not what you know, it's who you know. It's also who can't plausibly deny links to you.
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| # ? Nov 11, 2011 21:33 |
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If the majority of places in your area looking for experience and/or a degree? How do you acquire you're experience to even attempt at certs? 
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| # ? Nov 11, 2011 22:07 |
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Misogynist posted:My apologies for the stream-of-consciousness brain dump and long string of questions for you that's about to follow. 1) You are absolutely correct in that I honestly have no idea what I want to do. Guidance is something I have come to value more then some friendships, as it is seems harder to come by. I did not mean to seem insecure about my family/finances, I more so wanted to relay that I want to have a good plan in place for my son's future. My father did the same for us, working 26 years for a local University so the three of us could attend a good school. Life may have thrown me a curve-ball compared to my brother and sister, but that's irrelevant to this. 2) I actually looked at ME (as my brother is one) and if I were not so terrible at math, I would have chosen that as my ideal career path. To give a short background: To say I am mechanically gifted is, well, a understatement. I sit in a lab of engineers here at work and answer questions for them about "real world" situations, otherwise we would end up with products that would never work for a "normal consumer". I have spent years building my own machine and fab shop, just so me and my brother can make literally what ever we want. I work on cars that no one else in a 300 mile radius wants to (Mazda Rx7's) and I only know so much about them due to the years I spend filtering through the forums and service manuals. "You sound like a perfectly competent, self-directed learner who wants to actually produce things. Save your money and spend time cultivating that instead of paying money to people so bad at IT that, instead of making big bucks in systems engineering, they're teaching at a tech school." You nailed it spot on and this is my mindset 99% of the time, but as many people have said in this thread, even if it is not relevant, get a degree. I have also had this pounded in to my head (due to several family members in education). I believe you are absolutely correct however, and I am wondering if a degree in IT is really what I should be going after. *I read back through this and remember something I have always thought is very important- not only for myself in the decisions I make, but for anyone else reading it- Go to school for what you love to do, otherwise you will find yourself unhappy in your career. 3) As many IT pro's think I am crazy for this, the part I enjoy the most about IT is helping people. I grew up doing "community service"- voluntarily through school, and helping my neighbors, friends, family, ect. I like to figuring out things no one else wants to or seems to be able to. I enjoy planning, designing, and building out environments. Some of the most fun I have had this entire project was getting to rack everything up. My OCD may have kicked in a time or two, but it paid off. Another good example is I volunteer at a local e-waste place, inventorying and pricing server/networking gear, because no one else there can or wants to. It is a life long love of technology that keeps me wanting to keep learning, so I can help someone understand something they do not. (This is why I have mostly worked for small businesses/schools.) The point is, if I can build/fix/or make something that will positively benefit another, I will get it done. 4) As far as the interviews go, I evaluated myself after each one. I was appropriately dressed, calm spoken, and very stressed. I had two really good interviews to start out, both ended up going after "their ideal candidate", but sent me emails saying how much they enjoyed meeting me and if anything else opened up, I would hear back. I never have, nor expected to. Right after this I had two really bad interviews. I struggled with questions at one, the interviewer wanted text book answers, not how I would troubleshoot it. I almost felt setup at that interview, as I told the interviewer that even I felt I did not fit the position and thanked him for time. The second interview, only one person on the panel wanted me there, the other three had already chosen their candidate and I definitely did not win them over. I realized that these were good practice interviews, as honestly they were the first I ever had. Every other place before hired me on the spot after a informal interview. After reading several threads here, I definitely see areas I stumbled on and that some of the core knowledge they were looking for was lacking. Since then I picked up 30~ books and have read through as many as possible, setting up test environments on my VM box and playing around like I have for years. I believe after speaking to several HR people and taking advise from here and other sources, that I could confidently apply and be an excellent candidate/contender for a variety of jobs locally. I am definitely a uniquely talented person and told I am one of the nicest IT guys my coworkers have ever had to deal with. I am in the mindset that I like IT enough and I really enjoyed my time working for the schools I did- that I could happily work for a school, while satisfying my mech traits via my many hobbies. This did get me thinking about the possibilities of doing a fun degree, while still climbing the IT latter and perusing my goal of working for a school. If my uncle can have a degree in English and be the IT director for The American School in London, I could do something similar. *Edit* Holy poo poo I wrote a book, sorry! the spyder fucked around with this message at Nov 11, 2011 around 23:14 |
| # ? Nov 11, 2011 22:50 |
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Interstellar Owl posted:If the majority of places in your area looking for experience and/or a degree? How do you acquire you're experience to even attempt at certs? Get a cert and look on craigslist, apply for places you aren't fully qualified for a lot of HRs tend to over exaggerate to weed out some people
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| # ? Nov 11, 2011 23:28 |
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Corvettefisher posted:Get a cert and look on craigslist, apply for places you aren't fully qualified for a lot of HRs tend to over exaggerate to weed out some people Doesn't the OP say don't get a cert without experience in that field?
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| # ? Nov 12, 2011 00:43 |
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Interstellar Owl posted:Doesn't the OP say don't get a cert without experience in that field? Not everyone agrees with that madmaan posted:Seek the knowledge to do the job and then do whatever it takes to talk someone else into giving you the job. Once you stop settling or pacing yourself, poo poo really starts to work out.
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| # ? Nov 12, 2011 00:49 |
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Ganon posted:Not everyone agrees with that Just trying to follow the way to go, heh. Thanks for the advice, much appreciated. Going to go for my Network+ first.
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| # ? Nov 12, 2011 01:07 |
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Interstellar Owl posted:Doesn't the OP say don't get a cert without experience in that field? Hmm I thought I stated without EXP or degree if you want to get in then field get a cert
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| # ? Nov 12, 2011 02:26 |
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OP posted:If you do not have any experience in the field with what cert you want, you are going to gently caress yourself and waste a lot of money
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| # ? Nov 12, 2011 03:09 |
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My bad will fix in the morning
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| # ? Nov 12, 2011 04:04 |
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One thing I should note that one of the primary skills that determines success in IT isn't so much your technical skills or knowledge but your ability to lead or inspire others - this goes so beyond IT as well. With a lot of introverts in IT tends to come a lack of awareness or empathy for others, and hostile attitudes among IT folks is par for the course... It's just that most nerds are so bad at communicating that nobody realizes how bad team dynamics really are. So coming into IT with an attitude of wanting to help people will probably get you further in your career while the usual neckbeard will hate you for having few technical skills and being repeatedly promoted over him. As unfortunate as it is, a programmer or sysadmin is about as low on the totem pole of organizational impact because frankly, if they were of greatest impact we'd see more engineering-driven companies in the Fortune 500.
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| # ? Nov 12, 2011 04:49 |
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Corvettefisher posted:My bad will fix in the morning No problem, I'm just trying to get the good lead on what I should do.
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| # ? Nov 12, 2011 14:18 |
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Interstellar Owl posted:No problem, I'm just trying to get the good lead on what I should do. Yeah sorry I write this in the downtime at work and sometimes I will get busy and just gently caress up what I was writing
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| # ? Nov 12, 2011 16:32 |
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Is there anyway to learn troubleshooting without having tons of broken things on your own desktop/laptop?
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| # ? Nov 12, 2011 17:22 |
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Interstellar Owl posted:Is there anyway to learn troubleshooting without having tons of broken things on your own desktop/laptop? Buy a cheap desktop/laptop and make poo poo go wrong? This is what I did/am still doing. Found some crap system, blew out the OS (Vista) and put XP on it (since that's what I support in my current help desk job, and went to town. Viruses, malware, messing with system settings, etc. As far as physically, idk.
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| # ? Nov 12, 2011 17:58 |
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Interstellar Owl posted:Is there anyway to learn troubleshooting without having tons of broken things on your own desktop/laptop? Browse the Tech support forum of people asking for help see what the issues are and how they were resolved
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| # ? Nov 12, 2011 19:35 |
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48 Hour Boner posted:In the non-profit IT world, be prepared to work on a shoestring budget and make equipment last as long as possible. WRONG WRONG WRONG. I contracted with Verizon and they were the worst bunch of penny pincher shoestring budget networks I have ever seen. None of their NOC folks had any vendor training; An operations manager told me that corporate's policy was not not spend anything on vendor-based training. I'm working now on a large gov type project and it is mission-driven vice profit-driven and although the funds are not unlimited, the network has been built in a very smart and robust fashion as required by gov policy. This is just a single example but I have others like it. So that axiom you are spitting like it is gospel? Go ahead and put it in your butt because it is wrong. lil z0rphan annie fucked around with this message at Nov 13, 2011 around 17:42 |
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| # ? Nov 13, 2011 17:40 |
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lil z0rphan annie posted:WRONG WRONG WRONG. I work for a non-profit charity-driven organization, not a gov. run agency. IT operations are on a shoestring budget. We perform an audit/upgrade process after fundraising, but for the most part we operate on a negative budget. It's been my personal experience that not-for-profits cut costs whenever possible, but it sounds like you've had it differently.
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| # ? Nov 13, 2011 19:13 |
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IT isn't that bad as long as you don't support users. 
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| # ? Nov 13, 2011 22:04 |
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RMS Ghost Rider posted:IT isn't that bad as long as you don't support users. I'd love to have half of each day back so I didn't need to update tickets, strokes egos and log time. Maybe then I could get some actual work done
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| # ? Nov 13, 2011 23:08 |
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KillHour posted:IT is a pretty big field. While Computer Janitor falls under one facet of IT, it doesn't make it the end all be all. Just curious, do you have a bachelor's degree and if so what was it? How would you suggest getting into the field with an interest in database or network design? E: A better description of my situation for anyone who would like to offer any words insight or advice: I'm at a pretty good state university, but my major is undeclared; I'm looking to get into IT because it's what I inherently enjoy, and something that I see myself most likely to do for a living. However, that major doesn't exist here. I don't feel like I enjoy coding enough to do CS as a degree or as a living; it's the minor dislike of coding combined with my inability to do calculus that would probably keep me from excelling it. Might end up majoring in something like Political Science (with a minor in Informatics), but then I'm left with and stuck at the question of how to get into the business sector that I want to end up in. I don't see myself doing PoliSci for a living at all, so it feels like a random choice pretty much.. what would be nicer on a resume, if I'm not going to do CS or an Engineering degree? I plan on HOPEFULLY getting work experience of some kind in IT over summers or the school year to build up my technical knowledge, and apply it to get certs like A+ by graduation. Michael Scott fucked around with this message at Nov 14, 2011 around 04:35 |
| # ? Nov 14, 2011 04:20 |
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Does your school have any IT related majors in the business college like MIS or CIS?
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| # ? Nov 14, 2011 04:37 |
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Ganon posted:Does your school have any IT related majors in the business college like MIS or CIS? Heh they do have MIS, but students at my university are not allowed to transfer colleges from undeclared to business. It's a policy that really fucks me, their business degrees seem really practical to get for someone with my interests. Already transferred into this school, since it is 'ranked' significantly higher than where I was coming from. It does unfortunately limit my options quite a bit, and I don't think anyone transfers twice really ▼▼▼ Michael Scott fucked around with this message at Nov 14, 2011 around 05:29 |
| # ? Nov 14, 2011 04:39 |
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You might want to consider transferring then.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2011 05:17 |
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I'm willing to answer questions if folks are interested. I'm a little odd as far as background goes though. 1) Dropped out of high school. 2) Went to college. 3) Got parttime job at college, turned into fulltime job at college, ended up interfering with my classes so I stopped going to college. (Helpdesk position there, small systems support, etc) 4) Got job at a vendor company working for Microsoft. (Tier 1 incident response / ticket jockey, non external customer facing) 5) Got job working directly for Microsoft. (Incident Response) So here I am, an utter failure on paper but doing pretty well for myself all things considered. I just hit the 5 years fulltime employment mark, so I'd consider myself at the very least somewhat versed in IT.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2011 05:43 |
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I guess this is as good a thread as any to ask this question; does anyone here have any knowledge of IT work in the Vancouver area? I currently live in London, UK, and have been working IT support for the past 8 years (straight out of uni). My positions have covered the full gamut of computer janitorial work, but I've always 'specialised' more on Mac support, specifically in creative industries using Adobe Creative Suite. Over the past few years, I've moved more and more onto Mac server admin kinda stuff rather than first line (OD/AD, Casper, font servers, ADmitMAC, etc). Also, I have some pretty well known and prestigious companies on my CV. However, next year, me and my wife are going to be moving back to her hometown, Vancouver. I've been trying to get an idea of how easy it's going to be for me to get a job there by browsing Craigslist and seeing what's out there but, to be honest, there doesn't seem to be that much compared to London. I was hoping that there would be a lot of creative industries in the city, and that i would be able to find a great job easily, but maybe not? I guess my fear is that we'll move there, I'll struggle to find a decent position, so I have to resort to getting a job behind the counter at Future Shop to make ends meet. Whilst I'm not on a enormous salary here (£~35k), it'd be nice to be able to earn an equivalent amount once I've moved.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2011 08:41 |
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Michael Scott posted:Heh they do have MIS, but students at my university are not allowed to transfer colleges from undeclared to business. It's a policy that really fucks me, their business degrees seem really practical to get for someone with my interests. Go set up a meeting with the Dean or whoever handles admissions in the college. If you are able to explain your situation I can't think of many schools that wouldn't work with you. It might be probationary to start off, but pretty much every single rule like that in a university is 100% flexible. Or else declare a major, and then swap from that major to business. Dexo fucked around with this message at Nov 14, 2011 around 12:31 |
| # ? Nov 14, 2011 12:28 |
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How common is it for CJ's to have to document their time on the job? And in conjunction with that be expected to maintain a certain percentage of productivity?
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| # ? Nov 14, 2011 16:26 |
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permanoob posted:How common is it for CJ's to have to document their time on the job? And in conjunction with that be expected to maintain a certain percentage of productivity? Quiet common in most places to expect some form of documentation, atleast 1 ticket per work per request/issue For example, I would say if someone wanted to move desks notes on it should be no more than. Title: XYZ Person X requested desk move /date Supervisor Y approved it /date Desk move complete, employee at desk Z can access internet and files /date anything more would just be useless, You'll find 9/10 times the ticketing will cover your rear end and show the blame where it lies, on the user. Corvettefisher fucked around with this message at Nov 14, 2011 around 16:40 |
| # ? Nov 14, 2011 16:38 |
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permanoob posted:How common is it for CJ's to have to document their time on the job? And in conjunction with that be expected to maintain a certain percentage of productivity? That said, you're paid to be there. Don't gently caress around on the job unless your boss tells you that there's nothing else you can be doing.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2011 16:42 |
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Ticketing every incident is completely understandable from a cover-your-rear end point and if you have other CJ's in your department, it helps them a lot to know what's going on. I don't mind that at all.Misogynist posted:Any job that tries to boil "productivity" down to a simple numerical percentage probably doesn't understand either productivity or IT. I abide by the "don't gently caress around unless..." policy. I'm just curious as to how common this is. I find it a bit ridiculous, but I follow it regardless or else I'm unemployed. We're in a slow time of year right now and it's been getting slower since July, week by week. Last week, I had to clean the office to create work to stay above the 85% productivity they require. There was two weeks in a row when I was between 70-75% and I got a verbal warning. I've always understood that if you're doing your job right, there won't be a lot of work to do, if there are no projects floating around.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2011 17:48 |
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| # ? May 24, 2013 02:32 |
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Updated the OP a little bit, let me know anything I should refine or add
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| # ? Nov 14, 2011 19:59 |
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