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Backup Exec, or any similarly lovely and overly complex software package, will almost single handedly drive you to drink. God, I hate this loving pile of poo poo backup hell that it is.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2011 20:33 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 07:31 |
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Don't go to college for an IT job. If you want to get a degree, great! Get a B.S. in something (doesn't matter what), and work help desk/retail. You can position yourself as the "computer guy," which basically means you don't get paid anymore in addition to your duties, however you can possibly pick up a beginner level cert or two (A+, Network+, etc.) then get a real full-time job, and start working your way up from there. At any compnay with a decent sized IT staff, say 10-15 you will be able to pick up A LOT, that will be college for you and your BS from real college will continuously help you for any new position you apply for in addition to your 5ish years of experience.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2011 20:41 |
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So at this current point in time, I've got about 4 years experience in Networking (hitting my 4 year mark in the USAF in December as a Cyber Transport guy, so routers, switches, crypto, and phones). I only currently have Sec+ but could do Net+ and A+ pretty easily. I've been told I could get out and get a contractor position, but it doesn't seem to be appealing to me at the current time. What kind of prospects am I really going to have on the outside world given my experience (solid experience and understanding of Cisco and Fortinet devices, IPv4 Scheming, and general network know-how)? I'm trying to gauge where exactly I need to set my bar position/money-wise before I start looking for jobs, so that I don't aim too low/high. E: Oh, and I have a current TS, if that helps. Working on my CCNA as well. Second E: I there anything I should look into learning from my contractor contacts here that would be of additional help? They want to teach me all about virtualization (they have server racks that people might kill for here), but I'm unsure of how that would benefit me if I'm aiming for some kind of network-based job. whatspeakyou fucked around with this message at Nov 14, 2011 around 21:10 |
| # ? Nov 14, 2011 21:04 |
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whatspeakyou posted:Second E: I there anything I should look into learning from my contractor contacts here that would be of additional help? They want to teach me all about virtualization (they have server racks that people might kill for here), but I'm unsure of how that would benefit me if I'm aiming for some kind of network-based job. Learn as much as they will teach you about virtualization. I work at a major university and that seems to be the golden ticket to big paycheck.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2011 21:58 |
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TheSpookyDanger posted:Learn as much as they will teach you about virtualization. I work at a major university and that seems to be the golden ticket to big paycheck.
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| # ? Nov 14, 2011 23:32 |
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What does everyone know about contract jobs? I know a good deal about Windows 2k8, domains, dns, tcp/ip, windows networks, SharePoint and probably a bit about VOIP. How much or how decent are those traveling gigs setting up servers and where would I find them?
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| # ? Nov 15, 2011 02:18 |
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Tab8715 posted:What does everyone know about contract jobs? I know a good deal about Windows 2k8, domains, dns, tcp/ip, windows networks, SharePoint and probably a bit about VOIP.
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| # ? Nov 15, 2011 03:04 |
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Tab8715 posted:What does everyone know about contract jobs? I know a good deal about Windows 2k8, domains, dns, tcp/ip, windows networks, SharePoint and probably a bit about VOIP. They are good but there is no guarantee that when the contract is up you'll be working at the place of contracting. Those traveling jobs are sweet, my IT firm I work for does a share of that, not bad other than when you arrive onsite if anything else is slow or not working you're going to be fixing it, you won't be limited to servers unless you have some good SLA's on your side.
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| # ? Nov 15, 2011 03:24 |
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Misogynist posted:Throw your resume up on Dice, give it a week and you'll be drowning in irrelevant contracts in Madison, WI from Bharat Tiruchirappalli. A lot of jobs at Epic...
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| # ? Nov 15, 2011 05:57 |
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I thought I'd chime on on the whole non-profit vs not-for-profit vs for-profit thing. First, here are your operative differences: Non-Profit: 501(c3) in tax code, organization with a mission to collect funds and such from entities and do something good or at least legally charitable. Cannot advocate policy positions. Severely restricted on how they can spend funds outside of mission. Do not pay taxes. This would cover most non-profits and foundations, such as The March of Dimes, Susan G. Komen, etc, etc. Not-for-profit: 501(c4) in tax code. Organizations who collect funds and such from entities to do something for those entities as a whole. Can and will advocate policy positions; many exist solely for that purpose. Commonly referred to as industry trade associations. Do pay taxes. Examples would include the MPAA, RIAA. For-Profit: this would be your typical companies that we all know and love. Anyhow, the bestest situation, IMHO, is at a well-funded not for profit institution. Remember, when you are writing $10k/plate checks left and right you don't get much flack for $5k decisions . . .
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| # ? Nov 15, 2011 14:25 |
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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? I document every minute... but I work for a service provider and my bonus is based on my billable hours.
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| # ? Nov 15, 2011 14:25 |
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Keep in mind that many non-profit organizations, while working on shoestring budgets, often also qualify for some really, really deep discounts from vendors like IBM and VMware. (Sun used to be amazing too, but guess what happened?)
Misogynist fucked around with this message at Nov 15, 2011 around 14:33 |
| # ? Nov 15, 2011 14:28 |
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Misogynist posted:Keep in mind that many non-profit organizations, while working on shoestring budgets, often also qualify for some really, really deep discounts from vendors like IBM and VMware. I didn't really realize how deep they were until Bangers posted in here one time about getting MS datacenter licenses for like three dollars.
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| # ? Nov 15, 2011 14:32 |
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Misogynist posted:Keep in mind that many non-profit organizations, while working on shoestring budgets, often also qualify for some really, really deep discounts from vendors like IBM and VMware. (Sun used to be amazing too, but guess what happened?) TechSoup, for instance. They offer insane discounts on Microsoft stuff, and the catch is something like you have to be a 501(c3) and can only buy a set amount per year.
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| # ? Nov 15, 2011 17:12 |
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so, I know it's not safe to expect that PDF in the OP to be an accurate representation of an IT Job BUT it's worked for me so far. ~1yr as helpdesk IRL, now I'm a Systems Administrator and have no certs or degree and until I started the helpdesk I had no professional experience just a lot of doing poo poo on my own for fun. I got the job because I already worked at the company and was getting laid off and at least had enough friends at the place to recommend me for the job and if it didn't work out no big deal they just let me go for reals. Here's what I think is essential for getting started that I know most people are NOT going to agree with but it's helped me a loving lot. Users are not the enemy. Stupid problems are your FRIEND and make you look like a loving genius/rockstar/superhero if you're not a loving douche about it. Someone can't print? You know how to fix this in 3 seconds. They don't. Don't be a dick. Fix it, get told "I don't know how you do that, you're so smart" and feel good that you can help people out. Then go back to browsing the forums or playing minecraft or whatever your job lets you do when things are smooth and appreciate the fact that you just got a gimmie rather than a full system meltdown or a horrible malware infection that takes 3hours of real work to fix. If you hate fixing easy poo poo, get out now. You will never be happy. I basically treated my helpdesk job (and my semi-helpdesk now) like being a Computer Doctor. My basic approach is to memorize everyone's names, what they actually do as their job, what their computer happens to be and what their common problems are. Some people just can't get printers. Other people have problems with their phone, who knows who cares but it really makes a difference if you can remember what people are having issues with, listen to their problems and basically let them know you're paying attention. Being at least a little socially friendly goes a LONG way here. It's the difference in being a Computer Janitor and a guy who people will talk to on purpose. You ever notice how most people absolutely won't talk to the Janitor who comes around to take away the trash? Yeah, you're the Computer Janitor if you're one of those people who looks pissed off that they have to fix a loving stupid problem, which makes the user feel like an idiot and it doesn't matter if they get paid more or less than you or what your status and their status is in the company, they don't want you around. If this is tough for you to accomplish, you are not going to work out very much as an IRL helpdesk. if you have a good enough workplace and you keep poo poo in line as much as possible and preventatively maintain as much as possible you may end up like me and have a fuckton of downtime. If you're smart you'll waste as much of your free time as possible getting your fingers into things that you can help out with while not breaking poo poo. Prove you can upgrade servers, deploy a new linux build, update packages, etc. Ask your sysadmins what they do all day, try to help out when possible with things. Most people actually want to show people how to do things. There's almost always that one guy who's got one foot out the door that would love to let you do half his job so he can spend the rest of it on craigslist looking for a Sr. Sysadmin company at a place that pays "what he's worth". Use this guy. If he likes Battlestar Galactica, you are the loving superfan of Battlestar Galactica. Do whatever you can, and if you're not an inept computer janitor at that point, maybe you can absorb enough of his job skills to replace him when he's gone. I've managed to work my way into 20k worth of raises in a year and a half this way somehow, so there's definitely a chance it could work for other people too.
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| # ? Nov 19, 2011 01:53 |
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Corvettefisher posted:Person X requested desk move /date Why do you have to bring me into this. A small slice into my background. Went to college. Our school of Information of Technology originally had 3 majors (I think they added poo poo once I graduated which I would have been interested in). They were CS (I started in this for 2 semesters, but the effort to keep up was draining me down),, Telecom and Systems Analyst/Design. After my first year I transferred into Systems Analyst/Design. This seemed (at the time) like the loving golden IT major. I covered all the base classes that every IT major had to take (dabbling into everything), and then it was a blend of different programming/database/business classes. I liked it. Learned a few programming languages, covered some business spectrum (also tacked on a minor in Business Administration), got to do a few database classes (working with cobol and jcl and db2 and mainframe poo poo) and had a few serious project management classes. I came out extremely well rounded. A semester before I graduated I was offered a job at a decent company doing cobol programming (didn't know that much about it, but they were thrilled any young person had even touched it). About two weeks before graduation I get a call from this company that they are merging, and all 150 or so of their new hires from the college program had their job offers rescinded. Lovely, Everyone else has been hunting for jobs for 6 months while I was feeling good with a nice job offer. Fast forward 6 months after graduation. My major was so broad that I couldn't really get any programming jobs, I had no professional experience, and since I wasn't a CS major, I didn't know the poo poo well enough to get through the few technical interviews I made it to. Actually had one interview for a job that was right up my major (doing like program design/project management), didn't get that. Delivered pizza for about 6 months while aggressively hunting. Ended up taking a contract job from some shade ball Austrian which got referred to me by a neighbor. After my pizza tips, it paid less (triple less once I paid my loving taxes). Get a heads up from a friend 2 months into this hell job (contract work, 40 min commute each way, literally dealing with either retarded home users, or the worst of the worst small businesses) that their IT department at a smallish law firm is expanding (200 users). I interview and get the job. Pay isn't great, but its much better than where I was. Started there, been there for almost two years now. Since we are a small IT staff, I do everything (me, my coworker, IT director, and a DBA type guy who just sets up custom reports). I have gotten an idiotic amount of experience because I get to do everything. This also backfires because since I do everything, I am the fuckbag who has to come and move your loving workstation to the next cubical over because 'insert any possible idiotic reason here'. I hate my job, every day feels like the worst day of my life. I stay at my job because I need this experience. A balance between work, drinking to forget about work, and study/learn/certs will hopefully land me into a pod (check dick trauma's posts if anyone doesn't know). I know people who are completely idiotic when it comes it IT stuff, who landed jobs idiotically better than me. That's life. Live, learn, drink, learn, move up. Misogynist posted:Keep in mind that to really get virtualization in this IT climate, you have to understand hardware, operating systems, networking, and storage just as well as people who do any one of these things for a living. If you're talking about VDI, add in lots about desktop operating systems. It's a great area, but the rabbit hole is very deep. That is what I am hoping my hell position is setting me up to get towards. I manage the physical servers, the network (including my mickey mouse iSCSI VM network which likes to die under heavy load), the shared storage, the operating systems and everything that runs on those OSes. There has to be a light at the end of the tunnel. Nth edit: Do we bitch more than other people, or does everyone live in ignorance? Moey fucked around with this message at Nov 19, 2011 around 18:32 |
| # ? Nov 19, 2011 03:54 |
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Misogynist posted:Keep in mind that to really get virtualization in this IT climate, you have to understand hardware, operating systems, networking, and storage just as well as people who do any one of these things for a living. If you're talking about VDI, add in lots about desktop operating systems. It's a great area, but the rabbit hole is very deep. And don't focus solely on one virtualization platform. You've got VMWare, Xen and KVM, all with different strengths. I'm currently going down the KVM rabbit hole with a home rolled Linux VDI solution, and I am nowhere near bottom yet.
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| # ? Nov 19, 2011 04:36 |
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Time to  a bit about being a DBA.1 - What the gently caress *is* a Database Administrator? At it's most elementary, your DBA[s] are in charge of databases. That typically means things like (in order of importance from most to least): - Backups - Security - Backups - Capacity planning (physical server stats, as well as disk space usage) - Performance/Configuration/Tuning - Did I mention backups? Also, make sure you know how to restore from them and that when it comes to crunch time it'll actually work. PS: RAID, SAN mirroring, database mirroring and their ilk are not backups, they're high-availability. They won't save your rear end if a disgruntled developer sets a timebomb in an application to junk the database - or, rather more likely, somebody incompetent does a 'DELETE FROM' without a 'WHERE' clause. 2 - Okay, so what do they actually *do*? No two days in a DBA's life are ever the same, it's a very interrupt-driven, triage-importance lifestyle. If an email comes in that your primary datacenter is on fire, you'd better switch to dealing with that and leave the new user you're setting up for later. That said, a roughly typical day for me (I don't check work email outside of work when I'm not on-call): 08:50 - Walk in the door, quickly scan the barrage of automated email report for anything from a production server. 08:55 - Morning standup meeting with test team/couple of PMs, see which test environments they want new app releases deployed to. 09:00 - Get back to desk, give email a more thorough going-over. Sometimes this will take five minutes (on those rare nights when absolutely nothing went wrong and it's all hunky-dory), sometimes this can take two hours (or the entire day in the worst case). 09:10 - Receive deadlock report from production server. Remember that this server holds a terribly-written application that can deadlock itself without even needing users. 10:30 - See project manager, multiple testers and a few random people running around like headless chickens, think nothing of it. 10:32 - Have said project manager move heaven and earth to get a test environment set up with production data from last night. Have said PM get surly when you remind them that backups are taken early morning, and rolling through transaction logs will mean the entire process takes twice as long. (You are keeping full backups as well as transaction log backups, right?) 10:33 - Start the backup restoring on that test server, while quietly muttering to yourself because 13 hours of transaction logs (at 10 minutes per file) is a pain in the rear end to organise. 11:00 - Email storage team, CC'ing every manager in the tree between you and them, outlining projected data growth rates, and likely space needs. 11:30 - Recieve absolute barrage of deadlock reports from production server. Go spelunking through log files, chase the issue down to combination of idiot user (pressing button multiple times) and non-idiot-proofed internal application (that doesn't discard multiple button clicks). Raise service request to have application idiot-proofed, email manager requesting they have a word with the user. 12:00 - Think about heading off to lunch since the backup is quite happily restoring itself. Just as you're grabbing your jacket, the CIO's exec assistant comes around with a new staff member. Naturally, you know nothing about this new staff member, and they've been sitting there for an hour waiting for a database account to be set up for them. The exec assistant asks you to set up an account for the new staff member "Oh, just copy Bob's permissions that should do nicely for Joe". Bob has been at the company 24 years and has full access to half of the production servers. 12:05 - After going to HR and confirming that they didn't know the new staff member was starting either, bump into the CIO who asks you "Why hasn't Joe been set up yet?". Resist the urge to reply "Joe? Joe who?", instead say "I wasn't told he was starting, I'm setting up his account now". 12:07 - Head back to desk, give Joe read only permissions on everything until you can get the proper paperwork/authorizations through. 12:10 - Head off for lunch. Take circuitous route to avoid stressed-out project manager and associated testers, since they'll probably demand to know why you aren't babysitting their precious environment, despite the fact that restoring a 100GB+ backup is a multiple-hour process that only needs a DBA at the start and end of it. 13:00 - Get back from lunch. Before you even have a chance to sit down, a tester materializes out of thin air, demanding to know why their test environment is chugging on a large query. Remind them that you're restoring a backup to assist in fixing a "SUPERCRITICAL PRODUCTION BLOCKER" issue*. * Name only slightly exaggerated. I did tell them that using "supercritical" makes me think of a nuclear bomb, though.  13:10 - Remember that there were some test environments that needed new procs and things deployed to them and the web engineers took them down in the morning and are waiting for you. Hurriedly kick off those deployments. 13:30 - That backup has finally finished chewing through the transaction logs. Run some sanity checks on the database, then give it back to the web guys to do their bit. 13:45 - Fob off feisty program manager (who is trying to get that test environment back) to the web guys. 14:00 - Deployments are done, check the databases are still working and hand them back to the web guys. 14:30 - Receive new application build from developers. Scrutinize the database portion of the build with a microscope to make sure they're not trying to pull a fast one and slip in unauthorized schema changes. 14:45 - Mediate in the ensuing argument between the developers and the data architect after the developers tried to add a column without telling the data guy. 15:00 - Find out that the developers, given an approved column name "reason_for_leaving" shortened it to "r4l" for no apparent reason except sheer laziness. Make data architect aware of this, decide to make self strategically scarce for the ensuing explosions. 16:00 - Finally get a chance to think quietly. Spend the time hacking at a query that just shouldn't be as slow as it is. 16:45 - Stumble on the solution to the query performance problem, and wonder why your query optimizer is using the wrong index. Force query to use the right index, watch runtime drop from 12 hours to 10 minutes. Curse at self for taking so long to see it. Okay ... most days aren't that bad. That said, you have to be mentally agile to be a DBA. If people interrupting you bothers you, you may want to look at a different career path. Ability to multi-task helps a lot, too. 3 - Downsides of being a DBA Probably the key thing here, and it's similar to a lot of business support functions - you'll only get noticed when you screw up. The (mythical) DBA that has everything sorted and under control ... will be nearly invisible. On the other hand, the DBA that forgets to check the space allocation for the payroll application's database, causing it to lock up hard on payday and lose two days of work for the finance team? You don't want to be that guy. Oh yeah, patching, hardware changes or anything that might impact database availability? Be prepared to do it out of hours (and yes that includes 3AM on Saturday, sometimes I hate life). 4 - Personality stuff
I could go on and on, but I think that's somewhere beyond enough for now.
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| # ? Nov 19, 2011 13:03 |
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- and yes, in this case the #2 server had the up-to-date data and #1 was out of date. Don't ask me why that was set up like that.)
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Thanks for that I'll link it to the OP
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| # ? Nov 19, 2011 18:21 |
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Glad I didn't pick database as my stream... instead web developer. Where my routine everyday will probably be, "Look in the paper for a job... eventually kill myself.". 
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| # ? Nov 19, 2011 19:23 |
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There is a reason why most DBAs are stressed out chain smokers who burn out within a few years. Or Indian. It pays great but no one wants to do it.
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| # ? Nov 19, 2011 22:38 |
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Thel posted:DBA stuff I realize this is backseat driving and I don't know anything specific to your environment but I see the above often and it drives me crazy because if done right the DBA's life can be pretty cushy and make everyone's job a lot easier. First, fully script all restores/backups of all databases. Then cron that poo poo overnight. Yesterday's production data should always be immediately available to test against without anyone lifting a finger. If you are lucky enough to have fancy SANs create scripts to spin up copy on write DB clones from automatically restored databases which let you create a fresh testing environment near instantly (bonus points if this can be done through a web interface by QA or automatically with application deployment scripts, sparing you the trouble). Then when your PM comes and say, "We need new production data on the testing environments ASAP for this new project" you can be like, "Sure, yesterday's production data was automatically restored at 2am today, QA need only press this here button to get an application with fresh data to test against". Then you walk off to lunch in slow motion with classic rock playing in the background. Or when you get a worried manager, "Do you check the backups??!" "Yep at 3am today yesterday's backups were restored and checked automatically and our testers now hammering the restore as we speak working on that new project" And then you walk off to get coffee in slow motion with classic rock playing in the background. This also lets you easily give people a fresh playground of production data to test/report/truncate tables against instead of giving them actual access to production which should rarely be interacted with directly. If you or any human is manually interacting with a database for non-experimental regular administration tasks like configuration, backup, restores, and schema changes there will be slow downs and gently caress ups and life will be more difficult than it needs to be. [/backseat IT]
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| # ? Nov 20, 2011 01:08 |
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SiliconCow posted:I realize this is backseat driving and I don't know anything specific to your environment but I see the above often and it drives me crazy because if done right the DBA's life can be pretty cushy and make everyone's job a lot easier. Restoring from full backups (no tranlogs): We do nightly backups and cron that poo poo back to our test environments (as well as rsync tran logs throughout the day), but we don't automatically reload any test environments (it's by request only). When we get that request, we check that the replicated databases are in sync (replication is the real reason why we have DBAs - poo poo is nasty), then kick off a shell script that does all the heavy lifting.Ideally, yes, we'd leave administration of the test environments up to the testers, but we're not set up for that yet - that's mostly on our web engineers though, since their process is a lot more manual than ours. I could easily automate the entire DB refresh process and give the testers a big red button to push, though (it's the testers' request not to refresh except on request ... if that makes sense). Restoring with tranlogs: This is a lot more difficult for us than it needs to be, and it's something I'm planning to look at. Currently the reload script breaks horribly if you don't online the database after loading (you need to keep the database offline to load transactions in), so the process goes:
There's no good reason I can see not to automate that entire thing (with breakpoints in the script if things go wonky, obviously). e: Oh, and on production access - the only reason Bob had access is because he was around before the new management came in. We don't let *anyone* mess with production databases, not even ourselves.
Thel fucked around with this message at Nov 20, 2011 around 04:07 |
| # ? Nov 20, 2011 04:04 |
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Telex posted:so, I know it's not safe to expect that PDF in the OP to be an accurate representation of an IT Job BUT it's worked for me so far. Having just started a helpdesk position, I think I'll definitely keep this stuff in mind, thanks. Crossposting from the Reimaging Windows 7 thread: We've got computers with Windows 7 Professional, and I'm pretty sure we don't have VLKs. If I were to use Windows AIK and popped a sysprepped image onto a machine, is it possible to re-use old Win7Pro keys from some of our decommissioned computers? I was looking into Open Licenses from Microsoft for getting VLKs and it's cheaper than buying a full version of Windows 7 Pro as an option, but that's just me not having a really solid plan so far. I'm also not sure how I could image computers that already come with an OEM version of Windows 7 Professional...someone in the other thread said that I could use software to get the OEM key out of the computer, re-image it, then reuse that key. Is it possible to get blank computers nowadays with no software preloaded, and then I could toss a WIM on there? What would I do about keys?
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| # ? Nov 20, 2011 04:15 |
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Transaction log restores are why I love Redgate SQL Backup. Point it at the directory containing whatever combination of full, diff, and transaction log backups you have and tell it to start. 30 second process and done. If your 100gb databases are taking hours to restore, throw some more IO behind that. I regularly restore one of our 130gb databases in around 20 minutes with only 4 15k SAS drives behind it.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2011 04:58 |
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Casull posted:Having just started a helpdesk position, I think I'll definitely keep this stuff in mind, thanks. We have this same problem at my company. One suggestion that came up in our discussions was to buy SA (software assurance) on the OEM Windows licenses. This should be WAY cheaper than buying all new licenses, and you get access to VLKs/KMS so imaging should no longer be a nightmare of keys. Also you get to upgrade your XP/Vista machines to 7.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2011 16:06 |
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the spyder posted:Thank you for the great post, it seems you know me better then I would consider possible from my short post. the spyder posted: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. On the other hand, while I was interviewing candidates for Linux admin positions at my previous/next job (don't ask), I interviewed a fairly bright guy from EMC who couldn't tell me how the Linux boot process worked because, in spite of his experience operationally on Linux systems, he had a remote datacenter handle all that stuff and had never actually watched a Linux system boot before (or needed to care). All these small-company jobs will have poo poo pay and poor benefits compared to what the corporate world will offer you, but if you treat the opportunity cost like an educational opportunity, you'll find yourself going much farther much faster than if you were trying to climb a corporate ladder somewhere. Try and put yourself in a situation where you work with a lot of different technologies. the spyder posted: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. Since you already touch stuff that nobody else wants to manage with a 300-foot pole and seem to enjoy it out-of-hand, you might also want to look into integrating building-management systems -- it's fairly lucrative work that nobody is doing, and it's fairly easy stuff if you understand building mechanicals like HVAC and the network protocols that tie the different pieces together. Bonus points if you can be the one guy on the East Coast who's smart enough to tie in a datacenter correctly. the spyder posted:"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." The first thing is that you obviously don't want to go to school for skills that are specifically only valuable in a career you would hate. If you don't like dealing with organizational politics, you don't major in business. If you don't like watching people die, you don't go into nursing or medicine. But you also have to keep in mind that school is just a concentration of knowledge. There's a lot of skills that are really broadly applicable, like math (especially statistics) and language. If you're not totally sure what you're doing, a degree should be something pursued to broaden your horizons and opportunities, not artificially narrow them. the spyder posted: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. But you will always be helping people. IT is a really tough discipline that very few people outside the procession really understand well, and as long as you're comfortable knowing that you're helping people, and not needing constant reinforcement from customers/users, you'll do just fine. the spyder posted: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. Are you coming across as that guy? My advice is to stay away from any discussion of troubleshooting unless you're asked specifically about how to troubleshoot a given problem. The role of an IT professional is first to understand problems really well and second to try to fix them. Hiring managers, especially technical ones, like to hear about people who think big, and communicate that they're thinking beyond the problem they're currently solving. If you're already doing this, fantastic. Write off lovely interviews as lovely interviews and move ahead. the spyder posted: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. the spyder posted: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. A degree is only good if it teaches you more things in a better way than you could learn on your own. Choose your degree based on this. Pick your education based on what you want to get out of it, rather than what you think will look good. Misogynist fucked around with this message at Nov 20, 2011 around 20:11 |
| # ? Nov 20, 2011 20:04 |
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Misogynist posted:Throw your resume up on Dice, give it a week and you'll be drowning in irrelevant contracts in Madison, WI from Bharat Tiruchirappalli.
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| # ? Nov 20, 2011 22:40 |
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For those that didn't finish school - how did you get pass the HR requirement of 2/4-year degree?
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| # ? Nov 21, 2011 05:52 |
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Tab8715 posted:For those that didn't finish school - how did you get pass the HR requirement of 2/4-year degree? Have a resume to back up your ability to do the job. Seriously, my experience speaks volumes more than a degree. That said, if someone had a resume on par with mine, and a degree - I'd lose the job 100% of the time. Seriously, when it comes to applying for jobs with an HR listed requirement for a degree, I just ignore it. I dont bring attention to it, and if I asked I'll tell them I do not have a degree. I'd say I only get asked maybe 40% of the time. Also security clearance. But that's neither here nor there. edit: Seems relevant to this thread. I just got a call to offer me a job in DC. Manager of Network Operations for a Dept of State network. Did not expect to see an offer on this one. Big career bump for me.  edit2: It requires a suit every day 
Walked fucked around with this message at Nov 21, 2011 around 13:31 |
| # ? Nov 21, 2011 13:22 |
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Tab8715 posted:For those that didn't finish school - how did you get pass the HR requirement of 2/4-year degree? I haven't completed my degree but I still actively attend classes to keep up and hone my skills. I ignore it as I have experience in the field and usually HR's will do the same thing. The only time I can see when people look into a degree in the IT field is they are either: >Trying to cut fat, replace you with a college student at 60% your pay but "He has a degree which makes him more valuable" >You plan to work in the Government, mostly military branches want a degree >You are slacking on your job and triggered a performance review If you have a nice resume, speeling iz gud and you list your qualities clearly and don't obviously BS chances are high that you'll get a call. See Jobs to Interviews thread in Goon mart
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| # ? Nov 21, 2011 14:08 |
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Tab8715 posted:For those that didn't finish school - how did you get pass the HR requirement of 2/4-year degree? the dirty secret of the HR world is "we put up things that are unrealistic to the position and especially the pay, hoping we catch a big fish with our big bait". It's all "ideal" but ideal candidates are never picked up through craigslist/etc, they're usually referred personally and the postings are just formalities. So when a place says "we require a degree and 5 years experience doing a job that if you had 5 years experience doing this job you wouldn't be doing it anymore" they know they're not going to get some lifer in that position. They'd sure like it, and they'd really like to pay that person 20% under market for it, but it's a game. HR is a game. You have to play Showcase Showdown and get as close as you can to the right number without going over. Just carpet bomb everyone with your resume and at least some places won't have their stuff going through a binary filter in HR that just literally drops everyone who doesn't tick the "has degree" checkbox. I mean the best way is to get an interview where you know someone who can vouch for you and get you past the HR requirements anyway. You'll land higher that way, but it doesn't work out all the time.
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| # ? Nov 21, 2011 23:15 |
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Tab8715 posted:For those that didn't finish school - how did you get pass the HR requirement of 2/4-year degree?
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| # ? Nov 22, 2011 00:42 |
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To the DBA waiting hours on restores, get your poo poo onto a NetApp and enjoy sub minute restoration times regardless of how old the data is 
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| # ? Nov 23, 2011 07:11 |
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Since I've been itching to say this, and no one has brought it up yet, here is a word of advice to those looking to get into IT, from someone who's been doing it in various forms for a decade and a half: If you are looking to become successful working in IT, and you are willing to compromise job satisfaction to do it, an easy path no one has mentioned (!!!) (because we all hate them) is to become a specialist in a very expensive software product and then ride that gravy train to your grave. Any website selling software that refuses to name prices or is geared for enterprise deployment is a pretty solid bet. Look for stuff like weblogic, teradata, ab inito, vmware, sharepoint, netbackup, remedy, and anything by oracle. For example, I just googled "Exchange Archival" and this was the 4th hit, "http://www.metalogix.com/Home.aspx", I don't know poo poo about that product but I bet it's expensive as hell and proserv probably bills $200/hr doing on-site setup. Due to the way finances work with capital expenses and operational expenses for publicly traded companies, in the USA it's often more desirable from a financial standpoint to buy a product to address a problem rather than engineer it in-house, because you get to label that product as an asset, even if it ultimately costs you 10x in-house engineering in licensing and support every year. This is part of the reason for the popularity of professional services and COTS. That, and the ability to call and scream at someone over the phone when something breaks, and the disaster of your maintainer/creator leaving the company without a full knowledge transfer. Focusing on FOSS is all well and good, but you aren't careful you're going to end up as the one IT guy in some lovely enterprise where you have no money for anything and have to support hundreds of people on a shoestring budget with a bunch of old servers you can't even buy parts for anymore. No matter what anyone says here, working in that environment where you can't really take a vacation and are expected to know everything about anything that anyone touches through a computer is NOT a pleasant working experience long-term. Unless you like stress. tl;dr If you are just looking to make money, find yourself a decent sized company with a specific software product support need or do professional services / technical sales for a particular software product. Any product. It really doesn't matter which, they all suck in various ways. Some just suck less. Bhodi fucked around with this message at Nov 25, 2011 around 21:42 |
| # ? Nov 25, 2011 21:31 |
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whatspeakyou posted:So at this current point in time, I've got about 4 years experience in Networking (hitting my 4 year mark in the USAF in December as a Cyber Transport guy, so routers, switches, crypto, and phones). I only currently have Sec+ but could do Net+ and A+ pretty easily. I've been told I could get out and get a contractor position, but it doesn't seem to be appealing to me at the current time. What kind of prospects am I really going to have on the outside world given my experience (solid experience and understanding of Cisco and Fortinet devices, IPv4 Scheming, and general network know-how)? I'm trying to gauge where exactly I need to set my bar position/money-wise before I start looking for jobs, so that I don't aim too low/high. I went into the AF as a 3C0X2, then when they did the switch last year I got reclassed and now I'm a 3D052 (Cyber Ops, who I would imagine work pretty close to you, the SCOON office was mine). I did two years active duty at Offutt AFB in their NCC and then I palace chased to the ANG here in Washington. Based on my 5 level, my security+, my TS/SCI clearance, and my networking experience I got a job here on Ft. Lewis as a Network Technician (read: somewhere between helpdesk and server tech) making 38K/yr + medical/dental/matching 401k. I have a few friends who right after getting out are making around 45K/yr + benefits with basically the same experience as you. I think it would be feasible for you to find a job in most anywhere based on your TS clearance alone. Having sec+ means you are perfect fodder for any entry level job for an IT job with uncle sam. Using sites like ClearanceJobs, USAJobs, and Monster, I had about 4 interviews before I got the job I decided to take. Turns out having military service on your resume is pretty much gold.
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| # ? Nov 26, 2011 06:18 |
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Interstellar Owl posted:Is there anyway to learn troubleshooting without having tons of broken things on your own desktop/laptop? If you're talking software, then VMs are awesome, and even the free versions or Virtualbox and VMWare let you make snapshots so you can revert back. Plus knowing the basics of VMs is always useful.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2011 01:18 |
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Rohaq posted:If you're talking software, then VMs are awesome, and even the free versions or Virtualbox and VMWare let you make snapshots so you can revert back. How do you simulate issues on a VM to troubleshoot? Or do you setup a network with VMs and attempt to solve any issue it may come up? I'm currently doing QA in the automotive industry. Is there a way to use my experience here and my AAS in CIS to get my foot into an IT job? I tried looking for helpdesk jobs but they want min 1 yr experience or a bachelors.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2011 03:09 |
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Well seems like the beginning of my IT career is off to a shitter. Can't even get a helpdesk position with a Bachelors and 2 years of experience (in an unrelated field but should still count for something) between semesters. Un-paid work experience here I come. 
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| # ? Nov 28, 2011 03:29 |
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| # ? May 23, 2013 07:31 |
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ANGRY_KOREA_MAN posted:Having sec+ means you are perfect fodder for any entry level job for an IT job with uncle sam. Using sites like ClearanceJobs, USAJobs, and Monster, I had about 4 interviews before I got the job I decided to take. Turns out having military service on your resume is pretty much gold. I don't think I'd ever do it honestly, but does a military job mean you have to do military things or does it end up as a normal 9-5 just that you're working in the military part of the government? By military things I mean like training exercises and potentially getting shipped out against your preference to foreign countries and having to salute your boss and all that sort of stuff. Also shooting guns but I guess I wouldn't mind if they made me shoot guns.
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| # ? Nov 28, 2011 04:06 |
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