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psydude posted:Well, for those with basic computer skills there's always spots for Tier 1 Helpdesk positions on a 4 month contract. Not always true! I have a MIS degree and many years of experience and can't find anything where I live. I am trying to get a reply out of town to move and nobody will give you a time of day if you don't live in the city.
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Aug 17, 2012 03:35
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Christobevii3 posted:Not always true! I have a MIS degree and many years of experience and can't find anything where I live. I am trying to get a reply out of town to move and nobody will give you a time of day if you don't live in the city. I live near DC, so I probably should have qualified that. The fact of the matter is that if you're unwilling to move, you're going to have a much harder time finding employment in general in most industries.
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Aug 17, 2012 04:15
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psydude posted:The fact of the matter is that if you're unwilling to move, you're going to have a much harder time finding employment in general in most industries. But again unwilling is not the same as unable. Moving itself is not a free thing. I can't find any IT work in my lovely hometown, and my lovely car isn't reliable enough to make the 90 mile round trip to what passes for civilization around here. And that is before considering the 18 mpg the piece of poo poo gets.
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Aug 17, 2012 07:39
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Christobevii3 posted:Not always true! I have a MIS degree and many years of experience and can't find anything where I live. I am trying to get a reply out of town to move and nobody will give you a time of day if you don't live in the city. Sub Rosa posted:But again unwilling is not the same as unable. Moving itself is not a free thing. I can't find any IT work in my lovely hometown, and my lovely car isn't reliable enough to make the 90 mile round trip to what passes for civilization around here. And that is before considering the 18 mpg the piece of poo poo gets. I used to have this problem. What I did was take my address off my resume. My phone number was obviously out of state but with cellphones no one cares these days. So when I got calls, as long as the business was near where I was willing to move I acted like I could start anytime and was already in the area (staying with 'friends' or something). Then I got a job. Well poo poo I have nowhere to live! But better to work than not work so then you look up a cheap but not lovely hotel in the area (in my case it was a Red Roof Inn which was remodeled and rather nice) for $50 a night or less. Hopefully you have someone to help you find a place to live while you work out of a hotel for a couple weeks. If you are close enough to your original home base, bounce out of the hotel for the weekend to save a few bucks. It can suck but its doable!
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Aug 17, 2012 13:36
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The above is very true, it's how I got a job in DC while living out west. Got a few interviews lined up, drove out and basically hoped I got an offer. Places like extended stay america are the same price as an apartment, if you can float yourself in one of those for a month or two you'll be ok. Anyone who is struggling for IT work in the US needs to seriously check the DC area craigslist and perhaps shoot off a few applications. sanchez fucked around with this message at 13:45 on Aug 17, 2012 |
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Aug 17, 2012 13:40
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Sylink posted:What I did was take my address off my resume. That is an excellent idea, I might have to do that. I've only been contacted by one company not within 50 miles of me, despite having applied elsewhere. How hard is it to find a hotel that cheap? I've really only ever stayed in a hotel maybe twice in my life. If you explain you'll be there for more than just a few days are they willing to lower it for you?
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Aug 17, 2012 14:00
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Sab669 posted:That is an excellent idea, I might have to do that. I've only been contacted by one company not within 50 miles of me, despite having applied elsewhere. How hard is it to find a hotel that cheap? I've really only ever stayed in a hotel maybe twice in my life. If you explain you'll be there for more than just a few days are they willing to lower it for you? You can find extended stay places for $200-$300 a week that have a little kitchenette. Buddy of mine did it when he got a job in Dallas on short notice.
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Aug 17, 2012 14:17
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Ursine Asylum posted:I have bad credit because I managed my money well enough to never need a credit card, and now I can't get a credit card. Because I don't have any credit. You don't have bad credit, you have no credit. I fixed that problem by getting a secured loan from a credit union. Getting credit cards after that was fairly easy. My credit is alright right now.
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Aug 17, 2012 15:36
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Sylink posted:I used to have this problem. What I did was take my address off my resume. My phone number was obviously out of state but with cellphones no one cares these days. 
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Aug 19, 2012 12:14
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I should have qualified that a about passing a credit check a bit more. We don't ding people who have no credit history, or who are paying off debts successfully. We look for poo poo like defaulted loans, credit card issues and things like that, especially if it seems to be a lifestyle. We don't want deadbeats, and that is a pretty effective way to sniff them out. We also quit hiring unemployed people, but in fairness we are in DC and as noted, if you can plug in a keyboard successfully 8 out of 10 times you can get a $45k a year helpdesk job just due to lack of warm bodies.
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Aug 20, 2012 17:28
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A guy who was probably one of the stupidest desktop support people I've ever met lost his job through restructuring recently and received FOUR job offers inside one month. (DC area). We will be advertising for a desktop position in a few weeks, I'm sure it'll be tough to find someone. sanchez fucked around with this message at 17:45 on Aug 20, 2012 |
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Aug 20, 2012 17:38
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^^^The stupidest guy I knew growing up has a full time job in support. The level of stupid was amazing -- he took about 3 hours a box to assemble the boxes you get at u-haul with the little arrows on them. Our helpdesk guy here isn't horribly sharp, but he does show up and not gently caress a horrible amount of things up. I've been working on the "first step in office troubleshooting is not rebuilding user profiles" thing for a while but that is OK.
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Aug 20, 2012 20:21
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e; eh, woops.
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Aug 20, 2012 20:41
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I don't know if it's the same in IT but I wouldn't worry about credit check too much. When we introduced criminal record check for PCI reasons people still got hired that had non-financial/fraud related offenses. Since I was in charge of documentation I got to see it all; DUI, domestic dispute, vehicular manslaughter, you name it and those guys still got hired.
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Aug 20, 2012 22:05
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Work at Canada's National Broadcaster! http://www.linkedin.com/jobs?viewJob=&jobId=3597762 Job Title: Systems Adminstrator Location: Toronto, Canada Posting Number TOR03626 Requirements: * Troubleshoot and triage incoming requests and incidents using an industry standard ticketing system (Remedy). * Support a mix of Windows and Linux (Red Hat) servers (patching and regular system maintenance). * Work with other areas (such as Television and Radio) to support them on a project by project basis. * Provide support for commercial and in-house web applications. * Conduct detailed root cause analysis in response to service interruptions. Desired Skills * 3 - 5 years in an equivalent role. * Experience with Red Hat Linux, Windows 2003, and Windows 2008. * Experience with configuring and maintaining Apache, Tomcat, PHP, and PostgreSQL servers. * Experience with using a version control system such as Git or Subversion. * Excellent verbal and written skills. * Experience with content distribution networks (CDNs). * Experience with supporting software developers and a development workflow. * Familiarity with shell and Perl programming. * Familiarity with a broadcast media environment and the importance of maintaining a high level of service and uptime. Salary is reasonable and the benefits are awesome. There's also a more Senior position if you're an RHCE or equivalent. You can find it at http://cbc.radio-canada.ca/en/explore/jobs/
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Aug 20, 2012 22:16
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So, I have 4 months to kill before entering a military officer program and would like to be in DC if possible. I'm good with computers but have no real IT experience. I'm considering taking the A+ exam which I think with a good bit of studying I could pass. Is this necessary for one of these 'warm bodies' DC helpdesk jobs? How should I look for an entry-level short-term helpdesk job? Is this even possible?
barbudo fucked around with this message at 20:26 on Aug 21, 2012 |
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Aug 21, 2012 20:20
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A+ is alright if all you want is a helpdesk job. You'd be better served going for Net+ or Sec+ in that regard though. A+ is the IT equivalent of "I can plug in a USB cord and reboot".
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Aug 21, 2012 20:42
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Are either of those exams easier to study for? All I want is a helpdesk job, I don't really care about advancement, and I want to be able to get something quickly. Again, I'm not sure if my plan is really reasonable. e: I'm a few increments better than plugging in USB cables and rebooting. But I see what you mean.
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Aug 21, 2012 20:48
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barbudo posted:Are either of those exams easier to study for? All I want is a helpdesk job, I don't really care about advancement, and I want to be able to get something quickly. Again, I'm not sure if my plan is really reasonable. Net+ is fairly easy. Sec+ isn't "hard" in the grand scheme of things either but I'd say it's the most difficult of the CompTIA exams. You might also want to look at the 70-680, 70-681, 70-685 and the 70-686. Together they form MCITP: Enterprise Desktop Administrator 7. The books are like sleep sand but the combined cert will carry a lot more weight than anything CompTIA. As an added bonus to putting in the work for those, they also allow you to build and take the 70-64x series exams for Server Administration. http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/mcitp.aspx#tab2 If you're competent above and beyond "I can find a power button" each cert will take you a few months to knock out, and the 70-680 on it's own should be enough to land you a helpdesk job. Edit: If you want any kind of a future in IT the phrase "I don't care about advancement" is basically your primary route to low-paying job suicide. Lacking a desire to advance and improve is a large indicator you don't want to be in IT. Edit2: Also never tell anyone you're looking for "Short Term Helpdesk" if you want an interview. Digital_Jesus fucked around with this message at 21:04 on Aug 21, 2012 |
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Aug 21, 2012 20:57
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Digital_Jesus posted:
I'll look into the 70-680, thanks. And like I said, I don't want a future in IT, I have another job lined up in the near future. I don't want to lie in an interview, though. Even somebody looking to hire short term help desk workers doesn't want to hear that?
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Aug 21, 2012 21:15
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I'm not sure you could learn enough to be useful in 4 months tbh, regardless of certs. You'd be looking more for a strictly read from a script in a call center sort of position.
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Aug 21, 2012 22:18
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I passed my A+, Net+ and Security+ in one morning hungover as gently caress as an 18 year old, they are really easy tests if you know much about computers at all and do a bit of cramming about printers and Windows 98 (still on the A+ I'm guessing).
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Aug 21, 2012 22:22
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Well I am applying for a few Helpdesk I jobs. Might as well because I'm not going to be certified in the next few weeks and I doubt these positions will stay open long. How do employers measure specific competencies, absent certifications?
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Aug 21, 2012 22:57
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Job Seeker Location: Northern Virginia/ DC Area Experience: 4 months help desk & desktop support internship for a government office (2 month of which I have been the primary tier 1.5 support for the east coast). Currently studying for my CCNA and will most likely have it before the end of the internship, which officially ends on September 30th. My day to day workload has consisted of troubleshooting over the phone, creating and managing accounts in AD, managing full disk encryption accounts, creating/managing BES accounts, migrating computers from XP to Windows 7, and of course, being the primary point of contact for any racking/unracking heavier than a blade server. The government is retooling their internship program, and the office has decided to not extend any internships that were started under the old program. What I'm looking for: Something with similar responsibilities. Anything that is either desktop support, or tier 1.5 type work. What I'm NOT looking for: Anything that consists solely of reading from a script (unless the pay is phenomenal). When can I start: Two weeks after an offer, or immediately after 9/30 Availability: Full time Contact: PM or email a.painful.pox at gmail dot com
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Aug 21, 2012 23:22
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barbudo posted:Well I am applying for a few Helpdesk I jobs. Might as well because I'm not going to be certified in the next few weeks and I doubt these positions will stay open long. How do employers measure specific competencies, absent certifications? They ask questions at an interview and if you don't answer them right you don't get a job? E: I speel gud. Digital_Jesus fucked around with this message at 16:21 on Aug 22, 2012 |
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Aug 22, 2012 13:18
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Seems like a good time to post the IT Certification Megathread. They just helped me out a lot with my cert plans, it's a good place to go for certchat.
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Aug 22, 2012 14:15
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Does anyone know of any decent salary calculator web sites that aren't going to spam my personal informatinton all over the web? Company annual reviews are coming up and I'm definitely going to be promoted from a junior to systems administrator, I was hired on a year ago at 55,000 dollars per year on a salary (which surprisingly my boss agreed to when he hired me) and would like to at least find out what the average salary is for a systems administrator title in the bay area. I am also going to be interviewing at a game company in Redwood City for an associate systems engineer position.Since this is an Engineer position, albeit an associate Engineer position, would it be comparible to Senior Systems Administrator job or a systems administrator-level job? Or are the job title is interchangeable? I feel as if I'm in an awkward position having working my current employer for 1 year and have an amicable relationship with him with no intention of leaving, until a friend dropped this job in my lap a few days ago. Decisions......
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Aug 23, 2012 09:35
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Wicaeed posted:Does anyone know of any decent salary calculator web sites that aren't going to spam my personal informatinton all over the web? Company annual reviews are coming up and I'm definitely going to be promoted from a junior to systems administrator, I was hired on a year ago at 55,000 dollars per year on a salary (which surprisingly my boss agreed to when he hired me) and would like to at least find out what the average salary is for a systems administrator title in the bay area.
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Aug 23, 2012 12:07
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Wicaeed posted:Does anyone know of any decent salary calculator web sites that aren't going to spam my personal informatinton all over the web? Company annual reviews are coming up and I'm definitely going to be promoted from a junior to systems administrator, I was hired on a year ago at 55,000 dollars per year on a salary (which surprisingly my boss agreed to when he hired me) and would like to at least find out what the average salary is for a systems administrator title in the bay area. I've had decent luck with glassdoor.com for information like that. I don't know how accurate it is though unfortunately. Good luck with the interview / promotion!
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Aug 23, 2012 13:09
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Systems Engineer/Systems Administrator are used pretty interchangeably. I'm not a fan of the Engineer title unless one actually holds an engineering degree. GlassDoor is a great resource if the company is large enough to have enough data put into it.
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Aug 23, 2012 16:04
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skipdogg posted:Systems Engineer/Systems Administrator are used pretty interchangeably. I'm not a fan of the Engineer title unless one actually holds an engineering degree. I think that's one of the problems with the lack of standardized titles in the industry. A systems engineer should be planning deployments and doing integration (same thing goes with a network engineer) rather than server janitoring full time.
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Aug 23, 2012 16:14
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psydude posted:I think that's one of the problems with the lack of standardized titles in the industry. A systems engineer should be planning deployments and doing integration (same thing goes with a network engineer) rather than server janitoring full time. Could be worse. I'm a "technical support specialist" who does tier 3 CJing on top of administering a bunch of servers and enterprise applications. I need to negotiate a new title.
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Aug 23, 2012 16:24
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ew (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Aug 23, 2012 16:26
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Citizen Z posted:Could be worse. I'm a "technical support specialist" who does tier 3 CJing on top of administering a bunch of servers and enterprise applications. Wow, yea you do. That was the one thing I liked working at my old retail job fixing / selling computers. It wasn't just "Sales Associate" or some really generic sounding crap. "Solutions Advisor" sounds almost like it was a real job.
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Aug 23, 2012 16:30
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Sab669 posted:Wow, yea you do. That was the one thing I liked working at my old retail job fixing / selling computers. It wasn't just "Sales Associate" or some really generic sounding crap. "Solutions Advisor" sounds almost like it was a real job. It's very much like that. I run licensing for all the applications, Autodesk, support the ESRI envrionment, manage and patch all 35-odd servers in my location. Write and maintain a bunch of the logon scripts and am part of the AD and DFS management teams. And then I do stupid poo poo like connecting laptops to projectors because my users are dumb and imaging boxes. At least I'm overpaid for my current title. 
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Aug 23, 2012 16:57
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Citizen Z posted:At least I'm overpaid for my current title. Haha, I guess that's one way to look at it.
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Aug 23, 2012 16:59
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NA
panhandlesysadmin fucked around with this message at 14:11 on May 20, 2013 |
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Aug 23, 2012 21:18
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Welp, folks, I just got let go, so it's time for the job hunt again! Ideally, I'm looking for a sysadmin position within the Bay Area; I was only doing the junior sysadmin gig at my last place, a video game company, for two months before I was supposed to have my title changed to sysadmin. Before that, I did desktop support and technical support for a medical company for six months, and before that, I built computers for a year.
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Aug 24, 2012 01:39
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Casull posted:Welp, folks, I just got let go, so it's time for the job hunt again! Casull. https://www.lucasfilm.apply2jobs.com/ProfExt/index.cfm?fuseaction=mExternal.showJob&RID=4393&CurrentPage=8 If you're comfortable with AD and related services, VMware, SCCM and Exchange, stick your resume in for this. There's a UNIX sysadmin position open too, if that's more up your street. Also a helpdesk position, which is generally more of a "foot in the door" but you'd probably be easily qualified for it and you'd learn a load about enterprise management.
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Aug 24, 2012 20:01
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Job Title: Jr level ISP Network Engineer Location: Pittsburgh, PA Responsibilities * Respond to NOC/Monitoring system events affecting network performance * Handle customer support tickets opened by our NOC * Assist other team members in basic Linux/Solaris server management * Provision new network devices for installation by our field techs * Update network diagrams and network device inventory * Participate in 24/7 On-call rotation * Dispatch field engineers for network testing/repair * Work with our customers on new circuit activations and circuit upgrades * Travel to customer sites for circuit testing and device replacement * Travel to collocation facilities for network maintenance Requirements * Experience with ISP or medium/large networks (not 1 switch 1 router) * CCNA type certification recommended * Experience with Linux / Solaris systems and tools Who We're an established SWPA ISP providing Metro Ethernet and Mobile backhaul solutions. We need additional network engineers to help with our rapidly expanding network. Why? Very good healthcare. Possible tuition reimbursement. New office in new retail development within the city. 401k match. Contact: omnicorp.sa AT gmail email me for more details. I will pass resumes to the Director hiring for this position.
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Aug 24, 2012 21:26
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