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n0tqu1tesane posted:Georgia's a pretty big state. Where in GA are you? That is freaking awesome. Thank you so much. I think this is exactly what I need. Edit: After looking around it appears if I want to do networking Cisco stuff I'm in luck as Gwinnett Tech and Lanier Tech offer courses geared towards those certifications. However, I was learning more towards systems/server administration type stuff. I don't see much in courses that cater to that. I see a linux/unix certification course. In the course of my looking I found a place, http://www.cedsolutions.com/, that seems to have positive reviews, but they do the bootcamp type classes. I would love to find a place that went over the same material but in a quarter/semester type format so we could go more in depth and I be sure to pick it up. I'm not a teenager anymore, I don't have the time or focus to obsess over things and learn this on my own. That link did help a lot but anyone have any other ideas for Georgia. I'm close to Gwinnett Tech if that helps. Edit 2: You know what, for now I'll just follow up on the Linux/Unix offering at Gwinnett Tech. Coredump fucked around with this message at 19:54 on Oct 8, 2013 |
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Oct 8, 2013 18:48
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Who makes a maintenance ticket for modifying a SPAN session? I can appreciate taking precautions but this is retarded.
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Oct 8, 2013 21:01
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Sepist posted:Who makes a maintenance ticket for modifying a SPAN session? I can appreciate taking precautions but this is retarded. If it's the NSA that is getting the data off that SPAN I'd bet they'd want a maintenance window 
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Oct 8, 2013 21:23
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Is it really worth swapping from a Sr. Sysadmin title to something like Systems Engineer or Architect? I'm the top tech at my med-large company, responsible solely for all infrastructure design and deployment from VPNs to VMware clusters and can pretty much pick a title. Was Sysadmin for a long time, then went to Sr. for the last few years, not planning on jumping ship any time soon, would a change in title be a waste of time at this point or potentially look good down the road? Hoping to get a decent raise this year so a title change could go hand in hand with that.
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Oct 9, 2013 14:33
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whaam posted:Is it really worth swapping from a Sr. Sysadmin title to something like Systems Engineer or Architect? I'm the top tech at my med-large company, responsible solely for all infrastructure design and deployment from VPNs to VMware clusters and can pretty much pick a title. Was Sysadmin for a long time, then went to Sr. for the last few years, not planning on jumping ship any time soon, would a change in title be a waste of time at this point or potentially look good down the road? Hoping to get a decent raise this year so a title change could go hand in hand with that. It could open more doors for you down the road. Hierarchy of titles, in my experience, goes Sysadmin -> Sr. Sysadmin -> Engineer -> Sr. Engineer -> Architect -> Principal(?) Architect. I've never worked at a company that had an Architect title, though.
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Oct 9, 2013 14:37
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three posted:It could open more doors for you down the road. Hierarchy of titles, in my experience, goes Sysadmin -> Sr. Sysadmin -> Engineer -> Sr. Engineer -> Architect -> Principal(?) Architect. I've never worked at a company that had an Architect title, though. This is a pretty standard boiled down view. In larger companies the titles get a bit convoluted. For instance I'm currently a "Configuration & Release Engineer 3". And we have Architects, Senior Architects and Principal Architects here.
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Oct 9, 2013 15:00
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three posted:It could open more doors for you down the road. Hierarchy of titles, in my experience, goes Sysadmin -> Sr. Sysadmin -> Engineer -> Sr. Engineer -> Architect -> Principal(?) Architect. I've never worked at a company that had an Architect title, though. I think that's a bit of a misnomer. Most places that have in-house IT that aren't giant corporations will use Sysanalyst/sysadmin titles from bottom to top of organization. System engineer titles I've seen mostly as a consultant/root-cause analysis dude title.
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Oct 9, 2013 16:09
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I'm at the final phase of beginning my first IT job search. Based on goon recommendations, I used the resume service from SA mart and will soon have my full resume in my hand. Now comes the hardest part, applying to jobs with no IT experience and getting ready for technical interviews.  My plan is to first apply to local universities and hospitals as they generally have more onsite IT positions, instead of call center ones. If that doesn't work, I plan to use one of the IT recruiters in my area(Ft. Lauderdale). We have Robert Half Technologies down here, and it seems to be the largest firm. Based on my google research the reviews are....mixed. I have no experience in dealing with these types of recruiters so any information you guys could give me about the process would be greatly appreciated. How does this plan sound to you guys? Desktop Support/Help Desk positions are definitely out there. I want to grab a job and start building IT experience as soon as I can.
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Oct 9, 2013 17:17
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three posted:It could open more doors for you down the road. Hierarchy of titles, in my experience, goes Sysadmin -> Sr. Sysadmin -> Engineer -> Sr. Engineer -> Architect -> Principal(?) Architect. I've never worked at a company that had an Architect title, though. Spudalicious posted:I think that's a bit of a misnomer. Most places that have in-house IT that aren't giant corporations will use Sysanalyst/sysadmin titles from bottom to top of organization. System engineer titles I've seen mostly as a consultant/root-cause analysis dude title. Cardboard Fox posted:I'm at the final phase of beginning my first IT job search. Based on goon recommendations, I used the resume service from SA mart and will soon have my full resume in my hand. Now comes the hardest part, applying to jobs with no IT experience and getting ready for technical interviews. Robert Half is scummy, but better than nothing if you're having trouble finding a position on your own. Don't hesitate to use these mass-market recruiters to get a foothold in the industry, but don't continue using them beyond helpdesk/call center if you can avoid it. Vulture Culture fucked around with this message at 19:29 on Oct 9, 2013 |
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Oct 9, 2013 19:26
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Misogynist posted:It's a lot more convoluted than this, and it varies for reasons a lot more complicated than "company X picked a different set of titles out of a hat." For example, in some jurisdictions, like North Carolina, you cannot have the word "engineer" in your job title without meeting very specific licensure requirements. I have Engineer in my title in NC, and I do not have any licenses. Most of the time IT titles are picked out of a hat. 
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Oct 9, 2013 20:06
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Spudalicious posted:I think that's a bit of a misnomer. Most places that have in-house IT that aren't giant corporations will use Sysanalyst/sysadmin titles from bottom to top of organization. System engineer titles I've seen mostly as a consultant/root-cause analysis dude title. This is what we have been doing. If I'm free to choose though would architect be a stupid title for someone designing/building all the in-house infrastructure for a medium-large corporation? Of course in this case that also means maintaining the more complex systems as well that the sysadmins/helpdesk aren't deeply familiar with (Storage, routing, messaging).
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Oct 9, 2013 20:17
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whaam posted:This is what we have been doing. If I'm free to choose though would architect be a stupid title for someone designing/building all the in-house infrastructure for a medium-large corporation? Of course in this case that also means maintaining the more complex systems as well that the sysadmins/helpdesk aren't deeply familiar with (Storage, routing, messaging). It does sound a whole lot like being an architect, you are planning, designing and putting into place a complex system (like an architect would plan/design a building). I would say, based on your description, that you are an architect of said systems.
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Oct 9, 2013 20:28
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How many of you have strict hours? I just moved to a job where I I have to be at work before 8am and I cannot leave until 5pm. No short lunches - no wiggle room. Reason, because management is nitpicky. My last job - as long as your work is done and you don't miss any meetings. Nobody gave a gently caress I would in around 830 and leave at 430. My manager would push back on other managers when I wasn't available. I left for more money but it's clear that money isn't all it's made out to be
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Oct 10, 2013 02:22
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Tab8715 posted:How many of you have strict hours? It really depends on the environment you are supporting / working in. I've been both types of places, both have their benefits and downfalls. Hard to be considered a "dependable" employee if they are always wondering when you'll decide to show up to work each day, but no one wants to work where the boss is watching the clock if you aren't at your desk by 0800 every day. What is your user base? Are they 8-5 operations? Are they global? Do you have a support desk to field first level calls / off hours calls. There are so many factors at play with work schedules. Edit: What is your role? Are you expected to field calls / answer emails or are you more project oriented?
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Oct 10, 2013 02:32
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Thankfully, not I. I'm lazy as gently caress in the morning, so I'm constantly late. Boss doesn't seem to mind since I often stay late as well. I actually much prefer it, since it being after hours, I don't have to answer the door. I can just slap on some headphones and actually get some work done.
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Oct 10, 2013 02:32
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When I got hired on at my current job, the position was between me and a couple other contractors. I was the only one to show up on time every day. When I was offered a permanent position, I was told the main reason was because I was reliable and dependable. Everything else they could teach me.
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Oct 10, 2013 02:37
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Misogynist posted:
Yea, that was exactly what I was thinking. Unless I get really lucky and find a place that will hire me with no experience I'm going to have to bite the bullet and go with one of these recruiters.
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Oct 10, 2013 04:22
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Tab8715 posted:How many of you have strict hours? I have both - my primary job is supporting mission critical servers in telco, manufacturing and bank datacenters. Due to the nature of the system (guaranteed 99.999% uptime with ludicrous levels of failover) the level of work ebbs and flows - I went the entire month of July without a single onsite support call, but then had an average of 2-3 calls per week in September - I also work as a contractor for a major tire manufacturer doing third-level help desk support for retail stores' Cisco VOIP phones, servers, thinclients and printers. This is mostly dispatching field technicians and remote telnet troubleshooting of Cisco equipment. My 9-5 position is pretty casual, in addition to myself my employer has two contract employees working in the same capacity and there's a fairly low number of tickets to handle on a day-to-day basis, we're in at 8:30-9 most mornings and out the door at 4:30, and nobody bats an eye if we take an hour to hour and a half lunch. On the server support side most of the customers I support have a 2-4 hour SLA - although my biggest client (AT&T) only allows us to work on their equipment during their early morning maintenance window unless a system melted down. Due to the mission critical nature of this timing is everything but its largely unpredictable.
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Oct 10, 2013 05:42
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Tab8715 posted:How many of you have strict hours? I would leave. Strict hours are for school students. I have set hours but nobody bats an eye if you come in late, because there is a level of trust here. In an environment with zero wiggle room, that trust cannot be built and every person who comes through there will leave for somewhere less stuck up. Edit - Hours are last centuries concept anyway. Work and personal life is so intertwined now. I can be answering a work email while pushing my kid on the swing at the park. Sure I dont get paid for that, but the tradeoff is I get flexibility on workdays. If that was taken away from me, I would no longer be contactable out of my set hours and that is a lose-lose for everybody. Swink fucked around with this message at 07:35 on Oct 10, 2013 |
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Oct 10, 2013 07:31
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Tab8715 posted:How many of you have strict hours? If I may ask, the size of the company you're working at? Currently working at one of the big 3 in hardware and it's surprisingly lax in terms of lunch, clock-in/clock-out hours etc. If you're being micro-managed to the minutiae of your lunch hours, it would be time to move on I'd think.
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Oct 10, 2013 09:34
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It's fairly strict at my company - I have to be in at 0825, ready to start working at 0830. It's generally expected that everyone stay on past their normal working hours as well. Lunch is thankfully lax, I can take it at any time during the day, for an hour.
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Oct 10, 2013 09:48
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I usually work at home for a few hours in the morning, stroll in around 11 (touch base with colleagues before lunch), then lunch then work til anywhere between 4 and 6pm depending on load and personal obligations. My boss is lazy but knows what's good for him, so I can basically work whenever I want and I try to keep him in the loop.
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Oct 10, 2013 11:41
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It can be fairly strict in contracting, depending on the contracting officer. My last job had pretty rigid hours imposed by the owner of the company himself (contracting officer was very flexible), but that went both ways: I almost never had to stay late. Some of the workahaulics would, but it was almost never for anything worthwhile.
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Oct 10, 2013 11:42
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psydude posted:It can be fairly strict in contracting, depending on the contracting officer. My last job had pretty rigid hours imposed by the owner of the company himself (contracting officer was very flexible), but that went both ways: I almost never had to stay late. Some of the workahaulics would, but it was almost never for anything worthwhile. We've always had this loose setup within DoD called "Core hours", which meant someone on each team had to be in the office by 0800 and until 1700 M-F. This current contract I am on, our PM isn't to strict about it, they just like everyone to pick hours and try to be consistent with it, and if something changes for whatever reason (late, sick,etc) just notify the leads. This allows us to schedule meetings / phone cons easier if people have some sort of set schedule, especially when we are dealing with people / gear in every timezone. Working hours, like I mentioned above should be driven by what it is your company does/provides and what your role is within the company. I have friends that work in the private sector, who's company is an 8-5 shop, and if something breaks after hours, unless a building/someone is on fire, it can wait until the morning. Having a flexible work schedule is nice for the personal life, I'll admit that. I'm more of a morning person, who also battles some bad insomnia from time to time, so I am usually in the office anywhere between 0500-0600, but I've been in as early as 0400 just because I couldn't sleep. I'll usually work each day until 1530-1630 at a minimum, and that leaves me the afternoon to deal with things before everything shuts down at 1700. I've got 3 other guys that work for me that handle all our Tier 2 issues, and they have varying schedules, but there is always someone at the office from 0800-1700. Our project is currently staffed 24x7x365 with a Tier 1 watch desk that fields all calls / tickets. All of the groups but mine (Network Engineering/Ops), has someone at the Tier 2 level 24x7 as well. For my group it just doesn't make sense because there isn't enough going on / breaking to fill an addition two shifts each day that we just have an on-call schedule within the group. If Tier 1 determines they believe it to be network/transport related, they just call in whoever is on-call that day.
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Oct 10, 2013 12:06
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I'm on a SP contract right now and it is lax. I come in at 9 and leave around 5, lunches are usually 1 - 2 hours depending on how many of us go out as a group. The trade off is that my billable hours max out at 40 for the week and it will be expected during crunch time coming up that we will be working over 40 in order to get our rail system wifi backhaul up and running before the superbowl. When I worked salaried in finance it was 10 - 10:30 depending on train traffic and leaving at 5:30, with no enforcement on lunch hours. That was the only real perk of the job. One of my previous jobs was in a NOC and they were extremely strict with time in/out and lunches, a few people were let go as repeat offenders.
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Oct 10, 2013 13:21
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Current job is pretty lax with actual office hours. I work from home twice a week and come in sometime between 8 and 10:30 and leave between 4 and 6 depending on my workload. However, I am asked to do a bunch of off-hours work and be available via phone and email on the weekends. So it all balances out in the end. And if I need to take care of some errand in the middle of the day it's usually not a big deal to just disappear from the office for an hour to take care of it.
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Oct 10, 2013 14:30
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8-5 with 1hr lunch, but since I'm in banking those are just the standard business hours. Nobody will say anything if I'm 10 minutes late or take a little bit extra on lunch, but at 20+ minutes it becomes a problem if it's often / I don't let the boss know I'm running behind. Sometimes I'll have to work late, just depends on workload and projects due. I'm in one of the very few positions where overtime is allowed, and that's mainly due to being understaffed. E: \/\/\/ I don't know about salaried, but any public college position I've applied for has been locked in on pay and benefits, with very little or no wiggle room due to allotted budgeting. CloFan fucked around with this message at 17:06 on Oct 10, 2013 |
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Oct 10, 2013 16:59
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It looks like I am going to yotj to a state position at a local college. Any suggestions as far as negotiating compensation? As a state job I assume they are locked in with what they can pay me but I can negotiate benefits. Is this right or should I try to see if I can get them to go up from their initial offer for salary?
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Oct 10, 2013 17:01
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My strategy has always been: if you care about exact schedule, then I do, too. If you want me there at 8 sharp, then I will be leaving at 5 sharp.
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Oct 10, 2013 17:08
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Listening to my co-worker do interviews is awesome. Mr CCIE written doesn't know what is after a syn in the three way handshake 
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Oct 10, 2013 17:11
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bort posted:My strategy has always been: if you care about exact schedule, then I do, too. If you want me there at 8 sharp, then I will be leaving at 5 sharp. Word. My boss likes that I come in at 8am on the dot. Well then that means my lunch is exactly at noon and I'm out when the chimes happen at 4:30. Any after hours work becomes comp time that makes my Fridays shorter.
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Oct 10, 2013 17:49
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Tab8715 posted:How many of you have strict hours? I don't have strict hours at all. I'm in a remote office from one of the main corp sites so no one really notices if I come and go and my boss is happy as long as I get my work done. He understands some weeks are 30ish hours, and some are 50ish and things balance out over the year. The next 6 weeks will probably be pretty busy for me, but we go into change freeze after Thanksgiving and it's strictly break/fix until after New Years. There's a lot of work from home and short days during change freeze as our projects are all wound up, but we come back and hit it hard after the 1st of the year. We're also very flexible, I have no problems scheduling appointments during the day, I can duck out for a couple hours with no issue. I appreciate my current flexibility and couldn't really see myself working someplace where I had to be in a cube at 8:01AM and couldn't duck out for a while. I will say though, PERCEPTION plays a big role in the office. Especially if you're IT for a non IT based company. If you're the IT guy that comes lounging into work at 10AM every day wearing cargo pants and barely meeting the dress code people will notice. Other people don't understand what we do for a living. They leave at 5PM and don't see us still at work at 9PM, or the fact we VPN in from home at all hours to take care of things. You could be a motherfuckin' rock star IT badass, but once people form a negative perception of you, it's over. A few years ago when I was on call I got paged for an issue and spent 6AM to 11AM working from home busting my rear end to fix it. I walked in the door at work after lunch around 1PM and got a bunch of poo poo from people like 'nice of you to show up'. Their PERCEPTION of me was I was a slackass for coming into work at 1PM. It doesn't matter that I was up at 6AM working on a production affecting outage. People thought of me as a slackass and that is a hard perception to shake. GreenNight posted:When I got hired on at my current job, the position was between me and a couple other contractors. I was the only one to show up on time every day. When I was offered a permanent position, I was told the main reason was because I was reliable and dependable. Everything else they could teach me. A great example of how people's PERCEPTION affects things in the workplace. The guys who didn't get the job could have been much much better technical fits for the job, but you got the job instead. Swink posted:I would leave. Strict hours are for school students. I have set hours but nobody bats an eye if you come in late, because there is a level of trust here. I agree with you in principle, but it can't always work out that way. We as mid/upper level IT folk generally don't have to have a set schedule and are expected to be flexible. Our work doesn't tend to be customer facing and is usually more project/task based than reactive. Say you work for a company with 30,000 employees, and the service desk is expected to be staffed during normal business hours in all US time zones. Well Suzy HR calls service/help desk at 9AM and no one answers the phone, she's going to be frustrated. I don't think it's unreasonable to ensure there is coverage for customer facing roles during normal business hours. Would you allow your receptionist to just come in whenever she wants? No. You expect her to work her assigned shift and answer the phones between the hours of 9AM to 5PM right? I guess what I'm getting at is like most things in life, it depends on the situation.
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Oct 10, 2013 17:54
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skipdogg posted:I don't have strict hours at all. I'm in a remote office from one of the main corp sites so no one really notices if I come and go and my boss is happy as long as I get my work done. He understands some weeks are 30ish hours, and some are 50ish and things balance out over the year. The next 6 weeks will probably be pretty busy for me, but we go into change freeze after Thanksgiving and it's strictly break/fix until after New Years. There's a lot of work from home and short days during change freeze as our projects are all wound up, but we come back and hit it hard after the 1st of the year. This is basically how my current job is, and it owns. One of their big selling points in the interview was schedule flexibility and I really appreciate having it. If I need to go to a doctor appointment and not start work til 10am one day, no problem, just put in a little extra time another day. If I'm on-call, get paged and am up from 2AM to 5AM fixing some poo poo, I'll sleep in and start my day at noon. Unless I have a meeting or call scheduled, it's very much "just get your poo poo done well and on time" which is very liberating after my previous boss who was a serious micromanager. Yet another reason I am very glad to have gotten out of end-user support and into web operations.
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Oct 10, 2013 18:18
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Docjowles posted:If I'm on-call, get paged and am up from 2AM to 5AM fixing some poo poo, I'll sleep in and start my day at noon. This has been the best part of my current job - supporting a telco with a 1 AM - 5 AM maintenance window, pretty much anytime I get called out I'm going to end up working at least until 3:30 because their ops people are in India and to get traffic routed off and back on eats up a lot of time - I've spent more time waiting for the green light to get started and then for clearance to leave than replacing whatever part. My previous job (as a field technician supporting retail photo printers and office equipment) was very strict about YOUR DAY SHALL START AT 8 AM REGARDLESS, to the point of shortly before quitting having my manager demanding to know why I needed a late start after working the previous day from 4 AM to 9 PM. They had a couple of 24/7 contracts and people who got called out in the middle of the night were then expected to just work their normal 8-5 shift even if their day actually started at 1 AM. Also working for a company that gives no fucks about overtime is refreshing. I'm still trying to break out of my old habits of flinching any time I turn in a timecard with more than 80 hours...on my last time card I had 25 hours of OT and my manager approved it without batting an eye. Geoj fucked around with this message at 18:33 on Oct 10, 2013 |
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Oct 10, 2013 18:31
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Sepist posted:Listening to my co-worker do interviews is awesome. Mr CCIE written doesn't know what is after a syn in the three way handshake Ack, that's terrible. (NETWORKING PUNS YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS)
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Oct 10, 2013 19:07
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On the other hand you have my boss who gets here at 7:00am and stays until 6:30pm. He spends the first 3 hours of every morning talking to everyone at their desk because he doesn't have a life of his own. Then he spends the next 2 hours on personal calls (his wife is at home all day but he has to call her every 5 minutes and check on if the plumber showed up or if she went to the store to buy more paper towels. Then he goes to lunch for 90 minutes and comes back an talks to everyone he didn't talk to in the morning and bargain shops on Slickdeals or looks at cars online. Then complain at meetings with the rest of the company that he has too much to do so that's why nothing gets done.
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Oct 10, 2013 19:20
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I get in generally whenever I want, and leave whenever I want as long as my poo poo gets done. Bosses don't care as long as users aren't complaining. I do however deal with emails and calls whenever I get them at my earliest convenience. Any work I do like that from home gets me comp time, which generally means there are days I don't have to be at work more than a few hours.
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Oct 10, 2013 20:40
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I'm a remote worker on the opposite coast from most of my co-workers, which means I get a lot more flexibility in my hours. On the other hand, I'm also working for a startup doing infrastructure, service coding and analytics, which means I'm pretty much working 24/7 when we have anything important on the calendar.
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Oct 11, 2013 03:27
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I worked extensive hours at my last job. It wouldn't be unusual for me to work from 8 or 9am until 6 or 7pm every week day. I was hourly then but I'm salary now, things are pretty lax. I like it this way.
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Oct 11, 2013 04:32
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Have you guys ever heard of a site: JobSerious.com ? I'm pretty sure they just scraped my resume from Dice or Career Builder and the site seems a little iffy, just wondering if any one has used them before.
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Oct 11, 2013 18:51
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