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dogstile
May 1, 2012

fucking clocks
how do they work?
I stand by my last recruiter. She called up, said she had a job, outlined exactly what it was and gave me the salary that they're hiring for. I turned up fairly casually dressed (shirt and jeans as I was kinda poor at the time) and she just told me straight up I need some proper trousers and made me buy some. She also actually drove me to the interview, which was really nice of her. She didn't have to.

I got that job. Granted, i'm now trying desperately to get out of it, but how was she to know that the company would treat its employees way worse down the line?

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Dick Trauma
Nov 30, 2007

God damn it, you've got to be kind.
I started the morning logging into Cpanel to check out someone's Exchange mailbox quota. I'd just put my earbuds in and as the Cpanel page appeared the Star Wars main theme started blasting. Made me wonder what it would be like if all mundane tasks were accompanied with a fanfare, like when you're switching out a waste toner bottle.

Inspector_666
Oct 7, 2003

benny with the good hair

Dark Helmut posted:

A good tip-off is that they actually WANT to meet you first hand. I typically don't submit anyone to a client without meeting them in person first.

Question for you, Dark, and sorry if this comes off as rude, but what do you think the role o a good recruiter is?

I've been dealing with a firm that has gotten me two interviews, but it seems like literally all they've done is scheduled interviews for me. When I show up at these places I still have to fill out an application as if I had just walked in off the street, and they haven't given me any insider info.

I've always thought that a good recruiter (even external) is supposed to help you get in the door, whereas the ones that have been getting in touch with me seem to simply be standing in front of the door and just adding another layer of people I have to hand my resume to.

Bob Morales
Aug 18, 2006


Just wear the fucking mask, Bob

I don't care how many people I probably infected with COVID-19 while refusing to wear a mask, my comfort is far more important than the health and safety of everyone around me!

Super-stupid and random question.

We have an 800 number. 800-XYZCORP. No big deal, right?

Well another company with a similar name to use has almost the same number. 888-XYZCORP

Guess who 25% of our phone calls are for? The other company.

Any suggestions? They won't let use use an auto-attendant which would solve this problem.

H.R. Paperstacks
May 1, 2006

This is America
My president is black
and my Lambo is blue

Bob Morales posted:

Super-stupid and random question.

We have an 800 number. 800-XYZCORP. No big deal, right?

Well another company with a similar name to use has almost the same number. 888-XYZCORP

Guess who 25% of our phone calls are for? The other company.

Any suggestions? They won't let use use an auto-attendant which would solve this problem.

Contact the other company with an offer to redirect those 25% of calls back to them at a flat per call rate :)

Super Slash
Feb 20, 2006

You rang ?

Dick Trauma posted:

I'd just put my earbuds in and as the Cpanel page appeared the Star Wars main theme started blasting. Made me wonder what it would be like if all mundane tasks were accompanied with a fanfare, like when you're switching out a waste toner bottle.

What the hell, a few weeks back a colleague called up our franking machine company and their hold music was also the Star Wars theme; lovely rear end company but hearing that on loudspeaker was a thing of majesty. One of these days its going to be too tempting to stick some Iron Maiden hold music on my ACD applet, or a funky chiptune ringtone for my IP phone.

Dick Trauma
Nov 30, 2007

God damn it, you've got to be kind.
We have a Mood Music box for our hold music. When I was setting up the account I found that it supported scheduling and multiple program channels so per the CEO's directions it plays the Adult Contemporary channel... except for between 12am and 4am when it plays METALLLLLLLL :black101:

Dark Helmut
Jul 24, 2004

All growns up

Inspector_666 posted:

Question for you, Dark, and sorry if this comes off as rude, but what do you think the role o a good recruiter is?

I've been dealing with a firm that has gotten me two interviews, but it seems like literally all they've done is scheduled interviews for me. When I show up at these places I still have to fill out an application as if I had just walked in off the street, and they haven't given me any insider info.

I've always thought that a good recruiter (even external) is supposed to help you get in the door, whereas the ones that have been getting in touch with me seem to simply be standing in front of the door and just adding another layer of people I have to hand my resume to.

I think it depends on the type of recruiting you're talking about, but speaking for what I GET PAID to do (contingency recruiting for an agency), my job is to know anything and everything about the market, meet as many technology people as I can, and find the best people for my clients.

WHAT I LIKE to do, in addition to making money like everyone else, is to help people take the next step in their careers. Coming from an IT background, there were multiple points in my career where a good recruiter or a benevolent boss helped me make a leap, so I try and do that for whoever I can.

I've got 40-50 jobs to fill at any given point so my goal is to find good candidates for as many of them as I can, and shepherd them through the process and be the one recruiter of many who creates a good situation for both client and candidate.

I totally get where you guys get pissed off at recruiters, either because you're:
A) a highly specialized and talented individual who gets blown up constantly by recruiters across the country
or
B) an industry newbie that gets submitted to one job and then forgotten about because there are 1000 others in the market with the same skill

Why I take an interest in this particular subforum is because I want to learn what the biggest complaints are about recruiters/agencies and also to let people know that there are good recruiters out there and how to leverage their knowledge of the market to help you in both the short and long term. Plus I'm a geek at heart anyway and I like the tech talk anyway. I'm hosting a Drupal user group at my office tonight and looking forward to drinking beer and nerding out.

Japanese Dating Sim
Nov 12, 2003

hehe
Lipstick Apathy
Anyone have any good recommendations for reading on MDT (specifically 2013, though I'm not sure how much that matters)? I've found a lot of stuff online, but if anyone's got a particular site or book that they like, I'd love taking a look at it, too.

angry armadillo
Jul 26, 2010

Bob Morales posted:

Super-stupid and random question.

We have an 800 number. 800-XYZCORP. No big deal, right?

Well another company with a similar name to use has almost the same number. 888-XYZCORP

Guess who 25% of our phone calls are for? The other company.

Any suggestions? They won't let use use an auto-attendant which would solve this problem.

What kind of business do they do? Can you suggest your firm set up a department to steal their business seeing as the custom is coming through your door anyway?



I was told last week to secure funding to expand a small network.. I was told today I can spend £25k

The Risk Manager who asked me to do that then told me to secure an additional MPLS circuit 'just in case' a project in the pipeline steals my existing MPLS circuit (long story)

Could have told me that before I asked for £25k!

I asked the risk manager if he had any funding for a spare MPLS circuit and he said no it's up to me if I want to so it or not... Joy

dox
Mar 4, 2006

Japanese Dating Sim posted:

Anyone have any good recommendations for reading on MDT (specifically 2013, though I'm not sure how much that matters)? I've found a lot of stuff online, but if anyone's got a particular site or book that they like, I'd love taking a look at it, too.

Having just recently learned how to really use MDT, I would recommend the TechEd MDT videos which really assist in getting a solid grasp of the product. You can also go back to previous TechEd videos for more material. Johan Arwidmark's blog is really good along with a number of others that you can find when you start googling for little solutions. But most importantly, just build a lab off a whitebox or spare desktop in your house and test deploying with WDS/MDT in VMs. Then get a physical box because it's important to understand how drivers function with MDT (it's quite simple really). After a few months, I finally introduced it to my MSP and we're using it on big projects. I'm also using MDT on OEM Windows setups (SMB clients) with a Post-OS Install Task Sequence that uses a Powershell script to uninstall the HP bloatware (can share if anyone is interested), fully update Windows, and install whatever software is needed (mainly Office)- definitely automates up what has turned into a chore.

dox fucked around with this message at 00:42 on Jul 30, 2014

Japanese Dating Sim
Nov 12, 2003

hehe
Lipstick Apathy

dox posted:

Having just recently learned how to really use MDT, I would recommend the TechEd MDT videos which really assist in getting a solid grasp of the product. You can also go back to previous TechEd videos for more material. Johan Arwidmark's blog is really good along with a number of others that you can find when you start googling for little solutions. But most importantly, just build a lab off a whitebox or spare desktop in your house and test deploying with WDS/MDT in VMs. Then get a physical box because it's important to understand how drivers function with MDT (it's quite simple really). After a few months, I finally introduced it to my MSP and we're using it on big projects. I'm also using MDT on OEM Windows setups (SMB clients) with a Post-OS Install Task Sequence that uses a Powershell script to uninstall the HP bloatware (can share if anyone is interested), fully update Windows, and install whatever software is needed (mainly Office)- definitely automates up what has turned into a chore.

Thanks! I'd actually come across Arwidmark's website via his Deployment Fundamentals vol. 4 book and was actually planning on grabbing it for my Kindle.

Unfortunately our end wouldn't involve WDS; we'll probably be limited to booting PCs off an USB with the LiteTouch ISO etc. I've got the driver organization down pretty well already (so nice seeing a desktop finish without any devices missing drivers), but I'm working through some other crap. Like my organization has one of those pre-logon terms of use things that's currently requiring user input to get to the Post-OS portion, but I've found a few guides to getting around that that I'm still working on. Anyway, it's a fun project so far.

meanieface
Mar 27, 2012

During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act.
Bad LinkedIn recruiting: when I can tell from your email what your keywords were when you found my profile. Excuse me, your form letter is showing. :fuckoff:

(P.S., I'm not qualified for the position you're recruiting for. Please actually READ the resumes that pop up before sending mail.)

adorai
Nov 2, 2002

10/27/04 Never forget
Grimey Drawer

Dark Helmut posted:

I totally get where you guys get pissed off at recruiters, either because you're:
A) a highly specialized and talented individual who gets blown up constantly by recruiters across the country
or
B) an industry newbie that gets submitted to one job and then forgotten about because there are 1000 others in the market with the same skill
I do in fact regularly get contacted by ashit and venkatesan about opportunities for an sccm administrator or active directory admin with powershell experience in new York or LA. I am in Illinois.

orange sky
May 7, 2007

So, in my country most of the market is Windows Server, but I seem to find that the big bucks and high responsibility jobs as a sysadmin involve Linux (not always true, I realize that, but I wanna learn anyway). That's as good a reason as any to look into it, in my personal time. What do you guys suggest I read about being a Linux admin? I have no idea about anything related to it (what is used instead of AD, and OU's, and WDS, and whatever else I know about Windows Server).

orange sky fucked around with this message at 15:13 on Jul 30, 2014

Cenodoxus
Mar 29, 2012

while [[ true ]] ; do
    pour()
done


orange sky posted:

So, in my country most of the market is Windows Server, but I seem to find that the big bucks and high responsibility jobs as a sysadmin involve Linux (not always true, I realize that, but I wanna learn anyway). That's as good a reason as any to look into it, in my personal time. What do you guys suggest I read about being a Linux admin? I have no idea about anything related to it (what is used instead of AD, and OU's, and WDS, and whatever else I know about Windows Server).

Fortunately AD is built around LDAP, which is usually the directory service of choice on Linux, so if you've got AD down you can probably change gears to LDAP with a little extra studying.

As far as learning Linux itself, if you need to start with basic knowledge you could start out at The Linux Documentation Project and their System Administration Guide.

Most enterprises use Red Hat Enterprise Linux or a free variant like CentOS. Red Hat maintains a lot of high-quality documentation on their website, so if you're looking for free resources I would suggest starting there. If you're willing to drop money on it, there are plenty of books on RHEL but most of them are aimed at people studying for a Red Hat certification like RHCSA or RHCE.

evol262
Nov 30, 2010
#!/usr/bin/perl

orange sky posted:

So, in my country most of the market is Windows Server, but I seem to find that the big bucks and high responsibility jobs as a sysadmin involve Linux (not always true, I realize that, but I wanna learn anyway). That's as good a reason as any to look into it, in my personal time. What do you guys suggest I read about being a Linux admin? I have no idea about anything related to it (what is used instead of AD, and OU's, and WDS, and whatever else I know about Windows Server).

This is probably a false association. You're seeing "big bucks" and associating it with Linux because Linux people are (broadly) harder to find, and the "big bucks/high responsibility" jobs in other specialities don't show up on your searches or are filled by direct recruitment.

Anyway, most enterprise Linux shops end up tying into AD, and OUs are part of LDAP. If not AD, then RHDS/FreeIPA (which is also LDAP+Kerberos, like AD, and will handle DNS and DHCP for you if you want), old Netware shops, and pretty much the same directory services you find in Windows.

It's definitely possible to use NIS or similar, but in practice, almost nobody does these days.

Instead of using WDS (which uses PXE), you use kickstarts, jumpstarts (solaris), preseed (debian-alikes), or another method of automated installs. In practice, the difference from WDS is that, since the system is comprised of a bunch of different packages instead of big images, you can just specify what packages you want and what repository to find them in. Many shops in 2014 are just installing a base system and provisioning the application/user layer with Puppet, Chef, or another configuration management system. You may want to look at Foreman.

The Red Hat (or Fedora) documentation and the FreeBSD handbook are excellent places for "how do I get basic poo poo done on Linux/BSD". For more complex questions (like directory services, automated deployment, best practices), hit the Linux thread or any of the generals, which are also read by people who work with Linux.

It's a totally different operating system, though. Forget about the stuff you asked about until you get a handle on using the shell, basic scripting, wrangling packages, configuring services/networking, etc. You've probably spent your whole life using Windows and knowing how to do this just came with the territory when you started using Windows Server. Linux is gonna be a very different experience.

YOLOsubmarine
Oct 19, 2004

When asked which Pokemon he evolved into, Kamara pauses.

"Motherfucking, what's that big dragon shit? That orange motherfucker. Charizard."

I'm a big late to the conversation, but I've definitely had some good recruiters. I dealt with one that got me 25% more than I asked for hourly as well as relocation assistance, and then got me two 10% raises over 3 years. There are a lot of bad ones, but there are definitely some good ones too, and for some of the best jobs out there you're going to have to deal with them because they don't make it onto popular job search sites and are only distributed to recruitment firms to keep the applications down to a reasonable number of pre-screened applicants.

Being a good recruiter is tough because you have to know enough about IT to smell bullshit and find good candidates amongst the piles and piles of terrible resumes that are half populated with lies, and you have to learn that without it actually being your full time job.

I also never let a recruiter get more than 30 seconds into a conversation now without telling him what my expected salary range is so that he doesn't waste my time pitching me on a company that can't afford me.

MC Fruit Stripe
Nov 26, 2002

around and around we go
I'm not one of those people who farts because ha ha farting is funny - I'm 32, come on bro.

That said, losing track of mute-unmute-mute-unmute-mute-unmute on a conference call and letting one fly, only to then realize that you're unmuted, oh thank god IT is a man's world, otherwise I might have to feel shame.

Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

Ask yourself, do you really want to talk to pair of really nice gaudy shoes?


evol262 posted:

This is probably a false association. You're seeing "big bucks" and associating it with Linux because Linux people are (broadly) harder to find, and the "big bucks/high responsibility" jobs in other specialties don't show up on your searches or are filled by direct recruitment.

Not sure if I am following you here, you're saying it's untrue but at the same time it's more difficult to find Linux people?

evol262 posted:

It's a totally different operating system, though. Forget about the stuff you asked about until you get a handle on using the shell, basic scripting, wrangling packages, configuring services/networking, etc. You've probably spent your whole life using Windows and knowing how to do this just came with the territory when you started using Windows Server. Linux is gonna be a very different experience.

Would RHCE/RHCSA training material cover this?

dogstile
May 1, 2012

fucking clocks
how do they work?

MC Fruit Stripe posted:

I'm not one of those people who farts because ha ha farting is funny - I'm 32, come on bro.

That said, losing track of mute-unmute-mute-unmute-mute-unmute on a conference call and letting one fly, only to then realize that you're unmuted, oh thank god IT is a man's world, otherwise I might have to feel shame.

If you can't appreciate a good loud fart once in a while, you're dead inside.

Dark Helmut
Jul 24, 2004

All growns up
I'm 39 and I just got 3 of my coworkers by IMing them that I broke my hip and I wasn't going to be able to walk after surgery. Then I sent them the xray picture of a hip, with a really large xray phallus hanging down next it. Basically I tricked them into looking at a dick.

News flash: Penis/poo/fart humor never ever gets old.

Dick Trauma
Nov 30, 2007

God damn it, you've got to be kind.

Dark Helmut posted:

I'm 39 and I just got 3 of my coworkers by IMing them that I broke my hip and I wasn't going to be able to walk after surgery. Then I sent them the xray picture of a hip, with a really large xray phallus hanging down next it. Basically I tricked them into looking at a dick.

News flash: Penis/poo/fart humor never ever gets old.

Positive Throckmorton Sign?

evol262
Nov 30, 2010
#!/usr/bin/perl

Tab8715 posted:

Not sure if I am following you here, you're saying it's untrue but at the same time it's more difficult to find Linux people?
I'm saying that because it's more difficult to find Linux people, public requisitions for high pay/high responsibility positions tend to make it out in disproportionately high numbers compared to the number of total positions, and searches for sysadmin jobs won't bring up other "high pay/high responsibility" jobs (Sr. Network Eng, Oracle DBA, etc) even if they do get posted.

Linux people make slightly more an average than Windows people, but there's a bias if you just look at job boards.

Tab8715 posted:

Would RHCE/RHCSA training material cover this?
Yes and yes, especially the RHCSA, though both assume a bare level of familiarity with the shell. I wouldn't take the combined fast-track at his level of expertise, though.

Read the docs, play a little, learn the shell, then try the RHCSA.

Dark Helmut
Jul 24, 2004

All growns up

Dick Trauma posted:

Positive Throckmorton Sign?

I had to google that, but indeed it was a positive sign.

Cenodoxus
Mar 29, 2012

while [[ true ]] ; do
    pour()
done


MC Fruit Stripe posted:

I'm not one of those people who farts because ha ha farting is funny - I'm 32, come on bro.

That said, losing track of mute-unmute-mute-unmute-mute-unmute on a conference call and letting one fly, only to then realize that you're unmuted, oh thank god IT is a man's world, otherwise I might have to feel shame.

Please tell me it was a WebEx/LiveMeeting and you got the little speaker icon next to your name. :v:

Drunk Badger
Aug 27, 2012

Trained Drinking Badger
A Faithful Companion

Grimey Drawer

Cenodoxus posted:

Please tell me it was a WebEx/LiveMeeting and you got the little speaker icon next to your name. :v:

I've found that if you're quiet or quick enough, it won't register. If it still displayed your name, well done.

Feral Bueller
Apr 23, 2004

Fun is important.
Nap Ghost
Farting is always funny.

My favorite is the "elevator pitch".

Docjowles
Apr 9, 2009

adorai posted:

I do in fact regularly get contacted by ashit and venkatesan about opportunities for an sccm administrator or active directory admin with powershell experience in new York or LA. I am in Illinois.

I'm in Colorado and 90% of the LinkedIn contacts I get are for jobs in Silicon Valley. I don't really mind, they have no idea unless they ask that I have no interest in relocating and especially not to CA.

I do get annoyed when it's clearly for something I have no experience in, though. What part of 8 years doing sysadmin work makes you think I want or am qualified to be a Senior PHP Developer?

Comradephate
Feb 28, 2009

College Slice
I just got a linkedin message asking me if I'd be interested in the following mouthful: "Staff Tools Application Operations Engineer on the CTO Dev Application Operations team"

No, gently caress off. If the job name can't fit onto a normal business card, I don't want it.

Docjowles
Apr 9, 2009

Speaking of linkedin, I just got contacted about a job where my duties would be to "Administer Microsoft Servers running SQL Server 2000, Windows Server 2000/2003, Lotus Notes and Citrix Metaframe XP"

nope_nope_nope.gif

CLAM DOWN
Feb 13, 2007




Docjowles posted:

Administer Windows Server 2000

Nice.

three
Aug 9, 2007

i fantasize about ndamukong suh licking my doodoo hole
You could be a hipster sysadmin.

Fiendish Dr. Wu
Nov 11, 2010

You done fucked up now!

three posted:

You could be a hipster sysadmin.

Like the legendary cobol programmer charging $232/hr

high six
Feb 6, 2010
So I've got a third interview for a junior network admin/helpdesk position with a local ISP coming up soon. I'm hoping it goes well. I aced the technical questions they gave me in the second interview, so, I guess they liked me. If everything goes well, it'll be my first real non-minimum wage job.

Comradephate
Feb 28, 2009

College Slice

high six posted:

So I've got a third interview for a junior network admin/helpdesk position with a local ISP coming up soon. I'm hoping it goes well. I aced the technical questions they gave me in the second interview, so, I guess they liked me. If everything goes well, it'll be my first real non-minimum wage job.

Generally the only way to not get a job after a 3rd interview is to really put one of the interviewers off. Don't say racist poo poo or whatever.

Alfajor
Jun 10, 2005

The delicious snack cake.
This is probably better answered here than in the Windows thread, but tell me if I'm wrong about that.

As a remote user using Win7 Pro connects to our VPN (PPTP), and needs to access stuff on the domain, with his credentials. How does this remote user change his domain password from his non-domain Win7 PC? I can't seem to find a straight answer, so I'm thinking I'll have him RDP into something that belongs to the domain, and there change the user's domain password... but that seems cumbersome to change a user password.

high six
Feb 6, 2010

Comradephate posted:

Generally the only way to not get a job after a 3rd interview is to really put one of the interviewers off. Don't say racist poo poo or whatever.

I'm a southerner. It's hard not to. :(

lampey
Mar 27, 2012

Alfajor posted:

This is probably better answered here than in the Windows thread, but tell me if I'm wrong about that.

As a remote user using Win7 Pro connects to our VPN (PPTP), and needs to access stuff on the domain, with his credentials. How does this remote user change his domain password from his non-domain Win7 PC? I can't seem to find a straight answer, so I'm thinking I'll have him RDP into something that belongs to the domain, and there change the user's domain password... but that seems cumbersome to change a user password.

Do you have exchange? They can change passwords in owa.

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DrAlexanderTobacco
Jun 11, 2012

Help me find my true dharma

Sarcasmatron posted:

Farting is always funny.

My favorite is the "elevator pitch".

Can't go wrong with the Gau-8, man!

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