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dogstile posted:Oh right. I should probably mention that my boss has explicitly said that he only considers older people for those sort of job roles because young'uns like me don't command as much respect. This is the kind of poo poo that bothers me regarding age in this industry. I recently got  promoted to Sys Admin (read: more responsibilities for the same amount of pay) over the guy who brought me in. I'm 32 and he's in his 50's. Our boss told me flat out that it's because I'm the one going for the certifications, researching and implementing new tech to add value to the company, and I simply understand systems better than my coworker. My coworker is extremely upset about this and keeps piling on additional menial poo poo for me to do, because we're still in an resource-limited situation where he's allowed to do so. Why is he upset about me being "promoted?" Because he's older and has been here longer than me.
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Oct 21, 2014 16:31
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I always oversize the poo poo out of my UPS'... I don't like to run them at more than 80% load max, and you have to size for peak power usage. You might be drawing 47% right now, but that could fluctuate at powerup to 70% or more. It's cheaper to spend a little more now and oversize, than to waste money replacing equipment in 12 or 18 months.
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Oct 21, 2014 16:33
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Cenodoxus posted:Stick your own router between the internet and your distribution switch and you can run QoS on that. There are about 50 rooms, not all in use at the moment, but could be at some point in the future. One host/company per room They don't neccesarily need a public IP, but many of them have asked about port forwarding so they can RDP into their work PCs while away, and we get statics for ADSL servives for free, so have advised customers that they get an IP of their own. They need some sort of router as each office is, well, an office, with printers, laptops NAS boxes etc that need to talk to each other, but not be seen by the office next door, or down the hall. I don't know enough about layer2/3 stuff to know why this is a bad thing ? if each router has a firewall and a separate IP, then surely they won't be able to see devices on other networks ?
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Oct 21, 2014 16:37
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skipdogg posted:I always oversize the poo poo out of my UPS'... I don't like to run them at more than 80% load max, and you have to size for peak power usage. You might be drawing 47% right now, but that could fluctuate at powerup to 70% or more. I agree it's a good practice - the ones I have now won't see more than 50%, I built alot of additional available power into our new space so we will be getting larger units for the next cycle. The initial cost isn't even a major concern. Why draw that extra power if you're not going to use it, ever? Just seeing if anyone's seen a load on a UPS of a similar size.
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Oct 21, 2014 16:43
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spiny posted:There are about 50 rooms, not all in use at the moment, but could be at some point in the future. Jumping in quickly - One thing that's ringing alarm bells in my head is scope creep. What I haven't seen mentioned already is that you're moving from just letting customers sort out their own hardware, to supporting the entire infrastructure. Have you accounted for that? What happens when the user needs you to make 10 million config changes for a lovely piece of software they want? Etc. etc. it doesn't answer your direct questions but it's something to consider.
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Oct 21, 2014 17:21
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If he installs a switch that just splits the main internet connection (for lack of better terms) then it would still mean the individual offices have to handle their own configurations.
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Oct 21, 2014 17:25
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And one customer can put someone else's IP into their router.
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Oct 21, 2014 17:53
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Yeah, splitting your upstream into 50 different vlans is not a very good way to become a business class ISP. You would also have to manage the firewall configs for every single network individually to even joke about security
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Oct 21, 2014 18:21
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adorai posted:I would be careful with your assumptions and attitude. I go to my helpdesk with things that I don't know all the time because quite frankly, there is no reason for me to know them anymore. My job responsibilities no longer require me to know how to toggle cell auto updating in excel, so I will either pass the issue along to the helpdesk or spend time googling the answer. If I am busy with other things, I'm going to let them solve the problem. That doesn't mean I am less skilled in it, it means my skill set has shifted to match my current responsibilities. I could  about this for hours but I'm finding this to be a terrible trend in IT especially among new recruits.My primary responsibility is midrange systems and general IT support secondary. I had VM with Windows Server 2012 but for some reason I couldn't remote into it or ping it from my local workstation. I knew I was on a different subnet but still with-in the WAN and to make a it even weirder I could ping certain servers but not the one I needed to connect to... I could have logged into the router/switch or messed around with Windows Server but I asked another tech and it was simply due to remote desktop not being enabled. This took us a grand total of 3 minutes to fix but the word around the grapevine is that I'm not a good tech because I don't know anything abut Windows Server. 
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Oct 21, 2014 18:29
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I just dislike terrible, incompetent people, young and old alike.
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Oct 21, 2014 18:31
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spiny posted:I don't know enough about layer2/3 stuff to know why this is a bad thing ? You should hire a consultant or a full-time network engineer to head up this project. Plugging everyone into a shared switch and telling them to set things up on their own is a terrible idea. Long story short, having multiple clients on one layer 2 domain each with their own router allows them to interfere with the connection of another client. This could be something as innocent as accidentally configuring the wrong IP address on their router, or something malicious like ARP spoofing where they purposefully impersonate someone else to try to steal their data. The answer to the layer 2 security issue is to set up a Private VLAN so that client A in room 12 can talk to your router, but can't talk to other clients in any other rooms.
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Oct 21, 2014 18:51
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I'm not sure what a "bellend" is but I'm fairly certain most of us were one at 21. We usually just don't realize it until 5-10 years later. Ah, in the US we just call those people "dickheads" Dark Helmut fucked around with this message at 19:36 on Oct 21, 2014 |
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Oct 21, 2014 19:02
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Dark Helmut posted:I'm not sure what a "bellend" is but I'm fairly certain most of us were one at 21. It is the tip of your little man. Also when we were 21 we all thought we knew it all and were invincible. Some people never grow out of this and are usually the ones who deserve to be called "bellends".
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Oct 21, 2014 19:17
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I can't tell if that's aimed at me or not at this point.
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Oct 21, 2014 19:53
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dogstile posted:I can't tell if that's aimed at me or not at this point. It's not, but I do recommend you look for a promotion outside of your company. Politically, once you get passed over once, it weighs against you ever being chosen in future eg "Why wasn't he promoted last time? Somebody must have had a reason, better not promote him this time". You might eventually get it, but you'll waste a bunch of time at your current company before that happens.
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Oct 21, 2014 20:09
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The moment I realize there's such thing as an RJ50 cable, and I need one right now 
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Oct 21, 2014 20:25
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DrAlexanderTobacco posted:Jumping in quickly - One thing that's ringing alarm bells in my head is scope creep. What I haven't seen mentioned already is that you're moving from just letting customers sort out their own hardware, to supporting the entire infrastructure. Have you accounted for that? What happens when the user needs you to make 10 million config changes for a lovely piece of software they want? Etc. etc. it doesn't answer your direct questions but it's something to consider. we'd be charging for our time to do stuff like that, but it's a good point, i'm not based at this site, but i do have remote access, but if it ends up clogging up my time all week, it'll be a waste of everyones time. Cenodoxus posted:You should hire a consultant or a full-time network engineer to head up this project. Plugging everyone into a shared switch and telling them to set things up on their own is a terrible idea. cheers  this is the sort of thing I can explain to my boss, and hopefully get some informed help
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Oct 21, 2014 21:59
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I've never encountered this situation in my life and I'm not sure how to deal with. I have two job interviews that went and I made it to stage 2-3. The better job might not even have a stage 3 I'll know by Friday. Where I think I hosed up is I told one of the interviewers I was interviewing for a job. Today I was really pressed about it. How well do you think you did? How close you do think you were? What's your gut feeling? I gave vague answers. Finally asked if I had to choose between the two jobs which one would it be? I said something like: "I really need and this one seems like a better chance so I give you my word I would not take the other job." Of course I would choose the other job it's a VoIP technician vs Helpdesk. I don't want this brought up again should I just tell the manager I was rejected from the other job? I think he would know I'm lying because I already gave my word I would stick with this. I want to tell him I'd feel better if my pay were at least equal. I went really low at first because I need a job. Should I push for a higher rate? I'm the worst negotiator in world. I hate this crap. Interviews are hard enough but I do not do politics. If I didn't need a job so badly right now I'd drop the helpdesk one frankly. My IT job experience is low so I need a job for a good year at least. Other thing the IT director for the VoIP company. Liked my presentation even gave me "homework" and said I'd see him again. I also got shown around the building However that was his first interview so I just don't know. If I could get that job I'd be set.
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Oct 21, 2014 23:07
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spiny posted:There are about 50 rooms, not all in use at the moment, but could be at some point in the future. Give the scope to the ususal suspects (Cisco, Fortinet, HP, Dell etc) and let them design the solution for you. Other option is to partner with an ISP to provide bandwith to the clients.
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Oct 21, 2014 23:09
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DropsySufferer posted:I've never encountered this situation in my life and I'm not sure how to deal with. I have two job interviews that went and I made it to stage 2-3. The better job might not even have a stage 3 I'll know by Friday.
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Oct 21, 2014 23:15
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Misogynist posted:They're not going to stop interviewing just because you said you like them unless they're total idiots. If they like you, they'll make you an offer and if you decline it, they'll move onto the second-best candidate on their list. You have no obligation to take a worse job that you haven't even verbally accepted an offer from, just because you want to come across like a really nice guy to their hiring manager. There's a better chance they'll come up with a better offer for you, versus going for the second-best candidate. That's how it worked out for me, and I know it's similar for buying a house too; the expression there is "The first offer is always your best offer". For hiring, the first candidate is often far better than the second best, and they'll up the pay rather than settle.
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Oct 22, 2014 00:32
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Zero VGS posted:For hiring, the first candidate is often far better than the second best, and they'll up the pay rather than settle. What are you basing this on?
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Oct 22, 2014 03:51
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Che Delilas posted:What are you basing this on? Truthiness?
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Oct 22, 2014 04:41
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Had to come in to work at 5:30 yesterday for a critical service outage (our DBAs worked from 8am the previous day until 6am that morning) and in the process discovered how much more pleasant my commute was. Decided to shift my start time to 7am from 8, and holy poo poo, in addition to there being basically zero traffic, I'm also getting so much poo poo done without the distraction of my coworkers.
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Oct 22, 2014 12:53
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psydude posted:Had to come in to work at 5:30 yesterday for a critical service outage (our DBAs worked from 8am the previous day until 6am that morning) and in the process discovered how much more pleasant my commute was. Decided to shift my start time to 7am from 8, and holy poo poo, in addition to there being basically zero traffic, I'm also getting so much poo poo done without the distraction of my coworkers. I left at 6:30am today to drive 5 miles, and was in an hour of traffic. Boston. Edit: Would have biked but pouring out.
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Oct 22, 2014 13:11
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Zero VGS posted:I left at 6:30am today to drive 5 miles, and was in an hour of traffic. Boston.
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Oct 22, 2014 13:19
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Left the house at 6:30, got to the office 9 miles away at 6:45 in time to get swole a the gym in the office. Clearly you need to move out to Metro West Boston 
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Oct 22, 2014 13:21
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I think the big difference is due to the lack of loving schoolbuses on the road. Apparently, kids these days can't be bothered to walk a quarter mile to the bus stop, so the single-lane rural highway that crosses from MD into VA gets clogged by yellow clots stopping every 200 feet each morning on the VA side starting at around 7am. Thus, my commute was only 35 minutes instead of 60.
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Oct 22, 2014 13:32
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Yo, Dark Helmut! I learned something new recently: When a contract house submits resumes for a position at Big Corp they can only submit X number of resumes/candidates. This way no single agency can flood Big Corp with resumes, they must pick and choose. I think this is a good approach, seems fair to me, and I understand why they do it. I called the contract house, they loved me, and they said they would submit me. BUT, they let information on this process slip. They also let it slip that they were going to unsubmit "Bob" and submit me instead because they were at their submission limit. I've been doing W2 for a long time but I never knew about this process. Now here's the meat of the question: How do you deal with Bob? Do they call him and tell him he's been unsubmitted? I doubt it. Is this why a recruiter loves me then never calls me back? If someone better or cheaper comes along it's bye bye hackedaccount, hello new cheaper/better guy? Tell me a bit about this process if you don't mind, how do you handle it? Is it rare or common when dealing with Big Corps (the limit)?
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Oct 22, 2014 14:06
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Have a bit of a career dilemma here. I've been working for a large manufacturing company for about 8 years now. I've gone from helpdesk to sysadmin to syseng and am the most senior technical person in the company now, responsible for all infrastructure (networking, vmware, storage, security, linux) as well as budgeting, vendor management, future planning, etc. We are undertaking a large networking project involving all of our plants, which is going to generate a lot of networking work for me and also allow me to specialize a bit. My CIO has decided to hire another engineer to work under me, and he wants to know if I want to specialize in networking, and hand off the other infrastructure roles to the new guy. Or if we should hire a generalist with close to my skill level and I could hand a little bit of everything off to him and still continue to be a generalist myself. I'm feeling like I'm in a weird position now, because while I want to specialize, I also like the idea that currently, if I had to leave the company, I have experience in several areas and finding a new job would be easier. Where specializing could make my options lesser. I'm really torn because I've always wanted to specialize, and I find networking really interesting. After a decade of being pretty good at everything, the idea of being an expert in one or two areas is appealing, but not if it comes at the cost of my job security. If you were in my shoes which option sounds better? Pay is the same either way. I'd continue my "soft duties" like budgeting and vendor management either way, and still dictate direction to the other engineer even in areas that he is taking over operations of.
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Oct 22, 2014 15:35
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Another generalist makes vacations easier.
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Oct 22, 2014 16:04
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I just tested this in the primary VM image I've built here, and I'm way too happy with it given the minor annoyance that Ask.com toolbars present. I'm sure there's a dozen other ways to prevent these stupid things from coming in via Java updates, but this is one of the few that I could implement on my own. http://superuser.com/questions/549028/how-can-i-prevent-ask-com-toolbar-from-being-installed-every-time-java-is-update (You basically just do a small registry modification disabling Java "sponsors" which prevents the ask.com screen from ever displaying, which means users don't leave it checked if they ever feel like installing Java updates.)
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Oct 22, 2014 16:11
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Thanks for posting that link. I'm going to try to get that implemented here!
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Oct 22, 2014 16:26
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hackedaccount posted:Yo, Dark Helmut! That's not a hard and fast rule. Some of my clients only want me to submit 2, and some there is no limit. If there is a limit though, I don't know that I've ever been able to "unsubmit" someone, nor have I had a reason to. I'm not saying it can't happen, it's just not something I want to do if I can help it. I will say this though, and this is where it might go off the rails and ruffle feathers. If a candidate calls me about this job and I have better candidates, yet THEY INSIST they want to be submitted then I have a dilemma. From an ethical standpoint, I should tell him to find other representation and I've done that in the past. However, if I think they are a really good candidate for other roles and I want to retain their confidence, I might tell them I've submitted them. Again, this is ONLY in cases where I truly know they are overpriced or underqualified in relation to candidates I already have in play, but they force my hand. This stuff probably doesn't happen that often. I'm just as guilty as other recruiters about not calling people back unless I have an opportunity for them. The fact is not everyone is a great, marketable candidate and there is only so much time in the day. I do my best, and I think I'm better at it than most, but I'm far from perfect. I would suggest following up with the recruiter proactively (just not every f'ing day/week!) and hopefully they will be receptive. If not, it's obviously a sign... Heading out to a lunch meeting so let me know if that answers your question well enough.
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Oct 22, 2014 16:32
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Random  question:I'm used to working in an office or cubicle based environment, but recently I've seen many companies (even established ones with office space) going for a kind of extreme open plan instead (where a bunch of desks are rammed together in a large room.) Anyone out there working like this, and how do you get by? It seems very heavy in distractions (noise and such) would would hurt being able to do good work.
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Oct 22, 2014 16:33
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syg posted:Have a bit of a career dilemma here. I've been working for a large manufacturing company for about 8 years now. I've gone from helpdesk to sysadmin to syseng and am the most senior technical person in the company now, responsible for all infrastructure (networking, vmware, storage, security, linux) as well as budgeting, vendor management, future planning, etc. We are undertaking a large networking project involving all of our plants, which is going to generate a lot of networking work for me and also allow me to specialize a bit. ABS. Always Be Specializing. In IT, generalists are a dime-a-dozen. You have the experience to do a generalist role if you can't find anything in your specialty; it's easier to pivot from specialization to a generalized role, and your specialized knowledge will give you an edge for generalized positions that require that expertise. It may be harder to find job postings in your specialization in your geographic area, but at the level you're at, your network should be sufficient to find work. It also sounds like you're well positioned to stay competent in areas that are not in your specialty.
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Oct 22, 2014 16:40
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Started my entry-level basically help desk/desktop support role yesterday. It's for a small company (like 5 people) that supports local small and medium sized businesses. I can tell their process seems a little all over the place, and can understand why people only spend 6 months - 1 year in a help desk role. I'm still glad I got my foot in the door, it seems like there's some downtime to study certs, and already seems better than retail hell! My main question is, with a help desk role and A+ under my belt, what cert should I get studying next? I think I wanna try and make a jump to jr. sys admin in a bigger company or something like that.
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Oct 22, 2014 17:05
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monster on a stick posted:Random We did something similar here, ended up having to re purpose a few old offices as quiet rooms for people to actually hunker down in and get poo poo done. It's been great for team morale though.
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Oct 22, 2014 17:11
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Any tips for entry-level interviewing? I have no experience. Should I emphasize my ability to be punctual while also sober? I'm just at the stage of sending out resumes to generic Desktop Support and Technical Support positions.
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Oct 22, 2014 17:12
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chocolateTHUNDER posted:Started my entry-level basically help desk/desktop support role yesterday. It's for a small company (like 5 people) that supports local small and medium sized businesses. Depends what you want to be adminning. For Windows you'll probably want to head for the Microsoft certs, for Linux an RHCSA/RHCE wouldn't be a bad start, etc. I'm of the opinion that everyone in any sort of hands-on admin role should, if they don't have the cert itself, at least have knowledge roughly equivalent to what is required for the CCENT and probably parts of ICND2 as well. Accretionist posted:Any tips for entry-level interviewing? I have no experience. Should I emphasize my ability to be punctual while also sober? Anyone I hire for desktop support has to, most importantly, be personable and socially not-dysfunctional - dealing with users is a nightmare and if you aren't able to present (at least the facade of) a smiling, friendly face then the users get pissed off which comes down on me when we get evaluated. We can teach you how to troubleshoot computers if you aren't retarded so I'm not overly concerned if they aren't familiar with the intricacies of local group policy or whatever. Sheep fucked around with this message at 17:31 on Oct 22, 2014 |
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Oct 22, 2014 17:26
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