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A buddy of mine is setting me up with an interview (most likely) where he works (it's a gas company). I would have been eager to take it even a few months ago, but I got a raise at my current job and am possibly/probably going to get a promotion. I still have to interview, it's not a guarantee or anything, but they've seen my resume and I've presumably been talked up enough by my friend that it's pretty likely I'd get it. It's for $40k+ (I don't know exactly what the salary would be). I'm currently making $31k, and it will take me at least another year to get to $40k, if not longer, at my current job. In the new position, I'd be coming in as a contractor, which does have me worried a bit. He says it's how they hire who they want without having to open the job to internal candidates first, and that it's almost guaranteed I'd be hired as a "regular" employee, and the last guy got hired as a contractor and is now a regular employee. So I don't have a real reason to think it wouldn't happen, but it still does make me nervous. Current job is helpdesk, new job would be Jr Sysadmin (I don't know that's the official title, but it would be that area of work at least). From money alone it sounds like a no-brainer, and I don't know what kind of benefits there are (if any). The downsides are being a contractor, and I'd have to drive into Pittsburgh. I don't currently work in Pittsburgh, so my current drive is long but stress free. Driving into Pittsburgh is loving terrible and I hate it. Plus resigning from my current job. I'm not looking forward to that part, if it comes to it.
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May 1, 2015 18:20
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I have only used supermicro for my own personal servers but they have been alright. Definitely cheap but I haven't had any bad experiences (yet).
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May 1, 2015 18:20
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My boss asked me to meet with a consultant who wanted to pitch them on examining their business processes. She's known him for a few years. One of the first things the guy says after he meets me: "I interviewed for your job." So that wasn't awkward.
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May 1, 2015 18:54
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Dick Trauma posted:My boss asked me to meet with a consultant who wanted to pitch them on examining their business processes. She's known him for a few years. One of the first things the guy says after he meets me: "I interviewed for your job." When I left my last job at Company X and came to my current place, it was pretty obvious that I was being hired to replace a guy that they eventually planned on firing. He was a really nice guy, but just terrible at the job. After a few weeks, he mentions to me that he just got a call from the recruiter we both use to interview for my old job at Company X. I told him the story about why I quit, and he decided not to do the interview. A few minutes later he was fired.
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May 1, 2015 19:07
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SIR FAT JONY IVES posted:When I left my last job at Company X and came to my current place, it was pretty obvious that I was being hired to replace a guy that they eventually planned on firing. He was a really nice guy, but just terrible at the job. After a few weeks, he mentions to me that he just got a call from the recruiter we both use to interview for my old job at Company X. Thank you for making my Friday 
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May 1, 2015 19:11
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KillHour posted:Thank you for making my Friday How about another similar story. When I was hired at Company X, it was also pretty obviously to replace a guy there too. We'll call him Jon. So our job there was client support/help desk. We got calls from clients that were using our mission critical broadcast gear, and were in the middle of a shoot and had a failure, and needed help asap. One morning, I was the first one in, and I was sitting down around 8:30. The support phone rang, so I grabbed it. It was a serious issue that had to be fixed now. I'm working on it, and Jon comes in, he saunters in, takes off his coat, just chilling. A second call comes in, and Jon ignores it. I look at him, and he's like "What?" so I put the call on hold, and answer the second call and ask them if it's critical or if they can wait. It's critical, so now I have two calls that are important. I ask Jon to grab the second call while I finish up the first. He tells me no, it's not 9:00 yet, and he hasn't even has his coffee. I look at him befuddled, and I say "no, take this call." He still refuses, so I yell at him to take it. He takes it and is super rude to the customer, eventually decides he can't fix the problem tells them to call back and hangs up. In the meantime I've finished my call, and I ask him what the heck was that. He says "Listen SIR FAT JONY IVES, I know that the managers tell us we have to answer every call and that no one can ever go to voicemail, but whatever, we don't have to stress ourselves to grab every call. I know you are new here, and want to show how awesome you are, but don't let the managers get you all worried. They can leave a voicemail, and if it's important they'll call back Don't stress about it" I tell him "No, I'm pretty sure you are wrong. If the support phone rings, answer it. You can do what you want, but I'm pretty sure that your attitude isn't correct." "Whatever" he replies. Later that day he tells me he's looking for a new car, and his wife is at a dealer about to make an offer. I get called into the managers office, and they ask me if I have the credentials to our phone system. I tell them "no, but Jon does, let me just go grab him and ask real quick." The boss says "no, don't talk to Jon, just go back to your desk" I say "wait, that's odd are you guys planning on firing..." Boss: "Go back to you desk and don't talk to him." Me: I sit back down, and he's going on about how he finally has the money to buy a new car, and his wife is getting ready to sign for a Mustang or Camaro or something, I forget. He asks what I think he should do. I tell him to keep shopping, and maybe sleep on it for a day or two. Seconds later he's called into the office and fired.
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May 1, 2015 19:30
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myron cope posted:From money alone it sounds like a no-brainer, and I don't know what kind of benefits there are (if any). The downsides are being a contractor, and I'd have to drive into Pittsburgh. I don't currently work in Pittsburgh, so my current drive is long but stress free. Driving into Pittsburgh is loving terrible and I hate it. Plus resigning from my current job. I'm not looking forward to that part, if it comes to it. Figure out what the tax/benefit implications are going to be. The difference between W-2 and 1099 is pretty significant from what I understand (I don't know the numbers, other people in this thread will be able to give you a better idea), and I believe the order of business for contractors is no benefits at all. Having to foot your own bill for health insurance is obviously going to eat up a decent chunk of that 9k, particularly if you have any family that's sharing your current plan. Don't make guesses here. Find out the actual numbers and do the maths yourself.
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May 1, 2015 19:40
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Eonwe posted:I'm pretty nervous, on the 11th I'll be starting a new job (and my first job in the IT field - been looking to make the change). Its kind of a mix of helpdesk (setting up users, etc) and going through tickets to recreate issues with the company's software to pass up to engineering. I've tried to prepare myself as much as I can. I've got a Windows Server cert so I'm familiar with Active Directory, I've tried to familiarize myself with JIRA, SQL (since I know they use some SQL commands), and ITIL/ITSM stuff. I guess I'm just worried I can't hack it. Well lucky for you jobs that are part help desk are almost always dominated by those helpdesk duties.
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May 1, 2015 19:59
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1099 contract-to-hire is a really stupid move on the part of most employers because it opens them up to no end of litigation from the IRS and DOL regarding misclassification of employees. Paying the same person at the same company as both 1099 and W-2 will often automatically flag the company for an audit. Either bureau typically will go by this simple rule: if you receive instructions on how to do your job from the company paying for the contracting, you're an employee and not a contractor. One case resulted in a directory assistance company being forced to pony up $1.3 million to workers that it had misclassified under FLSA.
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May 1, 2015 20:15
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Che Delilas posted:Figure out what the tax/benefit implications are going to be. The difference between W-2 and 1099 is pretty significant from what I understand (I don't know the numbers, other people in this thread will be able to give you a better idea), and I believe the order of business for contractors is no benefits at all. Having to foot your own bill for health insurance is obviously going to eat up a decent chunk of that 9k, particularly if you have any family that's sharing your current plan. I already pay for my health insurance, the plan here sucks so I got one from the exchange. Taxes I'm not sure how that works, I usually don't pay attention to posts in these threads about 1099 taxes since I don't (or didn't, at least) plan on doing it.
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May 1, 2015 22:25
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I'm making the move into being an independent contractor. Does anyone have a good piece of software for invoicing, expenses and timesheet type records? I'm trying to save myself from having a bunch of spreadsheets.
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May 1, 2015 23:09
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Vulture Culture posted:1099 contract-to-hire is a really stupid move on the part of most employers because it opens them up to no end of litigation from the IRS and DOL regarding misclassification of employees. Paying the same person at the same company as both 1099 and W-2 will often automatically flag the company for an audit. Either bureau typically will go by this simple rule: if you receive instructions on how to do your job from the company paying for the contracting, you're an employee and not a contractor. One case resulted in a directory assistance company being forced to pony up $1.3 million to workers that it had misclassified under FLSA. But contracts don't necessarily mean 1099, do they? At my last job, I was brought on for contract-to-hire. I got a paycheck with taxes withheld and a W2 at the end of the year. I still counted as a contractor, but I didn't have to do my own withholdings and I could have gotten company health insurance if I took a ~$2/hr pay cut. Not sure how good of a deal that would have been, I didn't need insurance.
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May 1, 2015 23:12
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myron cope posted:I already pay for my health insurance, the plan here sucks so I got one from the exchange. Taxes I'm not sure how that works, I usually don't pay attention to posts in these threads about 1099 taxes since I don't (or didn't, at least) plan on doing it. Wait, why is everyone talking like you're going to be 1099? You'll be going through a firm to work there as a w2 employee, correct? I don't know of any company that will do 1099 for a contract to hire position. Almost always it's through a staffing firm. Hell, even independent consultants where I work are paid via invoice to whatever LLC or S-Corp the consultant set up. No company wants to deal with 1099 bullshit.
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May 1, 2015 23:17
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flosofl posted:Wait, why is everyone talking like you're going to be 1099? You'll be going through a firm to work there as a w2 employee, correct? Yeah actually I don't know, but that sounds more like it. Work for a third party that works for the main company, so paid by the third party. That's how my buddy described it. I know nothing of contracting in any flavor, sorry.
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May 1, 2015 23:23
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Senior Funkenstien posted:I'm making the move into being an independent contractor. Does anyone have a good piece of software for invoicing, expenses and timesheet type records? I'm trying to save myself from having a bunch of spreadsheets. QuickBooks for your ledger software. It will do almost all of that stuff for you. As for project time tracking, my group internally uses Toggl.com. We don't really use the hourly rate function, but I know you can set one on a global, customer, or project level in there. I'm not 100% on QuickBooks integration, but a quick googling shows there's some companies that have offered a level of automation between the two.
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May 1, 2015 23:25
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Lord Dudeguy posted:Maybe I've just gotten really bitter and cynical over the years, but does anyone see these as "red flags"? I don't really have any of that, but I do work at a ski resort, so for 4 months a year I get to ski as much as I feel like. Of course I'm a nerd, so I've never gone skiing before. Vulture Culture posted:1099 contract-to-hire is a really stupid move on the part of most employers because it opens them up to no end of litigation from the IRS and DOL regarding misclassification of employees. Paying the same person at the same company as both 1099 and W-2 will often automatically flag the company for an audit. Either bureau typically will go by this simple rule: if you receive instructions on how to do your job from the company paying for the contracting, you're an employee and not a contractor. One case resulted in a directory assistance company being forced to pony up $1.3 million to workers that it had misclassified under FLSA. Is that true? I worked as a consultant for the place I'm at now, at their suggestion. They had absolutely no IT at that point, but I wasn't sure I'd like the environment, so it worked out. They also start benefits on the 1st of the month after you start, which means I didn't really lose out on any benefits.
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May 1, 2015 23:33
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Odd situation: When I left my former employer, my boss had no issues with letting me take my ~3 year old Mac Book Air with me. We both agreed it was of no value to the company (age/no other Mac users). Two months pass. I get an email asking for it back. I responded politely, reminding him of our verbal agreement and that I would be happy to write them a check for the sellyourmac.com estimated value if this was a financial issue for them. Like most things done at that company, the was no witness @ the exit interview or anything in writing. If they push it further, I'll just switch to my other laptop and return it, but what a PITA.
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May 2, 2015 00:43
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the spyder posted:Odd situation: When I left my former employer, my boss had no issues with letting me take my ~3 year old Mac Book Air with me. We both agreed it was of no value to the company (age/no other Mac users). Two months pass. I get an email asking for it back. I responded politely, reminding him of our verbal agreement and that I would be happy to write them a check for the sellyourmac.com estimated value if this was a financial issue for them. Like most things done at that company, the was no witness @ the exit interview or anything in writing. If they push it further, I'll just switch to my other laptop and return it, but what a PITA. Accounting: "where's asset tag #abc123"? Ex-boss (not going to admit he let you walk with it): "that jerk the spyder must have kept it, I'll get it from him"
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May 2, 2015 00:50
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Someone got fired here today and HR let him take his work laptop home with him because he has files on it. What kind of weird-rear end decision is that, I don't know. e: Not to keep
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May 2, 2015 01:10
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These are some strange as gently caress post-termination equipment policies yall got going
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May 2, 2015 03:29
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mayodreams posted:I need to scan my server subnets to find out what versions and quantities of Windows Server we have running. Anyone know of any free tools that can do this? I have probably 90% accounted for because VMware will tell me, but I've tried the trial of LanDesk and it only differentiates between Server 2003 and XP, with the rest being just Windows Server. Do you run SCCM? Seems like a pretty straightforward SQL query to put together. It should run a lot quicker than most of the Powershell solutions people have been proposing.
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May 2, 2015 03:45
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Sickening posted:It shocks me that people still don't know about pdq inventory. This.
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May 2, 2015 04:04
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AreWeDrunkYet posted:Do you run SCCM? Seems like a pretty straightforward SQL query to put together. It should run a lot quicker than most of the Powershell solutions people have been proposing. We are using KACE for our desktop image and package solution. We do not have anything in place for the servers yet. PDQ Inventory got me 90% there, so thanks again for that recommendation. The tl;dr is that we have two separate companies: A and B. Company A is the 'primary' business and has been a Novell shop since the mid 90's. While there was some AD around since about 2003, we are are still 80% Novell from the user perspective, but are rapidly migrating to Windows and AD this year. So I have servers that can have 3 configurations for Company A: AD bound, eDirectory Bound, or Standalone. Company B was acquired about 10 years ago and has always been an AD shop, but until last fall were completely stuck in 2005 with regards to technology. The functional level of AD was set to 2000 even on a 2008 R2 DC and only went up to 2008 R2 because I migrated their Exchange 2003 on 2003 Server (NOT R2!?) about 2 months ago. Most of their desktops and servers are in AD, but web development and production environments are not. My daily struggle is that there is zero consistency across anything, nothing is really documented, and morons ran this shop for about 10 years. My colleague and I are pulling people kicking and screaming into the 21st century, but the leadership is firmly entrenched in 2001 leadership styles and ideas and still consider IT a cost center for a retail company that does not have any stores and only takes orders by phone, postal mail, and our website. For scope of my environment, we have 3 satellite locations with SAN and VMware, a hosting provider with mainframe and production webservers, and our corporate hq (where I am) that has about 400 VM's on 9 hosts with about 75% being windows and the rest are RHEL. There are 5 Systems Engineers: 2 Linux, 2 Windows, 1 Network. My buddy and I are the 'Windows' guys, but also do the storage, VMware, application support, and I am solely responsible for Novell and O365. Our servers are the very definition of pets, and there are some servers that have never been patched since deployment, like the two I found this week running 2008 R2 pre SP1. One was also a public facing webserver.  I don't want to go into any more detail than that, but my unoffiical motto for the company is 'Everyday a New Low' and I am never disappointed. Truth be told, I'm already looking for a way out because I've burned out and just can't take the bullshit at this place anymore.
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May 2, 2015 15:36
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This is kind of a weird question, but for those of you that came from a blue collar background, did you feel weird transitioning into a white collar role? My dad has always been an electrician. A year and a half ago, I was working as a wireman for an electrical contracting company. A month ago, I was a field service technician, which is basically the most blue-collar IT job, because you're doing the equivalent of the service calls an electrician would do, just on computers and printers instead of outlets and breaker boxes. I feel weird sitting in a cubicle all day with accountants and merger and acquisitions people.
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May 2, 2015 16:53
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e: nvm
Roargasm fucked around with this message at 18:30 on May 2, 2015 |
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May 2, 2015 17:16
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This is a generically broad question and has probably been asked before, so apologies in advance: I'm starting my first IT job in a few days doing basic helpdesk work for the local government. So, what I'm wondering is: what makes an ideal entry-level helpdesk employee? What traits/skills should I focus on developing while working there? What makes someone a bad helpdesk worker? I guess I was just wondering if people had any general advice or stories about their first experiences in IT and what they did to excel/get where they are now.
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May 2, 2015 18:48
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Government Helpdesk sounds terrible, but actually one of the guys who works for me started off with that and I think he was exposed to a broad scope of technologies. What I look for in an entry-level Helpdesk employee is someone who can follow directions, pay attention to detail, make good ticket notes, and most importantly, have good customer service skills. You can teach people the technology side of the job. It is a lot harder to teach them good customer service habits.
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May 2, 2015 19:01
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The key to being a success in hell desk is not being the stereotype of a grumpy, smelly, IT guy. If you can talk to people and not make them feel like an idiot while helping them you will go far.
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May 2, 2015 19:06
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SaltLick posted:The key to being a success in hell desk is not being the stereotype of a grumpy, smelly, IT guy. If you can talk to people and not make them feel like an idiot while helping them you will go far. This is the key to almost every job.
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May 2, 2015 19:57
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LouisRiel posted:This is a generically broad question and has probably been asked before, so apologies in advance:
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May 2, 2015 21:24
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LouisRiel posted:This is a generically broad question and has probably been asked before, so apologies in advance: Just understand that it is a customer service job more than anything. You can be taught the tech side of things, you can't be taught to not be an rear end in a top hat or a creep. You'll have to interact with and help out people who will often be stressed out or pissed off for reasons both legitimate and really stupid. Smile, and let them know that you understand their issue is important (even if it truly is not important) and you will do whatever you can to help. If they express interest in what is wrong and what you are doing, do your best to explain it to them in a manner that they can understand without making them feel stupid. I find car analogies are really effective. However, not everyone will give a poo poo about explanations and will just want the problem fixed, so don't necessarily automatically explain stuff every time. You'll get a feel for who's interested and who isn't.
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May 2, 2015 22:48
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J posted:Just understand that it is a customer service job more than anything. You can be taught the tech side of things... So essentially helpdesk is going to be more challenging from a customer-service perspective than a me having to learn technology perspective? That's comforting; I think I was hired because I interviewed well, and I noticed they focused almost entirely on soft-skills type questions as opposed to technical know-how. Thank you all for the advice and feedback!
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May 2, 2015 23:19
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LouisRiel posted:So essentially helpdesk is going to be more challenging from a customer-service perspective than a me having to learn technology perspective? That's comforting; I think I was hired because I interviewed well, and I noticed they focused almost entirely on soft-skills type questions as opposed to technical know-how. Thank you all for the advice and feedback! Honestly, people calling you are not going to be able to articulate their issues in a meaningful way, so providing a good experience for them makes you a rockstar from the outset. Good luck!
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May 3, 2015 01:27
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I'm exerting my bragging rights as my new job starts tomorow, and with a well deserved raise (10k€). The situaton is still ridiculous : -two ERPs (Dynamics Ax 2009), nothing integrated. Neither finance, purchase or warehouse management are used - payroll I understand France being France, but this is a first. - a huge pile of specific X++ code. Without any documentation. This move to 2012 R3 will be fun (note to Microsoft : stop using years for Dynamics Ax,). For those asking "Why?", this is the result of 6 consecutive years of 2 digits growth., with an IT manager throwing money at a software integrator.
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May 3, 2015 21:44
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In one week I'm starting a help desk / network support job and every day I get more and more nervous Seems like a good job with nice people and pay, but I can't shake the feeling that I'm not going to cut it
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May 4, 2015 03:41
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Eonwe posted:In one week I'm starting a help desk / network support job and every day I get more and more nervous You're overthinking it. Just listen. Ask questions. Google the rest. Always remember they don't know the answer either that's why they called you. E: and never be DAF jaegerx fucked around with this message at 03:52 on May 4, 2015 |
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May 4, 2015 03:50
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Eonwe posted:In one week I'm starting a help desk / network support job and every day I get more and more nervous Read the last page worth of posts and you'll do just fine.
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May 4, 2015 03:54
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I did and I'm just going to try to go in relaxed, take notes, listen, and do what you guys have said... I am def overthinking it
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May 4, 2015 03:56
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Eonwe posted:I did and I'm just going to try to go in relaxed, take notes, listen, and do what you guys have said... If you actually write things down the other techs say that builds so many bonus points. Even more if they have a Wiki and you offer to put that poo poo on there.
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May 4, 2015 04:00
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Eonwe posted:In one week I'm starting a help desk / network support job and every day I get more and more nervous Imposter Syndrome is a thing, and it seems like IT has it more than most. Usually it goes like this: "Hm, I can't believe how easy this is and how much they're paying me to do it" "Wait, something's wrong. It's supposed to be hard. Why isn't it hard?" "Maybe... maybe I don't know this stuff and even though it looks easy to me, I'm probably completely overlooking the real problem because I'm not smart enough." "I'm a fraud. Any day now, someone is going to totally call me on my poo poo" "My stomach hurts." Don't worry. You're not dumb, or they wouldn't have hired you. It'll take some time to get into the groove, but you'll do fine.
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May 4, 2015 04:12
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