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Proud Christian Mom
Dec 20, 2006
READING COMPREHENSION IS HARD

Lord Dudeguy posted:

Congrats. You just got MBA'd.

when the Fourth Reich becomes a thing MBAs are first against the wall

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Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

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


the spyder posted:

His rant on why linux did not belong in our environment, jebus. :psyboom:

Do tell...

Proteus Jones
Feb 28, 2013



the spyder posted:

It's still better then the last place 10 fold. His rant on why linux did not belong in our environment, jebus. :psyboom:

Is that the guy that came in and re-imaged one of the IT guy's linux workstation to windows without warning, because linux is not a serious OS?

MC Fruit Stripe
Nov 26, 2002

around and around we go
I'll admit I still hold a grudge against Linux, an operating system, because of an insufferable prick who posted in SH/SC 12 years ago, that's probably a reasonable thing to do right? That one person has become like, the idea of Linux to me, in much the same that a Windows user is probably considered to be someone entering their credit card information into every pop up for other people.

e: And what's weird is that I have to balance that grudge against the fact that I love Linux, everything from the idea to the execution. But this guy and people like him, and no I honestly don't remember his name, is what I think of when I think "Linux user". I am fine admitting this to you because even if it's stupid, it's only the 7th stupidest thing posted in this thread today. May 12th was not a great day for us.

MC Fruit Stripe fucked around with this message at 04:12 on May 13, 2015

jaegerx
Sep 10, 2012

Maybe this post will get me on your ignore list!


His name is evol. And despite being a Linux tech I hate him too.

Internet Explorer
Jun 1, 2005





jaegerx posted:

His name is evol. And despite being a Linux tech I hate him too.

Oh god, this loving killed me. As soon as I was reading Fruit's post I was like "kind of like any post I read by evol." Glad I'm not the only one.

MC Fruit Stripe
Nov 26, 2002

around and around we go
Adorable. :)

But no, I went and found who I think it was. I'm not going to say the name because it was never about playing detective and finding out what grated me, was just making a (pretty stupid) point.

jaegerx
Sep 10, 2012

Maybe this post will get me on your ignore list!


MC Fruit Stripe posted:

Adorable. :)

But no, I went and found who I think it was. I'm not going to say the name because it was never about playing detective and finding out what grated me, was just making a (pretty stupid) point.

Give him time.

Mrit
Sep 26, 2007

by exmarx
Grimey Drawer

jaegerx posted:

His name is evol. And despite being a Linux tech I hate him too.

This is what I though of also.

MC Fruit Stripe
Nov 26, 2002

around and around we go
You guys make me feel like I now need to point out that evol262 is one of the most valuable contributors to SH/SC.

Topic change - I feel motivated. This comes and goes with me, but it is definitely a period of heightened motivation for me. I need to maintain it - most people who want to advance their careers are either always motivated or very good at faking it, but mine comes and goes. I'm definitely on an uptick right now.

Honest Thief
Jan 11, 2009
Probation
Can't post for 25 days!
So is everyone on even remotely IT related jobs just miserable? Is there such a thing as a 'it gets better' PSA?

Loten
Dec 8, 2005


Honest Thief posted:

So is everyone on even remotely IT related jobs just miserable? Is there such a thing as a 'it gets better' PSA?

If it helps, I don't hate my current job!

insidius posted:

its going to be a good day.

Where are you drat it!

demonicon
Mar 29, 2011
Today is friday for me, because tomorrow is a national holiday here in Germany (some Jesus thing or something) and I took one day of my 30 vacation days on Friday. How are you guys doing?

Ahdinko
Oct 27, 2007

WHAT A LOVELY DAY

Vulture Culture posted:

When vendors tell me the price is about to expire, I usually reply that the price isn't about to expire. So far, nobody has corrected me.

Ahh I love doing this with salesmen. Its always one from a new product I'm looking at.
We go through all the sales spiel, I tell them what other products I'm comparing them against, they give it all the "*scoff* Why would you even want to buy <Competitors> product", I tell them because its 20 grand cheaper.
They come back an hour later with that whole "Well i've got this super special pricing just for you thats 25k cheaper but you MUST buy it by Friday". I always tell them "Nah mate, lets just forget about it, the guy who's going to call the shot isn't even in till next week" even if the approver is sitting right next to me and suddenly they can magically extend it.

I've not yet had the minerals to just outright say "No, it won't, stop feeding me a line"

Ahdinko fucked around with this message at 10:54 on May 13, 2015

Sheep
Jul 24, 2003

Honest Thief posted:

So is everyone on even remotely IT related jobs just miserable? Is there such a thing as a 'it gets better' PSA?

No one really gets hyped up to drop an effort post in SH/SC every time Group Policy doesn't explode in their faces or their ASAs manage to setup a VPN tunnel without a making GBS threads a brick, but you'll probably hear about it if things go the opposite direction.

Also it never gets better because everyone (users, coworkers, myself) is dumb.

Sheep fucked around with this message at 11:11 on May 13, 2015

Ahdinko
Oct 27, 2007

WHAT A LOVELY DAY
Bugger. I work at an MSP about 40 people in size so not tiny but not big. In the last month we've lost our three biggest customers (probably about 1800 users between them) and just now we lost one of our small ones. One of the big ones is closing down and the other two are being sold off so there's some residual hand-over/transition work for us to do to keep us busy for a few months and we're still doing the support until they onboard it, but once they're gone our supported userbase will be down from about 2.5K users to 650-700 or so. Supported servers will be down from about 250ish down to about 40.
We're not sure who's jobs are going to be affected and the CEO is an awesome guy who I'm sure will do everything he can before having to cut jobs, but with that kind of reduction I'm getting worried.

Anyone hiring for a Networking/Sys admin guy in Herts/London?

Ahdinko fucked around with this message at 11:43 on May 13, 2015

Honest Thief
Jan 11, 2009
Probation
Can't post for 25 days!
How the heck to break off .Net typecast? I keep trying and pushing for web open source projects but I keep getting pushed back into .Net, I can't not work, so what I do, keep working on personal projects on my offhours in order to build a portfolio?

Sheep posted:

No one really gets hyped up to drop an effort post in SH/SC every time Group Policy doesn't explode in their faces or their ASAs manage to setup a VPN tunnel without a making GBS threads a brick, but you'll probably hear about it if things go the opposite direction.

Also it never gets better because everyone (users, coworkers, myself) is dumb.
Also the clients.

Loten posted:

If it helps, I don't hate my current job!
Now that's a psa I can get behind of: "eh, I don't completely hate it"

Honest Thief fucked around with this message at 12:04 on May 13, 2015

Honest Thief
Jan 11, 2009
Probation
Can't post for 25 days!
edit:dp

Daylen Drazzi
Mar 10, 2007

Why do I root for Notre Dame? Because I like pain, and disappointment, and anguish. Notre Dame Football has destroyed more dreams than the Irish Potato Famine, and that is the kind of suffering I can get behind.

demonicon posted:

Today is friday for me, because tomorrow is a national holiday here in Germany (some Jesus thing or something) and I took one day of my 30 vacation days on Friday. How are you guys doing?

I would come to Germany to hunt you down and throw bratwursts at you, but I don't have any vacation time.

socialsecurity
Aug 30, 2003





Ahdinko posted:

Bugger. I work at an MSP about 40 people in size so not tiny but not big. In the last month we've lost our three biggest customers (probably about 1800 users between them) and just now we lost one of our small ones. One of the big ones is closing down and the other two are being sold off so there's some residual hand-over/transition work for us to do to keep us busy for a few months and we're still doing the support until they onboard it, but once they're gone our supported userbase will be down from about 2.5K users to 650-700 or so. Supported servers will be down from about 250ish down to about 40.
We're not sure who's jobs are going to be affected and the CEO is an awesome guy who I'm sure will do everything he can before having to cut jobs, but with that kind of reduction I'm getting worried.

Anyone hiring for a Networking/Sys admin guy in Herts/London?

40 People? Our MSP is 6 people and it supports about 2k users and 300 servers what in the hell do 40 people do all day?

Ahdinko
Oct 27, 2007

WHAT A LOVELY DAY
1 CEO
1 Technical services manager
3 Senior engineers (me)
1 Remote engineer
1 Helpdesk manager
3 Second line
5 First line
1 Sales manager
2 Sales guys
1 Admin/finance manager
2 Admin guys
1 Finance guy
1 Purchasing person
1 Project manager
1 HR
A team of 8 VMware trainers/experts/sales/etc who just do courses & installs all day and very little support.

We offer 24/7 support, the 1st/2nd line guys all work shifts so while there's 8 of them, there is generally 4-5 working during core hours and the other 3-4 spread out over the evening/night/early morning.
The support is of a pretty high level too, its not like some companies we work with or use as suppliers where you email a ticket in and you *might* get a response later but probably tomorrow. Unless its a rare crazy busy situation, if you call us you'll be on the phone with someone technical in less than 10 seconds, and if you email a problem in somebody will be actively working on the ticket within 10 mins. If a site visit or parts is needed, generally its not the next business day typical times, we'll usually have a guy grab a spare, jump in a van and be on the road within 30 mins of it being diagnosed.

So about 34 people now that I've gone and added it all up. I'm the only one who can do networking and used to have a pretty busy workload but since these customers are going, not alot has been coming in and I have plenty of time for SA now

Ahdinko fucked around with this message at 13:02 on May 13, 2015

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

jaegerx posted:

His name is evol. And despite being a Linux tech I hate him too.

I'm a Linux developer .

But sorry not sorry that people don't like what I have to say. Also somewhat amused that the people thinking of me are ones I've argued with.

Che Delilas
Nov 23, 2009
FREE TIBET WEED

Honest Thief posted:

Is there such a thing as a 'it gets better' PSA?

Sure, they're all over these threads if you look. Most of them involve statements that are variations on, "You need to grow a spine and stop putting up with the worst of the things that are making you miserable," whether that involves just standing up to people or quitting and finding something new. It doesn't just happen passively, and as an adult you have the responsibility to figure out what you want and the freedom to make decisions that move you toward it (you know, as opposed to a young teen struggling with their sexuality and effectively trapped in a school/family situation that they can't change).

Users are always going to be users, and rear end in a top hat bosses are everywhere, but you can manage both of them.

Honest Thief
Jan 11, 2009
Probation
Can't post for 25 days!
but its haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard

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

Honest Thief posted:

but its haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaard

99% of the people with these complaints ("I'm a passenger in my own life and I have no idea how to take control to change anything!") would have their problems solved by reading philosophy. Not huge dry stuff either. This, this, and this are cheap, readable in an afternoon, and directly address that issue.

Roargasm
Oct 21, 2010

Hate to sound sleazy
But tease me
I don't want it if it's that easy

Honest Thief posted:

So is everyone on even remotely IT related jobs just miserable? Is there such a thing as a 'it gets better' PSA?

80% of my users are offsite today and my building has a grand piano and a basketball court :shobon:

IT as a systems analyst has been great when I get left alone, but it takes a lot of energy to deal with tech support interruptions throughout the day and still do good work.

Proud Christian Mom
Dec 20, 2006
READING COMPREHENSION IS HARD
life is hard, its even harder if you're dumb

Internet Explorer
Jun 1, 2005





evol262 posted:

I'm a Linux developer .

But sorry not sorry that people don't like what I have to say. Also somewhat amused that the people thinking of me are ones I've argued with.

Well, when someone mentioned people who make posts that are annoying to read (paraphrasing, phone posting) and 3 people reference you by, and just you, by name within an hour, maybe your posts are annoying to read? Very informative and have pushed me to learn more about non-ESXi/XenServer/Hyper-V virtualization, but still very annoying to read. Almost like you're a Linux developer! :v:

Honest Thief posted:

So is everyone on even remotely IT related jobs just miserable? Is there such a thing as a 'it gets better' PSA?

I love my current job. Job before this was 2 years at an MSP which I hated due to a combination of not liking MSP work and not liking the owner of the company. Before that was 5 years of internal IT that I loved for 4 years or so. Before that was IT odds and ends which I also loved.

As long as you can get over the fact that it is a customer service job first and a technical job second, and understand that there will always be dumb users and dumb management, you'll do just fine. If you can't get over that hurdle you'll have a lot less satisfaction.

Internet Explorer fucked around with this message at 15:10 on May 13, 2015

chocolateTHUNDER
Jul 19, 2008

GIVE ME ALL YOUR FREE AGENTS

ALL OF THEM
So, I've grown pretty bored in my current job. It's helpdesk stuff, my first IT job that I got a little over 6 months ago. I don't get a chance to touch much of anything beyond basic desktop support (if I'm lucky, I get to setup a mailbox in exchange and an AD user, that's about it). How much do companies look down on someone with certs, but not much actual experience? If I get a CCENT, but haven't actually touched any CISCO stuff, wouldn't most companies just scoff?

Japanese Dating Sim
Nov 12, 2003

hehe
Lipstick Apathy

chocolateTHUNDER posted:

So, I've grown pretty bored in my current job. It's helpdesk stuff, my first IT job that I got a little over 6 months ago. I don't get a chance to touch much of anything beyond basic desktop support (if I'm lucky, I get to setup a mailbox in exchange and an AD user, that's about it). How much do companies look down on someone with certs, but not much actual experience? If I get a CCENT, but haven't actually touched any CISCO stuff, wouldn't most companies just scoff?

You do have actual experience though.

From what I've seen, most people go out and get certs that are a little grasp above what they're doing now. That's why you see people here (and in the cert thread) encouraging people to get their CCNA / Server MCSAs to escape the help desk. While it's true that there's motivation for an employed network technician to get (if they don't have it) and maintain (if they do) things like a CCNA/CCNP, you aren't going to get laughed at for having a CC-Entry-NT of all things.

Yeah, if you show up a ton of disparate, unrelated certs that are well above your experience level, people might wonder if you just braindumped your way through everything, but you're fine.

Japanese Dating Sim fucked around with this message at 15:17 on May 13, 2015

Inspector_666
Oct 7, 2003

benny with the good hair

evol262 posted:

99% of the people with these complaints ("I'm a passenger in my own life and I have no idea how to take control to change anything!") would have their problems solved by reading philosophy. Not huge dry stuff either. This, this, and this are cheap, readable in an afternoon, and directly address that issue.

My go-to recommendations are Peace is Every Step and No Mud, No Lotus. Especially helpful given how stressed people in those situations tend to be (like me!)

I actually found The Myth Of Sisyphus to be quite dense, I should get back at it though.

MJP
Jun 17, 2007

Are you looking at me Senpai?

Grimey Drawer
Wonder what our ausgoon abuse victim is going through right now.

Vulture Culture
Jul 14, 2003

I was never enjoying it. I only eat it for the nutrients.

MJP posted:

Wonder what our ausgoon abuse victim is going through right now.
Chained to a workbench like Jesse Pinkman.

Gucci Loafers
May 20, 2006

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


I've found evol's posts great and I don't see what all the fuss is about.

Zaepho
Oct 31, 2013

At the mention of Certs. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good study guide/self paced course for 70-411 Administering Windows Server 2012? The drat GPO crap and NPS are killing me. I haven't seriously worked with NPS (Ever) and GPO in years. I'm decent enough in the rest to get through the exam if I could get those 2 areas up to an acceptable level. I failed the exam once already with a low 600s score and would really rather not go back in and throw more cash on that fire.

To be thorough my goal is MCSE: Private Cloud. I work exclusively on the private cloud part of things on a daily basis.

sanchez
Feb 26, 2003
The official books and CBT nuggets never let me down. You get to listen to James Conrad for hours too, which is a plus.

12 rats tied together
Sep 7, 2006

Honest Thief posted:

So is everyone on even remotely IT related jobs just miserable? Is there such a thing as a 'it gets better' PSA?

Network engineer for a SaaS platform. It owns - no users, no customers, just use technology as a resource to accomplish business goals or whatever.

The only bad parts about it are generally specific to the technology itself. Cisco IOS kinda blows (especially compared to like, bash) , your 'standard' network devices aren't really designed with mistake-making in mind so loving up can have really harsh consequences, and in general there seems to be a lack of skilled workers in small/medium business networking so you run into some really questionable design/architecture decisions that make things way more complicated and difficult than they need to be.

The rest of the department is trying to, within reason, embrace the 'fail fast and often and recover quickly' mentality but that doesn't really apply to the network devices IMO -- they made sure to repeatedly state that every network engineer to date has blown something up and caused at least one outage and that "as long as I learn from it, it's okay" but... in my opinion if you gently caress up a network and cause an outage it's because you didn't spend enough time reading the documentation or examining the impact of your changes. Unfortunately for me, that means I spend more time reading documentation and examining the potential impact of my changes than I do actually making changes which can be a little boring at times.

Before this I worked at a more standard IT job, about 50/50 user support and server administration. In my experience, it's fine and perfectly rewarding as long as your infrastructure isn't terrible. I had the benefit of the department having a history of remarkably competent admins before I started, so most of the usual systemic bullshit I'm seeing in other jobs was already taken care of like automatic updates, PXE images for user machines, nobody has local admin, ESET antivirus deployed everywhere automatically, group policy ran like a well oiled machine and no printer issues to be found anywhere.

The remaining user support after that's taken care of is fine. Enter-PSSession owns, MSRA owns, spent most of my time working on powershell scripts which also owns when your environment is 100% windows 8 and server 2012.

MC Fruit Stripe
Nov 26, 2002

around and around we go

sanchez posted:

The official books and CBT nuggets never let me down. You get to listen to James Conrad for hours too, which is a plus.
This better be sass so help me god.

Also my mentioning that a guy who hasn't posted in 12 years was annoying sure did open a can of worms. Eep.

Ahdinko
Oct 27, 2007

WHAT A LOVELY DAY

MJP posted:

Wonder what our ausgoon abuse victim is going through right now.

When he was last posting it was like 3-4am in most of Aus and that was almost 24 hours ago, so if all went well he should have been in work already, :yotj:'ed and got the gently caress out

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Internet Explorer
Jun 1, 2005





Tab8715 posted:

I've found evol's posts great and I don't see what all the fuss is about.

I don't think anyone was making a fuss, just bullshitting.

Zaepho posted:

At the mention of Certs. Does anyone have a recommendation for a good study guide/self paced course for 70-411 Administering Windows Server 2012? The drat GPO crap and NPS are killing me. I haven't seriously worked with NPS (Ever) and GPO in years. I'm decent enough in the rest to get through the exam if I could get those 2 areas up to an acceptable level. I failed the exam once already with a low 600s score and would really rather not go back in and throw more cash on that fire.

To be thorough my goal is MCSE: Private Cloud. I work exclusively on the private cloud part of things on a daily basis.

I'm not a cert kind of guy but I can recommend against Trainsignal/PluralSight.

We have CBT Nuggets at work now but I haven't tried it. I think they put some of their videos on YouTube. I know that there were collections of TechNet articles for each test if you look on Microsofts forums / wiki. I think those with good practice tests are probably your best bet.

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