IT Career [Weekly] What would you like to know Wednesday? General Question Thread |
- [Weekly] What would you like to know Wednesday? General Question Thread
- Getting A+, security, or ccna done while still in college? Also is a masters necessary?
- Service Desk Analyst for Entry Level?
- Entry level
- What am I doing wrong with jobs?
- IT websites
- Mid-career IT.. advice on moving into development
- Moving away from contractors and helpdesk...but how? (The return)
- 30 y.o. Career Changer Looking for Resume Advice
- So I've been applying to jobs on Indeed and some applications have a Yes/No questionnaire as to whether I'm A+ certified or not. Doesn't a bachelor's degree cover this?
- Offer after only a phone interview?
- AS in Oracle Databass Administration
- Finishing school soon: Stay at student job or help desk?
- Advice about entry level IT work during University Studies
- Anyone here have a PhD in Cyber Security/Computer Science, or currently enrolled? I need some insight.
- Need help for Capstone Project Ideas
- My offered salary might be lower than I expected, what can I do?
- What ultimately led you to leave your job for a better opportunity?
- Networking Rut!!
- Need a direction to work/study
- The next big step
- Salary expectation when changing companies (UK - Outside London)
| [Weekly] What would you like to know Wednesday? General Question Thread Posted: 04 Jul 2018 01:12 AM PDT Not every question needs a backstory or long explanation but it is still a question that you would like answered. This is weekly thread is setup to allow a chance for people to ask general questions that they may not feel is worthy of a full post to the sub. Examples:
Please keep things civil and constructive! MOD NOTE: This will be a weekly post on every Wednesday. [link] [comments]  |
| Getting A+, security, or ccna done while still in college? Also is a masters necessary? Posted: 04 Jul 2018 07:25 AM PDT I'm going to be a junior in ISDS, should I start studying and working toward getting certifications yet? I have a part time help desk job through my university just to get some basic job experience also. Finally, how much would a masters help me in career advances vs getting job experience? [link] [comments]  |
| Service Desk Analyst for Entry Level? Posted: 04 Jul 2018 06:52 AM PDT I'm a Fresh Graduate and I had an offer for an interview for the position of Service Desk Analyst. Is this a good entry level job and can be a solid stepping stone for the long run? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Jul 2018 04:51 AM PDT Okay so I've peeped around this sub for short time now and I understand the help desk role is the entry level for most people in this industry which I'm perfectly cool with, I do have a curiosity though, where should I try to be a help desk role to optimal learn the most experience from? Whether it be something federal or schools or even msp? I don't care about starting at this level I just want to be on the lookout for what is going to propel me forward with a better skill set and resume builder [link] [comments]  |
| What am I doing wrong with jobs? Posted: 03 Jul 2018 10:19 PM PDT So obviously I must be doing something wrong. I have had three jobs over the last 2 years as a sys admin. The first one sounded good. Come to find out my IT Manager had a drinking problem and didn't trust anyone. He was also 3 states away. Lots of overtime too for really random things that shouldn't be a problem (ie everyone and everything must be on WiFi). Yes I tried arguing it. Wifi kept crashing due to high load. No luck. Hard lines were already run but he refused to let anyone use it. No backups. Made it 6 months. Second job, everyone is really friendly but things seemed a bit vague when I asked about my responsibilities. Took the job and found out it's high paying help desk. Easy enough but not remotely challenging and all my skills were going down the toilet. I was there for a year. Left after I found out there was no upward mobility. Boss was off-site too. Current job is a very large company. I'm trying to be really picky now. I've had two lackluster jobs and I want to do it right. Here's what I ask in the interview: Is my boss onsite and available? Yes. How's the environment set up? Sounds good. Whats the overtime load like? 1-2 days a month on call. Cool. I don't mind some OT. Just want a decent work/life balance. How many co-workers do I have? What's an average day like? Benefits? Do you provide training reimbursement? Yes. So it's been a month now. I've learned that every answer I got was basically a lie. They're talking about 60 hour work weeks being standard soon for the foreseeable future. There is no training reimbursement and any training I take is on my own time and dime. My boss is never available. I sit nowhere near my coworkers. One guy who was hired with me is also pretty concerned about this as he was told the same stuff. I repeatedly asked for work my first 2 weeks and wasn't shown the environment or anything. So I studied Ansible for a few days since they use it and I'm not familiar with it. Then I was scolded for doing that and not finding work. I don't know the layout of the environment or anyone else here so where am I supposed to begin? What ticketing system is even used? This bothered me to the point that I just started pestering anyone for work. Finally found something to do What am I doing wrong? I thought I was being thorough and was outright lied to. What do I need to do to land a good job? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Jul 2018 09:16 AM PDT Hi, I read a lot of of GIZMODO and ENGADGET but is there anything more specific for IT professionals. [link] [comments]  |
| Mid-career IT.. advice on moving into development Posted: 04 Jul 2018 09:08 AM PDT So, I've been running IT at a small org for a lot of years. I feel I'm at a professional impasse. I'd like to do something different--partly because I feel there's nothing else for me in this job, partly because I have concerns about the continuing viability of my employer. But I'd appreciate any thoughts people have about viable next steps. Due to the nature of my job (the only full-time professional IT person) and the org, I have very broad experience within IT, but also very shallow. Example: I set up and maintain a multi-building network. I do work with database reporting. I've written stuff in perl and, more recently, python. But I don't have deep enough experience to get a job as a DBA or network engineer or developer at a bigger place. And, as time has passed, we've moved more and more of our stuff to cloud hosting, so I don't have as much day-to-day hands on as I used to. (Example: at one point I was running a postfix mail server. It made sense at the time; now with G Suite and Office 365 it does not. As a result my Linux admin chops are not what they were 10 years ago.) There are several things I could try to do (and may still try to do), such as getting an MBA or a CISSP. But what I've tentatively decided I'd like to do is to start getting freelance developing gigs that will 1) provide some helpful extra income in the short term and 2) provide experience & portfolio that I can use to make the move to a full-time developer position if I decide I want to. I've written a lot of scripts to automate day-to-day things, especially dealing with moving information from one vendor's stuff to another. Example: A python script queries System A (Oracle database), finds any new customer who doesn't have an account on System B (turnkey web portal), and uses System B's REST API to create an account for them. (An earlier version of this (in perl) created an OpenLDAP account and set up a Google Apps account for them on our domain.) So I know a lot of coding basics (I'm old enough to have typed '10 PRINT "HELLO"' on a TRS-80), but I feel deficient in things that would move me toward being useful in a "real" development situation requiring more than a straightforward script. (Version control? Testing? Modules/libraries?) I guess my question at this point what is my best path to move from "person who knows a lot of discrete things and can write some code that runs" to "actual hireable developer"? [link] [comments]  |
| Moving away from contractors and helpdesk...but how? (The return) Posted: 04 Jul 2018 09:01 AM PDT About a week ago I asked for your help in getting myself out of entry level roles through contractors. My primary advice that I received then was to improve my resume, which was bad. I think I made good adjustments, so I'd like to receive your opinions in regards to my resume, and whatever other advice you all can provide to help me advance my career. Here is my resume: I'd like to add my goals: -My goals are to get into Network Administration, although if other fields are more profitable, I'd like to examine them. -Because of my goal earlier, I'm studying to get my CCNA. -Since my current role doesn't give me much experience with servers or troubleshooting/configuring network devices, I'm hoping to find relatively cheap ways to build my experience. [link] [comments]  |
| 30 y.o. Career Changer Looking for Resume Advice Posted: 04 Jul 2018 08:37 AM PDT Hello and Happy 4th to redditors in the USA. As the title suggests I'm looking to break out of my management career in food service and start a new path in IT (managing kinda sucks!). Not sure how exactly I'm going to specialize in the field yet, but I've been studying for the Comptia A+ for about a month now and I plan to take the tests by the end of the year. I've made some major resume revisions already (took it down from 2 pages to 1, heavy format changes, wording etc), and I was hoping you guys could please give me some pointers. Thank you. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1c-w70VKO25Ll8uqcMQigoeH3WLLFIi4_/view?usp=sharing [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Jul 2018 04:50 AM PDT Would you guys click Yes even if you weren't A+ certified? I have a bachelor's degree in Management Information System and a year+ of helpdesk experience...A+ is extremely basic and I don't see the need to get the certification for A+ just because. Most postings don't ask for it but some do. Just curious if you guys would check "Yes" anyways? Edit- seems consensus is no so I'll be hitting no! [link] [comments]  |
| Offer after only a phone interview? Posted: 04 Jul 2018 04:25 AM PDT Hey guys, I'm looking for a little advice here. I did a phone interview for a Network Engineer position last week, and Monday the HR rep offered me the position. I thought this was a little strange, I usually go through an in person interview as well. What's your take on this? I'm a little wary because my current position is fairly comfortable and I don't want to leave to go to some sketchy horror show. [link] [comments]  |
| AS in Oracle Databass Administration Posted: 04 Jul 2018 07:58 AM PDT Title, super excited to finally be getting my degree in less then a year, but ive been wondering what is the day like of a Oracle Database Admin? And most importantly what jobs positions will I be quilified for/what certifications should I also be pursuing? [link] [comments]  |
| Finishing school soon: Stay at student job or help desk? Posted: 03 Jul 2018 06:22 PM PDT Hi, long time lurker on a throwaway here. I'm in my late 20's. I'm currently finishing up community college in IT and networking, and did well enough in school and made some connections there to secure a work term at the school as a full-time paid intern with their networking team. The job is kinda interesting -- a variety of whatever the senior techs need help with, ranging from asset management to programming Android TVs to learning how to set up netmon software with their topology. I'm partway through the term, and with it being a mostly networking environment, it's also left me wondering if I don't need more exposure to software and scripting as well. Pay is good-ish, better than a lot of student gigs but not quite full-time salary for my area (so, like any other internship). The job is fairly low-stress. My dilemma: I have the option to extend my work term with them (still as a student). At the same time, my supervisor recommended me to a friend of his, telling me they need an entry-level guy. It's for a help desk position at a law firm, supposedly paying much better than what I'm getting now (though, that could mean anything). Out of respect for him, I've done some preliminary interviews and they like me, and my current employer is more than on board with me leaving if I took it, since it's full-time versus a student position. I have a good relationship with them, and, honestly, the management is so chill I don't think it matters too much to them which way I go. Still, I read conflicting things about help desk both here and elsewhere online. I feel like a lot of people get their start there and I'm not above paying my dues. I'm not even all that bad with people so it's not the work itself that bothers me. But it does also sound like people recommend spending the least amount of time doing it as possible before moving on to other things (I could probably take the CCNA soon, judging from what I've seen of the test versus what I learned at school). What I love about working my current environment (public sector, higher ed) is that since the pace is so relaxed, whenever I had something new to learn, I had plenty of time and space to search and learn up on all the background details (which, I think, fits my learning style). It's even made me wonder if working in public sector might be a viable career choice for me, even if the majority opinion seems to be against it. I guess I'm nervous about possibly not having that leeway once expectations are higher -- especially if it's an environment like a law firm, and the stress might lead to a downward spiral of lack of confidence and anxiety about going to work (I've been there before). I also don't see a lot of room for advancement in the IT vertical at the firm, so staying there long-term is probably out anyway. Or, if nothing else, I could always find a help desk somewhere either less high-pressure than a law firm, or somewhere with more room to move around. So! My options:
Your thoughts are much appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| Advice about entry level IT work during University Studies Posted: 03 Jul 2018 07:05 PM PDT Hi Reddit! I am current Software Engineering student, and my ultimate goal is to be software developer. My intention is obtain some experience in entry level help desk, security or related IT entry level positions during the remainder of my studies. In this way, I may be able to network with people in industry, get familiar with the current technologies and practices in the field, in the hopes to get leg up for graduate positions after completing my Education: have obtained study material for COMPTIA, and currently undertaking a Bachelors in Software Engineering. Exp: Limited to uni projects And hospo work Any advice, criticisms would he greatly appreciated. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2018 04:01 PM PDT My first choice was University of Oxford - Cyber Security, Second Choice: NYU - Computer Science. I really want to do a PhD in Cyber Security so I was just wondering how the program is if you're currently enrolled or graduated. I'd rather do a hybrid program, online and in person. Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Need help for Capstone Project Ideas Posted: 04 Jul 2018 05:12 AM PDT Hi! I am a Senior IT student in College and we have a Thesis / Capstone project to achieve before we graduate. We have to make an application (mobile app or can be hardware) that doesn't exist yet and is helping for the society. We are struggling to make an idea to propose. We have ideas, but it's too common (like traffic, garbage, order system, etc) and already exists. I need your help guys to propose an idea. Do you have ideas? Do you have problems or dilemma you wish to have an app to solve the problem? It can be any category as long as it can help the society to solve the problem. Your answers and ideas are much appreciated. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| My offered salary might be lower than I expected, what can I do? Posted: 03 Jul 2018 04:02 PM PDT I've just had my final interview for an IT support analyst role where I live. I'm very confident and I have the backing of my future boss who said he would vouch for me as we have a good rapport. The conversation with the HR manager and the CEO ended with the salary discussion. I impressed the CEO because I was deflective/re-directive with my response; Instead of demanding a figure, I made sure to let them know my expectations based on market research for these roles, but also that I would like to improve on my previous job (Catering, no technical skills required). When I got home the agency that found my LinkedIn profile had an informal chat with me regarding how it went. He went on to explain, off the books this is, my options regarding a salary. He said to me; "So what if they came to me and offered you £16K?". Bare in mind, my research has shown that the average salary of IT support in my area is £18-25K/Year, so you can imagine my slight disappointment when he mentioned this. Please, bare in mind that I am coming to this job with a Degree in Information systems, but no previous IT related work experience, so I'm not expecting to be the average or higher. I explained to him this point and I said that I probably wouldn't be too enthralled by that figure since it's less than the salary I was on at my previous role (Again, Catering, no technical skills required) - Be aware, however, that I was not paid the advertised salary of £18K/year at my previous role because It was "Pro-Rata" - I.e. I was part-time and was paid for the hours that I did which was then broken down over the year. So right now, I'm at the point in my career where everything is beginning. This job WILL pay me more per month than I am currently earning, but, I am being under-paid? I am being low-balled because they know I have no previous experience? I'm not too naive; No experience vs someone with experience means I'll end up with the lower figure, but the way he kept rebuffing my advances with a lower number knocked my confidence slightly. My heart is telling me that I should really go for it. An opportunity to begin an IT career with no experience, working hands on with hardware and software problems, fixing networking issues etc, really means a lot to me and I know I can make things better for myself in the future. My head, however, is a little fixated on the salary and wanting to be paid what I expected with the skillset I believe I have. TLDR: Very likely to receive a Job offer from a company. Unconnected agency low-balled me for a salary, knocking my confidence and has made me rethink options, what's a good way to think about it and what would you do? [link] [comments]  |
| What ultimately led you to leave your job for a better opportunity? Posted: 03 Jul 2018 11:59 AM PDT I have a very strong feeling that I am coming upon a crossroad. My current job wants to keep me and have me do cyber work with a tech support title with the promise of more opportunity for an info sec role, ie: cloud security, on the other hand the other position is a cyber role/title, big firm, could potentially double my salary. My question is what ultimately led you to jump ship? It may be a combination of more vacation days, higher salary, work/life balance, benefits, travel time, etc. I would like to stay but I also want what is best for me. Everything is happening all at once, new opportunity at my current role for which I am grateful, and also new opportunity elsewhere, fresh start. Decisions, decisions. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2018 11:45 AM PDT I've been studying networking, primarily Cisco, for just over four years now. I've had two networking jobs both of which are network analyst. I love the network side of IT but occasionally I catch myself feeling like an idiot, and maybe it's because my latest position is so complex. My question is, has anyone ever reached a point early in their career when all the stuff you learned and thought you knew just doesn't seem to make sense anymore? I guess I'm just looking for some stories that anyone would like to share. [link] [comments]  |
| Need a direction to work/study Posted: 03 Jul 2018 04:46 PM PDT Last month I finished my military service, where I did some basic helpdesk/sysadmin work for 3 years but excelled at it. Didn't get any formal education there though, just learned from veteran team members and experience. I'm comfortable in this field and would like to explore it further- get into higher level/serious subjects and projects, but I've been warned it's not worth my time.
My uncle with 20 years in the field recently went back to school to change career paths because he doesn't see a future in the field 10 years down the road. He recommended I don't waste time on certs because it's not beneficial in the long run, and that I should get a degree- specifically for Management Information Systems with a focus on information security and infrastructure. I'm hesitant because I'm unfamiliar with the jobs I'll be qualified for- what day-to-day tasks and work entails, and if the field will interest me. There are so many job titles and fields that might interest me, and I wouldn't want to study the wrong one just to find out afterwards that I hate it.
I didn't find the guide on the wiki helpful as it explained really briefly and only explained the general field, i.e "developer" instead of explaining frontend, backend, fullstacks and other terms I've seen on job postings online. If anyone could give me a lead on how to research this stuff or just straight up advice it would be greatly appreciated [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Jul 2018 04:36 PM PDT So currently I'm working at a full time internship and typically at this company the internship ends when people go back to school. Today my mentor asked when was my last day and I went off what was discussed during the interview which was "the middle of August" but there is no set date and I'm finishing up my last semester of school right now which surprised him more. I have a gut feeling I might get offered to work longer than the middle of August. I enjoy working at this company and the atmosphere for the most part is good, been told by some of the other developers that there are some set backs. A good friend of mine recently told me there will be a position opening up at his company that will offer 18/hour and benefits but the job sounds a lot more stressful and as my friend described it "would make me a well rounded IT person" as it jumps between help desk, networking, and programming. He said it would be a guarantee 40 hours plus at least 10 hours overtime but he himself who has worked there for a few years now looks stressed. Of course I would still need to apply and interview for this position, but I'm wondering if it's better to stay at the company I'm interning at if I get an offer as I'm already trained and still learning tons or say no to their offer if I get an offer From the other company? It's somewhat hard to choose as when do long term benefits outweigh Short term? Thanks in advance! [link] [comments]  |
| Salary expectation when changing companies (UK - Outside London) Posted: 03 Jul 2018 11:46 AM PDT I'm currently going through the interview process for another company, the subject for salary expectation has already come up and I've given a knee jerk figure and made the mistake of telling them what I'm currently on although I did qualify that with "I'm expecting a raise soon" and was told "it's not set it stone" and they're "flexible". I'm potentially moving from an engineering role in a FTSE 250 company to a similar role in a NASDAQ 100 tech company, but I'm already getting the feeling I'll be in a position of more responsibility and probably have a more challenging workload. My initial figure was +10% of my current salary as honestly I wasn't thinking so given my current bonus structure (+20%) versus the new bonus structure (+10%) I'd be worse off, bringing it up to +15% isn't a massive amount, but then I need to consider parking at the location is probably going to add £1200 a year or so to my expenditure and not working in the middle of no where means I'll probably start eating out for lunch again which is another cost so even with +15% I'm not going to be much better off if I factor in bonuses (less than £3k). When I start thinking about asking for a salary with a bump around 20% I start feeling that I'd be asking for too much, but at the same time google's giving me search results saying you shouldn't move for less than 30% so maybe I'm really under selling myself which is why I've never had an issue finding jobs previously! I've had a big of a dig on Glassdoor, but can't see any salaries for any sort of similar roles to mine at this company and I don't really put much faith in Glassdoor anyway as it strikes me as more of a recruitment tool than a worker empowerment tool. I know this varies and if I look at my colleagues in the US over on /r/sysadmin they're on 20 or 30k more than me, but what's a realistic salary raise to expect in the UK outside of London? I've only moved jobs twice, the first time was for just over 25% and the second was actually just under 9%. [link] [comments]  |
| You are subscribed to email updates from IT Career Questions. To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now. | Email delivery powered by Google |
| Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States | |
No comments:
Post a Comment