IT Career [Weekly] What would you like to know Wednesday? General Question Thread |
- [Weekly] What would you like to know Wednesday? General Question Thread
- Just moved from Helldesk to SysAdmin!
- Giving hope to those starting in IT!
- I'm very proud of myself! Hope you guys are keeping your heads up.
- Tips For Finding a Small Company to Work For?
- IT School Advice
- Help/Advice Desperately Needed! (Warning: Wall of Text!) (Military Veterans Welcome)
- Re-entering the workforce after extended time off due to medical issues, what certs/quals are the current hotness?
- I'm not sure where to go next
- Need advice about contacting the interviewer.
- Phone Screening Interview
- Degree moving along slowly. What to do?
- Leaving the Education field for a possible path to SysAdmin, College degree but not IT
- Should I get my degree?
- IT Consulting
- What percentage does an IT contractor company get?
- Questions about being a Service Desk Analyst interview and job duties.
- Cert advise
- Deciding between a Linux System admin and a full time programmer.
- Will accepting a non-IT analyst role hurt my end-game?
- Is it really uncommon to find highly effective and self-motivated people working in IT?
- How to make the most of my upcoming internship
- Starting an IT Career/Homelab help site - What do you want to see there?
- Second interview technical assessment
- Asked to do a presentation for my interview. How in depth do I get?
| [Weekly] What would you like to know Wednesday? General Question Thread Posted: 03 Apr 2019 01:18 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]  |
| Just moved from Helldesk to SysAdmin! Posted: 03 Apr 2019 08:56 AM PDT I say Helldesk mostly tongue-in-cheek, as I have a ridiculously easy helpdesk job. I work from home, never have anyone bugging me about metrics or how long I take on my breaks, and basically just get left alone to do my thing. I've done that for about a year. I have a friend who has been trying to get me to apply at his work (basically an MSP, but they work with the DoD and other government agencies). Finally he came out and said that he was made a hiring manager for his team, and he wants me to apply, and I could expect a huge raise (was making $35k at helpdesk). The job is SysAdmin on a team in charge of patching servers (mix of redhat, windows, and AWS). I kicked ass in the only real interview, and then was given an offer just a few days later. $60k + bennies, and after I can reasonably do things on my own, two work from home days a week (with fully remote a very real possibility, as both my friend, his boss, and at least one other person on the team is fully remote). I can't believe I went from helpdesk to SysAdmin so quickly, but here I am! Just goes to show that networking is important. I met this dude at a mutual friend's house playing Magic the Gathering, and now he's my boss at my new gig making near double what I was making before. [link] [comments]  |
| Giving hope to those starting in IT! Posted: 03 Apr 2019 09:37 AM PDT I just want to shine some light on those trying to enter IT or those who are still fresh in their job like me. IT GETS BETTER! When I first started out with 0 experience, it took me 4 months to get my first job as a Help Desk L1. I applied to hundreds of jobs with only 2 interviews. At this point in your career, it's HARD work, but don't give up! I've since been at my job for a year and I'm looking to move on. I've been picky about which companies I applied for. I've since applied to 15 jobs in the last week, and I've had 5 call backs for interviews. While working the help desk, I've obtained my A+ and Net+ and took on any projects they assigned me. Continue learning, continue applying, and continue to grow. It's VERY hard to get that first job, but as you can see it opens many doors for the second! I want to wish you all the best of luck in getting into the field or moving up the totem pole of IT. [link] [comments]  |
| I'm very proud of myself! Hope you guys are keeping your heads up. Posted: 02 Apr 2019 07:04 PM PDT So it's been just under a month since I started my four month contract at my new job. Today I found out that they think I'm absolutely killing it there and they want me to go Full Time! Holy shit, this is my first foray into IT and I thought I had a lot to work on. I certainly do but I'm doing way better than I thought. While I'm gloating a bit, I just want to remind you guys and girls out there to keep your heads up and focus. It's ok for things not to be ok sometimes, just don't give up and lose sight on what you're trying to accomplish. I say keep your heads up because I know it can be difficult and disheartening to see people posting success stories all the time and see yourself in what feels like floundering around. Good luck to you and Hooray! [link] [comments]  |
| Tips For Finding a Small Company to Work For? Posted: 03 Apr 2019 04:37 AM PDT Hello -- Been a Sys Admin / Server Engineer for the past 5 years. Every job I've worked at has slowly been at a larger company. I started with 50 employees, next place was 1200, and now I'm at a place with 14,000+ employees. I miss the feel of the small company. Maybe the days are over, but I still think back to my first job. The IT manager, myself (sys admin), and a helpdesk employee. The IT manager and I did everything from networking to datacenter management to architecture to system administration. I fucking loved it. Everything in that house was my baby and I felt important. Now being at a large company of 14k+ people, I feel like I have zero importance. I feel like if I dropped dead, nobody would notice. I've gone from wearing many important hats to wearing one really small hat that I'm not sure if it's important or not. IT recruitment is common, but it seems like recruiters only work for big clients. I'm looking for any tips the community might have into finding smaller companies to work for. I want to take a break from big corporate bureaucracy. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2019 09:22 AM PDT Hey there guys! So I've always had a love for computers and a strong interest in IT. I'm in a place where I can comfortably go back to school and there's a program a career school up the road offers! The program is 9 months, in these 9 months you obtain IT Fundamentals, A+, Security+, and Network+ certifications along with a diploma. They also do job placement and set you up with interviews with companies they partner with to help you find a job after graduation. Is this program something worth doing rather than attempting a degree right now? Any advice welcome, thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Help/Advice Desperately Needed! (Warning: Wall of Text!) (Military Veterans Welcome) Posted: 03 Apr 2019 10:10 AM PDT Before you read any further, let me say that it's going to be a long story made as short as possible, to put things into perspective, so someone can give the best possible advice with all the factors involved. Thank you for any advice ahead of time, anything is welcome. Let me start with saying that I am a veteran. I served in the U.S. Army, honorably discharged from active duty in 2009. Following my discharge, I've had a tough run here in the South Houston area. I've never been happy where I was or what I was doing since I've been out. I've tried to do the whole soul searching thing, to no avail. I've dabbled in so many different career paths, all ending in failure. I've sold cars, worked as an iOS Senior Technical Advisor at Apple, Inc., drove a big rig for a short time, Installation Technician at AT&T, and finally I was an intern as a Process Operator at a chemical plant. The internship was voluntarily given up yesterday for a myriad of reasons. Two years ago, I gave up my job as an Installation Technician at AT&T to go back to school. I started working towards an Associate of Applied Science in Information Security. After only a single semester, against my better judgement, the prospect of money pulled me away into an AAS in Process Technology for the petrochemical industry with hopes of giving my family an amazingly comfortable life. This, was a mistake albeit one with the best intentions. After nearly two years of working towards this degree, receiving an internship and literally being a month away from graduation, I've walked away from the internship and the degree program. It isn't it. It wasn't the right choice. I've wasted nearly all of my Post 9/11 benefits and almost two years of my life and time, and that of my family's, to be right back at square one. The only thing that I have EVER been passionate about is computers. Every aspect of them. The quiet beck and call of an IT career has always been in the back of my head. I've always wanted to pursue it (and haven't due to unknown reasons; perhaps simply fear of it being too large of an undertaking), but being that I'm 33 now, I feel like I might be behind the curve while that of some of the other younger generation folks might be on their peak at 10 years my junior. I have 12 months remaining on my Post 9/11 benefits, no job now, and I feel like I'm running out of time to make something happen here. I feel that I NEED a career in IT and I have full-time commitment available to the right prospective path. I feel that it's the only thing that is going to stick. My wife is essentially supporting us right now (I have some income from the VA for school and other benefits), but we need to use the GI Bill to keep the income coming in for as long as possible so we don't sink as we're just right there with the extra income from the education benefits. We could sustain as long as the GI Bill BAH continues while I pursue this, if it's even possible. So, what is it that I need help with? Well, it's pretty simple. I need the best possible path to get myself into the IT world, that can work within the confines of my remaining GI Bill benefits of 12 months (Vets who've used the GI Bill, you know that 12 months doesn't always mean 12 months with how the VA calculates the time used). I've looked tirelessly and I just don't know where to go, what to look for, what resources are available that're actually legit and recognized as such. I know I'm going to be fighting an uphill battle with the confines of the GI Bill, but I don't have a choice. This is my Hail Mary. The rubber has to finally meet the road here. I desperately need guidance as to where to turn to make this career path a possibility. Some further information to help any recommendations. I have some experience (self-taught) here and there. I've brushed up on a little bit of the new A+ certification, but haven't taken it. I've taken a networking course during that first semester of college, but never took the certification either. I'm currently in the process of dabbling in HTML, CSS, and Python, but with this new "crysis," it's on hold right now. Obviously and of course, I'm willing to do whatever it takes to start at the bottom and work my way up. In no way do I expect to walk away from any training of any kind and start out at $80k+. I'm a realist. I do have an itch and interest in InfoSec (primarily and mostly) or Networking. To be honest, I haven't a clue what'll really pop out at me as a dedicated path here after I get started. I don't think I would like to code all day, everyday. But it's a possibility. That's why I've started to dabble in a few languages to see how I feel. So far, not a huge burning desire, but also not a lot of time dedicated to it either. If you've made it this far, thank you. What in the !@#$ do I do? There are so many for-profits, non-profits, bootcamps, colleges, vocational schools, IT apprenticeships and probably other veteran resources that I haven't a clue about. I just don't know where to go or where to start. I know many people might say go the self-paced route with something like Cybrary or Codecademy, but I need to use the GI Bill to keep the funds rolling (but I'm happy to do it in addition to). Plus, I could really use job placement assistance that many of these places offer. I feel like I'm leaving a whole lot of stuff out, but this is long enough as it is. It feels like I'm lost and sinking and I don't know what to do. I'm not usually one to post things like this, and I don't ask for help. I'm too prideful. But as my wife always says, sometimes you have to ask for it. So, Reddit. Veterans. IT Pros. Help? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2019 06:23 AM PDT As the title says, I was working at a large education providers help desk from 2014 - 2017, due to medical reasons I had to leave my job and move interstate to be with family, but now im better and looking to get back in the saddle and want to know what are the current industry trends and/or certs that are desirable? I currently have MTA (2014) Apple Certified Mac Technician (2016) ITIL Foundations, A+ (2018) and was studying for a VMWare cert at the time of my departure. TIA [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2019 09:46 AM PDT I am currently in a tech support role for a college. I have a good grasp of computers but do not currently have any certifications. I would really like to move on to the next part of my career but I'm not sure which certification I should take. Since I have experience in IT should I skip the A+? Should I go for Network + or CCNA? I'm making about 40 a year right now and would like to move that up to 50-60 in the next year or two. Thanks in advance for your answers! [link] [comments]  |
| Need advice about contacting the interviewer. Posted: 03 Apr 2019 08:21 AM PDT I applied to a job on indeed last Wednesday and got a call from the president of the company asking me if I was available for an interview. Everything went well with the interview and the interviewer said that I sent hear something back by this past Monday at the latest. So Monday is here and no call or text. So I take the initiative and call the president and left a message on his VM and last got a text saying her was in a meeting and that he would call me back when he could. Here we are on Wednesday what should I do? I don't want to rush him or annoy him, so any advice is welcome. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2019 08:09 AM PDT Hey guys I've been a long time lurker of this sub but first time poster. It has helped me transition from a dead end job to a help desk position in a small company. You guys have truly helped me change my career and the advice given here has been life-changing for me. Today I have a phone screening for 'Huge corporation XYZ' and I'm freaking out... The position I'm apply for is software support engineer. Any tips or tricks on how to stay calm on situations like this? Or acing phone interviews? Thank you!!! TLDR: Tips for phone screening interviews. [link] [comments]  |
| Degree moving along slowly. What to do? Posted: 03 Apr 2019 07:57 AM PDT I know the title sounds a bit off but I'm currently in school for Information Technology and haven't really started to get into the nitty gritty major classes. I'm finishing up core classes and have math classes. I find myself still not doing enough it seems. Outside of class should I be focusing on an unrelated skill I'm trying to learn (video editing motion graphics) or should I be studying a tech skill for a specialization since school doesn't teach everything?(Thinking web development or data analyst) so much stuff I want to do and learn but not sure where to start. [link] [comments]  |
| Leaving the Education field for a possible path to SysAdmin, College degree but not IT Posted: 03 Apr 2019 07:50 AM PDT Hey everyone. I am currently in education as a long term substitute teacher for elementary school (5th grade and media specialist), and I'm finding that it is a thankless field with little growth. I love helping people, communication, mentoring, and education. I've been doing a little research and I think that going in the direction to SysAdmin would be a good choice for a career move. My degree is in psychology. Is this worth anything in the IT field? From what I am reading so far, the career path may look like Helpdesk I>comptia>other certifications. I'd just like some help filling in those gaps with some more specific requirements that I might not know of or be thinking about, or if there is another area of IT that my communication skills and educations skills would be able to better transfer to. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2019 07:46 AM PDT Hello, I work for an international company as a Admin Suport for network engineers. Most of my job consists of updating SharePoint and assists to calls to take the minutes. Moreover, I've never been paid this less (7€/h) and I find myself frustrated because, most of the time, I don't have any work to do and I never get to do any IT related tasks. My question is the following: should I take evening classes to get a degree while working part-time/ full-time for that company as it is a first step in the IT world or should I get my degree at the Uni following day classes and leaving this job? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2019 07:44 AM PDT Hey anyone in the IT Consulting business? I'd like you to explain if they pay for hotels or housing / rental cars and generally your experience with them. I had a friend explain it to me but it seemed too good to be true honestly. [link] [comments]  |
| What percentage does an IT contractor company get? Posted: 03 Apr 2019 06:31 AM PDT Really want to see how much they get in relation to the contractor. [link] [comments]  |
| Questions about being a Service Desk Analyst interview and job duties. Posted: 03 Apr 2019 06:28 AM PDT Hey there, I may have a chance to interview to be a service desk analyst and wanted to see if this sub could help me out and answer some questions for me. The job description says I will be imaging and deploying iPhones and iPads and working with end users. What types of questions should I be asking in the interview? This would be my first adventure into IT and I want to get the job. What types of jobs could this help me get in the future? I am currently studying for my A+ and hope to acquire that sometime in May or June. Then I was thinking about network+ after that. Basically I'm looking for any advice or direction in what steps I should be taking for long term and short term success and how to prepare myself for this job. I would like to work my way into security or networking at some point. Thank you for your time and I hope this post makes sense. Just feeling a little lost in the sauce. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 03 Apr 2019 04:17 AM PDT I currently working on the IT Helpdesk and looking gain some cert before moving next year I have recently passed MTA 98-368 and now looking for a short voip course/cert, i see there is Cisco CICD but not sure what experince is required. [link] [comments]  |
| Deciding between a Linux System admin and a full time programmer. Posted: 02 Apr 2019 11:42 PM PDT Lately I've been in conflict between these two fields. I have been using Linux for almost 6 years now and I have a pretty good handle on it and I never knew there was an entire career on it. On the other hand I have been programming in python for about 2 years still feels new as does Linux. Although from what I have seen Administration is a whole new world. I have built quite a few projects because I can't come across problems that need to be solved. The programming projects were all geared towards web and web scraping. I really like programming but with no new ideas coming to me it seems like its not the right thing for me considering I try to do projects and then leave it. This is like a last cry for help if anyone of you have been in this same situation a little nudge in the right direction would be helpful. TL;DR. I'm still confused as to which path will be good for me. Hopefully this is not a long post. Thanks. [link] [comments]  |
| Will accepting a non-IT analyst role hurt my end-game? Posted: 02 Apr 2019 11:25 PM PDT I have prior experience as a BA, a new degree in MIS, and I'd like to move toward the more technical side of IT in the long run, but I was offered an operational analyst position at Microsoft for a lower salary than median/average tech jobs (still a decent starting salary). Will taking this role hurt my long-term goal to work on the more technical side of software development, or will having my foot in the door help open up internal job postings and having a name-brand company bolster credibility on my resume? [link] [comments]  |
| Is it really uncommon to find highly effective and self-motivated people working in IT? Posted: 02 Apr 2019 04:58 PM PDT So that title is pretty click-baity but I am honestly stunned just how rare it seems to be to find coworkers who are willing to even go just slightly beyond their 'scope' or comfort zone to resolve issues. Like, to even just get up and physically go fix something that is taking forever to fix remotely or it's not working or whatever, it seems like I keep coming across whole offices full of people who are content to just reach a point in troubleshooting where they are out of ideas and just declare something un-resolvable or tell the user there's nothing they can do when literally getting up and walking 50 feet or googling for 20 minutes can fix it. I get it that IT is hard and that sometimes you don't want to do that, and that scope creep is real and all that, but dang it feels like the last few jobs I've had (call center/NOC tech, corporate IT, now bigger corporate IT) are just full of people so beaten down that just working most of the day is enough to get praise from management. Is it like this out there? Is morale generally so low among IT departments that this happens a lot? [link] [comments]  |
| How to make the most of my upcoming internship Posted: 02 Apr 2019 05:37 PM PDT Recently I was lucky enough to have received an offer for an IT internship with a medium-sized insurance company, which I will begin in June. This is my first IT job and I'm really excited to learn a lot. However, I'm not sure what I can do to really make myself shine besides the obvious stuff like showing up every day and working hard. The internship is expected to last from 9-12 months. Thoughts / experiences? I'd also love to hear some of your internship stories. [link] [comments]  |
| Starting an IT Career/Homelab help site - What do you want to see there? Posted: 02 Apr 2019 06:14 PM PDT I've had a couple of successful posts here posting about getting into IT, setting up a homelab, and so on and thought to myself, "What the hell. I'll make a small site on my own, miniscule homelab specifically to help people like this. I'll learn about administering an environment like this and help at the same time." So here's what I'd like to hear from this community: What do you want to see? Homelab ideas? IT pathways? Interviews with people in the industry? Something else? All ideas welcome for discussion though not all will be included. Ninja edit: BTW I'll be doing this entirely in CSS/HTML for the purpose of making myself write it that way manually. It takes time and practice and won't be an "advanced" site, but I'm looking to keep my resource usage down. I'll post a link here when I have something worth showing. [link] [comments]  |
| Second interview technical assessment Posted: 02 Apr 2019 07:29 PM PDT Hi there, As the title suggests. I am currently awaiting a second interview in which they are going to do a technical assessment. I was given the topics in advance, and was just curious what people thought would be good to know. The job is for a Tier 1 for an IT security vendor. The topics are: Cryptography, Malware, Windows, Networking, Linux/Unix and Mac OSX [link] [comments]  |
| Asked to do a presentation for my interview. How in depth do I get? Posted: 02 Apr 2019 07:21 PM PDT I was asked to do a 10 minute presentation on SIEM systems for a job interview. The topic of presentation is not something I am super familiar with so requires a bit of research on my end. The position I'm applying for is more sysadmin in nature and not security oriented. I think they just want to see if I can do research and whatnot. What is your opinion of the request? This is in Tennessee if that matters. [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