IT Career [Weekly] What would you like to know Wednesday? General Question Thread |
- [Weekly] What would you like to know Wednesday? General Question Thread
- [February 2020] Resume Review!
- What a crazy turn of events
- There Is No Silver Bullet
- Sable tech stack or skills - is real?
- Nervous about wasting money on not passing certs
- Being an IT professional: A thought experiment
- How many times did you change jobs before finding something you enjoy?
- Breaking out of a niche industry but not sure where to go or what to put on my resume
- Confusing Help Desk Interview
- How do you determine your target salary for negotiations?
- How far can you get without programming?
- Should I start applying to jobs while working towards certifications and my degree?
- Are Fortinet certs worth it?
- Not sure what position I should go for.
- Does anyone else feel like they're fighting the tide?
- Dealing with tired eyes
- IT Career Pathway Choice
- Sort of a rant, but maybe someone can provide some feedback
- Help desk for theme parks
- YOU NEED TO READ THIS
- What is a more solid career path from Support?
- Prerequisite jobs dissapearing?
- Is this a realistic position?
- I want to learn coding to make more money, but not too sure where to start.
- What certification is right for me? Need help in kick-starting my life. Any input and advice would be appreciated!
| [Weekly] What would you like to know Wednesday? General Question Thread Posted: 05 Feb 2020 12:17 AM PST 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]  |
| [February 2020] Resume Review! Posted: 05 Feb 2020 12:17 AM PST Finding it is time to update the good old resume and want a second set of eyes and some feedback? Post it below and let us know what you need help with. Please check out our Wiki Section for Resumes before posting! Requesters:
Feedback Providers:
[link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Feb 2020 11:34 PM PST Just gonna get some stats out of the way real quick: Also this is a bit of a long read soooo. 30 y/o Male, worked in IT for about 2 years about a decade ago, want to get back into IT so I started at WGU December 1st of last year. Currently at a terrible dead end job but they have good tuition reimbursement. Not actively looking for other work. Have one cert so far, MTA Networking fundamentals. So anyway, this last weekend I got dragged to a house party by my girlfriend, I didn't really want to go but she really wanted me to meet her friends/coworkers so I relented. Long story short, about 3 hours after my arrival, I've had a good bit to drink and I'm kinda just chilling at a table and people watching. Suddenly I hear from across the room someone mention WGU. "That's my school!", I thought and immediately walked over and inserted myself into the conversation, the guy greets me and ask what program I'm doing, I tell him Network Operation and Security, but I just started in December. So he's like neat, and we start chatting about WGU and IT, eventually he asks me if I'm looking for a job, I tell him not actively... He then tells me he's a hiring manager at a bank for the IT helpdesk. Says its super chill and he's looking for another guy for his team. At this point I'm thinking I'm drunk, this guy is humoring me, I reiterate that I don't have much experience and I just started school, he tells me that doesn't matter as much, he wants people that jive with his team and that are trainable, he asks me a couple questions about AD, group policy, some cmd prompt commands, as well as my interests then hes like yeah I think you'd be a good fit and gave me his number. I text him on the spot so he has my name and we go our separate ways. The next morning I wake up, and immediately think again, he was just humoring me, I was drunk. I'll text him Monday cause I mean, I should at least try. 30 minutes after this thought he texts me, telling me my interview is Monday at 9am if that works. Holy crap, this is real. So anyway, the interview ended up lasting 2 hours, it was the hiring manger and the other 2 members of his team, we joked and talked tech and peppered in some more traditional interview questions and then I was on my way, he told me I should hear back within a week or 2. He texted me the same day that night to tell me they want to do a second interview! I'm super stoked, they were really cool, and they had some serious tech, I'd be situated right next to the NOC team too, and they encouraged me to learn as much as possible. I'm trying to temper my optimism just in case it doesn't work out but it's literally all I can think about right now and I mean it's a pretty cool story too. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 05 Feb 2020 04:36 AM PST I have mentored quite a few people in IT and cybersecurity for the past couple of decades. Most don't usually last too long. I have discovered that most people looking for advice and encouragement in actuality want neither. They are looking for a silver bullet. There is no silver bullet. There is no one single certification that will automatically put you at the top of a recruiter's list. There is no programming boot camp that will automatically qualify you for a job. There is no degree that will guarantee a successful career. Like anything else worth having in life, Success is not only a moving target - it's hard work. You want the woman? Woo her daily. You want the fastest computer? Upgrade the computer often. You want to get serious about a growing career? Get disciplined and do something every day to advance your career - whether it's a webinar about a new product, filling out paperwork to get tuition reimbursement, or bugging your boss to give you a better title and/or raise. Now you know why most of my mentorees don't last too long. Most people want the instant win, the immediate gratification, the silver bullet. There is no such thing. I do have a handful that are willing to put in the work, and they have made tremendous strides - one intern who's still in college just got an offer for a job paying almost 6 figures. So when you post asking for IT Career Advice here, don't be hurt if we sometimes sound harsh. We love you. We want you to do well. We are here to give you advice. But you have to put in the work. Because there is no silver bullet. [link] [comments]  |
| Sable tech stack or skills - is real? Posted: 05 Feb 2020 09:30 AM PST Hi everyone! I want to apologize in advance for my bad English and for a long read, but I really need to get some advice about problem. I am 30 years old software developer with tiny expereance in this area (about a year). I got a CS master's degree in 29 y/o (also I have financial master's degree). I found my first job as software developer position (.NET) in small gas&oil company about 6 years ago. After getting this job I started deeper learning .NET. Tons of new information. It was realy hard. I worked on weekends and after my official work hours and firstly it was cool. I enjoyd it. After 6 month I found out that my father has cancer. In same time I began to realize that I had a burnout at work. I am tired of learning new information every day after work. I realized that this will be so all my life. But please do not misunderstand me - I ready learning new all rest of my life and all my life I was bank employee (before IT), but knowledge in IT dissapear very fast. New version of language, new frameworks, new tools for help programmers and tons book with example and practices about that and it all becomes obsolete very quickly. I needed to quit my job to look after my father. Now father is recovering after surgery and I looking for a new remote work (I live in a small, low-tech city with my sun and wife), but I'm affraid I lost my love to software development. Please, could you tell me more stable direction in IT or some expereance about this? Im ready for learning again and again but I want accumulating my skills and knowladge, don't lose in a couple of years. I was thinking about data analytics. But I heard that remote work in this area is fantastic. P.S. sorry for mistakes and long read but I'm desperate ) [link] [comments]  |
| Nervous about wasting money on not passing certs Posted: 05 Feb 2020 06:00 AM PST You think taking a Microsoft Fundamental cert just to get the ball rolling and to get a feel for taking certification exams [link] [comments]  |
| Being an IT professional: A thought experiment Posted: 05 Feb 2020 08:02 AM PST What is a common situation/question/scenario that is a good baromoter for determining if being an IT Professional is something i'd enjoy? I know there are a variety of professions, so please just answer for yours. [link] [comments]  |
| How many times did you change jobs before finding something you enjoy? Posted: 05 Feb 2020 05:36 AM PST My first job was for a huge multinational consulting company the pay was good but the working condition weren't great I ended up leaving after a year. Now I'm working in healthcare. The IT department is great my manager and co-worker are supportive of me climbing the learning curve but the work is boring. I'm going back to school part time to get my masters because I can get it for cheap since my dad works for the school system also I'm studying for AWS solution architect cert since I've recently decided that cloud was what I wanted to specialize in. So I guess my question is when did you find your groove? [link] [comments]  |
| Breaking out of a niche industry but not sure where to go or what to put on my resume Posted: 05 Feb 2020 07:05 AM PST I worked with point of sale software for years but the major one I know really well is going obsolete and my skills are becoming unneeded. So it's time to look ahead but I'm not sure where to go or what to put on my resume I have done networking (deployed and maintained servers and terminal computers. Configured DHCP/static IP as needed etc) Hardware (replace thermal heads on printers for example, troubleshot hardware issues on computers and peripherals.. hard drives, network cards) Cybersecurity (removed keyloggers, ransomware, yelled at people for letting employees plug their phones in via usb then blaming us for credit card breach etc, PCI compliance and practices) Training and education (created documentation for both internal and customer facing use) Troubleshot and resolved codebase and VB6 errors including editing DBF files and excel scripts Software deployment and maintenance. SQL based (future, aldelo) VBA based (digital dining) cloud based (pixel point and mobilebytes) etc So I'm pretty well rounded but want out of restaurant point of sale. Any help/feedback would be appreciated thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 05 Feb 2020 10:07 AM PST Finished up an interview with Corporate Recruiter 15min ago. All was well until we got into the job title and job description itself . She asked if I had interest in other fields (Networking, Information Systems , Security, etc) and I said I wasn't entirely sure yet since this would be my first IT job ,etc.. She went on to say, "well from my understanding this wouldn't be a good stepping stone for those jobs if that's your main goal." She also mentioned most of the day to day is password resets and they were looking to outsource technical support in the future . But they are looking for someone who is interested in Help Desk for long term (3-4 years) So my question is - is this recruiter just il informed on IT or is this a weird Help Desk job where I'll learn nothing other than Password Resets ? Does anyone else have experience with similar interview conversations ? I am skeptical to take the job if it's not a good IT stepping stone position . Thanks ! [link] [comments]  |
| How do you determine your target salary for negotiations? Posted: 05 Feb 2020 09:32 AM PST This is a question I've struggled with more than once. When changing jobs or positions, how do you set your asking price for salary negotiations? I've never found a good source for median regional IT salaries. Every time I go researching, they appear to vary wildly even within a single city. Do you have a good method or resource for determining the appropriate salary range for a given title or position? [link] [comments]  |
| How far can you get without programming? Posted: 05 Feb 2020 09:08 AM PST Is there a ceiling, or is there still plenty of higher level work without any coding? [link] [comments]  |
| Should I start applying to jobs while working towards certifications and my degree? Posted: 04 Feb 2020 03:08 PM PST I'm working towards an associates in IT, and am planning on getting a bachelors afterwards. I'm currently studying to get my A+ cert and if everything goes correctly I'll have it by May. There are many entry level help desk jobs in Indiana to help me get out of the restaurant gig I'm currently overworked at. Any and all suggestions would be appreciated, thank you!! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 05 Feb 2020 07:48 AM PST Hi all, Are Fortinet's certs recognized / respected? My employer's wanting us to pursue these but I want to make sure it's worth my time. [link] [comments]  |
| Not sure what position I should go for. Posted: 05 Feb 2020 07:45 AM PST Hi, I am 48m with 20 years experience in IT. I have an AAS in Electronics Technology from DeVry, but no certifications. Right out of school I was hired at a startup that was doing well to be the first Tier 2/3 support for their small help desk. I did that for almost 2 years before moving to Engineering to build the master drives for the system. I built master drives, and continued to support the help desk for the next 12 years. I left the company on good terms because of an ill timed layoff. I did go back about 6 months later to work in Customer Service as a Tier 3 "Systems Administrator II" for almost 4 more years, but I got caught in another lay off. I had one job after that where I was doing business support for an enterprise product for about 6 months. Most recently I have been working the "Tech Bar" at a very large company and other than the pay and benefits being much lower than I am used to, I really enjoy the work. I like helping people get their jobs done, and the paperwork that is required is pretty light. Sorry it took so long to get to the question, but I am trying to find a job that combines my interest in new technology SCCM, Networking, MDT, ETC., with my enjoyment of helping people. Is there anything like that out there? TLDR, Is there any IT job that combines my interest in technology and my enjoyment of helping people? [link] [comments]  |
| Does anyone else feel like they're fighting the tide? Posted: 05 Feb 2020 07:38 AM PST I've been in IT since the late 90s and I think it's starting to wear me down. Trying to keep up on technologies feels like a losing battle at times. That, and since I'm getting older, I'm concerned about ageism. How do you guys cope with things like this? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 05 Feb 2020 07:26 AM PST Hello, everyone As I spend most of my day in front of a computer screen, my eyes get very tired which ultimately brings my productivity to a halt. How do you deal with this? Does anyone have any tips? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 05 Feb 2020 07:08 AM PST Hi, I'm in my first year of a Digital and Technology Solutions Apprenticeship. How the course works is that for the first year you are given the basics of Java, html and CSS and business. After this first year, you go into the specific pathways: -IT Consultant, -Data Analyst, -Software Engineer, -Cyber Security Analysis. If I'm being bluntly honest, I have no interest in the Cyber Security route, and I'm split between the last three. If anyone knows what any of those roles involve, either at a slightly higher level on a same/similar course, or someone already working in those roles at work, then I'd greatly appreciate it! [link] [comments]  |
| Sort of a rant, but maybe someone can provide some feedback Posted: 04 Feb 2020 07:06 PM PST Here we go.. I just need to get it all out. RANT WARNING I'm 36 years old.. I have been in the field since 2005 so that's going on 15 years. I started off like a lot of folks but my story is a bit different. I got my first computer when I was 11 and immediately fell in love with it. I learned to navigate around my Packard Bell Navigator software and one day- I received a glimpse of Windows 3.11 for work groups behind the scenes and quickly began exploring. I spent most of my time on AOL chat and IRC wanting to be a programmer. I wanted to develop things and create and have fun. I started off by using these AOL Bot programs and was fascinated by them. Here I am 11 and saying "I wanna be a computer programmer" next to being a paranormal investigator or third base for the NY Yankees. Skip forward a few years I started learning some Visual Basic but had a real tough time grasping concepts, so I picked up QBasic and was bored immediately. I gave up on Visual Basic after making a few sendkey apps to "hack" AOL lol.. Now I'm 15 and spending way more time on IRC than I should! I've began writing mIRC scripts with some cool functionality and really understanding some of the basic. I've began chatting with Khaled Mardem-Bay (sp?) the author of mIRC about programming and other things about developing. I end up hanging out on DALnet and EFnet programming channels (C,Perl,cgi) and reading what I can on Windows API etc.. I wanted to write an IRC server so that I could sell it for $499 a license like some of the pros.. ConferenceRoom and ChatSpace lol.. It never got off the ground as I couldn't wrap my head around putting it all together. I did learn quite a bit from writing my sockets in C/C++ but still couldn't grasp structs to save my life... :( I'm 16 and I drop out of High School to become a programmer this is 1999-2000 at the time thinking let's do this shit.. I got my "big break" after faxing my resume and calling everything in the yellow pages I could find lol- a small ISP/Web company hires me as a "Jr. Programmer" to write perl/cgi for their websites and other low end sysadmin duties and bitch work. That didn't last long. I barely had a workstation to use, no real training and just all around stupid. I quit.. I go back a few years later but end up not taking the job. They offered to pay me $6.00/hr in 2000 which was mad low. It was shortly after that I went to a local IT convention - ITEC it was called. I hung out at the local linux user group and felt out of place.. I wasn't as geeky as these guys.. these guys were hardcore into all things computers and I knew right then and there I wasn't as passionate. There was this one kid in particular who was your stereotypical obese nerd and I thought to myself I didn't want to do this anymore. I was 17. Then things changed, I went to community college to become an auto mechanic. I excelled at the electrical classes the most but of course couldn't transfer that knowledge to my wrench. I did this til about 21 bouncing from garage to garage. Then we got pregnant.. She's 18 and I'm 21.. fun times right? I digress. So I stepped up and took care of my family. I went from a mechanic back to IT via contracting as a Deployment technician doing this big roll out over 3 months. (I got back into IT because I was tired of being broke and dirty all the damn time). My career progression went something like this: Deployment TechDesktop SupportHelpdesk - at an ISP internal ITApp Support (helpdesk)More desktop support lol More contracts than I can count.. I finally land an FTE role in 2008 with a local CLEC (I had no idea at the time they were a CLEC) - doing internal IT Helpdesk.. I really loved it there, the guys were great and the environment was great hell even the end users were amazing. I became the SME on pretty much anything we supported- if it needed a visit it went to desktop or if it was server related it went to server group etc.. I did a lot of automation via altiris and scripting to deploy fixes or just some of the mundane tasks we were assigned.. I had elevated access to systems that other co-workers didn't have, I had a good rapport with other groups. It was great. Well apparently I pissed off the wrong guy(s) because somewhere a long the line things went south. I moved to our NOC department where I was trained in troubleshooting circuits (T1,T3,SONET) and other things like PRI and routing and switching and bgp and all the stuff you'd find in a repair level of an ISP. I crushed it. I was closing 30+ tickets a night and was highly efficient at my job. I found ways to automate some processes and implemented them which could save hours on testing circuits every night. I knew my environment and my job and did it well. Problem was pay. I was making 45K a year but barely able to support a wife in school and my daughter. I left and went a VoIP reseller for about year before getting a job with a Cisco partner installing routers, switches and firewalls etc. Was an ok job.. I got my CCNA and CCNA Voice. Got an offer to be a network engineer internally at market research company but it was contract to hire. I took the gig but found out at the end of 3 months that the new CIO had no room and was cutting costs. Ended up at an MSP and was thrown into the mix of servers, exchange, end-user support all over again. I did some network items but it really kicked my ass as I never worked for an MSP before. I got let go due to billable hours. Bounced to a few other MSPs - some good some shit. I ended up taking a huge pay cut and going as a contractor to a different telecom in their service activation's department turning up circuits and services. This lasted 3 months when the contract funding got pulled and they had to cut the new guys loose. I went on another contract at software company but they got bought turning my time there and poof goes the contract. I finally find a decent gig. Network Engineer for a software company that needs support for an SDN solution they've developed for an ISP overseas. They fly me to Australia for training on the product and to meet the guys - loved it. I get back and the ISP is going through issues and doesn't need North American support anymore. My company puts me with a partner company, an MSP and I've been there since 6/18- I am a senior systems engineer and responsible for server migrations, network, backups yada yada.. I hate it. The after hours, the stress of scheduling customers, the incompetence, deadlines, keeping up with new technology in a "business" sense. I hate being responsible for so many technologies and my lack of understanding some of them really pisses me off. Now don't get me wrong. I can walk into any customer and understand what's going on and what's broken and fix it. I just feel left desiring more.. much more. I come into work day in and day out and fix issues for customers who give two shits about you and who see you as a utility guy. I put in extra hours to get things done and even if I am compensated for it I still am sick of giving up my free time because the customer demands things are completed at $x time. My hands hurt, my body hurts, I am getting more and more drained everyday and it's becoming a problem in my personal life. I don't spend as much time with my children as I want and I'm always just working.. or studying about work.. or studying studying.. self education etc. I've thought about getting out of IT but I am well compensated and if I left I would not hit anywhere close to what I make now. It's such a dilemma for me. Is the grass really greener? or am I just burnt out? I think about what it might be like not working at a desk at all, or something more physical even if it were technology related.. but like I said.. I've put 15 years into this and I'm at a salary now which I like.. still not quite what I think I should be making for my experience but it's enough. I just need to have something to give. While I want work life balance I also want well paying position that affords me to do the things I want to do. /end [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Feb 2020 04:49 PM PST Hey I've been working in retail technology for about 3 years now. And was recently offered a help desk role at a major theme park and was wondering if anyone had any experience with how they operate and if it's a good move. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 05 Feb 2020 01:25 AM PST I was thinking this morning about when people are searching for a new job. How it's a very tiring process, how it's pretty much like having a second job, and how often we as human beings over flood ourselves with interviews and make our lives more stressful than it needs to be as we are in a rush to get a job quickly! I've done this before, anyone who says they haven't are ying haha. When interviewing its important that you are PATIENT. This is my main piece of advice. Take your time. I know how you may be feeling. You may be desperate to leave your current role but sometimes being desperate means you make the wrong choice and you are in the same situation 2-3 months later in a different company. So be patient, take your time with your job search and apply to jobs you actually want to join and are excited by. This will mean you will make the right choice when you eventually join a company and are fully fulfilled ! [link] [comments]  |
| What is a more solid career path from Support? Posted: 05 Feb 2020 04:50 AM PST I've done some sysadmin in the past and currently work tech support for a small cloud provider. At this point for career progression, I feel like I could pivot further in to a higher tier of Support, aim to be a team lead or manager, or pursue programming further (have implemented some small Python projects for my company). For now I am seeking money and job security (but these values will likely change in the future, as I become more financially independent and want to have something that uses my brain more and make meaningful contributions to something). Thoughts? I feel like being a manager could be scary because I would lose tech skills and over time I could be stuck in management (which limits job potential). But then again, being stuck in Support forever doesn't sound that fun either. [link] [comments]  |
| Prerequisite jobs dissapearing? Posted: 05 Feb 2020 04:45 AM PST Hello all, I just have a question for those of you IT experts out there. So, with the decline of sys admin and network engineering jobs out there, how will this affect the cyber security job market if there are alot less people with network eng/sysadmin experience out there? Is climbing up from the Helpdesk going to be the obsolete way of stepping into the info sec industry with the loss of the "entry-ish to mid level" jobs? Thoughts? And please don't murder me I'm not an IT expert by any means, just a curious lurker that reads a lot and the BLS seems like a credible source for this information. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 05 Feb 2020 04:43 AM PST This position supposedly pays 14/hr with benefits totaling up to 36k a year. [link] [comments]  |
| I want to learn coding to make more money, but not too sure where to start. Posted: 05 Feb 2020 04:39 AM PST I found a website called Codecademy that teaches some basics and also full courses on coding. Web development, Data/Computer science, Code foundations, Python, C++, Java, etc. Its a lot and I do not know where to start, how to find a job or what certification to pursue. I just know I'm hungry to work and willing to learn, I just need some guidance. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 04 Feb 2020 06:55 PM PST I'm currently trying to research different IT fields and I was looking into cloud computing and I wasn't sure which one was better. AWS, Azure, or GCP? Then I started looking that cloud computing might be dead. What field should I be looking into and what certification should I consider? Please help I'm lost. I have about 3 years of Level 1 IT Technician experience and I would prefer not to get into a field that's coding heavy. Thanks for reading I hope I can get some sort of guidance. [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