IT Career A High School Drop Out's First 2 Years In IT |
- A High School Drop Out's First 2 Years In IT
- Recently laid off from a SaaS company. Confused where my career is going. Do not want to go back down the Help Desk route...
- FREE: The Udemy Course "Practical Ethical Hacking - The Complete Course" is free On May 1st (until 23:59 EST)
- Resume Conversion to Architect
- Trifecta complete but how to choose continuing cert path for someone with no IT exp yet?
- Was Security+ a waste of time?
- Codecademy is giving three months of their Premium subscription for free to people affected by the pandemic.
- This is more of a question for advice on IT careers in general and employee satisfaction.
- Favoritism in Promotion
- Any advise on moving from self-taught Python developer to data scientist like role?
- Looking for advice to change career path
- Military Enlisted vs Officer vs Civilian Sector IT?
- Need advice for a career switch
- Interview at Unisys today
- How do you stay motivated in a bad spot?
- How have you addressed the "previous salary" problem?
- Is a Masters in MIS worth the extra time and money?
- Timing tracking standards... what is reasonable when you work with only internal customers?
- Need advice on my next move
- From Air Traffic Controller to Automation Specialist to... Possibly Sys Admin? How do I get there.
- What has been the hardest part about working during Covid?
- Best road to CISO
- Sys Admin Apprenticeship
| A High School Drop Out's First 2 Years In IT Posted: 01 May 2020 06:01 AM PDT I'm writing this post because when I was trying to get into this field I would come on this subreddit and these posts would always motivate me. As of yesterday I've been in IT for 2 years. My first real job was working at Best Buy for $10/hr, I worked there for about 9 months and even though the people were great, I hated my job. I ended up quitting and tried the whole Twitch streamer thing for a little bit which I also hated. I, like many others thought, hey I can build a gaming PC, I SHOULD BE IN IT! I already knew about the A+ Certification from my dreams of joining the coveted Geek Squad at Best Buy. I was told by the manager of the Geeks that if I wanted to join, that's where I should start. I did some research and found Professor Messer, and decided that I would get my A+ and then look for Help Desk jobs as recommended by the people here. While studying I would look at Help Desk job postings and apply even though I only had experience from Best Buy. I put some other stuff on there like computer building experience, etc. I was shocked when I got a call back from a Help Desk supervisor. We spoke briefly and setup an interview for later in the week. When I got to the interview, I was given a small written test (this is actually not normal at all but I thought it was at the time) with questions like "What's the difference between a switch and a hub?" WELL GUESS WHAT, PROFESSOR MESSER TOLD ME THE ANSWER ALREADY HA! I got a 9/10 total on this super odd test and was able to sell myself pretty well in the interview. I got a call back later that day and got the job! This was a small non-profit organization. I was making $14/hr but there was only two of us in the entire IT department which meant I got to touch a lot of stuff someone in my position shouldn't. This job had a lot of downtime, I used this time to study and pass the A+, Net+ and CCENT. We also hired a Network Admin towards the end of my time there who was awesome and helped me study for the CCENT. Oh I also studied for and passed my GED at the request of my girlfriend. After a year at the Non-Profit making $14/hr, I requested that I work one day per week remote as well as a raise. They gave me $15/hr but did not let me work remote. I decided to look elsewhere. As a side note, during this time I went through the normal job listing sites indeed, monster, etc and also used a few recruiters. Through MY personal experience, the recruiters were useless and only really called to get information that would help them. Anyway, I interviewed with a bigger national company and it went really well, then they ghosted me for a week until telling me they went with someone else. The HR person said it was between me and someone else and to stay in touch. I would bother the HR lady about once a month, I'd send emails saying hey just passed my Network+, heres an updated resume. About 3 months later they called and setup and interview. The process went just as well as the first time and later that day they offered me a job as a Help Desk Analyst at $21/hr. This company was an absolute train wreck. Everyone in IT was in their own little silo and there were processes for every little thing. For example, they had this super complex process just for adding people to distribution lists. I was answering phones all day long and walking people through the same 3 tasks, I hated it. During this time I passed my CCNA and also started pursuing a computer networking A.S. at a community college. Once I got my CCNA(about two months into working at this company), I immediately starting looking for a new job. I loved the people I worked with but the company was just too much of a wreck. I got a call back for a sysadmin job and setup an interview. The interview went really well, they liked that I was continuing to learn through certifications and that I had been doing other stuff than just normal help desk duties. I got a call back the same day and they offered me a job at $28/hr. I've currently been in this role for 8 months and I love it. The company is awesome, leadership, employees, benefits all amazing. This is the first time I found a company where I feel like I can stay and grow and I'm really happy about it. For those still trying to break into IT just focus on getting your foot in the door and take full advantage of the opportunity when you do. Don't get complacent once you get a job, keep grinding and make yourself more employable. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Apr 2020 07:14 PM PDT Hi everyone — Unfortunately I was laid off from my company due to the impact of COVID-19, along with almost 30% of the company. Scary times, but I am motivated to keep pushing forward. My company I was working at was a SaaS based company that sold a low-code web development tool and also a live streaming tool. When I was initially hired, my title was "IT Support Specialist" and I did everything from providing internal support to the employees and being the "IT" guy. After about 5 months of learning the IT processes - they approached me and asked if I wanted to be a part of their Customer Software Support team, which would entail helping customers with their questions about the product. Since the IT was sort of slow, I figured I would take the opportunity. I had a training period where I learned the ins-and-outs of their SaaS product and master it. Master it enough to answer customer tickets, be on live chat support, hop on phone calls with the sales team. I REALLY enjoyed this. I enjoyed working with customers and representing the brand, helping different companies achieve their goals with their products. I also liked being pulled into calls with the Sales/Customer Success team as a "technical contact" to explain or demo the product. I wrote technical documentation for the software. Maintained relationships with customers on projects. I was able to collaborate with Engineering team and Development team when certain bugs came up on the software and pick up some basic HTML and CSS tricks along the way. I learned that the software was hosted on AWS and I really wanted to get AWS certifications to see if I can branch out and maybe help on the backend side.... but this all came to an end when I was laid off. My resume is very Desktop Support / IT Support heavy due to all the internships and part time stuff I did while I was in college. Once I got my degree in Computer Information Systems - I started at that SaaS company and began to realize that my love for IT Support wasn't there anymore. I am trying to find a new role and getting contacted by recruiters, but they are for Help Desk positions. I am trying to break away from Help Desk and hopefully stay in the SaaS space. I was thinking about getting the AWS Cloud Practitioner and Azure Cloud Fundamentals certifications (I have a lot of downtime to study for these) to sort of beef up my resume. Here is my resume to get an idea of my experience: https://imgur.com/gallery/oDUYFRg Does anyone have any advice? I can PM you my LinkedIn Any help is appreciated... I'm going through a rough time right now. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 May 2020 12:21 AM PDT The Coupon Code Is FTHECORONAVIRUS The direct Udemy link is: https://www.udemy.com/course/practical-ethical-hacking/?couponCode=FTHECORONAVIRUS If Link Does Not Show as free and it is not past May 1st (until 23:59 EST, the new code will be) FTHECORONAVIRUS2 and so forth. It is also mentioned codes may take an hour or two to activate [link] [comments]  |
| Resume Conversion to Architect Posted: 01 May 2020 09:29 AM PDT I am looking to move from engineer to architect. What changes did you make to your resume to start targeting architect roles? Thanks Rogue [link] [comments]  |
| Trifecta complete but how to choose continuing cert path for someone with no IT exp yet? Posted: 01 May 2020 09:24 AM PDT Quick backround. Early 40s, AAS degree in tech, with 7 yrs Aerospace test/repair experience until becoming disabled, off work for 10 yrs. Trying some new procedures this year in hopes that I can re-enter work force, and I thought the IT field would be fitting for me. Just acquired my Trifecta, A+ N+ S+, and am on the fence as to where to go from here. I suppose it depends on where in IT I want to be, which also hinges on my health. I don't see myself doing any typing heavy jobs, IE hours at a time of typing. Can this rule out any IT positions? Any next certificate suggestions for someone without any idea when they can begin working or where they want to be? I am pulled to stay with Comptia for the easy recertifications, but AWS interests me. Don't want to heavily invest in a position that is fading away. Also, are there any certs that would allow someone with no IT experience to bypass entry level help desk jobs? Any suggestions? Thanks [link] [comments]  |
| Was Security+ a waste of time? Posted: 30 Apr 2020 04:37 PM PDT I have very little experience in IT, mostly just teaching myself Linux, python, and some html in my free time. I studied on my own and passed the Security+ certification thinking that it would at least get me an entry level position, but even entry level job postings require prior work experience. I feel stuck since I cannot get experience because companies will not hire me... because I don't have experience. Anyone have suggestions on how to move forward? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Apr 2020 07:17 PM PDT |
| This is more of a question for advice on IT careers in general and employee satisfaction. Posted: 01 May 2020 10:09 AM PDT I have been at my first job in IT out of college for close to 2 years now. It's an analyst position at a big logistics company. I wanna preface that I am not opposed to hard work and love working for people I respect and learn from. But lately I'm starting to hate my job. The work I do feels like it does not have long term benefits, I'm just fixing one off issues until another one comes. It feels like playing wack-a-mole and i don't feel like I'm learning something significant. And my leadership only seems to care when something isn't working and our clients complain. Which I understand, but when I do well on those issues and ask to be put on more long term projects, there isn't much movement from them. My coworkers and family told me that no one really loves their job because work is work. And you have to get to a point where you care about the money and the life you have outside of work. This advice upsets me since we spend so much of our time at work. My question is, is this the case for you too? Even if you switch companies, work is still going to become something you just have to get through 9-5? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 May 2020 10:06 AM PDT I recently worked for a large Biopharmaceutical company and the hiring and promotion practices bother me, especially when it comes to this one girl. Let me start with some background:
So this girl comes in with no prior experience and completed a year long internship. She then does contract work for 10 MONTHS and then gets promoted to the leadership position that require 10 YEARS of experience (referenced above).... it's an incredibly coveted position that many qualified people have strived for, and yet they just handed it to her. It's not like she's a genius... when she came in as an intern, she had to meet with her mentor nearly every day because she needed constant hand-holding (she couldn't even figure out how to write an excel formula on her own! And didn't know any of the basics for anything). And now that she has this position .... all she does is the work of a Jr. Analyst (enhancements), sits around all day, goofs off, and gossips. But others with this position have work that keeps them busy pretty much 24/7 and they lead teams of 20+ people and are in charge of the strategy and success of 5+ projects.... even analysts who are contractors are on multiple projects and have their calendars booked all day long (including through lunch time) with stakeholder meetings. It just bugs me that she can have that title and position without having ever done anything to earn it , and not even doing anything that brings value. It's just insulting.... so I'm wondering if this is how corporate life is, people getting into positions they don't at all deserve and then having massive egos, and acting like they are above others. [link] [comments]  |
| Any advise on moving from self-taught Python developer to data scientist like role? Posted: 01 May 2020 09:49 AM PDT tl;dr I have an undergraduate degree in Mathematics, I've been doing IT for 10 years, first in application support, and now as a developer with Python that I self-taught myself. I'm wondering what are the next steps, are data scientist like roles possible for me? What are the best skills to learn? This week it was announced the department I work for is shutting down operations. This is inside a very large company and thankfully they have decided not to layoff anyone yet. This has given me a moment to pause and consider my career. I graduated with a degree in Mathematics but didn't have a plan so liking computers I just started applying for "IT Jobs". This was back in the last financial recession so this didn't really work out for a while until I found an IT training company that in exchange for that training would give you 2 years on a small salary while they contracted you to a large company. I got an application support role in a large company, a company that I've been in for over 10 years now. I wrote a lot of shell scripts, SQL, and the like, but in 2014 I started to teach myself Python and using it at work. This last couple of years my primary role has been as a Python developer, working on a couple of projects which I developed and maintain (a project based on Airflow and a web app built using Dash). I do use data science tools from time to time in my job, Pandas, Jupyter etc. And I understand them well enough to figure out performance problems, e.g. I helped quant researchers understand why Pandas was 500x slower when changing the order of operations for vector multiplication, I went through the source code of Pandas and found the problem (fyi was fixed in their 1.0 release) and showed researchers how to avoid it. But I don't use these tools day to day and I'm not using them for statistical analysis. I've taken a couple machine learning classes provided by the company, got to use Scikit-Learn to solve some toy problems over a couple of days, and on one of the courses used Spark to train on a much larger data set. I followed a couple of YouTube tutorials on neural networks and played around with PyTorch. I don't particularly struggle with the underlying mathematics as it brings back my linear algebra and statistics classes back out of my memory. But I haven't found any problems to test how well I could apply these in a real world situation, and my experience of programming tells me that makes a big difference. So I'm wondering what next? Is data science a reasonable choice? Or is that too much of a jump without any formal education? Maybe I should stick to development and use this time to really focus on learning another productive programming language. [link] [comments]  |
| Looking for advice to change career path Posted: 01 May 2020 09:47 AM PDT So my story is a little weird. I graduated with degree in Computational Mathematics and could have got a minor in CS but missed one class. I get married last year of college and basically got the first job I could get as an accountant but that isn't what I want to do. It is a dead end job basically and the work environment can be bad. I want advice in to how to transition into CS/IT career since that is what I spent a lot of my time in college learning. I have no work experience besides technically being tech support for my current job as well. [link] [comments]  |
| Military Enlisted vs Officer vs Civilian Sector IT? Posted: 01 May 2020 09:15 AM PDT I'm 27 years old with a bachelor's in kinesiology currently working as a firefighter making 40k but we do around 70 to 90 hours a week. I have A+, Net+, and Sec+ certs. Debating if I should join the army in 25B IT specialist E4 enlisted since I have a degree which would be around 28k a year, go in as an officer(but I may not be guaranteed a computer related job) 40k a year, or look for civilian IT jobs in other cities. The only thing is it seems not that many people are hiring because of the coronavirus, or I'll have to start out at lower entry level pay 14 to 16 an hour; however, that is relatively the same amount as an E4, but probably not as good of benefits as the army, but I wouldn't have to commit 4 years to the job if it ends up being bad either tho. Which do you all think is best considering my age and qualifications
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| Need advice for a career switch Posted: 01 May 2020 09:11 AM PDT I'm 22 f, I have CS B.S. & been working for over a year as Java dev (a little full-stack). It feels like this is not really my thing BUT I've noticed I'm interested in a mix of programming & business. I ENJOOOOY working with bugs. I like to dig into code and documentation to find out why the bug is a bug and why it is there. Since I'm not very passionate about programming I barely read anything technology related to learn new things and stay up to date and nowadays I barely have time on it. But still I love the field, I enjoy doing my tasks but I feel bad from not being passionate about this. Also should mention maths is not my strongest quality. Do you have any idea of what role I could take in IT field? Thanks! [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 May 2020 08:48 AM PDT Hello all, I have an interview for a robotics process automation internship at Unisys today at 1:30. I wanted to see if anyone has been interviewed at Unisys for similar positions, or just in general, and what I should expect. Thank you! [link] [comments]  |
| How do you stay motivated in a bad spot? Posted: 01 May 2020 08:44 AM PDT Due to COVID-19 I'm sure everyone is in a bad spot right now mentally, but I've been on a Desktop support project team for about 10 months now and honestly don't really like my job here. I feel like most of the work I do is pointless (especially right now, all we do is image all day) and that the management doesn't care about me or my team, they just care about how many computers we can install or image in a day. I have no motivation/energy to study for certifications once I'm home because I've been working all day, and even when I have down time at work I just can't bring myself to sit down and do it. I get into these moods of hopelessness that my job will never really amount to anything and end up kinda shutting down. I just can't seem to find the motivation to do it out of fear of whatever job I have after this being the same way. I know this is more a mental health issue than anything but I'm just hoping for some advice on how to stay motivated when you're in (what feels like) the dead end job of the IT field, as I'm sure some of you have been in my place. [link] [comments]  |
| How have you addressed the "previous salary" problem? Posted: 01 May 2020 08:40 AM PDT In a job interview, you're going to be asked what your old salary was. How have you responded to it in past interviews? [link] [comments]  |
| Is a Masters in MIS worth the extra time and money? Posted: 01 May 2020 08:19 AM PDT Is a Masters in MIS worth it? I've read arguments for and against it but I'm still undecided. My school just added an accelerated masters program that would allow me to graduate with the Masters. However, this would likely cause me to take out a loan, that I otherwise wouldn't have, to pay for it. Is this route worth it or would it be better to consider getting out in 4 years with a bs, getting some professional experience, and then potentially going back for an MBA or something similar? [link] [comments]  |
| Timing tracking standards... what is reasonable when you work with only internal customers? Posted: 01 May 2020 07:47 AM PDT I'm a DBA at a huge fortune 100 company. I support dozens of applications from different teams across the company and my work is a mix of issue support and helping implement new code/fixes to the it. Until recently my time tracking was simple. Company meetings were one bucket, Dev support is another, Prod support another, and then PTO. It had been this way for years. However recently our new parent company is pushing a standard for time tracking that makes no sense to me. Their standard is that a minimum of 50% of our weekly time needs to be charged to "projects" and not the dev or prod support. They've point blank said that if our team is not meeting this standard within a few months, we can expect a reduction in workforce because through their eyes it means we have too many employees. Whatever, seems reasonable, except: - Exec management have not communicated this to any of the application teams we support and won't be doing that. Not the exec that handles the development and systems departments, or our systems department to the application departments. It is our individual job as DBAs to let each customer we work with know that they now need to allocate budgeting, have a project manager go in and give me the ability to charge time against the project, argue with the PM about hours it took every week, and help them understand what a project is compared to baseline support. There is a doc only within our department about this, but we are not the same department as the many different application teams across the company. - Most of my customers don't even have a PM, project time/hours/ids in our system, or even the ability to use our time tracking system to allocate these hours to me to charge against. This past week for example, I must have spent at least 4 hours in meetings, emails, etc with just a single internal support customer trying to figure out how they can set up a project for me to charge time against, and the only answer I've gotten from anyone is "oh we can't do that". And it's only my problem, so no one else is following up. - Most of the customers are also not used to doing any of this for support. It has already been a struggle getting any of them to use our ticketing system instead of email or IMs. So far I've received confusion and anger from people who are mad because "they never used to have to do any of this before" and "it sounds like a lot of paperwork." - Management is not enforcing that we stop work for any teams that don't or can't do project hours. The teams don't care that I'm not able to charge project time, just that I keep working for them. My manager basically is just shrugging it off or saying "yeah it's really annoying I wish they gave us better guidelines." Ok great, well... - Some weeks there is just going to be a ton of support issues, and they don't at least on paper want us to track more than 40 hours a week. I've had weeks where I've done a full work week just handling people's issues. It sounds like I'm supposed to make up projects that don't even exist. - They are very vague about what a project is. For example if we help a customer having time out issues in their database and can easily identify an index that would help them, that is production support. If it ends up needing a deeper dive into their code that takes hours to debug stored procs and test, that becomes a project. It is up to me to randomly decide when it has crossed into "project" territory and start asking for project hours. I can just see that going great, explaining to a customer that their issue is suddenly a project that costs their department money when they are used to just getting all of my time for free, or when I did the same thing but in less time (because it was less complex or I was just awesome that week) it was baseline but now this new thing is a project. - It is now going to be an extra few hours a week just trying to keep track of this project stuff between tracking my hours, arguing with PMs or applications who don't consider something a project or the hours I want to charge, etc, for what is not a project based role (for example we still have on-call rotation and the expectation that all support work is prioritized over project work in terms of when it is done). And I am already very busy and not able to work in my own internal DBA projects as much as I'd like. Is this the norm in corporate internal IT or am I missing something? I just want a job where I can show up, do my work, fill out a basic timesheet and get paid for my work. Not one where I have to explain to dozens of apathetic or cranky developers and business people they have to do paperwork and set things up for me to charge time against. I feel like suddenly I'm a consultant but instead my customers work for the same company as me and therefore are pissy about the idea that I am costing them money. [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 01 May 2020 06:59 AM PDT Hi all, I currently work as a system support for a local SaaS company. Get hands on with SQL, and a little bit of azure. In order to move up I need to get some more skills so I am starting to self study for some more certs to advance my knowledge. I have 3 certs in mind, need advice on any of them. Importance, worth, all of it. Looking to get the following by 12/31: Azure AZ-900 Azure AZ-300 Cisco CCNA 200-301 I am decent and SQL and the command prompt, and know basic stuff in powershell. I have CompTIA a+, net+, sec+ and a bs in infotech currently. Idk what exactly I want to do, but I like networking and cloud based systems. [link] [comments]  |
| From Air Traffic Controller to Automation Specialist to... Possibly Sys Admin? How do I get there. Posted: 30 Apr 2020 09:24 PM PDT So a little background about me. I've been an air traffic controller for 10 years now, 6 in the military and 4 in the FAA. About 6 months ago I got a really awesome job, still in the FAA, as an automation specialist. Essentially what I do is building and maintaining the software adaptations for each individual air traffic facility. It's actually not a very common career path for air traffic controllers to get into (most people stay controllers for their entire career) but at the same time they love it when air traffic controllers apply for these jobs because we have hands on experience interacting with the software. I don't have any training whatsoever in IT, aside from whatever I have taught myself. I have built computers, wired up and designed home networks, and read a book or two on networking, but all of that made me realize how much I don't know. One of the "sub-specialties" in my new job is that of a sys admin. I've always found networking super interesting. Our sys admin maintains all the servers we use to build, test, maintain, and deploy our software builds. And there are a ton of servers and equipment. I would really like to prepare myself to possibly take on some of those tasks, but I don't really know where to start. I've read Networking All-In-One for Dummies, so like I said I have a very broad and non-precise view on a ton of concepts, but I would really like to hone my skills and become more marketable in that roll. Where do I go to do this? A certification I think would be nice, but definitely not mandatory. Taking night classes is sort of out of the question because my job requires me to be away for usually at least a week a month. Any input is appreciated! [link] [comments]  |
| What has been the hardest part about working during Covid? Posted: 01 May 2020 04:46 AM PDT What has been the hardest part about working during Covid? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Apr 2020 11:32 PM PDT Does a CISO need to have a huge technical background? I'm in compliance and risk management in cyber security right now and I like this path, could I use this experience to become a ciso? Or do I need to get into a more security engineer role? To me it seems CISOs do mostly nontechnical work but have enough experience to understand the technical theory. Am I right? [link] [comments]  |
| Posted: 30 Apr 2020 05:30 PM PDT Hello everyone, I've posted this on /r/sysadmin before but I was told that this is a better suited subreddit Here a few details about myself and the environment I am completing my apprenticeship in: - Apprentice for 6 months out of 3 years - Gotten lots of responsibilities in that time - Picked up some knowledge in Office365, Exchange, PowerShell, Windows Server 2012, Active Directory, WSUS, File Servers, Switches and wrote a few scripts to automate a few tasks - Most tasks here are done manually: Windows Updates have to be initiated manually on each machine, third party software is deployed via a program that is part of our endpoint security software - Updates that can't be done through that piece of software (Java, for example) have to be installed manually. - Said software also shows Windows updates the WSUS does not see. Sometimes they are months old. - It is hard to access notebooks to update them, as they aren't always on and need to be connected via VPN (My instructor says I need to call each of the notebook users to have them turn on the notebooks and connect to the VPN) - In active directory and WSUS there are no test groups in place to deploy Windows updates to - We have no scheduled maintenances for updates (we do for servers) - Feeling a bit left alone updating almost 80 machines manually and can hardly keep everything up to date. During my 3 year apprenticeship, I am trying to learn best practices wherever I can in order to not get into bad habits which is why I am unsure whether the way I am being instructed to update our machines is the "proper" way to do it. My questions are:
Edit: removed wall of text. [link] [comments]  |
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