OT:rediculous, IT people Options

[bd1308]

i'm sitting here at the school, and there are all of these techs running around (my age) reading papres on how to add printers. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/WTF.gif) makes me wonder why I never get the good jobs.....

b

[Eddie Williams]

It's all in how you present your self. I see the same thing every day. Just keep on keeping on, it will work out for you. The cream always rises. ansd the shit always settles out.

[ArtechnikA]

QUOTE (bd1308 @ Mar 28 2006, 09:52 AM)

...makes me wonder why I never get the good jobs.....

maybe they go to people who can spell "ridiculous" ?

[balljoint]

QUOTE (ArtechnikA @ Mar 28 2006, 10:05 AM)

QUOTE (bd1308 @ Mar 28 2006, 09:52 AM) ...makes me wonder why I never get the good jobs..... maybe they go to people who can spell "ridiculous" ?

Nope. Can't be. They didn't hire me either and I thought that was redickulous. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/ohmy.gif)

[bd1308]

QUOTE (ArtechnikA @ Mar 28 2006, 08:05 AM)

QUOTE (bd1308 @ Mar 28 2006, 09:52 AM) ...makes me wonder why I never get the good jobs..... maybe they go to people who can spell "ridiculous" ?

hey its early. shouldnt there be some time where one can make spelling errors?

b

[fiid]

are you looking for a full time job or an internship - or something do do while you're at school??

Depending on what you want to do (and what you're studying) we might have some stuff - but we're in California - which is a bit of a daily drive from Kentucky....

[drewvw]

I'm an IT guy, and I agree it is all how you present yourself. Being a Tech is usually more toward the entry level (but not always), so sometimes you get some squirrley people.

There's high turnover and its a thankless job. Very tough in many ways....

[Rockaria]

At least your techs are reading the manuals... My Techs just blindly FU_K it up and then go to lunch, leaving me to fix all their crap.

When you pay a person Minimum wage to fix printers and show people where the power strip ON button is, Don't expect much.

[turboman808]

I'm a tech and I will never pretend to know everything. Bottom line is I get it done. If I have to google something or pull out instructions so be it.

Could be your attitude?!?! Certainly don't sound like a team player to me.

[grantsfo]

QUOTE (bd1308 @ Mar 28 2006, 05:52 AM)

i'm sitting here at the school, and there are all of these techs running around (my age) reading papres on how to add printers. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/WTF.gif) makes me wonder why I never get the good jobs..... b

Do you consider an IT Tech job at a school "good"? What is a papre? (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/wink.gif) I agree with others here, an IT Tech reading a manual is a good sign, not a bad one.

[Dr. Roger]

hey britt,

i'd pass on the professional printer installer job (little $) and study for the DBA position.

then you get prestige, respect, and $$$. =-)

and that can be a tele-commute poistion. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/beerchug.gif)

[ClayPerrine]

Britt,
I have been in IT for over a decade. The entry level positions are thankless jobs. You get abused by the (L)users, and you are the gopher/whipping boy for the rest of the IT staff. But you have to start somewhere. I got my first IT job by already working at the company and hacking one of the servers. The IT manager figured it was better to keep me and put me in the IT department.

To get an IT job, you will have to start at the bottom, but from what I know about you from this site, you are smart and will move up fast. To do that, Dress nice, talk respectfully, and make sure you present yourself as someone who wants to learn, not as someone who knows it all already. You may know a lot about computers. But you don't have a resume covered in certifications and experience. IT managers are human, and we don't like some snot nosed kid with a half page resume that shows his job experience at Burger King telling us how we are doing everything wrong. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif)


Bottom line, you are selling yourself to the IT manager. And considering your lack of verifiable experience, he is taking a chance on you. You have to stand out from the other applicants. And your computer skills are NOT going to sell it. All you have to sell is apperance and attitude. If either of those are bad, you will not get the job.

Good luck.

Let me know if I can help in any way.


Clay C. Perrine
Senior Network Administrator
-------------------------------------
JZ Corporate Services
A subsidiary of Jacuzzi Brands, Inc.
14801 Quorum Drive
Dallas, TX 75254

[Elliot_Cannon]

QUOTE (fiid @ Mar 28 2006, 08:51 AM)

are you looking for a full time job or an internship - or something do do while you're at school?? Depending on what you want to do (and what you're studying) we might have some stuff - but we're in California - which is a bit of a daily drive from Kentucky....

I've been commuting from California to Kentucky for 20 years. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/laugh.gif)

Cheers, Elliot

[Part Pricer]

QUOTE (Dr. Roger @ Mar 28 2006, 01:32 PM)

and that can be a tele-commute poistion.  :beer2:

And that, my friends, will end your career.

You have to ask yourself, does the job that you are going to do require your actual physical presence? If not, then it can be offshored.

The trouble is, in IT, all the jobs that require your physical presence are generally 'IT technician' jobs - pulling cable through walls, swapping out hard disks in PCs, etc. This is generally the lower paid end of the IT spectrum. There are exceptions, but the competition for those more highly-valued, highly-paid jobs increases with every position that is moved to Bangalore.

Every day, I see more and more project management, help desk, network admin, user admin and software development and support positions being moved to locations outside the US. The technology has evolved to a point where it is functional and cheap enough to implement for most organizations. As technologists, we shouldn't be surprised about this. It has been coming for a while.

In the company that I am working for, most of our CCIEs are no longer based in the US. This used to be a highly-valued and prized certification that clients desired. However, since there were so few of them for the longest time, the salaries of US-based CCIEs shot through the roof. They caused people to look elsewhere for a more cost-competitive solution. It turned out that college educated, knowledgeable, articulate, certified individals could be had outside the US for about 20% of the cost of domestic talent. Give them a high-speed line, VOIP and VPN access and you've provided the same service while contributing to the bottom line.

If you are going to go into the IT field, please realize that most of it will soon be treated as a commodity if it is not already.

My advice:
1. Find a job
2. Get some experience
3. Develop an exit strategy
4. Get out
5. Enjoy your second career

[BMartin914]

Sounds familiar. We have a professional copier/printer in my office and when it needs service, the tech comes in, looks at it, then calls "The Wizard" on a Blackberry to figure out how to fix it.

[alpha434]

I thought the rule of thumb was that everyone gets promoted to their level of incompetency. Sorry.

It's even a good thing if you look at it on a big scale. You don't want all the f-ups actually doing things. You want them kissing ass, where they'll do the least harm.

[Steve Thacker]

QUOTE (ClayPerrine @ Mar 28 2006, 01:46 PM)

Britt, I have been in IT for over a decade. The entry level positions are thankless jobs. You get abused by the (L)users, and you are the gopher/whipping boy for the rest of the IT staff. But you have to start somewhere. I got my first IT job by already working at the company and hacking one of the servers. The IT manager figured it was better to keep me and put me in the IT department. To get an IT job, you will have to start at the bottom, but from what I know about you from this site, you are smart and will move up fast. To do that, Dress nice, talk respectfully, and make sure you present yourself as someone who wants to learn, not as someone who knows it all already. You may know a lot about computers. But you don't have a resume covered in certifications and experience. IT managers are human, and we don't like some snot nosed kid with a half page resume that shows his job experience at Burger King telling us how we are doing everything wrong. (IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/biggrin.gif) Bottom line, you are selling yourself to the IT manager. And considering your lack of verifiable experience, he is taking a chance on you. You have to stand out from the other applicants. And your computer skills are NOT going to sell it. All you have to sell is apperance and attitude. If either of those are bad, you will not get the job. Good luck. Let me know if I can help in any way. Clay C. Perrine Senior Network Administrator ------------------------------------- JZ Corporate Services A subsidiary of Jacuzzi Brands, Inc. 14801 Quorum Drive Dallas, TX 75254

I could not agree more with this thought process. I also have been in the field going on now 25 years. I started as a tech wheenie carting stacks of punch cards for the then humongous computer systems of the bygone era. I was also someones little coffee, food, etc gopher. The others used me as their foot stool. There are many facets in the IT world. I'm a Sr. mail and database administrator and take it from me, my area is the aggravating work that seems to never end and is loaded with chest squeezing stress. I suggest that you look into becoming a developer / programmer. As this is the gravy job in the IT arena IMHO.


The creme will raise to the top as one other post stated and you can be that creme IF....

1.\ You listen well, as you will never learn anything while you are talking.

2.\ Dress, act and be professional.

3.\ Refuse to take less than perfection from yourself in regards to your work.
As a good reputation is vastly more important than the money.

Good luck to you in your endeavors

[terrymason]

I'm a network engineer - I tend to like it myself. I get to do the hardware configurations that I love, but I also go ahead and design the network, install the routers, switches, firewalls, etc.


If you don't want to get offshored, go with a small company (under 100 people).

I love being a one man IT shop, but at the same time when stuff doesn't work, it's hard to point the finger somewhere else

[drewvw]

(IMG:http://www.914world.com/bbs2/html/emoticons/agree.gif) I am a Senior Software Engineer for a Medical Center, and have to deal with Client Services (tech) peeps on a weekly basis. The Senior guys are good, well spoken, presentable and FIX the issues.

The bad ones can be pretty ridiculous. There have been cases where a tech was working on a clinical machine, it flips past 5pm and they are like "well I'm out of here". Unreal.

They deserve to get abused when that happens, but in a lot of other cases people just take out their frustrations on these guys because THEY messed up the computer by downloading all kinds of crap, etc....

[terrymason]

oh, and about your "reading the book", I just had to break out my exchange book to figure out how to recover deleted emails...

When you're expected to code the php website, setup the iptables firewall, and admin the mail servers, it's a bit hard to remember everything.