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three posted:To avoid the above, find a company that separates engineering and operations. Operations (sysadmins) should get all calls unless things are OMG CATASTROPHIC in which case engineering should get involved. To use a retail metaphor: separating operations and engineering to reduce the number of people involved in on-call issues is akin to doubling your support center budget to take on twice as many employees because you make products that don't really work and you advertise things on the box that they don't actually do. It might deal with the call volume, but it's a pretty stupid way to spend your company's money. A better approach is to have operations and engineering work together on any non-trivial production problems. Think of it like pair programming: a junior engineer doesn't have to affix permanent duct-tape-and-staples fixes everywhere across the environment because the senior engineer is saying "hey, there's probably a better way to do this." Someone somewhere gave this idea a name in the past couple of years. It's possible to separate operations and engineering in this way and still have a well-functioning team between them, but it's incredibly reliant on good management. It just takes one bad middle-manager saying "not my problem" to gently caress the whole thing for everyone. Vulture Culture fucked around with this message at 02:57 on Sep 3, 2013 |
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Sep 3, 2013 02:54
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three posted:To avoid the above, find a company that separates engineering and operations. Operations (sysadmins) should get all calls unless things are OMG CATASTROPHIC in which case engineering should get involved.
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Sep 3, 2013 03:04
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We have like 20 people out of 200 with 100+ GB PST's. Another hundred people with 20-40GB PST's. Can you say clusterfuck. There are systems that should be changed that resulted in all this email being generated and everyone has to save every one, just in case. This information shouldn't be in emails but in a database somwhere since most of those emails have each gone to 15 different people. These are saved to the users workstation on their loving hard drive. This means we have to do individual workstation backups. That's another level of suck. Guess what, your computer crashed with outlook open? Have fun for 16 hours while Outlook checks the PST file for errors. We don't have exchange and wouldn't matter if we did because we'd need to buy servers to run it on and a SAN to store it on. We have a 6 year old SAN (like 1TB?) and 7 year old hardware running our VM environment and the boss doesn't see why we should upgrade anything, ever.
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Sep 3, 2013 03:18
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Bob Morales posted:since most of those emails have each gone to 15 different people.
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Sep 3, 2013 03:22
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I figured you and your love for devops would not be a fan.  We've had plenty of people make the transition from ops to engineering. Typically both sets report to the same manager which solves a lot of the problems you mentioned. They're not completely silo'd, but it lets engineering focus on engineering instead of support far more than if they tried to do both.adorai posted:My company is not large enough for this. And realistically, separating support and engineering to the point that engineers no longer solve problems is a great way to end up with lovely design, because who gives a poo poo if the person who designed it can just blame support for the issues with it. You should fix your broken company culture if this happens. Don't throw the baby out with the bath water.
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Sep 3, 2013 03:29
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adorai posted:Exchange is single instance storage per datastore. If you only have one mailbox datastore, an email is only stored once, regardless of the number of recipients. I know this and tried to explain deduplication to my boss but he's a tard. We're using Ipswitch iMail with Outlook clients.
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Sep 3, 2013 03:31
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skooma512 posted:I work in on-site help desk. I love it so far but the on call aspect is a pain in the rear end. Luckily my team is decently sized so it's only one week a month. In almost all IT roles there will be some sort of on call or after hours pushes. Good management can alleviate these stresses by creating large teams with shared responsibilities to minimize the time you are on call. Good management will also plan ahead with its employees the time that is required after hours, provide comp time off during regular business hours, and offer increased monetary compensation for overtime. If you find a company that offers all of the above stick with them. There aren't a whole lot of companies out there that meet the above criteria. If you can't stand after hours work network or system administration aren't for you.
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Sep 3, 2013 04:43
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adorai posted:Exchange is single instance storage per datastore. If you only have one mailbox datastore, an email is only stored once, regardless of the number of recipients. Until they removed SIS in Exchange 2010, at least.
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Sep 3, 2013 05:17
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Ah, first day on the new job, first time working in a cubical farm, first job in years where I am not actively worried about an IED or being shot. Now if someone can just explain what my job is, that would be great.
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Sep 3, 2013 18:14
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Tasty Wheat posted:Ah, first day on the new job, first time working in a cubical farm, first job in years where I am not actively worried about an IED or being shot. You are there as cube defense master. Your job is to pretend to be working on some sort of charts, but instead you are actively monitoring for threats to the cube farm, specifically workers going postal on the office. On a more serious note, congratulations on the job and welcome to a life of sitting on your rear end.
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Sep 3, 2013 18:24
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"Other duties as assigned" now the copier is jammed can you look at it?
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Sep 3, 2013 18:24
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So how's working in a call center? Just interviewed a position that would have me taking incoming calls about and supporting Cisco devices.
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Sep 3, 2013 19:58
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MF_James posted:You are there as cube defense master. Your job is to pretend to be working on some sort of charts, but instead you are actively monitoring for threats to the cube farm, specifically workers going postal on the office. Oh it's so true, "oh are you done with your HR training, well here are 8 pages of network drawings, read through them and start to wrap your brain around how we do things". Sure no problem I think, then this field Cisco guy notices all the Juniper in the designs. "Oh, yeah, I don't know why we have gone to all Juniper on these designs", "but don't worry, just design the network and tell others how you want the equipment configured" How did I get this job, well time to look busy again.
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Sep 3, 2013 19:59
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Erkenntnis posted:So how's working in a call center? Just interviewed a position that would have me taking incoming calls about and supporting Cisco devices.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:06
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skipdogg posted:"Other duties as assigned" now the Close.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:10
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Erkenntnis posted:So how's working in a call center? Just interviewed a position that would have me taking incoming calls about and supporting Cisco devices. Depends on how strict they are on ticket times and being at your station and if they make you sell other services while you're on calls. I have a couple friends who work data/voice circuit support for LARGE_INTERNET_PROVIDER and they've all been there like 15 years. Survived rounds of layoffs and bankruptcies though so I'm sure it hasn't been a smooth ride.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:12
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Bob Morales posted:Depends on how strict they are on ticket times and being at your station and if they make you sell other services while you're on calls. They seemed pretty strict. I wonder if the experience gathered could push me towards a network engineer position. Just not sure how I feel about the call center aspect of it - but on the other hand, it seems like there are very little networking specific jobs out there that are entry-level and aren't call centers.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:27
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Erkenntnis posted:They seemed pretty strict. I wonder if the experience gathered could push me towards a network engineer position. Sounds like you'll be working at a large call center with lots of different clients, probably good experience since you get a wide variety, although you might not get very indepth with network layout and depending on your level of access configuration of equpiment, but it will be a good first step. My advice is to learn as much as you can as quickly as you can and GTFO to something better in 6months to a year if possible.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:32
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Erkenntnis posted:So how's working in a call center? Just interviewed a position that would have me taking incoming calls about and supporting Cisco devices. Don't do this unless your only other option is prostitution. I worked in call centers first as a tech support agent and then as a supervisor. Did it for about three years working with teams up to 40 people, in a 400 person facility for one of the largest call center companies in the world. In the end the only thing your superiors will care about : 1. Keeping the contract 2. Your talk time That's it. Everything else goes out the window including quality although you'll certainly hear plenty about it. Might even be a banner with the word "quality" on it somewhere.
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Sep 3, 2013 20:49
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Dick Trauma posted:In the end the only thing your superiors will care about : So true, but also in my case the hard number of calls that were answered. I worked for an outsourced support line for Freeserve in the UK (One of the largest, maybe the largest ISP in the UK around 10 to 12 years ago). We get a visit from Freeserve execs to see the great support we're providing and I'm chosen for them to listen in on my calls. Next week I get bitched about how many calls I'm taking when I'm actually fixing problems, everyone else is blindly sending out new modems or telling people to unplug their filters to disconnect the call. The outsourced call centre has now gone bust 
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Sep 3, 2013 21:05
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Misogynist posted:My stock in Diageo is about to go through the roof.
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Sep 3, 2013 21:31
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I have a question. Currently my title is Web Developer. I've worked at my current job for two years and have a BS in IT and a BA in Psychology. I'm strong in Photoshop, HTML/CSS/JavaScript, and I've had some significant exposure to PHP/MySQL and ASP.Net (I develop most of our sites in SharePoint). I like all this stuff. But the problem is, being sort of the "general web guy", I also do a ton of simple miscellaneous website upkeep and boring content editing. I'm eventually wanting to move to a position that focuses almost entirely on web design + development, cutting out the aforementioned boring monkey work. A position where my design skills are allowed to shine, and my dev knowledge is the backbone. What's a typical title for the position I'm describing? User Interface Designer? User Experience Developer? Additionally, what should I begin learning/practicing/devoting my spare time to in order to best prepare for this position? EDIT: I should also say that a big part of wanting to change is pay. Looking at Salary.com, I see the median salary for "Interface Designer - Web" is over $80k, about 35% more than I'm currently making. And the description of that position is pretty much what I do now. Spatulater bro! fucked around with this message at 22:15 on Sep 3, 2013 |
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Sep 3, 2013 22:04
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Bob Morales posted:Ipswitch iMail
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Sep 3, 2013 22:45
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Just changed my emphasis to IT-Security. Someone tell me whats in store for me?
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Sep 3, 2013 23:33
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I am contractually obliged to work 37.5 hours a week. Normally I stay way later (Was in the office from 0830 to 1830 today for instance), but today I've been told that we'll be working an extra 30 minutes per day. Not getting paid for it either. Not too sure of the legality of it (In the UK, I'm guessing it's fairly illegal) but noooooooooope! Getting out of here as fast as possible.
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Sep 3, 2013 23:33
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Crunchtime posted:Just changed my emphasis to IT-Security. Someone tell me whats in store for me? Annoying It staff everywhere with checklists full of stupid questions and performing silly audits.
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Sep 3, 2013 23:41
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DrAlexanderTobacco posted:I am contractually obliged to work 37.5 hours a week. Normally I stay way later (Was in the office from 0830 to 1830 today for instance), but today I've been told that we'll be working an extra 30 minutes per day. Not getting paid for it either. Not too sure of the legality of it (In the UK, I'm guessing it's fairly illegal) but noooooooooope! Getting out of here as fast as possible. So, since you're already putting 2hrs over, just go home 1.5hrs earlier than usual and you'll still be compliant. Still, that sounds pretty lovely that they expect more time without additional pay.
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Sep 3, 2013 23:50
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TWBalls posted:So, since you're already putting 2hrs over, just go home 1.5hrs earlier than usual and you'll still be compliant. Still, that sounds pretty lovely that they expect more time without additional pay. What I'm not so pleased about is losing the freedom to leave as early as possible. It means I would have to alter any plans, be restricted etc. There are some days when I just want to leave on time.
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Sep 3, 2013 23:52
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Crunchtime posted:Just changed my emphasis to IT-Security. Someone tell me whats in store for me? In practice, those activities translate into: asinine, dated and impractical recommendations by people who haven't ever had to engineer anything; pedantic audits conducted by neophytes in which weaknesses are negotiated rather than discovered; running around all Chicken Little and panicking everyone with overblown speculation. There are top-flight firms which actually do perform at the level I describe in my first paragraph. They are terribly expensive and only worth it when what you're protecting is so at risk, you have no choice but to go to them. This makes them extremely picky and competitive about personnel. The rest of the industry are shysters praying you don't discover the degree to which they are before they collect your check. e: phrased more constructively, try not to be one of those people. Build stuff and break it and learn it. If given audit responsibility, take it seriously and listen to the people who do the work to find out what's right and wrong. Read stuff like anything about source code and Daily Dave and Schneier books, know what a SQL injection vulnerability is and how to find it and how to explain why it's terrifying. Be social and cool to people so they tell you stuff and trust you. It's an easy job to skate by in, and a rare one that's done really well, unfortunately. 
bort fucked around with this message at 01:43 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Sep 4, 2013 00:34
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I've worked with one really great security at a company that did about $2 billion in web-based transactions. He sits in architecture meetings, does pen testing, reviews code, and makes sure apps are patched appropriately or at least fenced off from external access. He's highly skilled in a lot of different areas, which is basically everything you'd want from someone in that position. He is in the minority of quality security people. I've dealt with a lot of numbskulls in my career. I used to manage a Tripwire installation and dealing with the CISSP certified auditors was a joke. Most of them had zero experience in engineering. If you're good at security you can get to do fun stuff and make bank. If you're bad, well, at least you can still get a job.
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Sep 4, 2013 01:09
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Crunchtime posted:Just changed my emphasis to IT-Security. Someone tell me whats in store for me? This can be like 20 different things. Are you doing policy, auditing, or network security?
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Sep 4, 2013 02:22
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Erkenntnis posted:So how's working in a call center? Just interviewed a position that would have me taking incoming calls about and supporting Cisco devices. If no job security, being treated like cattle, learning nominal technical skills, and working ridiculous hours sounds fun go for it! But seriously I would only recommend a call center job to someone who A) needs a job like ASAP because of bills/etc B) needs to get their foot in the door, or C) Really wants to experience what being an alcoholic is about. Dilbert As FUCK fucked around with this message at 03:13 on Sep 4, 2013 |
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Sep 4, 2013 03:10
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I bet if Charles Bukowski were alive and starting fresh today, he'd write "Call Center" instead of "Post Office." Best of luck to you!
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Sep 4, 2013 05:01
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Dilbert As gently caress posted:If no job security, being treated like cattle, learning nominal technical skills, and working ridiculous hours sounds fun go for it! None of which I believe to be wholly applicable to me. I have both a college degree in IT and my CCNA, and I worked for my school the entire time I was there under IT Services. My parents aren't pushing me out, and I'm only a social drinker. I should be able to do better, right? One thing that was brought up during feedback from my interviewers is that they felt like my resume was too long. I've heard conflicting information (my college adviser recommended that it needed "heft"). Would anyone be willing to give it 2 minute look-over? I can send you a link in a PM.
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Sep 4, 2013 07:07
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I'd be more than happy to check it out.
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Sep 4, 2013 07:34
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Uh, there's no way in hell you should be working in a call center with a CCNA. whereabouts in the country do you live?
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Sep 4, 2013 13:47
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Walter_Sobchak posted:Uh, there's no way in hell you should be working in a call center with a CCNA. whereabouts in the country do you live? CCNA with no experience can equal call center. Have one buddy with a CCIE, took him two years to break into the "real" networking side and out of phone support back when he got his NA fresh out of the military as a grunt.
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Sep 4, 2013 14:03
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Erkenntnis posted:One thing that was brought up during feedback from my interviewers is that they felt like my resume was too long. I've heard conflicting information (my college adviser recommended that it needed "heft"). Would anyone be willing to give it 2 minute look-over? I can send you a link in a PM. "My name" "Where I went to school" "GPA if it was amazing" "Certifications/etc" "Last 3 jobs. Be brief" Don't list every computer program you've ever used or the fact that you're in a My Little Pony club. The time to bring interests and poo poo up is when you're asked or you see a pony on an interviewers desk. People interviewing for helpdesk or other entry level jobs shouldn't have a 3 page resume. I've seen 4 pagers from people that wanted to be a line cook.
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Sep 4, 2013 14:51
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Walter_Sobchak posted:Uh, there's no way in hell you should be working in a call center with a CCNA. whereabouts in the country do you live? I have a CCNA and I'm a week away from an MCSA in Server 2012, and I work in a cube farm helpdesk 
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Sep 4, 2013 15:15
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Erkenntnis posted:One thing that was brought up during feedback from my interviewers is that they felt like my resume was too long. I've heard conflicting information (my college adviser recommended that it needed "heft"). If you've had a great deal of published research papers and you're applying for a research position, heft might really be a great idea. Similarly if you have a proven track record of running large profitable projects and you're applying to be a executive, maybe heft is okay. If you're applying for anything that's going through HR, heft is a terrible idea. Your resume is work to someone, the longer it is, the more work they have to do. For my resume, I have a big column on the left side with bullet points of skills. When HR is handed a list of skills to look for, I want to make it easy for them to check the boxes.
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Sep 4, 2013 16:15
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