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First desk at current job we shared half-cubes. (Lean back too far and you hit the person behind you.) There was glass in the middle and 2 sales people sat across from us. Me and one of the sales guys would sit there loving with each other through the glass while on the phone with potential clients or vendors trying to get the other to crack. It was good fun.
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Feb 12, 2016 16:24
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I asked my boss if I could work from home 3 days out of the week and she was shocked that I could possibly do work from home 15 minutes away. Why yes, I do have a computer, the internet, a power supply and a soldering Iron. Crazy I know! She said she would see if it's possible. God dang it! I need peace and quiet! FlapYoJacks fucked around with this message at 16:44 on Feb 12, 2016 |
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Feb 12, 2016 16:38
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Yeah, we were purchased last year and the new parent company is pretty geographically diverse and has a lot of remote users. I know I'm shifting fully away from internal support and infrastructure to concentrate on running our application stack which is moving from a local datacenter to one 300 miles away. So the argument of why I would actually need to be in the office 5 days a week is going to get pretty thin in the next 12 months. Hopefully we'll be able to get the local higher ups to loosen the reigns a bit on remote work and offer it as official policy.
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Feb 12, 2016 16:49
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Oh well hey, I now have Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday at home. That was fast. 
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Feb 12, 2016 17:08
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ratbert90 posted:Oh well hey, I now have Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday at home. That was fast. The power of asking for things. That's awesome.
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Feb 12, 2016 17:13
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ChubbyThePhat posted:The power of asking for things. That's awesome. It helps the the CEO is a CCIE and has done a ton of programming back in the day. The operations manager lady (my boss) is a sweetheart, but projects a bit much when it comes to other peoples work habits. She's a terrible work-at-home person, ergo, others may be as well. It's not personal and I get that. I ended up asking the CEO directly and he said yes immediately!
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Feb 12, 2016 17:24
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this new hire is working out well so far  I actually enjoy my job again
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Feb 12, 2016 18:21
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Kashuno posted:this new hire is working out well so far I've had the opposite experience with a new junior hire over the past few months and we're interviewing again 
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Feb 12, 2016 18:22
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its been over a year since i last fired a guy. seems people got the hint to stop being loving stupid.
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Feb 12, 2016 19:18
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Crossposting because I'm stupid.KillHour posted:I've decided I'm turning down a very respectable offer (20% raise) to be the understudy/apprentice/gofer to the head of global operations network security for a Fortune 250 company in favor of the pants-on-head Israeli company offering me giant sacks of cash to travel all over the place. Not that I need to. The same people are in every thread, pretty much.
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Feb 12, 2016 23:26
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It's been said before but save anything above that 20% raise, stick it in a savings account, and live like a boss during your inevitable 6 months of unemployment after the Israel company burns you out / fires you for something stupid / collapses.
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Feb 12, 2016 23:31
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Turtlicious posted:There are 8 different Subway Lines in Los Angeles, and they run every 20 minutes, (10 during rush hour,) and I think are closed between 2am and 4am for maintenance. Except if you're even further south. Here in San Diego, it kind of works on week days, but it can take 3 hours to get anywhere because there are only 2 trolley routes and they overlap quite a bit. Plus, on the weekends, the trolley completely shuts off at 10 PM, and only has a train every 30 minutes. Ask me about being stranded on the other side of the county from your home because the bus happened to be late.
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Feb 13, 2016 01:22
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Judge Schnoopy posted:It's been said before but save anything above that 20% raise, stick it in a savings account, and live like a boss during your inevitable 6 months of unemployment after the Israel company burns you out / fires you for something stupid / collapses. Gonna pay off my credit card debt, yo.
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Feb 13, 2016 01:38
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Turtlicious posted:There are 8 different Subway Lines in Los Angeles, and they run every 20 minutes, (10 during rush hour,) and I think are closed between 2am and 4am for maintenance. I guess in comparison to having nothing at all? Because that's really not good for the amount of people around and the amount of area that needs to be covered, and every 10 minutes during rush hour is pretty bad
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Feb 13, 2016 01:52
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So today someone in hr had their hard drive crash. Dumbest who set up the computer about a year ago, before I was in the department, never set up file sync properly so nothing was backed up. I kicked off our early adopter email migration to Google today. Everything was going pretty great. I got a phone call on the way home that email wasn't working. Looks like the migrator tool took down our VM server completely and a laptop I had running it. I've been trying to drink from January to March, but out to dinner and gently caress it. Bourbon has never tasted so good.
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Feb 13, 2016 01:54
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siggy2021 posted:I've been trying to drink from January to March why stop in march  I know what you meant, just a good typo. sorry your week suckedWeird day today. I dug into two different tickets that were huge quality of life improvements for the dev teams requesting them, but we (the sysadmin team) thought would be a major pain in the rear end to resolve. So they'd been languishing in the queue until we had significant time to devote. In both cases we were massively overthinking the problem and I spent a grand total of 2 hours on them combined. I felt like a complete dipshit for not fixing these issues sooner, but they were all overjoyed to have the pain resolved, so it's all good I guess. TLDR: don't let perfect be the enemy of good
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Feb 13, 2016 02:10
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Docjowles posted:why stop in march In hindsight that would have been a much more reasonable, achievable, and fun goal.
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Feb 13, 2016 02:16
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I'm considering a career change and have some questions. Without a huge backstory I have a degree in mechanical engineering but currently teach in a school. Is a 1 year diploma the first step? They all want some slip of paper with IT on it? Then you get your certifications and work experience? What differentiates the guy who gets paid helpdesk wage and quite a bit more? A friend of mine said in Australia where we are it's the ability to fix networks and not just PCs. Thanks.
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Feb 14, 2016 13:30
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Mudfly posted:What differentiates the guy who gets paid helpdesk wage and quite a bit more?
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Feb 14, 2016 13:58
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Mech-eng is great. All you need is some kind of experience. I would venture a guess half the people at work don't have 'CompSci'-ish degrees.
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Feb 14, 2016 16:47
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H110Hawk posted:Mech-eng is great. All you need is some kind of experience. I would venture a guess half the people at work don't have 'CompSci'-ish degrees. Half of my managers have a psychology degree and some just just even had some kind of music degree.... All of them just rolled into management some way or the other. Most even without IT related experiences. Half of the IT engineers here have generic degrees, the other half IT related degrees. Experience is more or less the only thing that matters.
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Feb 14, 2016 18:15
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Judge Schnoopy posted:It's been said before but save anything above that 20% raise, stick it in a savings account, and live like a boss during your inevitable 6 months of unemployment after the Israel company burns you out / fires you for something stupid / collapses. 90% of the schadenfreude so far has come from the NYC thread in LAN being full of autists accusing me of crashing their thread. The other 10% has come from Craigslist being a terrible way to look for apartments. If the company is less crazy than that, I'll be fine. If not, what's a decent alcoholic drink you can get at most airports?
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Feb 14, 2016 21:36
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I've been told that you don't find apartments on craigslist in NYC, you get a broker, but ymmv
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Feb 14, 2016 21:42
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SeaborneClink posted:I've been told that you don't find apartments on craigslist in NYC, you get a broker, but ymmv Hence why I tried asking in the NYC thread. 
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Feb 14, 2016 21:46
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Mudfly posted:I'm considering a career change and have some questions. Without a huge backstory I have a degree in mechanical engineering but currently teach in a school. Your degree req is filled, don't worry about IT schooling. If you need the job now, start on help desk at low pay and start getting your experience. Many help desk jobs care more about work ethic and people skills because those are harder to teach than pc knowledge. If you don't need the job immediately, cert up. A+ for desktop support, N+ for network support, neither require job experience to pass. That should get you in above minimum wage but you'll likely be hell desk for two years, and you'll need another cert (which you'll learn about along the way once you realize what you want to specialize in) to move up.
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Feb 14, 2016 22:29
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KillHour posted:90% of the schadenfreude so far has come from the NYC thread in LAN being full of autists accusing me of crashing their thread. The other 10% has come from Craigslist being a terrible way to look for apartments. If the company is less crazy than that, I'll be fine. If not, what's a decent alcoholic drink you can get at most airports? People answering your question instead of telling you what you want to hear is "a thread full of autists"? And yes, you took the wrong job.
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Feb 14, 2016 22:34
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Nephzinho posted:People answering your question instead of telling you what you want to hear is "a thread full of autists"? I was respectful to the people that answered my questions with honest advice and thanked them several times.  Edit: toebone and majormonotone are pretty chill dudes and/or ladies. KillHour fucked around with this message at 22:51 on Feb 14, 2016 |
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Feb 14, 2016 22:44
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Mudfly posted:What differentiates the guy who gets paid helpdesk wage and quite a bit more? Little things that show ambition. Try to get a taste of a lot of the different areas in IT. Learn some networking basics, to the point where you understand what a VLAN is. If you're experienced with Windows, learn the basics of Powershell. Learn the basics of Linux, nothing crazy, but enough to start a service. You ever play around with virtualization? That looks good on a resume and makes it easier to learn new skills. In an interview, saying something like "My specialization is in Windows. I once tried to set up Nagios in Linux, but I couldn't get it to work right." shows that you're someone who could be turned into a real powerhouse.
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Feb 14, 2016 23:58
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SeaborneClink posted:I've been told that you don't find apartments on craigslist in NYC, you get a broker, but ymmv Depends on what you're looking for. I found my place on Craiglist but I knew I was going to be moving into a roommate situation and didn't have enough people ready to go to fill an apartment on my own. If you're looking to live alone then yeah, you're going to end up going through a broker. Or if you've got the money, you can go right to the building management company (I only say "If you have the money" because managed buildings will generally have a higher rent but you also won't have to pay a broker's fee.)
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Feb 15, 2016 00:19
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Thanks for the advice, I think I'll start doing volunteer work repairing PCs for a local company and try and find a permanent position somewhere at the end of this year or next. Great to know my mech eng degree isn't wasted, that's how I feel too - that I could learn most of the technical details now or on the job, and the slip of paper says "This person can learn things" - although of course some competencies are important.
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Feb 15, 2016 03:40
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Mudfly posted:I'll start doing volunteer work repairing PCs for a local company I'm going to jump out and say this is a really terrible idea. One, PC repair skill is valuable, don't bother doing it for free. Two, don't do it for pay until you get some job experience working under somebody who knows what they're doing. Third, don't be the sole provider of "free PC support" for a business. You'll be buried in work forever and will never escape because you'll be blamed for absolutely everything that happens there after you touch the first machine. Feel free to do freelance virus and malware cleanups, hardware upgrades, new PC setup for family and friends to get your feet wet. If it's anything that involves troubleshooting you might as well just get a helpdesk job and get paid for your time.
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Feb 15, 2016 04:03
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Mudfly posted:Thanks for the advice, I think I'll start doing volunteer work repairing PCs for a Don't do free work for a company that's out there to make money. If you're going to do work for free, do it for a church, or an animal shelter or any organization that's not swimming with cash and will appreciate your help.
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Feb 15, 2016 04:07
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Dr. Arbitrary posted:Don't do free work for a company that's out there to make money. If you're going to do work for free, do it for a church, or an animal shelter or any organization that's not swimming with cash and will appreciate your help. With the added benefit of being able to count it as a charitable deduction on your taxes if you do it for a recognized charity organization.
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Feb 15, 2016 04:17
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Mudfly posted:What differentiates the guy who gets paid helpdesk wage and quite a bit more? A friend of mine said in Australia where we are it's the ability to fix networks and not just PCs. Oops I missed this. Not settling for it, basically. Always be learning. Figure out the "why" not the "how" - how is easy. "Why did it break and why did that fix it?" vs "poo poo this is broken, how do I fix it?" Think everything through. There is literally no better experience than teaming up with someone smarter than you. Never be the smartest person in the room. Don't take the narrow view your friend has of "fixing networks" - learn how networks work. Keep going one step broader or deeper. To use your example, every time I think I have a grasp of how our routers work our network people tell me some new limit or table or feature we aren't using in the most casual "everybody knows this" sort of way, it's mind blowing. This is true of any subject. Learn politics. Stop bitching about excel and powerpoint now. Use all of this to your advantage, both to navigate corporate bullshit and to get your way. People like a people person. What makes you a people person? Knowing your audience. Learn a little bit about every department you interact with and you will be their go-to person. Ask questions. See the above paragraph. Big smile. LochNessMonster posted:Half of my managers have a psychology degree and some just just even had some kind of music degree.... All of them just rolled into management some way or the other. Most even without IT related experiences. 99% of a college degree is learning problem solving skills. Music majors are great actually, they recognize the importance of patterns. H110Hawk fucked around with this message at 05:03 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 05:00
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Mudfly posted:What differentiates the guy who gets paid helpdesk wage and quite a bit more? A friend of mine said in Australia where we are it's the ability to fix networks and not just PCs. I've interviewed a couple of dozen people over the past six months. Key turnoffs when we're interviewing: -People who cling to what they know. We're asking you to design a solution given our constraints, not the constraints of where you work right now -People who freeze up when presented with something they don't know. Between customers' engineers who think they know what they're talking about and managers who learned a buzz word at their last conference, you have to feel comfortable responding to people when you've reached the extent of your knowledge -Not knowing basic networking. I don't care if you can tell me what VSS and OTV are. What's a frame, and how does it move through the network? What's ARP? What kinds of problems can ARP lead to in a highly available environment? poo poo like that. -Giving up on a problem. While "I don't know" is a perfectly fine answer if the question is specific and technical in nature, I still want to see you try to solve a problem that stretches the limits of your knowledge. In general, attack problems rather than retreat from them. Being comfortable with operating in an unfamiliar environment is key (if you can't work in a place where you face unknowns, stick with operations, I guess).
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Feb 15, 2016 06:45
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psydude posted:(if you can't work in a place where you face unknowns, stick with operations, I guess). I will loving cut you.
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Feb 15, 2016 06:58
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psydude posted:-Giving up on a problem. While "I don't know" is a perfectly fine answer if the question is specific and technical in nature, I still want to see you try to solve a problem that stretches the limits of your knowledge
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Feb 15, 2016 07:36
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Which areas of IT involve you with people? Do any areas involve a bit of socialising while you work? While I've always been good with technical/mathematical things I like people and I'm happier in a social job. I guess on one side you have programming all day, and I imagine being on the phone as an internet service provider tech support officer would get a bit lonely if they're just constantly angry or frustrated with you. Mudfly fucked around with this message at 10:54 on Feb 15, 2016 |
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Feb 15, 2016 10:51
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Mudfly posted:Which areas of IT involve you with people? Help desk, Jr system admin / desktop support, system admin, manager of IT is the career track that constantly involves working with end users. Or you could get in to recruiting if you wanted a less hands on and more theoretical technical track. The more highly technical a job gets, the more insulated you are from end users.
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Feb 15, 2016 13:18
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Mudfly posted:Which areas of IT involve you with people? pretty much EVERY job will involve other people... although some more so than others. Your first job will likely have you doing support, either over the phone or desktop support, going to people's computers and fixing a problem/helping them be less dumb. If you go the coding route, sure you will be wearing headphones/in a quiet space (hopefully otherwise you won't get poo poo done) but you will have a team you work with and converse with often.
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Feb 15, 2016 13:19
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