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BIG FLUFFY DOG posted:Why are ... illiterate people ... incapable of following instructions
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May 23, 2023 03:17
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I'm pretty sure my directions to get people to navigate the azure portal is on a 3rd grade level. Not that they understand it, but it's hard to tell if that's their fault or Azures because the portal is a UX hell.
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May 23, 2023 03:20
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One of the biggest things I’ve learned from IT is that you can never ask yes or no questions because that is where user lying flourishes most. Asked someone if they had a particular setting on when I saw in logs that it was the error message that was preventing them from doing what they wanted to do. Asked them: is this setting on? No. Pulled a screen grab. The app has a big rear end banner at the top saying WARNING THIS SETTING IS ON
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May 23, 2023 03:31
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I've always made a habit of asking for full screen, screenshots. If only Steps Recorder worked all of the time.
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May 23, 2023 03:59
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There is a cultural belief that computers are both eldritch technology and also nerd poo poo. Therefore, unless you work in IT, it is permissible not to know or attempt to learn even the rudiments of how to operate one, no matter how core it is to your job responsibilities. I'm not expecting them to know how to fix the computer, that's not their job, but it's like not knowing how to use a toilet because you aren't a plumber. But that's the reality. I don't know whether it's more the "eldritch technology" part or the "nerd poo poo" part that makes it acceptable. When asking users about a situation, it is ideal to ask questions that 1. require them to construct an answer rather than picking from known options -- this is why multiple choice is bad in addition to yes/no -- and 2. make it impossible to pass along bad information. It's usually not an intentional lie; they're at sea and are grasping for the answer that sounds intuitively closest to right to them. If you ask a yes/no question, they might not be sure, and will guess. Similarly, if you provide a couple options for them to choose from, they will choose one, and it might be wrong, or there might be another option you didn't think of. But they will have given an answer, and you will assume it is true, and be led astray as a result. It's also better if you ask them to do something instead of asking if they did something already. "Did you reboot?" provides the opportunity to say yes when they didn't -- again, this often isn't a lie, users don't understand what rebooting is and might mean they logged out of Windows or closed their web browser or whatever -- and for the same reason "please reboot your computer" is bad, because they might not understand what that is. Better: "If I say 'push the Windows key on your keyboard,' do you know what that means? It's the one in the bottom left in between Ctrl and Alt that looks like four little squares arranged in a bigger square. Okay, great, that should open a menu at the bottom of the screen. Do you see the little power icon in the bottom corner of that menu that looks like a circle with a little vertical line at the top? Click that. Okay, now do you see the word 'Restart'? Click on that." That takes longer to walk through than asking if they rebooted already, plus the time required for it to reboot -- but now you know it rebooted. If you think they're lying even then because they don't feel like doing it, ask them to describe what they're seeing on screen during the reboot. The odds that they know what, say, their BIOS splash screen looks like are low. Network stuff especially is extremely hard to troubleshoot over the phone, because nobody who doesn't work in networking has a shared vocabulary to describe the situation, including other IT business units. Users think everything is wifi, for example. I routinely see users say that [wireless SSID] isn't working, and you will eventually discover that they are trying to use a wired connection but think [wireless SSID] describes all network connections. guppy fucked around with this message at 12:53 on May 23, 2023 |
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May 23, 2023 10:34
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guppy posted:how to instruct users Yes, this. Guiding someone over the phone with simple instructions while continually verifying that each action produces the expected result, is a really good skill. It also requires that you as supporter have a strong mental image of what things look like. You need to be able to instruct the user to do simple actions and then describe the result sufficiently that you can construct a full mental image of what they're seeing.
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May 23, 2023 10:53
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For me part of it is the multitasking component. I can only do one thing at a time and if I gotta listen to someone and navigate a UI or type stuff out at the same time, something is gonna fall apart. God help me if it's in a zoom meeting because now I'm stressed about messing up in front of everyone.
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May 23, 2023 13:25
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xzzy posted:For me part of it is the multitasking component. I can only do one thing at a time and if I gotta listen to someone and navigate a UI or type stuff out at the same time, something is gonna fall apart. Yeah this is me when I’m trying to guide someone through powercycling everything for the 998yh time while a dude with an actually interesting problem is asking for help in slack
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May 23, 2023 14:01
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Crosby B. Alfred posted:What you are doing honestly sounds great but if you are just starting I would pick just one tech stack or cloud provider first. Hah, hoped there might be 'one weird trick they don't want you..' but is what it is. Thanks man. 
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May 23, 2023 14:30
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BIG FLUFFY DOG posted:Yeah this is me when I’m trying to guide someone through powercycling everything for the 998yh time while a dude with an actually interesting problem is asking for help in slack Try not to do this. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is good at multitasking. Our species is bad at it. The person in Slack can wait.
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May 23, 2023 14:33
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Some wildcart cert is expiring next week so the devs asked IT to get a list of servers that uses that cert. It's around 80 servers. Good luck devs! All Windows boxes.
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May 23, 2023 14:43
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I hate working on stuff and realizing my clients are overengineering things to make what they’re doing seem special. Just KISS and keep it DRY baby
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May 23, 2023 16:57
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guppy posted:Try not to do this. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is good at multitasking. Our species is bad at it. The person in Slack can wait. drat right they can, it's a text messaging platform. That's the whole point!
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May 23, 2023 17:55
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I used to work in a field where we were encouraged to (politely) tell people to gently caress off if we were doing sensitive work, and it has been a skill worth holding onto.
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May 23, 2023 18:19
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guppy posted:Try not to do this. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is good at multitasking. Our species is bad at it. The person in Slack can wait. it's an answer that's both completely honest and somehow very polarizing?
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May 23, 2023 18:30
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i try to do reverse sort in my tickets - the higher up you are the lower you are in my priorities, on the basis that it's always the lowest paid and respected front line staff that actually do anything that matters
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May 23, 2023 18:34
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I give actually zero consideration for who someone is or their job title in tickets, except to moderate my language more for "higher ups" which is a fake concept anyway in my org. Other department's executives have exactly zero pull on my team except for the pull they can get from our leadership, which isn't much and barely exists lol. This works fine in my org because higher ups arent putting in tickets anyway lmao they're just gonna bother the CIO who will pass it down until the help desk manager tells someone to deal with their Outlook issue real quick. I sort through issues purely by how old the ticket is and how much I want to do the work, in that order. thewizardofshoe fucked around with this message at 19:55 on May 23, 2023 |
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May 23, 2023 19:52
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Work paid trip to Europe bitches in September. I might not come back this time.
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May 24, 2023 01:17
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guppy posted:There is a cultural belief that computers are both eldritch technology and also nerd poo poo. Therefore, unless you work in IT, it is permissible not to know or attempt to learn even the rudiments of how to operate one, no matter how core it is to your job responsibilities. I'm not expecting them to know how to fix the computer, that's not their job, but it's like not knowing how to use a toilet because you aren't a plumber. But that's the reality. I don't know whether it's more the "eldritch technology" part or the "nerd poo poo" part that makes it acceptable. Really wish it was called eldritch technology instead of IT.
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May 24, 2023 01:47
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BadOptics posted:Really wish it was called eldritch technology instead of IT. Ichthyic Technology
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May 24, 2023 02:57
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BadOptics posted:Really wish it was called eldritch technology instead of IT.
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May 24, 2023 03:55
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Working in Eldritch Tech 3.0: year of the (biblical) job
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May 24, 2023 04:11
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jaegerx posted:Work paid trip to Europe bitches in September. I might not come back this time. And nothing was lost.
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May 24, 2023 04:15
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MF_James posted:And nothing was lost. I can still post from Europe. I'll jaegerx fucked around with this message at 04:30 on May 24, 2023 |
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May 24, 2023 04:24
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no idea how i did this
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May 24, 2023 04:29
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In Texas? So $30?
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May 24, 2023 04:29
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felt rude
jaegerx fucked around with this message at 04:40 on May 24, 2023 |
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May 24, 2023 04:32
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Thread, I have a question. I'm happy in my current role but am always keeping my ears to the ground. One organization I've always wanted to work for in a field I'd love to be in had a job opening come up - a director of IT infrastructure. I've been doing infra all my career - started in 2004 on a helpdesk and am presently a senior cloud engineer in Azure. The opening said they wanted 5 years of managing technical teams. I've had semi-management tasks - occasional mentorship, policy development, project management, etc., and I structured my resume and cover letter with the air of "I've done director/manager tasks for 5 years, I just haven't had the title." It seems to have worked - they scheduled my first round interview for next week. I've gone through the posting a few times and I can definitely speak to what they're looking for - they want a cloud migration vision within the first 100 days to drive a 3-year move into Azure. It involves working with internal stakeholders to identify projects, work with/deal with infosec for risk reduction, and a bunch of other things. I even networked with their current helpdesk manager to get some details; seems like a good match. It'd be more meetings than getting hands dirty, but that's part of the job. How should I prep myself for the interview? I want to get across the idea that I've come up from the trenches and know what visions work for infrastructure and ops vs. what doesn't. I can articulate details about when I've had to set visions and create patterns, and speak to management-ish tasks, but I know I'm probably up against actual IT directors and managers with real serious experience. Any pointers from people who have gone from hands-on-keyboard to management would be most welcome.
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May 24, 2023 14:40
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I’ve gone from hands on to management to back to hands on four times in the past eight years. Been a manager for 5/8 years roughly. I started at all three companies as a senior technical person. The last time I looked for a job my title was director. I hate applying for and interviewing for management positions at this point. If someone wants to recommend me somewhere and I know the deal, great. Otherwise I’ve found the interview loops to be preposterously long, the criteria for what they’re looking for vague and sometimes kinda idiotic, and the interviewers to be shitheels. I don’t know what it is about them. I’ve been lucky enough to be given the opportunity (and one time I was forced cause of a re-org) to toggle back and forth and I’d rather do it at a company where I started off lower in the chain. I don’t think this is what you were looking for, but good luck. I would suggest sending out a ton of applications and hoping someone bites and they aren’t total weirdos
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May 24, 2023 14:58
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MJP posted:Thread, I have a question. I'm happy in my current role but am always keeping my ears to the ground. One organization I've always wanted to work for in a field I'd love to be in had a job opening come up - a director of IT infrastructure. I've been doing infra all my career - started in 2004 on a helpdesk and am presently a senior cloud engineer in Azure. You're overthinking it, they'll likely ask you some project management questions, time management, and initiatives you've pushed. Your biggest gap might be in handling direct reports? But if you spoke about mentoring junior employees you'd probably be alright
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May 24, 2023 15:11
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Director level positions in larger orgs generally involve managing a team of managers. Our directors manage 4 to 6 managers who have teams of 10 or so under them.
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May 24, 2023 15:39
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Yea managing someone managing someone else isn’t really much of a skill, but it’s a thing that is very hard to step to without an intermediate step of managing directs That being said there are plenty of overleveled director titles that are just managing directs so you never know
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May 24, 2023 15:49
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My favorite memory from the early days of my IT adventure (and the one that probably taught me the most) was when I asked a user to reboot his machine. He said he had to get off the call to attend a meeting, but that he would reboot and let me know if it resolved the issue. I left the remote session open, proceeded to watch him sit through about half of his meeting, and then watched him type out the email response to me saying that he had rebooted and it did not resolve the issue. Never trust them
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May 24, 2023 15:51
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Also Microsoft employs more morons who have no idea what they’re talking about or why they’re talking about it than any company I’ve ever seen. I hate arguing with these goddamn dorks about how azure networking and private paas services work together and it’s embarrassing how their product teams and TAMs and architects don’t know poo poo but won’t stop offering their dumbass opinions
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May 24, 2023 15:55
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i am a moron posted:Yea managing someone managing someone else isn’t really much of a skill, but it’s a thing that is very hard to step to without an intermediate step of managing directs I am one of these overleveled directors. In fact my first IT Director title was some serious inflation where I had 3 reports and was a glorified senior admin\IT manager. This current role was advertised as an IT Manager but because I already had Director in my title they didn't want me to move backwards. I have zero reports. I am about to apply for a VP position for a dream organization so we'll see how it goes! Management is a scam and it owns
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May 24, 2023 15:59
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NZAmoeba posted:You're overthinking it, they'll likely ask you some project management questions, time management, and initiatives you've pushed. Yeah, I've done plenty of training and uplifting - I literally wrote and ran a syllabus and curriculum based around AZ-900 to help teach basic Azure to the helpdesk and any other interested folks. Including examples from within our own environment. On another instance they told me the day before an intern arrived that I'd be in charge of her. Worked out really well. I haven't had anyone report to me, let alone managers, but I think the best thing I could talk about if they bring it up is that I'd trust that the managers know their teams well, and that I see my role as ensuring that they can do their best work, which in turn will ensure the teams are doing their best work. I'd talk about wanting to sit down with the individuals on all the teams under me to get to know them, make sure they know I'm available, etc. I don't see myself as the kind of director who would be hands-off to the point of invisibility, but really, this is an amazing organization that does critical work, and it's important work too. It's a nonprofit so hopefully having the mission to keep us together would be helpful. I can talk about wanting to set visions that are realistic, and understand where the teams would be in starting them out - e.g. do people need training, do we have anyone with particular skills that would benefit X or Y, etc. Likewise, for the outliers in the vision - things that are new or fresh - can we build people to take them on or would there need to be considerations for consultants, etc.? Most of what I gathered from talking to the one guy who I networked with (who would report to me if I got the role, which is interesting) is that they're in a mature spot; teams have KPIs that relate to what they're doing, they have proper processes and use Jira for tasks and changes, all the other good stuff. They're now looking to go full-on into Azure. That's how I'm really going to be able to lean in - I'm an Azure nuts-and-bolts guy, I understand what the platform can do, I understand how to build for it and how to do so in a scalable way. I may not be the king of scripting or Lord IaaC, but the IaaC and scripting I have done at least exemplifies what we can do from the start to make this work well. Same for working with HA/DR. I'm still kinda shook at even making it this far. Parahexavoctal is the greatest thing to happen to cover letters ever.
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May 24, 2023 16:40
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MJP posted:Yeah, I've done plenty of training and uplifting - I literally wrote and ran a syllabus and curriculum based around AZ-900 to help teach basic Azure to the helpdesk and any other interested folks. Including examples from within our own environment. On another instance they told me the day before an intern arrived that I'd be in charge of her. Worked out really well. You are absolutely on the right track in how you're thinking about this role. A manager is simply executing (via delegation to your team) the will of the business. You have the leadership portion down and how you want to uplift, train, blah blah blah. This is the social aspect of management and is important. The second and possibly more important piece (in the eyes of upper management) is how you will reduce or make $$$. You will want to frame things not simply moving to Azure, and you're good at that, but how that move will save money or reduce operational costs. If you have previous metrics on how you did X and it saved Y then you're golden.
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May 24, 2023 17:13
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Unexpected Raw Anime posted:My favorite memory from the early days of my IT adventure (and the one that probably taught me the most) was when I asked a user to reboot his machine. He said he had to get off the call to attend a meeting, but that he would reboot and let me know if it resolved the issue. I left the remote session open, proceeded to watch him sit through about half of his meeting, and then watched him type out the email response to me saying that he had rebooted and it did not resolve the issue. I had a guy do the "Yeah I already rebooted" thing for me for an issue that I could tell through the call logs was resolved every single time by rebooting the machine (the machine itself was already known-defective but we still needed to get it working while we waited for the replacement because they had no back ups.) I walked him through turning it off, told him to turn it on again and when I told him to press a particular icon to open settings because he said it still wasn't working he said: "Its a touchscreen?" "Yeah that model uses a touchscreen for everything." "Then why's it dark? Oh. I didn't turn it back on." Worked immediately once he actually turned the device back on again no settings needed. Users are smart enough to know that we will always start a call with powercycling (unless its a particular error that we've seen before and is really specific but users NEVER keep track of the error messages. they just tell us one was there), but they think we do that because our cheap corporate masters force us to instead of because it usually works and we want to fix the problem and move on to something else. So they think they can get past the corporate bullshit through street smarts to what's ACTUALLY going to fix the issue. Same reason certain users will call support 3 times to get the same answer that what they want isn't a feature of the product. Well I just got unlucky and got a STUPID tech. If I call again I'll get the one who knows the workaround that they keep telling me doesn't exist because how could the product not have a feature I want? BIG FLUFFY DOG fucked around with this message at 17:25 on May 24, 2023 |
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May 24, 2023 17:23
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My first ever paying IT gig was tech support for a bank, taking calls for money order machines in gas stations. we'd get a list of machines that didn't phone home that night, so we'd call the store and find out what's up. Me: Let's just turn it off and on again, that usually fixes it Them: Yep, did that already Me: Hmm...ok can we try it while I'm on the phone? I'll keep an eye on the logs and see if it worked Them:........ Me: Hello? Can we try this again? Them:......can you tell me where the power button is?
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May 24, 2023 17:28
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BIG FLUFFY DOG posted:(unless its a particular error that we've seen before and is really specific but users NEVER keep track of the error messages. they just tell us one was there), I'm sure its uncouth to quote yourself but I also want to note that when I started I hated that they did this but now I realize it actually rules. Because it means I have an excuse to get them to do it again for me without pushback. Half the time the thing they're complaining about works now because it was an issue with the network or the cloud server that got resolved on its own by the time they actually called. The other half I can force a log that has not just the exact error code but their workflow leading up to the code without anything thats irrelevant to the error happening to dig through. If you're smart you can use user stupidity against itself to solve the problem.
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May 24, 2023 17:33
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