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NZAmoeba posted:And how long did that take to do?  That sounds nice. Tell me moreWhen I worked at the bank, I had to send an email in a certain format to everyone letting them know something was broken. I also had to send text messages to about four people. Then I could work on the issue for ten minutes. Before it had been down for ~30 minutes, I had to send an update email. This entire time, i had to watch my phone/email and respond to any questions about why it was down, what was down, how long it would be, and which vendors were engaged. If it was going to be down for +45 minutes, I had to send out bank-wide severity notices. Which needed updated, and would get their own calls/emails/texts asking questions that I had to immediately respond to. ... Will refusing to be on call ever ever again hurt my potential career projection? Because having 15 minute SLAs for every.single.thing including password resets burned me on on-call. And I just.. look, if I'm watching my kid pretend to be a bunny in her school play, I want to concentrate on that. Not on your URGENT PRODUCTION ISSUE.
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Jan 3, 2015 04:13
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That's rough dude. Should t your helpdesk be fielding the support calls and questions? As far as not being on call, once you are past helpdesk/desktop support, on call is expected in IT. Even our helpdesk rotates into on call one week every two months.
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Jan 3, 2015 04:19
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Syano posted:Same guy I can hear MJP going "you know, that explains so goddamn much" edit: gently caress that's what I get for not refreshing the thread since I loaded it in this tab 8 hours ago. SyNack Sassimov fucked around with this message at 04:52 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 04:49
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adorai posted:As far as not being on call, once you are past helpdesk/desktop support, on call is expected in IT. Even our helpdesk rotates into on call one week every two months. I disagree with this. To a point, sure, for escalations every once in a while, but the higher you go, the less you should be getting called. Let junior/mid-level guys do that.
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Jan 3, 2015 06:00
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Is "I really hate Portland and need to move somewhere else" a good enough reason to leave a job after a couple months?
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Jan 3, 2015 06:55
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Che Delilas posted:The actual professionals get tired of explaining to our families what we do in a way they can understand (car analogies, always car analogies) and it gets a little annoying. Your Mom’s 6 Best Attempts At Describing What You Do For A Living
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Jan 3, 2015 07:04
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Pudgygiant posted:Is "I really hate Portland and need to move somewhere else" a good enough reason to leave a job after a couple months? Yeah, you'll want to use a phrase like "poor culture fit" instead. Misleading sure, but not a lie! Heh, my mom has a better grasp than that, but when I was looking for my first (software development) job after college, she kept "helpfully" sending me random postings, many from the local paper's classifieds section, for help desk positions. I kept telling her that, no, help desk doesn't really "get my foot in the door" as a programmer and would more than likely be an utter dead end for my career, but she never really got it through her head. I've given up trying to distinguish between IT and Development to non-industry people. I'll tell them I'm a software engineer, but if they respond with, "Oh you're in IT?" I just say yeah.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:17
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jim truds posted:Someday I want to go into the doctor's office, tell him my butt don't work, it ain't been workin for a month, and why can't he just fix it. No you can't look at it, I'm too busy doing butt stuff. I complained of butt stuff and he just ordered a test and told me to keep taking OTCs. Test came back negative and I never really followed up on it. I ended up taking probiotics for a while and it got better after like, 9 months. If a user came to me with a problem and told him to keep using a workaround forever until the user tried something himself that worked, well, I wouldn't be a very good IT. Speaking of Doctors, I have a nice steamy rant bubbling inside me, but that's for one of the other threads.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:31
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evol262 posted:I disagree with this. To a point, sure, for escalations every once in a while, but the higher you go, the less you should be getting called. Let junior/mid-level guys do that.
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Jan 3, 2015 07:48
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adorai posted:I agree with your statement, but you are still on call. In fact, I am on call 24/7/365 but only get an out of hours call a few times per year. I just have to accept that occasionally there will be something that breaks at 2am and needs my attention. My last position required me to be on call and even if I got a phone call at 2am and worked till 6am they expected me in the office at 9. I politely referred them to HR and if they expected me to drive in under lack of sleep and wrecked my car I would be filing a lawsuit. They decided my tenure at that position should end at that point. Worked out well. 3 months severance and my new job is triple the salary and I work from home. E: and they still haven't filled my position because of how lovely it is. Been 3 months now. Suckers. jaegerx fucked around with this message at 07:58 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 07:52
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jaegerx posted:E: and they still haven't filled my position because of how lovely it is. Been 3 months now. Suckers. You reminded me; I just got in touch with an old co-worker, and in our conversation he told me that the woman they got to replace me after I quit (it took them about 4 months to do so), quit after about 9 months. Not "put in her notice," but just up and quit, because she couldn't take another day of working under my old boss (the sociopath/egomaniac about whom I've told a number of stories in these threads). I'm not happy that the company is having trouble keeping good people, mostly because the work gets dumped on those who are left, most of whom I respect and don't deserve to be working for that shithead any more than I did. I'm just happy to get a little validation that my reasons for quitting when and how I did were not just me being a drama queen. The dude really is that obnoxious and oppressive.
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Jan 3, 2015 08:25
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adorai posted:I agree with your statement, but you are still on call. In fact, I am on call 24/7/365 but only get an out of hours call a few times per year. I just have to accept that occasionally there will be something that breaks at 2am and needs my attention. I guess I consider the escalations more notional than actual, since I haven't been called (on or off hours) in 5 years. I figured this was normal, but maybe I'm the exception
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Jan 3, 2015 14:43
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skooma512 posted:I complained of butt stuff and he just ordered a test and told me to keep taking OTCs. Test came back negative and I never really followed up on it. I ended up taking probiotics for a while and it got better after like, 9 months.
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Jan 3, 2015 16:27
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What should be my response to the owner of my company condescendingly telling me to "worry about the desktop stuff?" for expressing any interest beyond my current role in desktop support. I know I kinda posted in a rage earlier all the things that pissed me off about my current job but it's kinds not getting any better
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Jan 3, 2015 17:48
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QuiteEasilyDone posted:What should be my response to the owner of my company condescendingly telling me to "worry about the desktop stuff?" for expressing any interest beyond my current role in desktop support. I know I kinda posted in a rage earlier all the things that pissed me off about my current job but it's kinds not getting any better 
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Jan 3, 2015 17:52
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QuiteEasilyDone posted:What should be my response to the owner of my company condescendingly telling me to "worry about the desktop stuff?" for expressing any interest beyond my current role in desktop support. I know I kinda posted in a rage earlier all the things that pissed me off about my current job but it's kinds not getting any better
If you don't see any compelling reasons to stay, don't stay. There's relatively little risk in casually looking while you're already employed.
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Jan 3, 2015 18:16
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Since January is YOTJ time for lots and lots of technology people, I just wanted to reiterate the First Rule of Job Hunting: you should turn off activity broadcasts in your LinkedIn profiles. Employers get panicky if they see you connecting with lots of recruiters. http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/78/~/showing-or-hiding-activity-updates-about-you
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Jan 3, 2015 18:17
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Cannot wait to get YOTJ'ing in 2015. Love the current internal gig in sys admin and IT management, done some amazing projects, but it's been a couple of years and hopefully the next move is the "big" one. I would do it in a second but I was hoping they would find me first 
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Jan 3, 2015 18:39
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Regarding on-call, I have to say working for a global company has it's benefits. We have IT staff in India, France, the UK, and all 3 timezones in the US. I think there's a couple of hours a day where there is no IT staff working during normal business hours. I still go on call once every 6 weeks for an entire week, but I just have to respond to any alerts, phone calls and check the backup jobs. It's not difficult at all and we get some extra compensation for it. There are rarely any alerts, and never any calls. skipdogg fucked around with this message at 18:46 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 18:43
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If I'm tentatively looking around for better jobs, should I be linking up with recruiters at companies I want to work for? Something like "Hey, not sure if you have a spot for me right now but are my skills something you guys might need in the near future?"
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Jan 3, 2015 18:59
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I'm about to order RHCSA/RHCE Exam guide by Michael Yang http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0071765654/ The Practice of System and Network Administration (Limoncelli,Hogan,Chalup) http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0321492668/ Before I do that I wanted to get a reality check. TL;DR worked in SQA as my first real job years ago, past 10 years worked in a much less technical job. I'm interested in this career path as I believe it will let me use my troubleshooting, research and technical skills while implementing solutions and keeping a system running. My current job has taught me about time management, customer service, proactively keeping projects moving, and prioritizing a large workload. I know the last 2 paragraphs sound a bit buzzwordy but i'm trying to get into the resume mindset and use less sarcastic terms (time management instead of spinning a poo poo ton of plates at once while one of your 6 bosses throw chainsaws in now and then). Is starting as a junior or full Linux sysadmin with just the RHCSA under my belt a realistic expectation?
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Jan 3, 2015 19:23
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FYI, Jang is working on a new book for the new certification.
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Jan 3, 2015 19:31
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Roargasm posted:I would do it in a second but I was hoping they would find me first I once got headhunted by Palantir and I told them that with their software, they should already know I'm not interested in working for their company. Spying on citizens really brings out the snark in me, I guess. Bhodi fucked around with this message at 20:00 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 19:57
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I'm personally disgusted by it, but I read the white papers about Frontier and exhaustive regression in the leak and it blew my mind. I would love to get my hands on something like that, but for science e: I really appreciate the feedback though. Morale means a lot to me, even if the tech is virtually future magic Roargasm fucked around with this message at 22:00 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 20:01
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madpanda posted:I'm about to order One thing I would also strongly recommend is to learn at least one major scripting language (Python, Ruby, Perl) along with the system certifications. Typically, Linux organizations are much more interested in hand-spun automation than comparable Windows environments.
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Jan 3, 2015 20:02
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Agreed. If you can pass it, you're absolutely qualified as at least a junior. I'm not sure about a "Full" (mid-level?) but the problem here is that it's in a timed lab format, so reading a book is only going to be moderate to low assistance on the test itself. Be aware it's going to be tough and if you haven't done linux before you're probably going to fail it the first time. That's why it's both valuable and a good baseline for a linux admin. The networking and new technology thing is great once you're looking at moving up to mid/senior level; if you're shooting for a low to mid level job I think it's less important beyond the standard "hey there's an open slot at my company" thing so don't dedicate a lot of time to it, I feel that time is better spent playing around on a home lab or learning perl/python/ruby (and bash) to land that first job. But that's just my opinion, and really it all helps in different ways. Bhodi fucked around with this message at 20:12 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 20:07
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Bhodi posted:Agreed. If you can pass it, you're absolutely qualified as at least a junior. I'm not sure about a "Full" (mid-level?) but the problem here is that it's in a timed lab format, so reading a book is only going to be moderate to low assistance on the test itself. Be aware it's going to be tough and if you haven't done linux before you're probably going to fail it the first time. That's why it's both valuable and a good baseline for a linux admin. System administrators overwhelmingly tend to recruit out of their personal networks. Out of the five people I directly hired at my last job, two were referrals from another employee: one for a junior Windows engineer job, and one for a senior storage engineering job where the person we hired had no formal experience as a storage engineer. One was an internal transfer from a scientific computing group into IT. One was a hire out of my own social network, moving from a desktop support engineer to a junior backup and storage engineering position. Only one person in my group was hired as a direct applicant. None of the 120+ recruiter-submitted candidates I interviewed were hired for any position. Professional networking is absolutely the most important thing you can do, especially when you're at a point in your career where the only thing differentiating you from any other candidate is the trust of someone already working at the company. It doesn't mean you spend eight hours a day doing it, but if you're investing no time at all into it, you're very seriously hamstringing your career. edit for numbers: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/28/business/employers-increasingly-rely-on-internal-referrals-in-hiring.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0 Vulture Culture fucked around with this message at 20:24 on Jan 3, 2015 |
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Jan 3, 2015 20:19
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I have to reluctantly agree. My current job (headhunted off of LinkedIn) is the only one I've never had that was not a personal network referral job. Those contacts were from family, ex-coworkers and personal friends. However, all of those people (excepting nepotism) could vouch for the quality of my work and myself as an individual. It's definitely a catch-22, as so many things are in the professional world - you need references to get a job but you need to have worked with people to get references. I don't know that joining a local club can short-circuit that, but it can't hurt. Just don't go into it expecting the local equivalent of a job fair. Something else that hasn't been mentioned specifically in this case is building yourself semi-professionally via github or stack exchange. It's a fairly new idea but It shows an ongoing record of engagement while providing hands-on experience with real-world problems and tools. You also might learn a useful thing or two, and contributing to the greater whole is a good thing to do anyway.
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Jan 3, 2015 20:40
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evol262 posted:Also, I jest. Power hardware is awesome, and I love my power8 kit. Just not aix, so I'm happy IBM is so involved on Linux on power A while back it seemed you were on the fence with power, what changed?
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Jan 3, 2015 21:10
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What's a realistic time frame for picking up your RHCSA?
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Jan 3, 2015 21:26
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Bhodi posted:I once got headhunted by Palantir and I told them that with their software, they should already know I'm not interested in working for their company. Spying on citizens really brings out the snark in me, I guess. They're a strange bunch. I interviewed with them in London a couple years back and at the time it seemed like their European team were recruiting people without really having any need for them, which led to some awkward video conferences where three rounds of US staff contradicted each other and had no idea what the job that had actually been advertised was about. I got a strong sense that if you weren't in the Palo Alto team then they didn't consider you a 'real' employee. That and trying far too hard to project their corporate culture as an easy-going casual environment just creeped me out too much.
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Jan 3, 2015 21:31
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Tab8715 posted:What's a realistic time frame for picking up your RHCSA?
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Jan 3, 2015 22:02
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Thanks Bhodi,Misogynist and Dr Arbitrary. I have a bit of experience with Linux already so the sample questions I've seen weren't too bad. Already planned on learning bash and probably Ruby, I did some basic scripts in perl/php and python ages ago. I see Ruby mentioned a lot so I will check that out for sure. It sounds like landing a system admin job is a realistic goal, I was concerned that I set my sights too high and should be aiming for a less technical position. Focusing on professional networking is something I did none of at my current position, it always felt slimey to me. I realize this is a mistake and will utilize professional contacts more. Is it typical for system admins to work as part of a team? Starting out and being solely responsible for security, networking, DR, user issues etc sounds a bit overwhelming. I found this linked on one of the linux podcasts, and it sounds like a great blueprint of becoming a well rounded system admin, something to work on addition to being on the job and gaining experience. For just starting out its a lot to take in. https://sysadmincasts.com/episodes/25-bits-sysadmins-should-know
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Jan 3, 2015 22:12
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madpanda posted:Is it typical for system admins to work as part of a team? Starting out and being solely responsible for security, networking, DR, user issues etc sounds a bit overwhelming. That is a pretty good list. I agree that it's intimidating, but to be blunt, a sysadmin needs to know a lot about a lot of things to be successful. It's a tough, demanding, and (IMHO) fascinating and awesome field. I feel like I learn something new every single day which is what keeps me excited about doing it. You only want to get into this kind of work if you love learning. You may work on a team or be totally solo, depending on the company. Having been the only admin for a few smallish companies, and on a team at a mid-size one, I vastly prefer being on a team. You will be on-call literally 24/7 if you're the only admin, and that sucks. You also have no one to bounce ideas off or collaborate with. You can get a lot of experience really quickly as a solo admin, but I feel like it also puts a cap on how much you can grow professionally. A couple notes on the two books you linked earlier. They're both great, but also out of date. The RHCSA book covers the RHEL 6 exam, and the exams have now moved onto RHEL 7. Jang is working on a new book but I don't think it's out yet. And The Practice of... is a great resource, but you do need to keep in mind it came out in 2007. So certain topics, like virtualization, are barely mentioned despite being fundamental, required skills in 2015. It's also geared to a traditional, "enterprise" sysadmin where you're managing internal services and taking help desk escalations. These days, there are a lot of jobs in "operations" where you may be helping run your company's customer-facing services. Think big websites and SaaS products. These jobs might still have sysadmin as the title (mine does), or you might see Operations Engineer, DevOps Engineer, Site Reliability Engineer, etc. These require a different skillset, and those same authors recently put out a "volume 2" in the form of The Practice of Cloud System Administration. It's a great read, but I'll warn you that it assumes a higher baseline skill than the first book. Supposedly they are working on an updated edition of the first book as well, due out within the next year.
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Jan 4, 2015 01:06
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Pudgygiant posted:Is "I really hate Portland and need to move somewhere else" a good enough reason to leave a job after a couple months? Sure, why not? I left a Job in Lousiana after about 8 months to move TO Portland. Leaving a job because you're moving away is a perfectly valid reason. Though I've got no idea why you'd really hate Portland, it's a good place with a decent IT job market.
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Jan 4, 2015 02:20
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NippleFloss posted:Though I've got no idea why you'd really hate Portland, it's a good place with a decent IT job market. Is it? It seems most openings in the Pacific Northwest are more senior. The job market in Texas appears to have a ton of demand for nearly everything no matter what level. Gucci Loafers fucked around with this message at 03:11 on Jan 4, 2015 |
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Jan 4, 2015 03:08
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Tab8715 posted:Is it? It seems most openings in the Pacific Northwest are more senior. Yes, but, as someone who lives in Texas, the drawback is that you live in Texas. I mean, grass is greener, etc., and there's no state income tax here, but were it not for family and friends keeping me here I'd have left a long time ago.
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Jan 4, 2015 03:49
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Tab8715 posted:Is it? It seems most openings in the Pacific Northwest are more senior. You spend 2-3 years of your career looking for entry level, you spend 30 years looking for senior level.
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Jan 4, 2015 04:18
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Tab8715 posted:A while back it seemed you were on the fence with power, what changed? I think POWER8 is great. I've always liked power, just not what power kit cost (especially as it gets easier to scale out), and the way IBM has done terrible things with cheaper Tivoli on power/etc. 8 is a modern, incredibly fast, reasonably affordable platform and IBM has put a metric ton of work into KVM on power (which is where I get involved). It's niagra (SPARC) and ARM's lovechild, and what's not to love about that? madpanda posted:I have a bit of experience with Linux already so the sample questions I've seen weren't too bad. madpanda posted:Already planned on learning bash and probably Ruby, I did some basic scripts in perl/php and python ages ago. I see Ruby mentioned a lot so I will check that out for sure. madpanda posted:Is it typical for system admins to work as part of a team? Starting out and being solely responsible for security, networking, DR, user issues etc sounds a bit overwhelming. madpanda posted:I found this linked on one of the linux podcasts, and it sounds like a great blueprint of becoming a well rounded system admin, something to work on addition to being on the job and gaining experience. It's been said before by Misogynist, and you're already looking at it, but the single best thing you can do to become a well rounded sysadmin is learning to script/program. Also, a desire to take apart technologies, but curiosity helps in every job
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Jan 4, 2015 05:21
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Japanese Dating Sim posted:Yes, but, as someone who lives in Texas, the drawback is that you live in Texas. I've lived all over the place and moved TO Texas. I like it here for some strange reason. I want to move to Baton Rouge or NOLA to be closer to family, but the IT job market doesn't seem so hot. Texas isn't too far away and we get to visit often.
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Jan 4, 2015 08:53
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