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Edit: nvm
Fiendish Dr. Wu fucked around with this message at 23:08 on Jul 28, 2014 |
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Jul 28, 2014 19:08
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 12:23 |
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Dark Helmut posted:Seems like a fairly chaotic place to work, I would really be looking in the background regardless. Yeah it really is. It's been very chaotic. And I agree about the title, I really don't go throwing out around, however it is the title. I was just putting it out there because that's how it hit me. 3 months left on this contract, we'll see how it goes.
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Jul 28, 2014 19:39
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three posted:You could be a hipster sysadmin. Like the legendary cobol programmer charging $232/hr
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Jul 31, 2014 01:24
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CLAM DOWN posted:Think about it objectively before you think we're just a nice place to flee to But Vancouver looks like a freaking utopia compared to basically any place in the US.  Different question: what would be a great place to move to within the US wrt IT careers (that's not including NYC or Palo Alto)? My wife and I have had similar fantasies about Canada / Europe, but she's also been talking about Seattle or Denver  Edit: negative didn't register Fiendish Dr. Wu fucked around with this message at 17:52 on Aug 1, 2014 |
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Aug 1, 2014 17:45
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Seattle does seem really cool. The IT part of it is obviously a major factor for obvious reasons, but I guess for us we're mostly looking at cultural fit (of which I'll not get into for risk of a nearly guaranteed major derail / thread closure)
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Aug 1, 2014 18:10
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There's this one guy who is a few desks down from me who is always on his phone talking loud as gently caress and laughing arrogantly and always mentioning his six Sigma black belt 
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Aug 1, 2014 20:00
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rock2much posted:
Hell yeah! 
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Aug 2, 2014 00:14
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This thread totally dies every weekend when we're not talking about extracurricular activities or having drunken breakdowns.
Fiendish Dr. Wu fucked around with this message at 20:18 on Aug 3, 2014 |
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Aug 3, 2014 20:01
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Tab8715 posted:Next question, when they ask about expected salary should I give a number? My first thought is to say something along the lines of "negotiable but my target is X." CTRL+F page 1 yields 23 results for "salary" Dilbert As gently caress posted:I think it's better that way. I king of like it  At least I was more productive with general household stuff this weekend (new thread title is appropriate)
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Aug 4, 2014 14:13
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Dark Helmut posted:^^^ best custom title ever ^^^ (DAF) I'm curious. As a recruiter, does it bother you when people talk this way? Are you ever thinking "yeah okay  " as if they're assuming you're just going to try to lowball them and haven't done their research?I mean, I'm sure you guys know the low and high end of the spectrum, probably even more exact that we can gather from glassdoor or whatever. I would almost feel like the guy who watched one episode of Cosmos and is now going to an astronomy convention telling them all that I know more than they do. Am I just totally wrong here?
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Aug 4, 2014 17:27
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Daylen Drazzi posted:I might be in the minority, but seeing as how most of my jobs for the last 5 years or so have been contract positions, I honestly think I would prefer some recruiter talk. We all know IT, but for some of us our experience with recruiters is either non-existent or drat little, and we view them with about as much enthusiasm as encountering pond scum in the pool. I agree with this entirely. I like my current recruiter, and feel comfortable with him and the agency. However, from what I've gathered, the agency is sort of on the lower end of the spectrum and also takes one of the largest cuts. It's generally referred to as the entrance level agency for the area. With this in mind, I feel like I have a good relationship with them and feel like they are working for my best interests, but I'm probably just a huge sucker. One part of this discussion that I would personally like to focus on its renegotiating contracts. As I've mentioned before, I love my current job and want to stay, but unfortunately it's in the air as to whether my boss is going to be able to hire us on perm. There may be an offer for extension, with which my boss already said would come with an increase in pay (no specific amount yet.) Now, my position had also inherited a major role. The guy whose role I inherited was easily making double what I'm making (his 10+ years experience vs my 4). Using general numbers here: If: I'm currently 20/hr, contracted with no bennies And: I was originally told that after the 6 months is up they want to hire me at 50k with complete bennies And: I inherited the role of a guy who I can safely assume was making close to 6 figures Then: how much should I reasonably expect for a contract extension?
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Aug 4, 2014 20:55
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NippleFloss posted:How do you know this? I've seen people get in trouble negotiating before because they assume that the people around them are making more than they are based on hearsay or water-cooler talk. You're right, it's an assumption I'm making based on his 12+ years experience and qualifications / position at this company. I guess that's what I'm asking for input on - how to go about this because I'm definitely not trying to get into any trouble when it comes down to it.
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Aug 4, 2014 21:51
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Dark Helmut posted:Everyone cuts their own deal in life, in work, and other stuff that's E/N thread-worthy. In this situation, you don't have 12 years of experience, even though you have this guy's job/title. So it stands to reason that even if you do the job as well as he did, in most companies you aren't just automatically going to step into his pay grade. Thanks for this. Yes, architect is correct. I had a meeting last week with my agency, during which time I explained the new role (with no mention of the other guys salary), and I know they have yet to talk with my boss. I'm really not too worried as it sounds like I'm in a good position (however I'm still updating my resume just in case). I've also heard it said that benefits can amount to around 30% of your salary. Is that a fair estimate?
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Aug 4, 2014 22:22
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Dark Helmut posted:I think you would make yourself nuts trying to quantify/generalize it like that. Instead, I would just look at the big ones - vacation, health care cost, stock options, and maybe the 401K match if they have it. My company chips in like $2400/yr for my HSA, so I would include that for example. Yeah that makes sense. I guess I have the same feeling as skipdogg where he said skipdogg posted:I much rather work a 70K a year job where I get 3 or 4 weeks of vacation and have a really nice low deductible PPO than make 80K a year with 1 week vacation and lovely insurance. Anyways, I'm just trying to get a general idea and make sure I'm going about it the right way. Thanks for the input.
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Aug 5, 2014 00:24
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Aunt Beth posted:Turns out we had a critical ICMP outage on one of our servers the other day. Boy were my customers happy when I plugged their PC back in. Speaking of ICMP outages 
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Aug 7, 2014 16:41
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HatfulOfHollow posted:Please tell me that's a real thing. I want to believe that somewhere out there someone accidentally cut some CAT6 and "fixed" it by tying the severed ends together. My boss got tired of this one guy always playing the jokester and unplugging usb cables all over the office. He asked to borrow my knife to get even.
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Aug 7, 2014 18:08
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SamDabbers posted:Well, no job's worth shaving my magnificent neckbeard, but I suppose I could shower and wear something with fewer food stains to make a good first impression. Although my beard may not be as magnificent or cover as much of my neck as yours, this is how I feel. SaltLick posted:I work in a jail and wear the same lovely khakis and polo every day because jail smells like bad easy mac and despair. I went to the interview in a suit. Wear a suit this is easy stuff. Working in It 3.0: smells like bad easy mac and despair
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Aug 8, 2014 00:17
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Wore khaki's (Dockers Alpha slim), ocbd, blazer, tie, nicest shoes I own to the interview that got me my current job. Will wear my new suit to the next one.
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Aug 8, 2014 02:12
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psydude posted:Totally up and moving to Middle Earth once I finish my master's. You have my sword! And we shall be the fellowship of the nerds.
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Aug 9, 2014 15:28
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dogstile posted:Can't you just draft a random dude who has a small workload to give you a hand for the day? Get a guy off the helpdesk "Hey man, I know you've been wanting to do some ~real server work~..."
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Aug 11, 2014 15:43
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Civic  More back seat legroom than my friends ctsv. 
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Aug 11, 2014 20:03
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tomapot posted:I'm hitting that mid-life crisis car age. I have a used Volvo that I bartered with a friend who has a towing company. As much as I want a new(ish) sports car I just can't justify a car payment when I telecommute and only drive around town like 4 times a week. I plan to drive my civic until I give it to my kid for his first car. Between now and then, If I need a mid life crisis car I'll still drive the civic for daily commute and take the Ariel Atom out on the weekend. Unless Tesla builds up an infrastructure of power charging units out here by 2017, then I want a model 3
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Aug 11, 2014 20:47
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Sometimes I feel a little crazy and drive my wife's Town and Country to work. The ladies love it (they can't get enough of the stow n go seats and integrated dvd/video display). They see me rollin by and the panties just drop. Also, I drive it to interviews to show how much of a dependable guy I really am. (not really but it's not a bad idea)
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Aug 11, 2014 21:03
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Tab8715 posted:I've been eyeing most entry-level German Cars and maybe the Acura ILX. I'm surprised so many high-end luxury cars have terrible crash test ratings, especially small-front overlap. Really if I got anything else right now besides my civic it would be a 2.0 tdi.
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Aug 11, 2014 22:34
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No matter how great my mileage is in the civic I still have to fill up often because of the commute (60+- round trip) and 10 gallon tank
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Aug 11, 2014 23:51
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I enjoy my commute. It gives my time to listen to my music, audio books, and podcasts in peace (kids make that near impossible at home)
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Aug 12, 2014 01:02
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jaegerx posted:To continue my on topic talk. The other week we were at lunch with a bunch of enterprise architects while we explained the new framework with crayons on the tablecloth.
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Aug 12, 2014 01:28
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Swink posted:Guys who listen to podcasts as they drive- any recommendations? Sysadmin focus? I've tried many but I always come back to the TWiT network podcasts. This Week in Tech, This Week in Enterprise Tech, and Security Now are my IT related favorites.
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Aug 12, 2014 13:23
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I checked out a few of those but I think the reason I keep coming back to TWiT is for the production value. If I remember correctly, Packet Pushers was one dude with a thick accent breathing into the mix and not even trying to speak clearly.
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Aug 12, 2014 16:38
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skipdogg posted:I can't do tech podcasts while I drive.... I use my car time to relax, last thing I want to think about is tech stuff. My go to podcasts for my long commutes (up to 3 hours a day in the car 2 or 3 times a week) Well really then, Star Talk Radio and Nerdist.
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Aug 12, 2014 17:03
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psydude posted:Get a degree just for the sake of being able to write. Because god damned, there are so many people in IT who cannot write. Hell yeah. One vendor engineer we had a meeting with apparently quote a book on the subject. He wrote me an email the next day with so many typos and grammatical errors it was ridiculous. He seriously mis-used "your". Apparently his book is pretty terrible too. But hey, he wrote a book
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Aug 15, 2014 15:46
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Erwin posted:If there's anyone who could help you wrap your head around something, it's a neurosurgeon Okay this made me laugh.
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Aug 15, 2014 23:13
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NippleFloss posted:... a 30 year old who wants to get into IT should also work towards a 4-year degree because he will already be behind many of his peers on the job ladder and the lack of a degree will hold him back even more. Oh look, a conversation about me! I'm 31 now, was 30 when I officially broke into IT. I've got just over 3 semesters left in my B.S. in IT Management. When I decided I wanted to get into IT, I chose another path and enlisted in the Navy. My original contract was for a CTN rating, then it changed to IT, then I got screwed into the choice between aviation and subs (I enlisted during the peak of The Great Recession of 2009 when everybody and their uncle enlisted). I chose aviation then when I arrived at my command I volunteered for every little bit of IT work I could do. During this time I also completed most of my degree because I knew I would need it when I got out. Vet status and a secret security clearance helped me get my first gig and pure luck got me my current one. I managed to get into the architecture team for a fortune 500 company - I'm one of the 2 lower level guys where everybody else on my team has masters and typically over 15 years of experience. The other lower level guy I work directly with is working on his Masters. I mentioned I got my current gig from pure luck and I'm telling the truth. I am not getting on a high horse just to brag, but I can provide a unique perspective. I am severely under-qualified compared to my peers, so I am doing everything in my power to do the job to the best of my ability and prove my worth (which is working out well for me - I'm not here to gently caress around). The "degree" conversation comes up often because of the college prestige dick-measuring that goes on, and when it comes up around me I usually sort of change the subject to my experience in the military - and since non of them were enlisted (most are immigrants anyways) it usually provides interesting conversation. I said all that to provide a little background so I can say this: if you want to be in a top level team then get your loving degree. If you're happy floating around in the mid-level position then fine, we need people like you too. After all, if everybody applied themselves and got their degrees then my office wouldn't have people to empty my trash can, brew our coffee, and clean our bathrooms. edit: so - can it be done without a degree? Yes. But why do it the hard way?
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Aug 16, 2014 17:27
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So here's a different spin on the whole degree / certification thing: With the advent of free MOOC's like on Coursera, how valuable do you think certified specializations are, or will be? Considering the weight given to "soft skills", you would get much of the same, and many of these free classes are taught by top level education centers like MIT or Berkeley. Should these be given consideration? Do you think they will be looked at negatively because of the free nature?
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Aug 18, 2014 00:19
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Swink posted:For the record I am one week into the Coursera course "Web Application Architectures". So far I am not super impressed but it is early days. I'm actually taking that one too (alongside my actual BS coursework). I've gotten my wife to sign up as well, who really doesn't know about tech stuff at all. It's been fun so far from that aspect.
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Aug 18, 2014 12:56
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No black people here, but plenty of minorities. We use lots of Oracle. You get one guess.
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Aug 18, 2014 17:02
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 contract extended with 50% raise!
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Aug 19, 2014 23:26
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MC Fruit Stripe posted:IT chat: we're all hideously out of shape, some of you are downright ugly, and all of us need to exercise more. Who's with me on a vague, non-committal promise to do something about it? Hell yeah. Just had my first day (back) at the gym yesterday, and I can barely move my arms today. IT is great because you can be sore as gently caress and be able to spend your time recovering in a chair.
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Aug 20, 2014 00:46
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Just have my first high level webex presentation about the current and future state of server operating systems in our production environment to about 40 architects. I think I need a beer now...
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Aug 20, 2014 14:16
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| # ¿ Apr 27, 2024 12:23 |
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quote:For the sake of argument, let's say your initial offer is $70000. If you get a 5% raise after one year, and another 5% raise after another year, you're looking at $77175. If you negotiate just $5000 more to start and get the same percentage increases, your first raise puts you at $78750. You're making more after one year than you would be after two under the initial offer. So what you're saying is that 5% of a big number is more than 5% of a little number.  math is hard
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Aug 22, 2014 13:51
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