** Official IT Thread ** - Come in for some tech!

[SynapticCleft]

I completed my BS in Information Systems in early 2019, but haven't done anything with it.

How did you get into IT project/program management? Internships? Or the Help Desk route?

Curious if its possible to skip taking a 50% paycut and go thr Help Desk route lmao?

I work in mechanical systems/Utilities and like it a lot, but certain aspects if the tech world look good to me.

Any advice bruhs? Also, what areas of IT SUCK? Saw someone say Sysadmin blows because on call?

Internships will allow you to skip the help desk easily.

Each area of IT has some type of "suckiness", on call isn't so bad because it's usually offset by a large compensation. Even in development we have sprint deadlines to meet, and it can get crazy at times when people are putting 60+ hours a week to meet the deadline. The roles you see on job boards with crazy salaries usually have amazing compensation because they have on call responsiblities.

[Realclout]

Faurk, BOYOS. Hold me, Feels train coming in hard. Took my CCNA exam today and barley failed but feeling such mixed emotions was WAY easier then expected but there was also ALOT of things not covered in the OCG or Required a keeping understanding then what was in the OCG learned alot from the OCG but it is practically useless for passing the exam. Gonna regroup and fill in the knowledge gaps with a few resources and try testing again soon MY biggest fear was addressing and subnetting for IPv4 since I am not good with math and no calculator but there was only like 1 question and VIRTUALLY no topology questions almost ENTIRELY drag and drop and multiple choice on concepts or non-default configuration stuff ALSO very little trouble shooting as well.

Might even hit the dispensary after this BRUTAL life DENYING event.

Hopefully, I make it in the next 9 or so months or it may be time for me to ROPE. srs.

[chaunce54]

Faurk, BOYOS. Hold me, Feels train coming in hard. Took my CCNA exam today and barley failed but feeling such mixed emotions was WAY easier then expected but there was also ALOT of things not covered in the OCG or Required a keeping understanding then what was in the OCG learned alot from the OCG but it is practically useless for passing the exam. Gonna regroup and fill in the knowledge gaps with a few resources and try testing again soon MY biggest fear was addressing and subnetting for IPv4 since I am not good with math and no calculator but there was only like 1 question and VIRTUALLY no topology questions almost ENTIRELY drag and drop and multiple choice on concepts or non-default configuration stuff ALSO very little trouble shooting as well.

Might even hit the dispensary after this BRUTAL life DENYING event.

Hopefully, I make it in the next 9 or so months or it may be time for me to ROPE. srs.

Sorry to hear that. I wouldn't worry too much about it. I'm a network security engineer and don't have CCNA or any other network certification.

[Cinderblock]

I completed my BS in Information Systems in early 2019, but haven't done anything with it.

How did you get into IT project/program management? Internships? Or the Help Desk route?

Curious if its possible to skip taking a 50% paycut and go thr Help Desk route lmao?

I work in mechanical systems/Utilities and like it a lot, but certain aspects if the tech world look good to me.

Any advice bruhs? Also, what areas of IT SUCK? Saw someone say Sysadmin blows because on call?

-IT rotational programs
-Early career development programs
-Associate Product Managers
-Google Cloud Technical residency

Fortune 100 type companies have many programs geared towards early career graduates that basically allow you to skip entry level jobs straight to $80k-$120k jobs. It's just pretty competitive, but a good fit for Information Systems.

Check out rotational.careers (my friend made this) and apmlist.com. Companies will start interviewing around August-September for the fall 2021 and summer 2022.

[Sterilite]

has anyone here created a phone app before?

[chaunce54]

Net engineer reporting in. Who wants me to school them?

lol, answering a phone and advising the customer to power cycle their wireless router doesn't make you a net engineer...

[bogui94]

Is it common for folks to work 2-3 remote 6 figure jobs?

[bogui94]

To the people above who said over 100k a year, do you have a degree? Im hoping I can crack 80k without a degree and just certs.

yeah, BS in Computer Engineering

[Sterilite]

how difficult to program a book converter from pdf to epub?

[SynapticCleft]

how difficult to program a book converter from pdf to epub?

Shouldn't be too tough, you will need to scrape the contents of the pdf and then use a package like pandoc to format the text into epub.

[ElmoMAD]

passed my ccna boyos. Das it. 7 weeks of studying

[dcbone30]

Been looking to switch into cybersecurity after I finished my Masters in Cybersecurity at WGU, have CEH and background in vulnerability management. I've had a few interviews, one at a local, large university but they really wanted a backend server guy to admin all their tools which requires a mastery of those tools which are mostly open source and without support. Obviously I didn't have that experience but the interview went really well and they told me to look out for future openings in their SOC - which I have another one with them coming up, I think it will go well.

I actually got a job offer for a SOC analyst at a bank (which I later found out wasn't actually chartered as a bank, but a large payday loan company), unfortunately they really low balled me and the benefits were worse than when I worked as a contractor a long time ago I didn't even bother to counter.

Feel like I'm trying to break into IT all over again but I have a good feeling about this University SOC position coming up. State Bennies ++++

[devilbones]

Been looking to switch into cybersecurity after I finished my Masters in Cybersecurity at WGU, have CEH and background in vulnerability management. I've had a few interviews, one at a local, large university but they really wanted a backend server guy to admin all their tools which requires a mastery of those tools which are mostly open source and without support. Obviously I didn't have that experience but the interview went really well and they told me to look out for future openings in their SOC - which I have another one with them coming up, I think it will go well.

I actually got a job offer for a SOC analyst at a bank (which I later found out wasn't actually chartered as a bank, but a large payday loan company), unfortunately they really low balled me and the benefits were worse than when I worked as a contractor a long time ago I didn't even bother to counter.

Feel like I'm trying to break into IT all over again but I have a good feeling about this University SOC position coming up. State Bennies ++++

Good luck man. Cybersecurity is such a strange field to get into. When I started in IT there was no such thing. People were really good at Win, Linux/Unix, Networking, etc. and then became security people. Its such a broad term too and kind of overused. There are like policy people that are non-tech that do cyber and there are also extremely tech people that are testing and implementing. Hit me up if you have any questions, I also did my MSCIA at WGU.

[memcop]

Yay

Back in IT game as an all product SA/PM.

Cracks knuckles and finger punches keys one by one phpv1 and og .net

Devilbones died of dysentery.

Wuodl yo like e to buy a knew oxan with him cloths?

*MBA IT PM @WGU crew

[dcbone30]

Good luck man. Cybersecurity is such a strange field to get into. When I started in IT there was no such thing. People were really good at Win, Linux/Unix, Networking, etc. and then became security people. Its such a broad term too and kind of overused. There are like policy people that are non-tech that do cyber and there are also extremely tech people that are testing and implementing. Hit me up if you have any questions, I also did my MSCIA at WGU.

So an update, a few things happened since this post. Good news. Kind of a weird twists of fate, but they ended up interviewing me and offering me a position as the SOC manager. They really liked my background in teaching cybersec courses (currently adjunct at a local cc), as an LEO/military and my broad background in multiple areas of IT. While I don't have direct SOC experience, the interview was me roleplaying out a real scenario/incident they had the previous year and I absolutely nailed it. Good thing I re-read my incident response section of my CISSP book the night before lol. The director of IT Security said all the other interviewees didn't even isolate the system in the scenario, and just kind of froze up not knowing how to react.

A week later, they had me out for lunch with some of the team and come back to the SOC to interact with the group, chat and just hang out a bit (personality fit 'interview') and I got a verbal offer last thursday and written today, which I am going to accept. It's going to be a hefty payraise, and while I'm not holding my breath, the director said they are looking to bump up pay as they keep losing full time guys due to pay/remote work, so maybe more down the road (grain of salt etc etc did not influence my decision.). It's a state university job, so the benefits are far better than I have now and I will be paying $8k less in health benefits, so my take home will be boosted beyond the base payraise. At 4pm they switch to a 3rd party SOC/Monitoring service, so I basically get my nights and weekends back, holidays and no on-call rotation. Seemed like a no brainer and I get to be called a 'manager' now.

[ElmoMAD]

3 weeks after passing CCNA...

I have an interview with a recruiter who contacted me about available positions. It is on Tuesday. How do these typically go? He has several roles he can talk about, but the main one was an Engineer position at an NOC. On one hand, I am very confident with what I know, but also I'm going into this interview with 0 expectations simply because I have 0 experience and my resume is primarily certs. On the other hand, my LinkedIn is very clear about this and I feel he wouldn't contact me unless the positions were relevant to my skillset and experience.

Any tips on how to approach the interview? I'm stoked that I'm getting interest though. I haven't really been sending resumes out that much because I want to finish school first, but it feels I'm definitely headed down the right path. I've had a few recruiters contact me about internships and positions across the country, but I'm not quite ready to move just yet.

Thanks for any insight.

[devilbones]

So an update, a few things happened since this post. Good news. Kind of a weird twists of fate, but they ended up interviewing me and offering me a position as the SOC manager. They really liked my background in teaching cybersec courses (currently adjunct at a local cc), as an LEO/military and my broad background in multiple areas of IT. While I don't have direct SOC experience, the interview was me roleplaying out a real scenario/incident they had the previous year and I absolutely nailed it. Good thing I re-read my incident response section of my CISSP book the night before lol. The director of IT Security said all the other interviewees didn't even isolate the system in the scenario, and just kind of froze up not knowing how to react.

A week later, they had me out for lunch with some of the team and come back to the SOC to interact with the group, chat and just hang out a bit (personality fit 'interview') and I got a verbal offer last thursday and written today, which I am going to accept. It's going to be a hefty payraise, and while I'm not holding my breath, the director said they are looking to bump up pay as they keep losing full time guys due to pay/remote work, so maybe more down the road (grain of salt etc etc did not influence my decision.). It's a state university job, so the benefits are far better than I have now and I will be paying $8k less in health benefits, so my take home will be boosted beyond the base payraise. At 4pm they switch to a 3rd party SOC/Monitoring service, so I basically get my nights and weekends back, holidays and no on-call rotation. Seemed like a no brainer and I get to be called a 'manager' now.

Nice. Would rep you in real life.

[wings_unhinged]

3 weeks after passing CCNA...

I have an interview with a recruiter who contacted me about available positions. It is on Tuesday. How do these typically go? He has several roles he can talk about, but the main one was an Engineer position at an NOC. On one hand, I am very confident with what I know, but also I'm going into this interview with 0 expectations simply because I have 0 experience and my resume is primarily certs. On the other hand, my LinkedIn is very clear about this and I feel he wouldn't contact me unless the positions were relevant to my skillset and experience.

Any tips on how to approach the interview? I'm stoked that I'm getting interest though. I haven't really been sending resumes out that much because I want to finish school first, but it feels I'm definitely headed down the right path. I've had a few recruiters contact me about internships and positions across the country, but I'm not quite ready to move just yet.

Thanks for any insight.

How'd the interview go? Def don't sweat not having experience if they brought you in with nothing on your resume. I'm sure they're aware of that. I'd expect some technical questions to ascertain what they have to work with in you. Even if you don't end up accepting/moving, just going through the interview process is great experience.

[JeffPesos]

How'd the interview go? Def don't sweat not having experience if they brought you in with nothing on your resume. I'm sure they're aware of that. I'd expect some technical questions to ascertain what they have to work with in you. Even if you don't end up accepting/moving, just going through the interview process is great experience.

Thanks bro. It went well. I lost my pw to that account so this is me. It was a completely non technical interview and he was just profiling me understanding what I'm doing right now and what my goals are, intended positions I'm applying for, salary, etc.

He then went over the NOC Engineer role, which is right up my alley. He brought 2 people before me with similar backgrounds (No exp + CCNA + Intention to be in this industry) and they were both hired. Its a one interview process. He is looking for an interview around November-December with an intended start date around New Years. Its 48 hours a week, 12 hour days for 4 day work weeks - M-Th one week + Tues-Fri the next week alternating 7am-7pm and 7pm-7am work weeks. About 65k a year and a clear path to a Network or Cyber Security engineer role which pays around 130-150k/yr on glassdoor. Huge company. International with some great locations around the world where they love sending people to other countries if they want. Honestly its a pretty exciting opportunity, and I'll see how it goes. If I don't get that role, the recruiter mentioned having plenty of other roles as well, but we are shooting for this one. Super stoked.

[dcbone30]

1 month update as a SOC Manager. Things are great, job is chill, everyone I work with is cool, motivated and easy to work with and I have already successfully gotten through a couple of medium severity incidents. I feel like I'm picking up things pretty quick but there's a ton of tools I'm still learning, also working towards my CISSP so still have a long ways until I'm truly "comfortable" (although thats impossible, with looming disasterous breach that could happen at any time)

Just got off with the CISO a few minutes ago, they approved giving me a $12k raise and possibly more to come with CISSP cert to better align with industry salaries and part of the retention initiative. Things couldn't be better atm

[jeshelton]

Very new to the realm but love the idea of work from home and can see one of my kids already trying to bypass/modify/fuk with everything and anything at 9yo on his Chromebook. Kindergartner had a Chromebook for his first day of school due to cuckvid19 - this realm seems unavoidable to anyone but the Amish anymore.

I've seen a few miscers start outside of college and get certs for XYZ, but for most the guys in here, is the goal a sysadmin for a large corporation?

[Voidgaze]

Long update

Spoiler!

Back in May I was hired as a school district "Campus Technician" for Elementary schools. Since I've been hired I've only triaged, sorted, and cleaned filthy chromebooks for my full 8 hour shift. Very little technical work if any, and my team was supposed to be deployed to our assigned campus back in August....it's fuking November. We haven't been able to keep a fully staffed team since I was hired, and we just finally got our full 17 person team back together. Unfortunately the district thought it would be a great idea to put the new hires on a campus before the very capable and qualified people who've been cleaning laptops for the past 6 months.

The CEO of the recruiting/staffing agency we're under is livid over this and to be fair, our agency has done a great job trying to keep our morale up. Recently we all had a sit down with some of the district big wigs to hear their Plan for us going forward. They fed us some BS about us being valuable and would rather have us create some new SOP documentation and basically help clean up the clusterfuk that's been happening since Covid-19 started. On top of that they'd like to train us up to fix some of their more complex issues. So basically they want to train us up to being T2-T3 techs but without the pay...LOL.

So with all of that being said, I'm interviewing with a very well known job board that just launched a new platform that's UK based. I'm waiting on the invitation for the round 2 video call then hopefully I get to round 3. It's still entry level but I'm looking at a $42-46k salary with benefits, PTO, sign on bonus, and stocks vs my current $37k salary. I don't have the job yet, but if they hire me it'll be quite the "come up". The workload seems heavy, but working under that company name and having it on my resume is worth spending 3-4 years there especially with advancement opportunities being offered through their rapid expansion.

I don't like "Job Hopping", but my patience has worn thin. My current job is easy, and I can sit around all day watching movies or miscing, BUT it's a dead end. Almost everyone I met when I got on in May have quit the job for something else including my supervisor. If that's not a sign I don't know what is.

[dcbone30]

Long update

Spoiler!

Back in May I was hired as a school district "Campus Technician" for Elementary schools. Since I've been hired I've only triaged, sorted, and cleaned filthy chromebooks for my full 8 hour shift. Very little technical work if any, and my team was supposed to be deployed to our assigned campus back in August....it's fuking November. We haven't been able to keep a fully staffed team since I was hired, and we just finally got our full 17 person team back together. Unfortunately the district thought it would be a great idea to put the new hires on a campus before the very capable and qualified people who've been cleaning laptops for the past 6 months.

The CEO of the recruiting/staffing agency we're under is livid over this and to be fair, our agency has done a great job trying to keep our morale up. Recently we all had a sit down with some of the district big wigs to hear their Plan for us going forward. They fed us some BS about us being valuable and would rather have us create some new SOP documentation and basically help clean up the clusterfuk that's been happening since Covid-19 started. On top of that they'd like to train us up to fix some of their more complex issues. So basically they want to train us up to being T2-T3 techs but without the pay...LOL.

So with all of that being said, I'm interviewing with a very well known job board that just launched a new platform that's UK based. I'm waiting on the invitation for the round 2 video call then hopefully I get to round 3. It's still entry level but I'm looking at a $42-46k salary with benefits, PTO, sign on bonus, and stocks vs my current $37k salary. I don't have the job yet, but if they hire me it'll be quite the "come up". The workload seems heavy, but working under that company name and having it on my resume is worth spending 3-4 years there especially with advancement opportunities being offered through their rapid expansion.

I don't like "Job Hopping", but my patience has worn thin. My current job is easy, and I can sit around all day watching movies or miscing, BUT it's a dead end. Almost everyone I met when I got on in May have quit the job for something else including my supervisor. If that's not a sign I don't know what is.

Can't blame you there. Good luck on the next job. I wouldn't be too concerned about "job hopping" unless you are making a consistent habit of it which would reflect on your job history/resume. When I see resumes, if there's 2-3 jobs in the last 5 years nbd. If there's a new job every 6months-1year over a long period I get concerned.

[niospecv]

Long update

Spoiler!

Back in May I was hired as a school district "Campus Technician" for Elementary schools. Since I've been hired I've only triaged, sorted, and cleaned filthy chromebooks for my full 8 hour shift. Very little technical work if any, and my team was supposed to be deployed to our assigned campus back in August....it's fuking November. We haven't been able to keep a fully staffed team since I was hired, and we just finally got our full 17 person team back together. Unfortunately the district thought it would be a great idea to put the new hires on a campus before the very capable and qualified people who've been cleaning laptops for the past 6 months.

The CEO of the recruiting/staffing agency we're under is livid over this and to be fair, our agency has done a great job trying to keep our morale up. Recently we all had a sit down with some of the district big wigs to hear their Plan for us going forward. They fed us some BS about us being valuable and would rather have us create some new SOP documentation and basically help clean up the clusterfuk that's been happening since Covid-19 started. On top of that they'd like to train us up to fix some of their more complex issues. So basically they want to train us up to being T2-T3 techs but without the pay...LOL.

So with all of that being said, I'm interviewing with a very well known job board that just launched a new platform that's UK based. I'm waiting on the invitation for the round 2 video call then hopefully I get to round 3. It's still entry level but I'm looking at a $42-46k salary with benefits, PTO, sign on bonus, and stocks vs my current $37k salary. I don't have the job yet, but if they hire me it'll be quite the "come up". The workload seems heavy, but working under that company name and having it on my resume is worth spending 3-4 years there especially with advancement opportunities being offered through their rapid expansion.

I don't like "Job Hopping", but my patience has worn thin. My current job is easy, and I can sit around all day watching movies or miscing, BUT it's a dead end. Almost everyone I met when I got on in May have quit the job for something else including my supervisor. If that's not a sign I don't know what is.

I remember being a campus technician. This was years ago. It was easy af. I also learned that teenage girls are sluts and teachers cheat with other teachers all the fukkin time. Coaches were fukkin teachers and office staff. It was wild. My office was in the hallway and accessible to students. These 8th grade girls have no shame. I'll leave it at that.

Best part of the job was staff vs students basketball game. LOL I worked there for 2 years. Imaging a computer lab was about the most complex thing I did. I got bored so I ended up teaching summer courses for teachers on how to learn Google Docs for extra pay.

[Voidgaze]

Well I just did round 2 of the interview. Spoke to 2 big wigs, very nice guys but I was VERY nervous and it showed.

I probably won't get the job, and that's fine because I could use more practice for high level interviews. They said 2-3 weeks, but I reckon the way I disconnected the call will get me disqualified. I thought we were done because they said there final words then got silent, then as I hit the leave button one gentleman started to speak again LOL.


It's over, but that's alright. I was just happy to have a chance.

Can't blame you there. Good luck on the next job. I wouldn't be too concerned about "job hopping" unless you are making a consistent habit of it which would reflect on your job history/resume. When I see resumes, if there's 2-3 jobs in the last 5 years nbd. If there's a new job every 6months-1year over a long period I get concerned.

Well that's comforting to know lol. I just did round 2, but I probably wont get it.

I remember being a campus technician. This was years ago. It was easy af. I also learned that teenage girls are sluts and teachers cheat with other teachers all the fukkin time. Coaches were fukkin teachers and office staff. It was wild. My office was in the hallway and accessible to students. These 8th grade girls have no shame. I'll leave it at that.

Best part of the job was staff vs students basketball game. LOL I worked there for 2 years. Imaging a computer lab was about the most complex thing I did. I got bored so I ended up teaching summer courses for teachers on how to learn Google Docs for extra pay.

Yeah it's pretty easy work, or so I've heard. Part of the reason I sorta want to stick around is for the slooty teachers lol.



EDIT: I sent a professionally formatted damage control email. Hope I can patch this up.

[chaunce54]

Well I just did round 2 of the interview. Spoke to 2 big wigs, very nice guys but I was VERY nervous and it showed.

I probably won't get the job, and that's fine because I could use more practice for high level interviews. They said 2-3 weeks, but I reckon the way I disconnected the call will get me disqualified. I thought we were done because they said there final words then got silent, then as I hit the leave button one gentleman started to speak again LOL.


It's over, but that's alright. I was just happy to have a chance.



Well that's comforting to know lol. I just did round 2, but I probably wont get it.



Yeah it's pretty easy work, or so I've heard. Part of the reason I sorta want to stick around is for the slooty teachers lol.



EDIT: I sent a professionally formatted damage control email. Hope I can patch this up.

Write a thank you letter and apologize for having a "technical issue" that ended your call prematurely.

[SynapticCleft]

Very new to the realm but love the idea of work from home and can see one of my kids already trying to bypass/modify/fuk with everything and anything at 9yo on his Chromebook. Kindergartner had a Chromebook for his first day of school due to cuckvid19 - this realm seems unavoidable to anyone but the Amish anymore.

I've seen a few miscers start outside of college and get certs for XYZ, but for most the guys in here, is the goal a sysadmin for a large corporation?

I wanted to be a network engineer when I started, but I went down the cloud path and now I want to do software engineering.

I don't like "Job Hopping", but my patience has worn thin. My current job is easy, and I can sit around all day watching movies or miscing, BUT it's a dead end. Almost everyone I met when I got on in May have quit the job for something else including my supervisor. If that's not a sign I don't know what is.

The best way to grow (knowledge and salary) in this field is to change job every few years. It keeps you relevant in the job market.

[devilbones]

I wanted to be a network engineer when I started, but I learned the cloud and now I want to do software engineering.


The best way to grow (knowledge and salary) in this field is to change job every few years. It keeps you relevant in the job market.

Not to mention that you might not really know what each job does in this field. I started at the help desk and moved up. There were so many jobs that I didn't even know existed. I came into the field over 20 years ago now and jobs have changed.

[Voidgaze]

Write a thank you letter and apologize for having a "technical issue" that ended your call prematurely.

Holy fuk.

I don't know why they're interested, but they want another interview with me.

I was convinced I was fuking hopeless lmao.

[Voidgaze]

Holy fuk.

I don't know why they're interested, but they want another interview with me.

I was convinced I was fuking hopeless lmao.

Just got out of the 2nd interview.

Turns out it was a surprise scenario based technical interview, and they had me using TeamViewer on a machine near them so they could watch everything I did.

I missed the mark on the first one, but found the problem on the others. At the end they asked me to self critique myself and I was brutally honest.

My nervousness got the best of me and I overthought myself out of simple solutions. Thankfully they appreciated my candor and said they would be in touch.