IT Careers

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  Forming an LLC
  freelance incorporation llc • • EddieJennings

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  @tim_g said in Forming an LLC:

  @eddiejennings said in Forming an LLC:

  Eddie Jennings Services, LLC now exists. :)

  No apostrophe?

  "Eddie Jennings' Services, LLC"?

  Nope, and if I did, if I did, it would've been "Eddie Jennings's Services, LLC" = meh.

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  Spiceworld Trip Cancelled Due to CA Legislation - Alternate Conference Suggestions?
  • anthonyh

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  @storageninja said in Spiceworld Trip Cancelled Due to CA Legislation - Alternate Conference Suggestions?:

  @anthonyh said in Spiceworld Trip Cancelled Due to CA Legislation - Alternate Conference Suggestions?:

  So, I work for a government agency in California. Legislation was passed where the state will not reimburse underlying agencies for travel expenses to states that have law(s) on the book that "have the effect of voiding or repealing existing state or local protections against discrimination..."

  Isn't this a breach of the interstate commerce clause?

  Since when has anyone paid any attention to little things like the constitution?

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  Where Does University Need to Focus for IT Students
  it education • • scottalanmiller

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  @coliver said in Where Does University Need to Focus for IT Students:

  Coming from two IT degrees. The most valuable classes were, sociology, business management, and project management.

  Yeah, business, math and classes about "people" are where the big value always seems to be.

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  Resources for the Network+
  network+ certification • • scottalanmiller

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  @john11smith said in Resources for the Network+:

  Struggled understanding some questions because the wording of the exam like nothing I used to see.

  CompTIA is not known for their clarity.

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  Spot the Fake Job Postings, A+ and Harvard Masters
  • wirestyle22

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  Pretty much everyone knows that a graduate degree isn't needed to teach little kids. But what they never stop to realize is that they took teachers, one of the largest job categories, and took an average of 1.5 - 2 years off of the career span of everyone in the field without increasing salaries. So entry level, day one teachers are older, more in debt, but have no more per-year earning potential than before, but have a bit less time to earn their retirement before getting old and wanting to retire. This makes it seem like more jobs are created, when in fact, it's just that you've reduced the pool of available workers by a few percentages.

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  Spot the Fake Job Postings, Labor Day 2017
  fake job it career job hunting cat fishing cybercoders name and shame • • scottalanmiller

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  @dashrender said in Spot the Fake Job Postings, Labor Day 2017:

  @scottalanmiller said in Spot the Fake Job Postings, Labor Day 2017:

  they can collect. It's a standard data collection model and the two things, job postings and online dating, are nearly identical in

  We need a new thread where Scott posts fake job postings and his replies (when they reply) about them being fake.

  This would also explain why there appears to be so few actual jobs out there - at least so few actually hiring. Like email in general - according to Scott, something like xyz% of jobs listed are fake, I'm guessing it's a huge percentage.

  Exactly. It creates this feeling that no one is hiring, which is kind of true. There are places hiring, only so many of them use these services, many do not. There is no central clearing house for work. Then it makes everyone in the industry feel like they are not desirable, often because they just apply to fake jobs over and over again and never get a response. In most cases, like this one, the person to whom I responded, never responded. That happens constantly. There is no "person" on the other end of the email.

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  Why Collecting Job Hunter Lists Are Useful to Recruiters
  • scottalanmiller

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  Getting Started in IT SAMIT Video
  it career scott alan miller youtube samit • • scottalanmiller

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  @john11smith said in Getting Started in IT SAMIT Video:

  I think bench work would be perfect for me. Please don't say I need CompTIA A+ for this. I feel like it is going backwards. Perhaps Server+ then?

  Sadly, A+ is the only broadly known cert in the bench world. The Server+ is a better cert, but only applies to a certain type of bench work and is only known by 1% of employers.

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  My K12 Non-Profit Volunteer Story
  • scottalanmiller

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  @tim_g said in My K12 Non-Profit Volunteer Story:

  @tim_g said in My K12 Non-Profit Volunteer Story:

  @brrabill said in My K12 Non-Profit Volunteer Story:

  @scottalanmiller said in My K12 Non-Profit Volunteer Story:

  Age 3: Decided to go into software engineering as a career.

  When you make claims like this, you have to follow them up with
  "Stay thirsty, my friends"

  My daughter is 5. I have recent knowledge of how 3 year olds are. There's no way you even knew what software engineering was. I think at 3 my daughter decided she wanted to go to the stars in a space ship (astronaut technically).... but I wouldn't list that as a competent career decision like you are doing. Really?

  Perhaps you were one of those few wonder kids doing advanced algebra at 4, graduating Harvard at 8. If so, then I take it back. But I haven't seen you mention that.

  How do those things relate to making life decisions? Those are not the same kinds of things.

• J

  Review My CV
  resume cv • • john11smith

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  @marcinozga said in Review My CV:

  The line about Linux LAMP bothers me, it implies you only know how to setup LAMP stack. It's also on the same line as Windows servers, perhaps change it to "Experience with Linux and Windows servers". You list Apache and MySQL skills below, no need to be redundant.

  Corrected, but with some redundancy for girls at agencies and search engines.

  "I set up my own country which traded in stationery and office machinery" - perhaps you meant company here?

  This line had been corrected by native NI English teacher. Never questioned, though it is an expression.

  I don't know if I would list entire employment history, especially if it's not relevant to the position you're applying for. You have a lot of sales experience, but how does that relate to IT position?

  I know in the USA irrelevant experience usually not mentioned. In Germany mustn't be any CV gaps. Looks like in the UK something in between, because that English teacher did many things in an effort to fit my CV in 2 pages, but never attempted to delete those.

  Is it better now?:

  Qualifications:
  CompTIA Network+ N10-006 (March 2017)
  15 years’ experience of support networked office & production equipment
  Excellent PC troubleshooting skills in complex software and hardware problems
  Experience support Windows, Apple, Linux desktops and laptops
  Servers hardware knowledge and virtualization (Virtualbox, Vmware, KVM) skills
  Experience with Windows Linux and servers, confident at command line interface CLI
  LAN/WAN, VPN, TCP/IP settings, subnetting, cabling and troubleshooting skills
  Strong problem-solving skills

  Technical Skills: TCP/IP, Network routing, Cisco, Linux distributions (Ubuntu, CentOS), Linux console, LAMP, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Tomcat, HTML, CSS, Puppet, DNS, NFS, Samba, SNMP, Bash Shell Scripts, MS Server 2008 2012, MS Exchange Server 2010 2013, Active Directory

  Education & Training

  Diploma of Higher Education in Civil Engineering, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (2002)
  (This is equivalent to BTec Level 5 / SQA Higher National Diploma (HND) Standard)

  I have completed multiple IT and customer support training through my employers and taken continuing private education in Linux, DevOps, Cloud, Database and Networking.

  Howtonetwork.com – Cisco CCNA Simplified (in progress)

  Employment History

  Danwood Group Ltd., Belfast (Mar 2010 – Mar 2015)
  Systems Engineer
  Duties
  Install, maintain, troubleshoot and repair a wide range networked machinery and Windows, Unix and Linux based print servers and network controllers in office and production environments and integrate new equipment into clients’ existing systems, Including OS and software installation
  Install and troubleshoot software solutions on customers' servers and desktop computers (Windows, Apple). Install printer drivers, configure network scanning, importing address books, configuring LDAP address books, checking Active Directory and Exchange settings.
  Support customers on-site, by phone and email. Support and assist colleagues

  BMK (Biznio Masinų Kompanija) Ltd., Lithuania (May 1999 – Nov 2009)
  Systems Engineer
  Duties
  Mostly the same as with Danwood
  Senior engineer called to the most difficult problems

  Additional Information

  Driving Licence: Full Category B Licence

  Languages: I am fluent (including technical language) in English, Russian and Lithuanian

  Personal details: Nationality Lithuanian, Live in Antrim town

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  Separating IT from the Bench
  • scottalanmiller

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  Youtube Video

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  Ethics food for thought: Considering a possible side gig
  freelance itsp ethics business • • EddieJennings

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  @eddiejennings Another possible option is to use Jared as a paid resource if he is willing to do that. If we got along better I would hire him for x amount of hours for projects in my lab. That way when I ran into issues I could schedule time with him to go over why something is happening and the correct way to diagnose and solve the problem. This could be a valuable learning experience for you.

  Unsure if he would be willing to do that, but I'm sure someone here would. I'd offer it myself but I would not be of much help. If you're going to hire someone, make sure it's someone who knows their stuff.

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  Just How Hard is University to Overcome
  • scottalanmiller

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  Good time for this...

  https://9gag.com/gag/aEB8YNO

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  Is Most IT Really Corrupt?
  • scottalanmiller

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  @dashrender said in Is Most IT Really Corrupt?:

  @scottalanmiller said in Is Most IT Really Corrupt?:

  @dashrender said in Is Most IT Really Corrupt?:

  @storageninja said in Is Most IT Really Corrupt?:

  @dashrender said in Is Most IT Really Corrupt?:

  Then I'm lost how you say IT cares more about the business than the owner/CEO does? They don't know the IT side of things, so they more or less have to rely on others to help them, if they choose not to follow those recommendations is another matter.

  Lifestyle businesses where they don't care about making money beyond xxx amount to maintain their lifestyle. Pretty common in SMB.

  Is there a problem with that type of thinking?

  Problem? No, not if they are the owners rather than fiduciaries. No one implied a problem. The point was that you asked how IT could care more and he was pointing out entire categories of businesses where IT often cares more.

  Yeah - Coliver already beat you to that comment.

  Sorry, just answer them as I go :)

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  Training for policies, procedures, and standards
  • IRJ

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  @dustinb3403 said in Training for policies, procedures, and standards:

  @irj said in Training for policies, procedures, and standards:

  @dustinb3403 said in Training for policies, procedures, and standards:

  @irj said in Training for policies, procedures, and standards:

  @dustinb3403 said in Training for policies, procedures, and standards:

  @irj said in Training for policies, procedures, and standards:

  I want to create these documents for something that is not implemented yet. So basically I am starting from scratch.

  You still start with the system documentation, how things are setup, the reasoning for setting them up like that, known or foreseen issues with the configuration, limitations of the system, recovery procedures etc.

  It isn't setup yet. I need to create this documentation first. I am looking at best practices which give me some great ideas for implementation. However, I will need to create my own variations. I will need to have everything in place before getting the support I need and FTEs from upper management.

  But as you set it up, you document it. This isnt a chicken or egg scenario. . .

  Not in this case since NIST clearly defines what the program needs to be. We need to be in compliance and in an enterprise the only way these things carry any weight is having a policy signed by C level.

  Then the only PPS you can create is to pull information out of your ass, if you can't see and work on a system how can you possibly draft documentation on it?

  I guess you should just rip a copy of the owners manual for any solution you want to use, and have the C level sign off on that.

  When it comes to compliance plagiarism is encouraged. You want to be as spot on as possible. I have all the information needed in the form of guidelines. I need to format into policy and procedure.

  My question was about learning how to format and create the documentation the correct way. I want it to look as professional as possible.

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  When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator
  job titles system admin • • scottalanmiller

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  @tirendir said in When Is It Okay to Say You Are a System Administrator:

  @scottalanmiller You make a fair point, and I agree with your assessment that legitimate success should enable us to have more control over location and income with less risk of losing control over any of those things.

  Really, we could probably boil "success" down to getting what we want out of life. More or less anyway, right? =)

  Or... the leverage to get what we want from life :)

• 

  So I got selected to be part of an Advisory Board for ECSA...
  • IRJ

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  Possibly due to your contributions here, which are usually great.
  Thanks

• W

  Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly
  college university education it education • • worden2

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  @tim_g said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:

  @scottalanmiller said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:

  @worden2 said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:

  @irj said in Thoughts on IT education - the good, bad, and the ugly:

  @worden2 So this is one of those get certified while getting a degree schools like WGU?

  Yes and no. I don't think my college is going to start employing "course facilitators" instead of professors, and simply point students to the material and expect them to grind through it. On the other hand, as a 2 year college we're not diving too deep into theory and abstracted concepts because of the time scale we're at. Does that clarify it? I do know one of our graduates is doing the WGU thing right now as part of a BS and is getting their MCSA as part of it. Personally, I think we use the certs as external validation that we're staying relevant, but when I see the A+ and other certs not keeping up (the latest A+ cert finally eliminated floppy drive questions!) I worry we're slipping behind as well.

  Certs are not in any way a validation that you are relevant and certainly not ones that are not even in the right field. Certs have a place, a good one, but they are VENDOR TOOLS, not industry ones. It's not appropriate to be using them in an academic setting in any way unless, as you had originally stated, using them as a guide to the "level" of knowledge, but never as a guide to the actual knowledge.

  How do you teach IT or Systems Administration without teaching students about any technologies they would be using on the job? You can't administer a System (which is from a vendor) if you don't know anything about it.

  So if a course wants to teach Linux or Windows Server administration... Well surely covering many of the things the "vendor tool" covers is a great start... Competencies, measured skills, etc.

  Well the first thing is that a course in college should not be teaching Linux or Windows administration, that's a trade school's job. They should be teaching concepts of administration. Now, that said, they need operating systems to use for that. But teaching concepts instead of specifics is the core concept of academic work and is very different than teaching to a vendor cert.

  Remember collegiate academic work isn't for the purpose of teaching on the job skills, but to teach someone the fundamentals and concepts so that those specific skills will make sense. You aren't teaching them which button to push, but why a button like it needs to be pushed.

  Example... you don't learn details of NTFS and ReFS, but you do learn file system concepts so that when someone tells you the details of NTFS and ReFS you can immediately understand them and understand other IT concepts when the market changes.

  This is a problem I see with most college grads. Instead of learning IT concepts, they just memorize the motions to go through to accomplish a task. They are only trained to follow a script, they don't understand why they do things or what they do means.

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  Resume Critique
  • IRJ

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  Is there an updated copy for us to see?

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  Is the CompTIA Server+ Useful for You? SAMIT Video
  server+ comptia certification scott alan miller bench samit youtube it career • • scottalanmiller

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  Advance Your Career with the CompTIA Security+ Certification SAMIT Video
  certification samit comptia security+ it career career scott alan miller youtube • • scottalanmiller

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  Using Meetup.com?
  professional devel • • NetworkNerd

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  I signed up for the Seattle Opensource Linux meetup later this month.
  One of the others is 'APIs and IPAs'. There are many listed for my region.

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  Start Your IT Career with the CompTIA Network+ Certification SAMIT Video
  certification comptia network+ samit youtube career education • • scottalanmiller

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  Who Has Lost Their Job to the Cloud
  • scottalanmiller

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  @wirestyle22 said in Who Has Lost Their Job to the Cloud:

  @scottalanmiller said in Who Has Lost Their Job to the Cloud:

  @wirestyle22 said in Who Has Lost Their Job to the Cloud:

  @scottalanmiller said in Who Has Lost Their Job to the Cloud:

  @wirestyle22 said in Who Has Lost Their Job to the Cloud:

  @scottalanmiller said in Who Has Lost Their Job to the Cloud:

  Going to cloud services doesn't sound like it would change anything. They've not moved from outsourced in insourced, they've not moved from several people to one, they've not done good management practices around IT - that they are or are not using cloud services seems irrelevant to the example case, right?

  Right but the way they handle IT can change with each new mayor elected. All it takes is one yes to get things where they need to be.

  And that's relevant to the conversation how? You appear to be conflating "a new mayor could change IT staffing" with "cloud makes people lose their jobs". In no case are you showing how cloud is a factor, only that people could lose jobs.

  No one is questioning if jobs can be lost in IT. It's whether cloud is the thing that causes it. In your examples, cloud is always a red herring.

  Cloud would make us unnecessary.

  How? You keep stating how it changes nothing, but then state this. Something doesn't add up. You are either unneeded today or still needed with cloud, right? You haven't shown anything that would change that.

  They need someone to do this now. You already know I don't think we are the right company--but we have the contract unfortunately. I'll be gone before it comes up for renewal though.

  Exactly, that's my point. Your feeling is that the current situation doesn't work. So going to cloud (or to anything else) that wouldn't work, doesn't change anything. The cloud is a red herring. The issues are all somewhere else.

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  Feedback on Resume
  • wirestyle22

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  @wirestyle22 said in Feedback on Resume:

  Barnabas Health: Just standard desktop support, no frills. Printers broken, internet explorer won't load this website, imaging, etc.

  Garden State Foot & Ankle: I was hired to build a server for them to house X-rays. I was a resource to the owner. He would come up with things he wanted to do and then I was the one to explain how to do them. Desktop support, cabling, purchasing, etc. I honestly was not called very often, the owner was and is a friend of mine who is a podiatrist.

  The Arc: I was the director of IT. I was responsible for every appliance, server, workstation, etc. All devices. I handled all of the purchasing in relation to IT. I was the sole IT person covering 33 sites all over ocean county (very large county).

  Will continue to update throughout the day. I have some calls coming in

  YMCA: I am the point of escalation for all of the servers and network. Not a lot has happened after my initial walk-through. I found some incorrect entries here and there which were fixed.

  City of Trenton: TBD, big list.

  Note: I added some of the stuff @scottalanmiller said to do in my lab to train my resume. I am in the process of doing some of that at home

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  Jump on the resume bandwagon
  • stacksofplates

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  @ramblingbiped I agree with this assessment. Also make sure to place the certificates on top. Yes, also make sure that you place all the time you have worked in the IT field.

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  Well, that really, really sucks.
  • travisdh1

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  @travisdh1 said in Well, that really, really sucks.:

  @scottalanmiller said in Well, that really, really sucks.:

  If I wasn't running on zero sleep and had four kids in tow I would have stopped in Wooster for a bit this afternoon as I drove through! I ate at your Taco Bell, though!

  @scottalanmiller likes to live dangerously on road trips! Taco Bell is great for a cheap meal, but often times is a cause of distress.

  Never bothers me like that. Not at all, in fact it's one of the mildest meals that I can eat.

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  Time allocation for training
  training time management • • EddieJennings

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  I'm with Scott, if your company expects you to have specific skills for them and you didn't walk through the door with those skills, then they need to provide you paid time to acquire them. But your time is your time. Learn what you want to help you further your career.

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  Critical Thinking - Is this what College Teaches?
  college critical thinking • • DustinB3403

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  And I want to keep repeating this... college has value. But this is certainly not it. Critical thinking is specifically one of the farthest things from what college does. College is far better at exposure to culture, making social connections, keeping people out of the workforce so that older workers can have lower unemployment and so forth. There is value, but it's mostly outside of education.

• S

  Should I stay or should I go now?
  • Some_user

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  Those are good points.

  :P