IT Careers

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  Simple Resume Fails
  resume resume review cv • • scottalanmiller  

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  @Emad-R said in Simple Resume Fails: @CCWTech @JaredBusch The only remaining one in the middle east(not gulf) ) without war or blockade, thanks to weak - sway with the strong - stay next to the wall politics. Jordan Some people call it the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Cause apparently it is owned by one family. go figure. sorry for late reply That's how basically all Arab countries work. Not really a surprise
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  Preparing to land that dream job
  • RandyBlevins  

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  @RandyBlevins said in Preparing to land that dream job: I'm getting very close to 15 years in IT. I've steadily worked my way up and have job hopped every 3-4 years. I am in the IT security side which has really ramped up in the past 3-4 years. Opportunities for major increases have presented themselves a couple times without me looking and have promised considerable increases like 35-45%. In two cases, location has kept me from pursuing these positions. I was able to decline one position after going through all the hoops, and the other position never got the go ahead from HR. The second company has asked me to wait till March as they intend to open it. Neither of these jobs have the location I want, and a third opportunity has presented itself again not in the location I want. I do feel like I am gaining valuable insights by doing these interviews. I guess I just want some discussion here, but my question is something like this... How do you prep for that dream job? How many interviews do you do for practice, how hard do you look? Do you let it come to you? The right thing coming to you is strictly luck. There are factors that can increase the chances of course, but if you want something, you need to go out and get it, and you need to work for it with persistence. Interviewing often can help you get better at interviews and the interview process. I believe there's a lot of good value there, so long as the interviews are relevant to what you are looking for. Know your resume well, and make sure you really know what you put on your resume. It should hold up to any potential (and likely) scrutiny. Also, be prepared for questions that seek your character regarding your profession.
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  Why Do Recruiters Never Get Involved in Forums Like This
  recruiters • • scottalanmiller  

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  @lmorren1148 said in Why Do Recruiters Never Get Involved in Forums Like This: @scottalanmiller said in Why Do Recruiters Never Get Involved in Forums Like This: @lmorren1148 said in Why Do Recruiters Never Get Involved in Forums Like This: @scottalanmiller Same for us. I think there is plenty of value in the information to be shared on both sides. We get an opportunity to learn about tech from the people with boots on the ground, and we can share a perspective from the client side on interview process, best practices, hot projects, etc. And a chance to learn about who is available, get the word out more about opportunities, etc.! Exactly, I don't know why I hadn't really thought about posting info on the open jobs we had either. I'm sure there are plenty of highly-qualified IT pros on here that our recruiters don't have in their database. I might see what our team needs some help on a try a trial run in the next day or two. Exactly. It seems like a natural match making system. Both sides benefit from the interaction.
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  Resume Revamp - Advice on Format/Layout and Type of Content
  resume • • wrx7m  

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  It's not about brief or lengthly, but anticipate the questions that the employer is asking when looking at your resume and clearly and concisely answer them. Don't put in stuff they're not going to care about. But make sure you put in enough for them to be able to think you might be a good fit.
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  Looking for IT temps or permanent IT employees? I'm your guy.
  • wwalker817  

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  Very excited to have an active recruiter involved.
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  NTG Seeking IT Interns
  intern internship • • scottalanmiller  

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  @IRJ said in NTG Seeking IT Interns: How many hours a week is recommended? I know someone who may be interested. No official number set yet. Probably like ten, but flexible hours, so like weekends are fine.
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  NTG busca practicantes para el departamento de IT
  • scottalanmiller  

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  Just How Hard is University to Overcome
  • scottalanmiller  

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  @scottalanmiller said in Just How Hard is University to Overcome: Some people believe the Earth is flat and that Aliens are probing human butts, and they've gone to school!
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  Never Give More than Two Weeks Notice
  • scottalanmiller  

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  @scottalanmiller someone is salty with Joe.
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  SAM: Learning Linux System Administration
  linux scott alan miller career sam linux administration education scottalanmiller • • scottalanmiller  

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  @JaredBusch said in SAM: Learning Linux System Administration: @black3dynamite said in SAM: Learning Linux System Administration: Comparing firewalld and UFW would be great too. UFW is just scripting iptables. On the other hand, firewalld replaces iptables I thought. Yes, firewalld is definitely an iptables replacement.
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  How did you get started in IT?
  • Katie  

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  My Journey: I remember I was in primary school, not many friends as was quite a shy kid, moved around a lot and didn't get on well with school really, education was quite impacted at that time. I didn't have many interests at that age either. I started going to after school computer club, I started learning basic MS-Dos commands and I was eventually given admin privileges to access dos and windows games that other class mates couldn't access. I was really into a program called Superbase 4 for windows at the time, I found quite an interest in creating tables and forms for some strange reason, I think I created a movie database and music database at the time lol. The network was the old BNC type connection, that if you pulled one cable from a machine the other machines would lose network access, students used to pull that trick all the time and had to go around all machines to see which one was disconnected, I remember we still had some monitors that had green screens, it was windows 3.0 that we were using. My uncle worked in IT in London for a company called Dudley in the 90's, he managed to get me my first computer which was an 8086 with the 5.25 disks, it was a big old thing and distinctively remember the big orange flip switch power button on the side, I was about 8 or 9 at that time. I then was given another machine at about 12-13 which was a 386sx. My machine after that was rented from a company called radio rentals in the UK, I was about 14 and was a grey Olivetti 486DX2 66 and had a turbo button lol, I remember it originally had windows 3.11 and I managed to get a windows 95 CD I did a work based training IT course when I left school for about a year, but left due to personal issues at that age, moved into a hostel when I was 16 and lost some interest in using computers, due to issues at the time. I got back into computers a few years later in my early twenties and took over a local computer shop, called "Computer Bits" started building gaming machines, fixing laptop screens, all the usual break and fix type stuff, most machines were still running windows 98SE at that time. I also started learning html and started creating basic websites for customers. I did this for quite a few years but obviously this industry started to get quieter with the release of smartphones and tablets. I Could see things starting to change and started focusing more on the business/networking side of things and started learning AD etc. I'm now approaching 37 and wondering where the time has gone lol, although I still have my love for computers and have recently in the last few years started to take quite acceptance to Linux, I think its a bit of a nostalgic reason as well from using the CLI in the old days. I think witnessing pretty much every windows release, it started going wrong after windows 7. I still love learning new things, and I believe no one in IT knows everything...there is always something new to learn which Is why I've always found an interest with computers.
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  Resume check
  • darrel  

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  @Joy said in Resume check: Hello @darrel , Please let us know what's going on there now. Doing very very great here! So COLD!
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  Moving to Guaranteed Basic Income
  gbi • • Dashrender  

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  @Dashrender outbound trip means leaving the country.
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  Looking for a Career Path
  • Mike Ralston  

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  Follow up, he decided to leave IT and work in automotive repair.
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  Differentiating Yourself as an MSP
  youtube msp • • thanksajdotcom  

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  @thanksajdotcom said in Differentiating Yourself as an MSP: Entered it to start at 26:40. Weird. Anyways, enjoy! Added tags and fixed the start time.
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  Its is okay to sync/delete often from Cloud Storage?
  storage cloud b2 s3 • • Emad R  

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  @dafyre said in Its is okay to sync/delete often from Cloud Storage?: @scottalanmiller said in Its is okay to sync/delete often from Cloud Storage?: I don't believe that there is any charge for Wasabi deletions. From what I can tell, Wasabi only charges for storage. There are no egress or deletion fees. Correct, same here. Unless you have the old accounts where they did charge for egress.
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  IT Risk Analyst 1yr Contract to Hire
  • IRJ  

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  Looking at Longevity of Experience on a Resume
  resume it career growth experience • • scottalanmiller  

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  I view length of experience like tenure. I shows very little about the qualities of the candidate. In some places, like where I work, it is simply a measure of being able to not get fired. I could simply claim my few years of experience because I am extremely unlikely to get fired, and so accrue experience from that fact. But that would say nothing about my actual skills or value as a candidate. I feel the same way about college degrees. I know too many people, both with degrees and with lots of time experience, that are poor choices for a lot of tasks, simply because who they are and the other skills they lack. Perhaps experience or a degree can be an ok initial standard for getting a resume past the basic screening, but any competent interviewer should be able to tell when that experience was good or just from time served.
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  Weigh in on Holiday Career Topics
  career networknerd career networknerd podcast • • NetworkNerd  

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  @NetworkNerd said in Weigh in on Holiday Career Topics: What are you thankful for in your career / current job? The flexibility to be home whenever I need to be or just to take off with the family for whatever. Election day is a no school day here because the elementary and junior high schools are polling places. I took the kids to downtown Chicago to the art museum and then Japanese BBQ for late lunch. What has the effect of your job been on your holiday experiences (i.e. allowed you to unplug, forced you to work, etc.)? How do you allow yourself / force yourself to unplug on holidays (assuming you get some time off)? hahahahahahahahah Seriously though, I work most holiday's. I generally use holidays to test restoring backups. From a professional standpoint, what are your resolutions for 2019? I don't do resolutions. I'll simply continue to grow myself professionally and personally and work towards my employment goals.
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  A Fundamental Shift in University Thinking Since 2008
  education university • • scottalanmiller  

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  @Obsolesce said in A Fundamental Shift in University Thinking Since 2008: @scottalanmiller said in A Fundamental Shift in University Thinking Since 2008: But fundamentally, it appears that students don't understand what college is for So, then, what is your opinion of what college is for... or should be for? It's always been, and colleges have long pushed this, that it was for exposure, broadening how you think... it was for those with enough money that they didn't have to work right away but could afford time off to explore things that interested them or make them more interesting. It was never for getting a job, or getting ahead in a job. That people think that it is for that is an extremely recent thing (like definitely since I was in college.) Even in the last fifteen years major colleges have made statements that they are not there for those purposes. The idea that college is for getting a job is weird, people have started confusing trade schools (those that teach "a job") with universities (those that teach liberally) and in the last two decades, very quickly, people think that traditional colleges are actually trade schools and try to treat them that way. But while expectations have changed, the colleges have not (and should not.) But this leads to the huge amount of lower income, lifetimes of debt, dissatisfaction with college results, etc. that we see today. Colleges have no system for preparing people for real world jobs. The entire tenure system guarantees that that is impossible - colleges simply can't have a staff capable of doing that kind of education. The design of the university system is for other purposes, and universities have generally been crystal clear about that, it's not hidden or secret or new... this is hundreds of years of this. That's why the number of people going to university in the past was so small, it was really only for the elite because normal people needed to work and pay the bills.
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  Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.
  job titles • • scottalanmiller  

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  @DustinB3403 said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.: @scottalanmiller said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.: @Dashrender said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.: @dave247 said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.: @scottalanmiller said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.: @dave247 said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.: @Dashrender said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.: @dave247 said in Why Job Titles Matter, and Don't.: I'm actually dealing with this right now. I was asked by my boss to come up with a better job title for myself since I am basically a system administrator, network administrator, server administrator, IT manager, among other things. I think job titles are a good thing simply as a starting point descriptor of what a person's job role is. It shouldn't determine pay as much as all the line items that are listed in your actual job description. That said, I've landed on IT Administrator since it seems to encompass everything and sounds better than "IT Generalist". Are you actually a manager? as in you have direct reports that you manage? What kind of reports are you referring to? I manage various things in IT, like some reports, vendors, some credit card statements & things.. Direct report = employee that reports directly to you that you can hire and fire. oh no, I can not fire anyone. However, I have indirectly caused people to get fired, but that's another story.. OK - then like me, you're not an IT manager, because neither of us manages people for IT. At least that's my POV. I choose IT Admin as my title as well - also didn't like the sound of IT Generalist - most people say - WTF is a generalist? A Generalist means you cover all the bases. What the heck is an Admin? An admin isn't forced to use the plunger. Sadly - this isn't true.
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  Asking Salary Starting to Be Banned
  salary gender gap pay scale • • scottalanmiller  

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  @jmoore said in Asking Salary Starting to Be Banned: @scottalanmiller My experience could very well be unique but I have often seen women get paid more for doing less work and most management have been women. In the school where I am there hasn't been a man in HR in 10 years and all the directors are women. In previous job both managers were women and the other 40 or so non-management were men. The women could not do any of the jobs but I guess they were good paper pushers. So in my small experience there hasn't been a gap and, in truth, its the reverse. I know its not always like that but I don't think its as bad as people make it out to be. LOL - I grew up in a reverse discrimination situation similar to your job situation. I was one of 4 white kids in a sea of African-Americans. As for the whole woman in power thing - Medical practices seem to be the same as your job. While the office is owned currently by all men (the owner/doctors) the office and all supervisors are women (7 of them). I am the only male non physician on staff - oh wait, nope that changed 3 months ago.. we now have a male lab tech also.
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  Relocating to Utica/Rome NY Area
  • IRJ  

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  @scottalanmiller said in Relocating to Utica/Rome NY Area: @mike-davis said in Relocating to Utica/Rome NY Area: It's a nice area being so close to the Adirondacks. It doesn't matter if there a 100 good jobs there, you only need one. I think you are quoting me there, lol. I say that all of the time. Let's not forget "IT isn't local" as well.
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  Career Goals - Futures in Linux Careers
  • NerdyDad  

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  I've been investing my time in learning Ansible and SaltStack to manage Linux and Windows. And started using the native tools available from Linux and Windows through Ansible and SaltStack.
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  Bad Spammers Get Banned
  • bencryer  

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  And his first post was moderated originally by a mod. Time for the ban-hammer.
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  Soft Skills for the IT Pro
  • animal  

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  @animal said in Soft Skills for the IT Pro: There's been some really good conversations here (thank you all) and what I think could be really interesting is this... Maybe IT people need some soft skills, but maybe there's a need to show the users we support why we appear like we don't have soft skills at times. Maybe, just maybe, it appears that we're lacking in soft skills when really it's the users that are being condescending. Everyone needs soft skills. Period. The application of said skills will vary greatly depending on the job duties.
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  Resume Review Please
  resume resume review • • scottalanmiller  

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  @obsolesce said in Resume Review Please: @scottalanmiller said in Resume Review Please: @animal said in Resume Review Please: @scottalanmiller said in Resume Review Please: @obsolesce said in Resume Review Please: @animal When you leave out unrelated jobs to a position you apply for, the potential employer will notice those gaps. What does that tell them? This is what I wonder... there is definitely a time to include and definitely a time to exclude. Avoiding gaps is often good, at least back to a certain point. And I like having a "starting point" on there, that shows what that "first job" is. For me this is an extra big deal because my starting job was long ago (1989), a very serious one (solo software engineering intern), and for a great company (Eastman Kodak was #19 on Fortune 100 while I was there.) Lots of people say they've been in IT or whatever and their starting date is based off of "I fixed my family's computer" or working in retail or something. When I say that I've been in IT or SE for 30 years (technically not for a few more months) lots of people immediately say "we don't count playing with computers at home" and so having a Fortune 19 engineering job on there is pretty important. I leave off my factory engineering work from a little later, or my restaurant and hotel management experience, and other things from about the same era, those are too unrelated. Yeah, it makes perfect sense to include jobs that you worked at for a prestigious place, but that can also be done in a cover letter. We never got into the whole cover letter question whether they're worth it or not, but my feeling is that a resume is a bumper sticker, the cover letter is your story. I've never worked anywhere that even received cover letters. They are normally, in my experience, stripped. I don't know any manager who gets them, or would look at them if received. To me, as a hiring manager, getting a cover letter tells me.. The candidate doesn't value their own time and is spending time fruitlessly writing up a cover letter than has nearly zero chance of being seen and nearly zero chance of being read if seen. The candidate is desperate and willing to commit a lot of resources to a job before knowing if it is real at all (most posting by far are not), still open, or something that they'd even consider. It's way, way too early in the process to "care" at all about the potential job. I don't do cover letters. It would just include the stuff at the top of my resume anyways, but in more words. I think it's pointless. I did, however, include a cover letter to explain my reason for applying to international jobs, so they don't just toss out my resume when they see I'm from a different country. That seems to have worked a couple times. Yes, sometimes you have to point out that you KNOW where the job is. Stupid that the opposite isn't true. Jobs from other regions reach out to me all the time and just ignore the fact that I'm not local.
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  This topic is deleted!
  • bencryer  

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  Online Schools vs Traditional Universities
  • IRJ  

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  @phlipelder said in Online Schools vs Traditional Universities: But, boy oh boy, when I come across someone that shines, puts in the 115%, and makes it known that they are truly putting it in by the work they are doing I will go out of my way to compliment them. Most of us that put in the 115% don't hear that kind of feedback very often. In development, they are called 10xers. There is basically the productivity of a normal developer is 1x. And almost no one does 2x or 3x. But a small subset does 10x the work of a normal person. It's not a bell curve like you'd expect.
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  Interviewing Candidates for a Jr. IT Systems Administrator Position- Good Questions to Ask?
  interview interview questions • • wrx7m  

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  @phlipelder said in Interviewing Candidates for a Jr. IT Systems Administrator Position- Good Questions to Ask?: @momurda said in Interviewing Candidates for a Jr. IT Systems Administrator Position- Good Questions to Ask?: @phlipelder said in Interviewing Candidates for a Jr. IT Systems Administrator Position- Good Questions to Ask?: In candidates watch out for this one that they may ask: "What PSA do you use?" We avoid script jockeys at all costs. What is PSA in this context? Professional Services Automation software. It allows a support person to ask questions and follow a queue path through to an answer as one aspect. I've never even seen one in real life.