@JaredBusch said in Writing a Cover Letter:

@scottalanmiller You missed kililng the quoted info. Don't give them the web crawler hits either.

Oops, got it.

@openit said in What job titles will fit my skills?:

As you know IT is broad, I feel titles like IT support, Desktop Support, Service Desk Analyst, System Administrator will fit for me, but I realised , in big companies titles may vary, ....

Variation is more in the SMB where titles are often fake. In the enterprise, there is variation for sure, but there is far more standardization. For example, system admin isn't even a potentially possible role in the SMB generally, but is the most common role in the enterprise.

@scottalanmiller said in What should I bring to an out of state interview?:

@RandyBlevins said in What should I bring to an out of state interview?:

I have two letters of recommendation in hand from. Coworkers, all my certs printed out, multiple copies of my resume, laptop, etc.

Printed resume is handy. But they should have that in hand before they agree to an interview. Nothing else should be asked of you.

I believe he has updated it with a new cert. I recommended not sending it early and using that information in the salary negotiations

@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 🙂

@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.

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.

Very excited to have an active recruiter involved.

@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.

@scottalanmiller someone is salty with Joe.

@Joy said in Resume check:

Hello @darrel , Please let us know what's going on there now.

Doing very very great here! So COLD!

@Dashrender outbound trip means leaving the country.

Follow up, he decided to leave IT and work in automotive repair.

@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.

@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.

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.

@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.

@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.

@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.