Could you imagine sharing a network with @thanksajdotcom ? The landlord's download speeds must be 10 times slower than before.... lol

I'd like to add that it is generally much easier to change positions when going to a new company. If you are valuable to the helpdesk or desktop support team, they may not want to let you go. Even if you do move from the helpdesk, you will always be looked at as the low man on the totem pole for your new team.

It is much easier to go apply for a desktop support job after having 1-2 years experience in helpdesk. Then after you have 1-2 years experience as desktop support, you can move to a networking or system position with a new company. If you move within the company the timeframe will be more like 3-5 years considering you have to L1-L3.

@Hubtech said:

it's hilarious how much misguided traction EVERY SINGLE ONE of AJs posts get....

Does anyone here really care about anything in this thread?

The quality of posting in general has gone downhill lately

They seem to offer some legit bootcamps 100% free with no string attached. Does anyone here use them?

I am going through a bootcamp now, and it seems pretty good so far.

https://www.cybrary.it/catalog/

I know @Lakshmana is always asking about training. Here you go, bud.

Anyone who says they haven't failed is lying. Troubleshooting in general is only determined by failures. Its all about how you handle failure.

I will be taking CRISC on Thursday. I am really hoping I pass as this is a $800. This will be certification number 2 this year and I hope to get a 3rd (CISSP) by the end of the year.

http://www.isaca.org/Certification/CRISC-Certified-in-Risk-and-Information-Systems-Control/Pages/default.aspx

You are definitely a popular topic on IT forums...lol

@Jimmy9008 said in SMB vs Enterprise:

@Dashrender said in SMB vs Enterprise:

@Jimmy9008 said in SMB vs Enterprise:

@IRJ

@IRJ said in SMB vs Enterprise:

@Jimmy9008 said in SMB vs Enterprise:

@IRJ said in SMB vs Enterprise:

@Jimmy9008 said in SMB vs Enterprise:

I'm a generalist too; I don't think that puts me at a disadvantage compared to specialists. Where many specialists would get caught up on a project, I have a range of experience which will get me past that problem.

That is a key point. In enterprise, you take a very small amount of responsibility for specific functions vs doing everything across the board. It's both good and bad, but at the end of the day you'll learn more if you have to do everything. Although you may not master a specific area.

Do you have an example of a specialist role? I'd like to see how they compare to a generalist role...

There are so many examples. Let's just take a look at a windows server admin. There is a team for handling group policy, several builds, server patching, server OS troubleshooting, application support for specific applications (these are the guys troubleshooting with the vendors), package deployment, and more.

You probably do alot more than sever admin in SMB. You're evaluating products, talking vendors, deploying actual physical hardware like racks and servers, configuring network equipment, and many more roles that aren't windows admin related.

I see what you mean, but never assumed that to be specialist.

What did you assume them to be?

As Scott said - the biggest company that I personally worked at wasn't F1000 at the time, So we definitely didn't see that level of separation in Windows admin roles, or any other system. Our AIX team was 2 people for over 100 servers (I wasn't that involved, it could have been over 500 for all I know), and they handled everything on those boxes, setup, tear down, building storage LUNs, etc. But I definitely considered them AIX specialists. They didn't touch the network side of things other than plugging an IP address into their systems.

GPO... Building Servers... Patching... I see these as pretty simple things as a generalist. I cant imagine a team of people needed for any particular one of those just to focus on that one thing (Mind, I've not worked enterprise). Those people would surely do a range of tasks, not just GPO all day. To say - 'I'm a specialist in GPOs' sounds like a really limited job. Even with 1000 servers or workstations or more. It would be boring, and GPOs is mostly easy (for example). Especially once you have setup a test environment.

I always assumed specialist = totally difficult task, hence being a great skill. Not specialist = I just do GPO only all day in a team of people doing GPO all day, but cant do anything else like patching as I don't know (limiting).

Its like a builder. I can hire a builder to build me an extension. Many builders can build me that extension. When the builder finds asbestos stopping the work, they call in specialists to clear it out who have skills and knowledge, and the equipment, to deal with the dangerous material (the difficult, skilled part) an average generalist builder wouldn't have.

I'm not sure, probably wrong. Juts haven't worked in that environment.

The reason enterprise organizations do this is because they understand the value of repeatable processes within an organization. In SMB it is difficult to have the time to focus on best practices for every single role you do. For example are you trained in vendor risk assessments? Are you asking the right questions and filling out a risk registry with possible risks? No. You are probably just have a chat, using your best judgment, and nothing gets documented. When you leave no one knows why that vendor was chosen or what weaknesses the vendor may have? Are they financially stable, etc?

What is the proper way to deactive Adobe products for reactivation on another PC?

Also, I am unsure of the product keys so I would like to retrieve them. Any body have a free tool that they recommend for this?

I am moving:
Acrobat Pro 11
Dreamweaver CS6
Page Maker 7
Photoshop CS6

Getting companies, SMBs, HR, hiring manageers, and IT people to use proper titles based on proper terminology is bit like trying to achieve world peace.

Knowing how to research and troubleshoot is the bulk of IT. If you know how to research products and have a base knowledge of the technology available, your possible wisdom is infinite. Of course experience plays a major role and how you implement technologies.

You will feel more comfortable once you dive into that lab and gain experience in research, troubleshooting, and test deployments.

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

Something that I learned from watching people fail at this (not in IT, just in jobs in general) is that there is a trend to take lower pay, lower responsibility jobs hoping to have more free time and more flexibility - thinking that it is a trade off. But in reality, it is not. It just makes you worth less in the eyes of the employer. It takes away your leverage - both in house and with other firms. The more you earn where you are, the more power you have to make that or more elsewhere. The more power you have to leave, the more incentive there is to give you flexibility to stay.

In the real world, people making six figures get way, way more flexibility, work from home, low stress, fun and challenging and just generally better job positions than people making, say, $50K. There are exceptions, of course, but in general with as much else equal as possible, the higher your salary, the more flexibility you will get with it. Soft benefits increase with hard ones.

You get treated much better when making $100k vs $50k as well.

@scottalanmiller said:

@IRJ said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Plus won't watches likely be heavily abused compared to, say, a laptop?

I am sure the lease will be written unfavorably for the customer. People are desperate to get ahold of the watches. People accepting insane terms would not surprise me.

It can only be so extreme before people, even dumb people, shell out $350 to just buy one. No matter what, they need a LOT of watches for this to work.

You are underestimating the fanboys and the stupidity of the people.

Congratulations!

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Please sign the attached Advisory Board agreement and send it to us.

About the Advisory Board

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Their leadership role is integral to the success of the Advisory Board and they can proudly declare their membership in the Advisory Board. With the formation of the Board, we hope to monitor developments to our present EC-Council certification policies and procedures and to ensure that our certifications remain valuable and up-to-date, and that all EC-Council certified professionals maintain and widen their knowledge base ethically. The Advisory Board shall hereby advice, contribute and review all the aspects of development and the maintenance of EC-Council’s certification programme EC-Council Certified Security Analyst (E|CSA) and matters concerning content of the E|CSA programme.
The Advisory Board is independent in its review and the standards are peer reviewed globally. The management of EC-Council shall refer to the Advisory Board for advice in matters pertaining to E|CSA.

@thanksajdotcom said:

@IRJ said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@IRJ said:

@scottalanmiller said:

Plus won't watches likely be heavily abused compared to, say, a laptop?

I am sure the lease will be written unfavorably for the customer. People are desperate to get ahold of the watches. People accepting insane terms would not surprise me.

It can only be so extreme before people, even dumb people, shell out $350 to just buy one. No matter what, they need a LOT of watches for this to work.

You are underestimating the fanboys and the stupidity of the people.

Especially for Apple.

I didn't say that. There are stupid android people too.

@scottalanmiller said in Review My CV:

@john11smith said in Review My CV:

@scottalanmiller said in Review My CV:

@john11smith said in Review My CV:

@scottalanmiller said in Review My CV:

Driving Licence: Full Category B Licence, 28 years’ driving experience (8 years UK based)

Languages: I am fluent (including technical language) in English, Russian, Lithuanian and have some ability in Polish and German.

Driver's License, unless there is some specific reason that this is here, remove it. You are looking for IT, not driving work, this is awkward.

often like over here:
http://www.nijobs.com/Senior-IT-Infrastructure-Analyst-Job-1288288.aspx
Desirable A full driving license with daily access to a vehicle.
Sometimes they add a clean driving license, meaning no offence points.
Driving here is on opposite side of the road that rests Europe and US, this makes insurance more expensive for those who just came from continental Europe, sometimes for company cars also.

IT is not normally a career asking people to be chauffers or giving company cars here. Why would IT have driving involved with it?

"Provide support to users across 6 locations"

So a deskside support tech? That could make sense. In the US, though, it would be rare for you to have a company car for that. People might ask you to be able to drive, but how you drive is of no concern. And better companies have chauffers for that so that you can stay productive.

It definitely seems like overkill for a job that pays 20,000 to 30,000 euros.....

The hair alone scares me

Definitely drop the college part if you don't have a degree. There is no value by saying you took some college classes.

@thanksajdotcom said:

@scottalanmiller said:

@thanksajdotcom said:

@Lakshmana said:

@scottalanmiller said:
I have mailed the Manager at IBM,Bangalore and they dont even replied after I have mailed her

Emailed her I assume?

While AJ is being a little pedantic, he has a very important point. You continue not to learn from mistakes and advice. You use English slang when you are struggling with the base language. This is a bad idea. You should avoid slang as it gets you into trouble. Don't try to be clever or to fake being a native speaker. Focus on being clear and communicative. Get the point across and avoid ignoring things you don't understand and don't use terms you do not understand fully. Don't shorten words unnecessarily. Using mail instead of email is a pointless shortening, how many posts in this thread have been written because you wanted to save one character?

While you are working on learning the language stick to trying to clear, concise writing. Work on accuracy.

This. This times 1000! I may seem like I'm being an ass to you, but I'm trying to make a point you don't seem to be getting. Your word choice, grammar, and spelling all make it obvious you are not a native English speaker. Scott's point about trying to fake being a native English speaker is exactly right. It feels like you're trying to fit in with us or maybe even impress us by writing the way you do. However, all it does is make your message harder to read, it distracts me because all your mistakes are as blatant as a flashing neon sign at midnight, and it's also unprofessional.

To be honest, even if your technical skills were amazing, which isn't the case, many jobs would probably disqualify you based on your level of competency with English. If it sounds like I'm coming down hard on you, I am. You ask technical questions, we give you a spelled out, step-by-step answer in many cases, and you completely ignore us.

I want you to understand something: the way you word things might be understood by the people you work with in India, but to the rest of the world, it just makes you look lazy or incompetent. If you aren't sure what the proper use of a word is, don't use it. If you can't find a suitable replacement, ask one of us. I've offered to help you with your wording and also offered to help you improve your English. But right now, from both a technical and grammatical standpoint, it feels like you're asking question after question just to waste our time. You may sincerely want to know the answer, but if you simply refuse the answers your given or ignore them, then we can't help you.

That is very harsh and probably would have been better for a private message.

The wording in general is very confusing. I feel like you are stretching for space. Concentrate on relevant skills. The points mentioned are repetitive, long, and boring. They also don't really describe what you did very well. I know you've worked on some cool projects. Why not describe the best of what you do.