Any IT people out there?

I work IT for a nanotech company in the semiconductor industry - best job I have had in a while

 

Started out as a network admin. Moved into client server application development for several years. Worked as a product manager for a software company. Got hired as a VP of IT and became CIO/CTO for 10 years. Cut out with a couple of partners as CEO of a start up. Sold business to my former employer. Now I work for the state golf association managing the handicap system. Much happier now.

 

IT Client Support Specialist for USPS HQ

 

IT Specialist at a beef plant.

I'm a 1 man show, if a cat5 wire goes anywhere near it, or if it's even tangentially related to technology, it's my problem. I have problems most IT folks wouldn't even have nightmares about.

 

Data Center Operations for a large internet company. (25,000+ Servers/Network devices) here I do hardware maint, troubleshoot, install and decommission.

Started out doing SaaS (salesforce.com) in High School then moved to data center helpdesk for a little bit.

 

Depending on who you guys use for a Colo provider we may run into each other one day.

 

Wide Area Network Admin for a Large (15000+ Employee) Trucking Company.

In charge of networks at all 250 of our service centers, and on call 24/7/365.

The upside is I have a killer boss who lets me work from home if I have something I need to do.

Had only Net+ and Sec+ when I applied, plus my 6 years of military IT experience. Wasn't exactly qualified, but I learn very quickly and the boss was ex-Army too. This is my first salary job except for the Army, and I have to say, I'm glad I got out.

My job is mostly Routing and switching, with the occasional Data Center support and remote site support. I travel probably 2-3 weeks every few months. In my first year I've been to Albany, Memphis, Morristown TN, Salt Lake City, and Portland OR. I love traveling, though, especially since we mostly fly in the private company jet!

 

We're out at IO's Scottsdale DC. Pretty decent place...

 

ah, yeah I am at IO phoenix and our main site is in chandler which is where I am at 90% of my time.

 

40 years of employement, the last 20 in IT sorta by 'mistake'.

After heading a user team on a huge development project for a large utility, wound up being offered an Account Manager role in IT, working with the divisions I'd spent the first 20 years in.

Got laid off, (along with over 1,000 others) in an acquisition. Got called back 4 months later as a contractor, spent another 2 years fixing the acquiring companies messes with the purchased company, getting paid more than if they'd just kept me to begin with.

Got tired of their nonsense and found a job as a Project Manager with a county IT department that supported all the constitutional officers + states attorney, public defender and courts.

Wound up becoming the Service Manager of same, including the oversight of the Service Desk, management of desktops, ITIL implementation and the Financial team, including developing a new chargeback system.

Absolutely loved the job of impacting the business and relationship management with some very unusual customers. A great way to finish a career, leaving your fingerprints all over a bunch of cool stuff AND getting to 'raise up' bright young people in the process.

Looking back, glad I left when I did for many reasons. One is that the CIO that I worked so well with moved on a few months later. From what I hear, I think I'd have chaffed under the new guy, and wound up leaving anyway. But it wouldn't have been as an influential exit..........

My advise to IT folks.

Learn and properly apply all the technical solutions you can.

Always remember people are more important than technology.

Always seek to learn new things.

Hardware of some form will always be required. Software applications are more fleeting (short lived) in nature. But customers touch software, and rarely think about the hardware they don't see.

Always remember people are more important than technology.

It's a business. And should be run like one, not like someone's tech playground.

Always remember people are more important than technology.

 

Holy crap, how did I miss this for so long?

I'm a sysadmin/network engineer/help desk/computer guy kind of person. Corp IT for about 19 years now.

Working out of a financial services company in OKC now. Pretty nice gig, if a bit odd: I'm the only 'hands on' IT employee we have. Everyone else is a dev/coder.

I support our staff, about 15 people, and the parent company that spawned us (An FDIC backed, 25 year old investment house) which is about 20 people.

I do help desk, end-user direct support, and all the way up to running the network day-to-day and doing virtual support for the AWS instances, testing the new software, hardware builds, whatever is needed.

I'm taking a day next week to fab up a heat pump unit in my garage workshop for the server room, actually. Our backup 2-ton AC unit shit the bed recently and they asked me to come up with a better (read - cheaper) solution for dumping ~10K into a building infrastructure need for a place we're likely moving out of in 2 years or less.

So I built a design for a low-pressure heat pump system that would use the building cold air return shafts along the elevator units to shunt heat out of my server room if the temp gets too hot and the lack of a backup AC unit is a problem. Cost about ~300$ and a weekend of MacGuyvering. I used parts from a hydroponics lab and a greenhouse supply store

The resulting low pressure in the server room (~150-200 CFM being sucked out by my heat pump) pulls open one-way heat vanes above the ceiling over a meshed grate. Ambient air from the rest of the second floor comes rolling in at the same rate of exhaust.

The only down side is...if there's no electricity at the building level, my heat pump won't run. The upside is, if the building power is out, the server room will stop generating heat as well (all our production machines are AWS or datacenter) so the point is moot.

 

I have worked all over the valley with different call center companies for the past 10 years. I am to the point of what is next to come in the ever changing technology fields and honestly, burnt out.

I have done everything from end user to internal support to business user support. Internet Firewall VPN telco stuff. I want to get back into this type of field. Can someone please direct me to a good direct company or contract firm hire?

 

There was another member in AZ that was looking for someone for a cabling tech in a Data Center last month. It was a full time spot from what he told me. Let me see if I can find his user name. He hit me up directly asking if I knew someone since I do DC stuff also.

If you are looking for Contract work I know the name of a great recruiter who has gotten most of the people at my office jobs here including myself. I was contract and then went full time. I also have a contact that does the contact work for Amazon Data Centers but those are not in AZ.

 

Cabling contractor/integrator

 

Sweet, thank you. I am down for the contacts. Which areas are the Amazon Centers located? Thank you

 

Hey guys right now I am in school majoring in Computer Science but when I get out I want to start working in the IT field. Do you guys think I should continue majoring in CS or should I change my major to Computer Information Systems? Also do you guys have any recommendations on how I could get an entry level IT job while in school to gain experience?

 

Should you change your major? Well I guess that depends on what you want to do. When I was getting my degree a CS degree was for the guys that wanted to design computers chips and a CIS degree was for those that wanted to work on the business side of things. You know better than anyone what your degree program offers. My degree is CIS and I will tell you there is plenty of work out there for hard working people with a good attitude.

Recommendations where to get experience - internships and part time spots are always a good place to look. This summer I will have 8 interns in my group doing all the grunt work that my full timers hate doing. (Cleaning MDF/IDF closets, blowing dust out of projectors, pulling/removing data cable, working in the call center, etc, etc) It is far from glamerous, but it is part of the job, or at least my teams job. I watch the interns and the good ones are sometimes ask to stay on in a permanent job. (depends on staffing needs) Another possibility is working part time. Right now I have 2 open part time positions that have no good applicants. For the part time spots I'll often take people with little/no experience just a desire to work in IT. And, again I watch them and the good ones sometimes move into a full time spot. (depends on staffing needs)

My first paid IT gig was working part time on a help desk. It wasn't ever going to be a full time/permanent job, but when it came time to apply for the next IT job it certainly helped open that door. Speaking of doors your degree will be worth its weight in gold over your life. My CIS degree has gotten me many an interview, even though it is laughably out of date.

 

We repair, refurbish, and sell business telecommunications. We do board level repair on multi-line key systems and the phones that go with them as well as the VoIP equipment. Our customers send us defective equipment and we make them work and look like new then send them back with a warranty. We work with the end user and the manufacturer and anyone in between.

 

Missed out on this thread! I'm a wireless network engineer on a team of three supporting over 50,000 users for a major transportation company.
Any other wireless guys around??