Tomorrow I'm putting in for IT jobs

"BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather" (bugeyedacura)
01/03/2015 at 21:46 • Filed to: None

Ive pulled a pretty solid selection of entry-level help desk and tech jobs off of Indeed, and will be attacking them all tomorrow. Here's hoping somethin shakes out.

DISCUSSION (37)

jkm7680 > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 21:47

Good luck man! Hope all goes well :)

dogisbadob > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 21:51

Good luck!

shop-teacher > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 21:57

Good luck dude!

JGrabowMSt > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 21:57

Good luck. If you were in NJ, I would say theres a potential offer, but Im sure you'll find something good. The tech industry is still looking very up, and Ive been working in it for an exceptionally long time for my age.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > jkm7680
01/03/2015 at 21:57

Thanks buddy!

Clown Shoe Pilot > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 21:59

good luck man. if you've got questions, holler. I've been an IT nerd for a living for about 20 years and have done some hiring. i'd be happy to help you figure out what the folks on the other side of the table are thinking.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > JGrabowMSt
01/03/2015 at 21:59

How did you start? I have a degree (Information Systems and Operations Management) but often find I don't meet the technical background or time requirements for most jobs. Seems like it's hard to start if you don't already have some prior experience.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > shop-teacher
01/03/2015 at 21:59

Thank you!

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > dogisbadob
01/03/2015 at 21:59

Thanks bud!

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Clown Shoe Pilot
01/03/2015 at 22:06

Awesome! The biggest thing is what kinds of stuff needs to go into my cover letter to get me noticed? I feel like once I get an interview I'm good, but getting there seems to be my hurdle.

Coty > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 22:11

My girl works in IT, I don't understand any of it.

Good luck to you.

TDogg > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 22:12

I'm undergoing similar endeavors. Best of luck!

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Coty
01/03/2015 at 22:17

Thank ye!

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > TDogg
01/03/2015 at 22:19

Thank you! Same to you as well

Clown Shoe Pilot > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 22:19

I'd recommend writing individual cover letters per job that you're shooting for. Keep it short, but pack a lot of info into it. If you've got specific skills that can be directly applied to the job requirements, mention them. If you've got strong "general" skills that would help you, mention those. I know that when I'm looking for someone, the skill I want is troubleshooting - not "how do I troubleshoot a computer" but "how do I troubleshoot" period. The same methods (bisecting, symptom reproduction, change only one thing at a time) work for all kinds of stuff and if you're good at it you'll always be able to find a gig.

AddictedToM3s - Drives a GC > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 22:25

Good luck man!

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Clown Shoe Pilot
01/03/2015 at 22:31

That's the problem. I solve computer issues at work for my coworkers and at home all the time, but I've never sat down and taken apart a server or computer. Maybe it's a confidence thing, but I somehow feel like I don't know enough even though everyone else tells me I have the knowledge.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 22:32

Good luck sir. Don't stop working on certifications. Seriously. You may land yourself in a job that is unsupervised and risks you being shot daily (but pays well) but do not stop working towards certs.

You'll find something, put in the effort and it will pay off. If not, fuckem and you'll get picked up elsewhere.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
01/03/2015 at 22:34

I actually plan on using the entry-level experience to build my way towards those certifications. My goal is to be fully spec'd in 5 years with the same number of experience.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 22:40

good thinking. Pick a route and run with it. Start with Windows and then go something specific like network support (Cisco route) or security route

Clown Shoe Pilot > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 22:40

The specifics (how to take servers apart, etc) are easy to learn. The valuable skill to is to be able to figure out WHAT PART to take out and replace. The other bits are mechanical skills that unless you're made of thumbs and idiocy should be really easy to pick up. It's especially easy if you're working on modern server hardware. Dell stuff specifically is SUPER easy to work on. They've got an army of engineers that design everything to be quick and easy.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
01/03/2015 at 22:44

I was MOUS certified for the whole 2005 suite in high school. Do those still count? Lol

Justin Hughes > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 22:47

Having been there and done that, I have three pieces of advice for you:

Network.

It's important that you know your stuff and can do the job, but if you happen to know someone, or know someone who knows someone, that can give you an edge over someone else without the connection. Since diving back into the computer industry four years ago, with one exception connections have helped me get every job I've had. That recommendation by someone they trust may be enough to overcome your relative lack of professional experience.

Good luck!

Clown Shoe Pilot > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 22:48

where are you located, btw?

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Clown Shoe Pilot
01/03/2015 at 22:48

I'm more comfortable with software than hardware, but I'm a quick study. Luckily I know enough to at least inspire a little confidence.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Justin Hughes
01/03/2015 at 22:50

Unfortunately outside of AppAssure/Dell DP, I have no real IT connections. :/

But thank you!

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Clown Shoe Pilot
01/03/2015 at 22:51

I am located in Northern VA. Ashburn specifically.

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 22:54

Not too sure about that one. Go for the basics.. A+ and Network+ because they'll pick you up anywhere they're looking for desktop support and such. If you want a gov't contractor/defense job go IAT-2 which is Security+ and a Microsoft certification (there's big money to be made there which is why I'm working towards that now).

Other than that you'll want to go specialized along the Microsoft Server route or possibly Cisco or Juniper if you take on their courses like second nature.

Clown Shoe Pilot > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 22:55

Oh, cool. PLENTY of tech up there. Looking at SoftLayer per chance?

DancesWithRotors - Driving Insightfully > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul
01/03/2015 at 23:06

This... Just speaking as one who's doing the gov't contractor IT thing... Also, RHCSAs are in big demand right now, as well. Seriously, Red Hat is valuable in the defense world. Do it.

JGrabowMSt > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 23:14

In a sense, I got lucky, but realistically, I just messed around with computers starting pretty young. I used to bring home computers from the dump (now the local dump doesn't let you take things out anymore), fix them and give them to people my dad worked with. It started out just being simple component swaps, then it would get more advanced like capacitor replacing or fixing some small circuits. If you have the means to have a spare computer, or just an old computer lying around, fire it up, make something not work, and and then fix it. It's hard to teach someone to fix a computer, because every single case is unique to that computer. I have a number of strange issues that I see weekly that sometimes I don't even know the fixes for until I make something up, other times I get really lucky and can work something out that's pretty genius when you think about it.

A couple examples, because it will teach you some cool things:

1) Very recently, I had a guy bring in a 2009 MacBook Pro that he spilled a pretty gratuitous amount of red wine on (any amount is gratuitous, but this was a significant spill). Luckily, it did stop at the keyboard, but it caused all sorts of haywire on the keyboard. Now, here's a few bits that come in handy to know about MacBook Pros: the keyboards have a plastic layer under them that acts as both a protective and insulating layer between the keyboard itself and the motherboard. The keyboard is also held in place with something in the range of 50 to 70 screws depending on the year. Additionally, the power button functions through the keyboard's ribbon cable.

The client had decided to cheap out, and not go for replacing the keyboard, because it requires completely disassembling the computer in order to get to the keyboard, and labor cost can be a killer. Instead, he wanted to just disconnect the touchpad and keyboard and take the computer back to use with an external mouse and keyboard. Fine. Sort of. Now I have to figure out how to make it work without being super ghetto about it. That's a challenge. So I looked up the pinout of the keyboard ribbon cable for where the power on circuit was. Turns out there's a couple different ones, but the pins involved are 5, 6, 7 and 29 (30 pin cable). In less eloquent terms, fuck. How is that even supposed to work? The good part is, I don't have to know that much. I took an x-acto knife and sliced out parts of the keyboard ribbon cable in order to disconnect pin 30, as well as remove enough pins to disable keyboard functionality, as several keys were being shorted which made it impossible to type the password and log in. So I cut a chunk out of pin 30 and I also cut out pins 1-4. Normally, you'd think, why bother with going through that? Simply put, the keyboard doesn't work anyway, so slicing up the ribbon cable isn't damaging something that's going to work anyway, but the power button needs to function (and it's part of the keyboard. Extremely valuable lesson learned about how to tackle the problem in the future as well, because that Mac left the shop how the customer wanted. Had I just unplugged the ribbon cable for the keyboard, how would he have turned it on? Sure I could ghetto rig a power button for it, but it's just so inappropriate. The client doesn't have a damn clue how smart that fix had to be, and they never do. Explaining it to most people is a lost cause, but knowing that it worked? That's worth it to me.

2) Always suspect USB devices. Motherboards haven't changed in their general circuitry layout in a long time. One of the biggest things to keep in mind is that the 5v Standby circuit is your enemy. It will do everything possible to trick you into thinking a computer is dead. It's exactly the same for laptops and desktops. The 5v Standby is what runs the power on circuit. You push the power button and the standby circuit now relays to the rest of the computer to turn on. Great. Why would that be so bad? Simple, other devices use that circuit. USB, in particular is a big one. I have a client who lives several states away, and he's only a client because I helped him decide how to build his DAW machine (which is essentially a near identical clone to my personal one). He sends me a message saying his computer wont boot anymore, saying he's getting a chassis intrusion error. Well, I have the exact same motherboard, so if he's getting an error, should I be? After some deliberation, referencing the manual, and a little hair pulling, I suggested to unplug every USB device, leaving only video and power connected, and see if the machine started. Well it did.

As it turns out, some USB device was causing the 5v Standby circuit to interfere with the chassis intrusion circuit, which is really just open or closed. How could they affect each other? If the circuits both share an IC somewhere along the line, if too much voltage, not enough voltage, or some ground loop is occurring, it can absolutely send the wrong message. The solution was the turn off the powered USB hub until the computer is turned on, then to power on the USB hub. Simple order of operations fixed his problem for good, pretty easily at that. How did I ever know to think of that? Years ago when I built my very first custom machine (based on some secondhand server hardware), I had an issue where the computer wouldn't start. Being frustrated, I took the whole computer apart because literally nothing I did was working, and ended up finding a loose 5v pin in a molex adapter for a fan. A couple years later, a friend of mine had broken a USB port without noticing, and his Dell wouldn't start up. After taking a look at all the USB ports, the 5v pin for one of the front ports was mashed up against the inside of the USB port. The inside of the USB port is a ground, so the 5v circuit was grounding itself instantly, which the computer read as another input to the standby circuit, which then meant to turn off.

I don't want to discourage anyone from jumping in the fire, because just messing around on your own time and learning is what will help you land a job in the field. My new job has me follow a wiring diagram and color coordination which is really the simplest thing possible for me, but I can still bring something to the table, even in a position where you may think it's so cut and dry that it couldn't possibly be improved upon.

The hard part is finding a job that's willing to both teach you and let you learn on your own. My boss eventually told me that the reason I got hired (I had no prior related work experience and no resume when I went in and inquired about the job) was because I never asked what the shop did. Simply put, I didn't walk into a computer shop and ask if they repaired computers. I beat out a couple of other people that I knew at the time who were probably far beyond my knowledge level at the time despite being professionally unprepared to have the job. Now almost 5 years later, my coworker will still (somewhat often) say something to the tune of, "I bet James would be able to do this in a few seconds if he were here" when he can't figure something out. So the biggest most important piece of advice I could ever pass along to you, knowing that you're looking to get into the industry is to not give up. Your personal experience is the most important thing you have going for you. You fixed your computer at home when it broke? That's what you need to be able to explain, or break down into a couple of steps as to how you reached your conclusion and the resulting fix. I have a Bachelor of Arts in Television and Digital Media. I have an AA in Communications. I never majored, minored or even considered a degree in any form of computer science, and was lucky enough to work in a shop where having an A+ was not a requirement for my employment. I have essentially refused to get an A+ certification, despite my boss wanting me to. I never flat out said I wouldn't, but I've just put it off over and over. My coworker has several computer certifications involving network security to server management, yet he can't even get the shop server's DNS service to work correctly. I view the A+ test as an antiquated waste of time. The study guide for the A+ (last I bothered checking) simply went over things that just didn't matter anymore. It didn't cover anything beyond Windows XP as Windows 7 was taking hold of the market, and Windows 8 was announced (and in beta form). I'm not going to take a test to prove I can work on a computer that I would have seen when I was in elementary school, if I have to take a test to prove my knowledge, it damn well better be relevant.

I would very specifically say that the most important traits any repair tech could have are 1) take very detailed notes on everything you observe about a problem 2) readily consult with another more experienced person about what the problems are 3) try out different things to resolve the problem and finally 4) communicate with the client often.

Those four things will always help you resolve a problem, whether you've got experience with it or not at any company. As far as #2 goes with consulting someone else, it could be another tech, a supervisor, or even the internet. Your ability to be self motivated to fix a problem is very important, just as much as your ability to focus and get down to brass tax and resolve the problem in a timely manner.

So that's my tidbits of advice for you tonight. If you have any more specific questions, I can certainly try to answer them. I've been lucky enough to have two major opportunities as workplaces that recognize potential and thrive off of it. More often than not, people get trapped into shitty retail jobs over something no different than whether the chicken or the egg came first. How do I get job experience if the job wont hire me? Admittedly, I graduated from college this past May, and I was only a super senior. I never took a semester off, so that should paint an accurate picture of my age, so I'm aware that I'm younger than most (and going to be one of the youngest at my new job), but don't let it dissuade you. You may not have the working experience, but do not be afraid to try and bring something new to the table if you're confident enough to follow through and deliver. If you never ask, you'll never know.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Clown Shoe Pilot
01/03/2015 at 23:19

I actually interviewed with Softlayer before I took the job at the VW dealer. The main issues were the pay and the hours. The money's not what I need to pay my bills, and they wanted me on evening shift which meant I'd never see my wife.

Clown Shoe Pilot > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/03/2015 at 23:30

yeah, evening shift is a bummer and at the entry level, the pay isn't great. I worked for SoftLayer (and The Planet before that - SL was started by a bunch of guys that left The Planet. Later, TP and SL merged) for not quite 10 years before I moved to Austin to work at the race track.

It was my experience that if you weren't a jackass, the opportunity for promotion at SL was pretty good. When I started there, I took a job that paid WAY WAY WAY less than my previous job (but was also a lot less responsibility) because it was 2003 and I needed a job that wasn't retail, lest I commit a murder or three. Since I'm not a jackass, I rose quickly and was a manager with several folks working for me after about a year. I don't know that the opportunities today are QUITE as lucrative, but I'll bet that they still hire a ton of entry level guys and wait to see who kicks ass naturally.

Clown Shoe Pilot > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/05/2015 at 22:57

AppAssure? HAH. Kill yourself :)

No, but seriously, that software is terrible.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Clown Shoe Pilot
01/05/2015 at 23:27

Oh I found that out the hard way. But apparently if you started there before Dell bought them, you were set for life. Those guys were making 75-100k a year, and because they were all SMs and RMs, they hardly did anything for it.

Clown Shoe Pilot > BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather
01/06/2015 at 08:23

We used that software for a couple years and it was nothing but heartache. We switched to Veeam and it's been great.

BugEyedBimmer - back in the Saddle Dakota Leather > Clown Shoe Pilot
01/06/2015 at 18:40

Veeam was definitely our biggest competitor. They taught us it would be BUEx, but that was only for people stuck in the past.