IT Pros of Oppo? (Hey that rhymes)

"THShorn92 - Left his car in America" (thshorn92) 03/19/2015 at 19:12 • Filed to: None

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Sitting here watching some basketball and applying for jobs. I graduate in May with an associates in computer engineering and have started my job search for when I graduate. Hoping to move to the Raleigh, NC area due to better jobs and my girlfriend. Wondering if any of you Opponauts out there are in the industry and might have any advice for a soon to be grad looking for a job.

A falcon wagon for your time.

StoneCold > THShorn92 - Left his car in America 03/19/2015 at 19:31

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What code do you have experience with?

THShorn92 - Left his car in America > StoneCold 03/19/2015 at 19:34

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That's part of what is making in a little difficult, I know a little java and thats it. I mostly have experience on the infrastructure side. Looking for some sort of desktop support type job. I would probably kill myself at a helpdesk though

StoneCold > THShorn92 - Left his car in America 03/19/2015 at 19:37

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A shame you're not in Chicago. I'm trying to do the whole college thing, but my employers can't find people to replace me. So I have to condense a week of work into a weekend, every week. 90% of my job could be done by someone with basic computer knowledge/knows how to Google things.

THShorn92 - Left his car in America > StoneCold 03/19/2015 at 19:42

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wow, yeah that sucks. I'm really hoping to land a job at one of the four universities in the area, especially one of the two state colleges.

jsemerica > THShorn92 - Left his car in America 03/19/2015 at 19:47

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TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > THShorn92 - Left his car in America 03/19/2015 at 19:49

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Unforunatly you're going to have a hard time finding anything better than desktop support. Most systems jobs look for a 4 year college degree on recent grads, how is your UNIX/LINUX? If decent you might be able to find a job in an OPS room but be willing to work night shifts and weekend.

Start learning Puppet, Nagios(or some form of monitoring software Shinken ect...) Splunk and tomcat (or other container software) which will definitely help you if you go into the systems side of things.

Maybe also look into working at a data center racking servers.

THShorn92 - Left his car in America > TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. 03/19/2015 at 19:52

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UNIX/Linux is decent, pretty heavily used in our CET program. As soon as I land something steady I will be going back part time to get my Bachelors, at this point I'd rather get a job instead of go into lots of debt. Honestly if I could get some sort of departmental IT job at one of the colleges I would be really happy with that, or even if I can find somebody to pay for my schooling.

JGrabowMSt > THShorn92 - Left his car in America 03/19/2015 at 19:57

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what field were you studying? Security, coding, IT?

I worked at a repair shop for 5 years (still do work with them on a per diem basis), but opportunities like my job are scarce.

If you code, I suggest home automation systems like Crestron, or coding for apps. If you repair or do IT work, look at medical companies like colgate or phizer. See if you can intern first and get hired, or something along those lines. Education is becoming more tech oriented, but jobs are hard to come by and dont pay well at first. If you can land a tenure position within a couple years, you'll be off to a good start.

Get certifications in anything you can, even if you dont use them, they look good on resumes.

THShorn92 - Left his car in America > JGrabowMSt 03/19/2015 at 20:03

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IT is my main focus. Working on my A+ right now. Would love to be in a big company or something along those lines for sure

JGrabowMSt > THShorn92 - Left his car in America 03/19/2015 at 21:26

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A+, Network Administration, Windows Server, Cisco and Active Directory are a good portion of the skills you will absolutely require to survive. Experience is extremely important, but certifications will get you the job.

Through your school, see what copies of Windows you can get for a discount in order to learn on, and work on getting all possible certifications. Eventually, your bosses will have a ton of certifications but task you to do everything (because they don't know how). Just part of climbing the ladder.

I never bothered with the A+ (for my current job I don't need it), but if you're looking to have a leg up, that's where to start.

E92M3 > THShorn92 - Left his car in America 03/19/2015 at 21:33

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I interned at a company doing Helpdesk, then worked my way up to Desktop Support, and eventually a System Administrator. I enjoyed Desktop Support more than anything. It was an 8-5/M-F job that was hands on, and you got to interact with literally everyone in the company. Although Sys Admin pays better, I spent half my week in meetings with managers, but was still expected to get everything done on schedule. That meant working extra hours. It also requires you to know so much more than Desktop Support. I was an Exchange Admin, Server Admin, Disaster Recovery, Sharepoint Admin, Database Admin, Network Admin, etc .. It was fun at first, but my weekends quickly got consumed. You can't do upgrades to anything, move or replace anything during business hours. Just updating SharePoint for example requires lots of preparation (reading, planning, etc) and usually was scheduled for holiday weekends. I was envious of new college grads in CS walking in the door making more then me, and still having a life after work. I guess my advice would be to consider becoming an expert at one thing versus trying to know a good bit about EVERYTHING. If I were to do it again I would be a .Net developer and call it a day.

TheBloody, Oppositelock lives on in our shitposts. > THShorn92 - Left his car in America 03/19/2015 at 23:03

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That's a good plan, and if you work for the college you're going to. You normally get a huge discount on tuition. If you prove you're not an idiot, a lot of times you can move up from help desk to something more systems related.