"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
03/05/2019 at 20:06 • Filed to: Life
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"Mercedes Streeter" (smart)
03/05/2019 at 20:06 • Filed to: Life | 13
| 17 |
If you’ve been following my adventures over the past months, you got to read about some struggles, some bests, and a whole lot of motorcycles. However, for once I have something else to say!
For starters, my home.
I’ve never really had a place to call home for much of my life. My family moved at least 12 times between 2004 and 2013, so I’ve never really felt secure. The few times I did were when I lived with Cajun Ginger’s lovely family, some of the time I lived in my first apartment, and fully so at my current condo. I’m ready to open the next chapter of where I’m setting my stakes.
I’ve long loved big cities and have always wanted to live in one. Even when I first moved out I kept trying to move to Chicago or even Los Angeles. And thanks to the love of my life, it’s finally happening. I’m setting up plans to leave these small towns and go to the city of Chicago with my partner in crime until the end of time. My only real obstacle is just talking it over with my landlord. One big problem is that this will likely happen after my lease renewal, so I’m not sure how willing they would be to work with me.
A second potential big problem was where I’m going to store my vehicles. This really isn’t much of an issue anymore. I’ll get a storage unit outside of city limits and I’ll be able to store a few of my toys at the new apartment.
Will I like Chicago city living? No idea, but I’m excited to find out!
Next up, career!
Oppo knows I’ve been mulling over changing my career for about a year now and I’ve finally decided what I’m going to do. As much as I like the cushy job security of my current workplace, the pay isn’t that good (and there’s an indefinite pay increase freeze that’s now into its fourth or fifth year), the guy who sexually harassed me is still technically a coworker, many of my colleagues seem to despise my existence, and the work commute will be awful from Chicago. I could go and do a complete career overhaul and do something completely new, but ultimately I think sticking with IT but finding something I like is the most logical route to take.
I did learn some things from this company, and it’s that I do really enjoy the customer-facing side of IT (especially when working with educators), but not so much in a call centre type of environment. Through research, I’ve learned that K12 IT is more right up that alley than I thought. It seems some school IT admins not only manage the school’s computer infrastructure/student information systems, but they also work with teachers and students. And depending on the school, they have different people to handle networking and programming. I’ve already found some listings at schools (one at CPS) that actually sound like a lot of fun. IT with charisma!
So for now, that’s the kind of work I’m looking for. My experience with my current company is a big help here since I have advanced knowledge of two incredibly common school management systems deployed in schools across the US and Canada.
My backup plan is finding IT in different environments, but with a similar interaction potential and gratifying work experience.
That said, I still am interested in exploring other interests as well, like seeing where my passions for vehicles and media could get me. Likewise, I also have an eye peeled for any aviation opportunities that may arise.
Side note: My idea to have a motorcycle-themed social media presence and a museum and/or dealer is still a side project, unrelated to career unless it actually goes somewhere.
And finally, transition!
With me living in Chicago I’ll have a significantly easier time legally becoming me. Groups in Chicago have the resources to help me get through the labyrinth, but most of the time the services are only available to residents of the city and county. And with a new job that hopefully pays more, perhaps surgery can one day actually be a realistic goal.
So that’s about it. Between my obsession for two wheels completely taking over much of my life, I’m finally making some movement.
AestheticsInMotion
> Mercedes Streeter
03/05/2019 at 20:18 |
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How big of a storage unit are you thinking? Have you looked into price at all? Or how you’ll arrange everything?
Sorry, storage solutions are my thing lol
RallyDarkstrike - Fan of 2-cyl FIATs, Eastern Bloc & Kei cars
> Mercedes Streeter
03/05/2019 at 20:25 |
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Yay! Glad to hear wheels are finally turning! :D
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Mercedes Streeter
> AestheticsInMotion
03/05/2019 at 20:26 |
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I can get a 10x20 for $120/mo. That's enough for two smarts and roughly three or four bikes depending on how I park the cars.
Phyrxes once again has a wagon!
> Mercedes Streeter
03/05/2019 at 20:34 |
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One of the ed-speak terms you are like ly to hear is “instructional technologist, ” think support staff for teachers who will be using the technology. Whatever the title this is the person who probably manages the end user hardware at the building level, the network is probably managed by someone else.
Frenchlicker
> Mercedes Streeter
03/05/2019 at 20:37 |
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Thats a pretty solid price even in the minuscule city I live in. Going to assume not climate controlled though right?
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AestheticsInMotion
> Mercedes Streeter
03/05/2019 at 20:50 |
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That's a good rate. If you forsee this being a somewhat long-term situation I'd reccomended some kind of stacked solution to get the bikes up above the cars. Ramps, pulleys, lifts..... Oh man I'm getting excited just thinking about it!
jminer
> Mercedes Streeter
03/05/2019 at 21:25 |
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Good for you!
I’ll say in IT that K12 is pretty good, but the real fun place to work in IT is a community college. Nobody gives a shit about anything but there’s still some decent toys to play with and work to be done .
S chool systems are great as a lot of people start their careers there and move on after a couple years because the pay isn’t anywhere near what you’d make on the private side. I spent my first few years in IT working for a company that developed software for government and education so I worked with a lot of folks in education.
I’ve been in IT for a hair over 13 years , it’s a career that has been pretty good to me. There’s always something new to do and learn and for as long as I’ve been in the career there hasn’t been a shortage of jobs that have always paid pretty well . Systems Administration is what I’ve done, starting in helpdesk and working my way up from there.
Let me know if you ever have any questions or want to talk through anything career-wise, I’d be happy to lend an ear. I’ve helped several friends through career changes into IT and none have regretted it so far.
shop-teacher
> Mercedes Streeter
03/05/2019 at 21:47 |
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Good luck with it!
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Mercedes Streeter
> jminer
03/05/2019 at 21:54 |
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Targeting K12 was a calculated approach. ;) With the Student Information Systems I now know like the backs of my hands and my other skills , I can potentially double my income simply by finding school IT work in a big enough district .
Without getting into details of how I know this, I know a good chunk of my current customers have the same or fewer skills I do, but pull six figures. Of course, those people mostly live on the east coast , but similar jobs are not far off that mark out here. Of course, these people also have more years of experience than me, so I may not be able to make that far of a jump right now.
I don’t know what questions I’d ask! Madame DeLorean described so much to me from her own experience in Chicago tech.
Future Heap Owner
> Mercedes Streeter
03/05/2019 at 21:54 |
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Congratulations! Very exciting. I hope the move goes as smoothly as possible.
wafflesnfalafel
> Mercedes Streeter
03/05/2019 at 22:21 |
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A couple the folks I used to work with retired back there - love it. Congrats. (Love the shot of the Smart and trailer rig. :) )
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jminer
> Mercedes Streeter
03/05/2019 at 22:42 |
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It’s good you already know someone working in the field there. It’s a pretty awesome field that you can essentially work in whatever industry you want wherever you like and make a decent living (I’m in banking now!) . I’m not that familiar with K12 anymore, been out of that for 10 years now I do know a lot of people that work at colleges though.
If you’re looking to get into system support/engineering I’d strongly recommend you start tinkering with AWS. There are a ton of free training resources provided by Amazon out there and even a free tier of AWS that gives you plenty of resources to tinker with to get a good understanding of everything. It’s one of those skills that when you’re looking for that mid-level systems job they’re going to require. Plus it’s a skill that fre elances well too.
https://aws.amazon.com/training/
I’m on oppo atleast a couple times a week, but it’s hard to have in depth conversations here - if you want to email me and talk about anything more in detail , send it on over to wonkothesanest@gmail.com (filtered and forwarded address as this is public here).
*PS - I’m also an old bike hoarder :)
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Mercedes Streeter
> AestheticsInMotion
03/06/2019 at 12:34 |
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By the time I get to that point I’ll probably have a real garage of sorts for my projects. :)
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Mercedes Streeter
> Frenchlicker
03/06/2019 at 12:35 |
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Not climate controlled, though that’s something I never really cared about. I generally only care about fire safety (I have a nagging fear of losing everything to fire) and security.
idunnosomethingthough
> Mercedes Streeter
03/06/2019 at 16:11 |
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Congrats! I’ll be in Chicago next week on business, looking forward to it!
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Frenchlicker
> Mercedes Streeter
03/06/2019 at 23:49 |
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That’s completely understandable. I don’t see you storing stuff continuously enough to need climate control anyway.
TysMagic
> Mercedes Streeter
03/07/2019 at 17:07 |
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I missed when this update came out, so apologies for the delayed excitement. Good stuff!!! Lots of interesting plans for next steps. Chicago is pitched as pretty nifty and I imagine the support you would find there would be warmer than even expected - which would be awesome. When’s the move going to happen?