Tech industry.

[Jarine88]

Just a thought, you may want to look into taking those IT skills and parlaying them into a cybersecurity role...Lots of benefits if you do it right...

Agreed...I’m getting a masters in Cybersecurity.

 

[stickbowcoop]

I am an engineer for a large airline (well I was before my health went in the crapper and not on sick leave). They have pretty strict rules about conduct. Very touchy feely, everybody is awesome, type stuff. I would love to find a job that allows work from home or just find a business I can run from home, but I have come up empty so far.

Where my wife works is a huge double standard though, the owner is a big ole' bleeding heart Liberal. Before the election folks were wearing Bernie hats and Hillary shirts, and nobody cared. One guy in my wife's department (she is a software developer) in his mid 20's wore a MAGA hat to work and within an hour he was called into HR and almost immediately a memo sent out that no more political items were permitted. The owner was "disappointed in him" and he got written up for a conduct violation. But they were OK with the Bernie and Hillary stuff. The Trump hat triggered someone and that is what set it off. He left shortly after for greener pastures. My wife works there for the sole reason they are in PA and allow her to have a home office and she didn't have to change jobs when we moved.

 

[Ole Cowboy]

Well I retired from the IT industry when I sold my company 2001.

I was NOT the first Active Duty Software engineer the Army had but I was certainly early on, so early in fact that I was one of the few people that actually was in an authorized slot.

My world back then was doing constant battle with the entrenched main-frame to dumb terminal base, the command-line MS DOS crowd and the rogue but well placed and very powerful who had bought into a 'new and improved coding schema' that should be adopted by the Army

And where did I stand? File-server architecture, Graphical user interface NO command-line, NO dumb terminals and max computer power at the desktop.

This was a war that I and several others fought daily, but I had a lot of Aces in my deck: I was appointed the ICP (Information Class Proponent) for Automation of all Army training, this is a very powerful position and I had a $127 Million dollar budget to go along with it and that was a HUGE automation budget, today it may not be so big, but in the 80's an d 90' that was a bunch o bucks. Add to that and I was a doing something that few of my bosses COL's and GO's up to 4 star (I was on 4 star staff) and this all added up to a lot of weight to toss around. Most of I had an incredible understanding of IT because by then I had expanded my knowledge into being a hardware engineer and a network engineer

The only way I can describe those days was it was the Wild West and by fortune, I was a single guy, no kids, for 10 years I worked 7 days a week, flew over a million air miles.

The question I ask today is: What the hell has happened???

Mostly I am glad I am not there, in fact I doubt seriously if I could even get a job in the IT business today...

 

[Lunyfringe]

I work from home almost exclusively- and some types get really uppity over the phone... funny how polite the gentleman who immigrated here from India was when I was in meetings with him last week in person... since I'm kinda big for a network engineer... (6'3", 230#)- he's probably 5'6", 140#.

I didn't do anything to physically intimidate him, didn't have to.

 

[Jarine88]

I work from home almost exclusively- and some types get really uppity over the phone... funny how polite the gentleman who immigrated here from India was when I was in meetings with him last week in person... since I'm kinda big for a network engineer... (6'3", 230#)- he's probably 5'6", 140#.

I didn't do anything to physically intimidate him, didn't have to.

As a 6’3, 250#, Marine, I tend to get a lot of “polite” meetings.

 

[TheDan]

Agreed...I’m getting a masters in Cybersecurity.

Is university really preparing you for industry without loading you down with other BS topics? When I attempted to goto college I found it to be a bureaucratic dinosaur that was unable to keep up with industry. Also when I was a hiring manager I found new graduates really had no advantage over people with a non-technical degree or no degree at all.

 

[Sam7sf]

Also when I was a hiring manager I found new graduates really had no advantage over people with a non-technical degree or no degree at all.

Nothing like a green horn out of school unable to get anything done and ultimately ends up getting trained by someone with just a high school diploma and hands on experience. Lol

 

[Kar98]

Is university really preparing you for industry without loading you down with other BS topics? When I attempted to goto college I found it to be a bureaucratic dinosaur that was unable to keep up with industry. Also when I was a hiring manager I found new graduates really had no advantage over people with a non-technical degree or no degree at all.

Much of the IT industry is driven by certificates for this, that and the other thing which helps hiring people who at least in theory know what they're doing. However if the hiring process is HR driven, then a degree helps the HR person who's clueless in tech to recognize that there's at least a certain, given level of education.

 

[Brains]

So far it has been universally true for me, a degree equals *zero* when it comes to actual skills. I've learned to prioritize those resumes to the bottom of the pile, because those people end up being a waste of time.

The ones who impress me (and tend to get the job) are the ones with significant 'off the clock' experience listed in the 'other skills' portion of their resume.

 

[FireInTheWire]

You go Ben... his voice is a trip though.

Well all those folks managed to make their self's look like idiots.

 

[FireInTheWire]

So far it has been universally true for me, a degree equals *zero* when it comes to actual skills. I've learned to prioritize those resumes to the bottom of the pile, because those people end up being a waste of time.

The ones who impress me (and tend to get the job) are the ones with significant 'off the clock' experience listed in the 'other skills' portion of their resume.

Common Sense. The best tool anyone can have.

 

[mroper]

When we were a hiring a new programmer We actually had to make up a practical test as folks resumes looked good but they could not do any actual programming.
We had one guy who had been a teacher at a local community college. He could recite they way to do this and that and all the terms. But he could never put it to use.

 

[Jarine88]

Is university really preparing you for industry without loading you down with other BS topics? When I attempted to goto college I found it to be a bureaucratic dinosaur that was unable to keep up with industry. Also when I was a hiring manager I found new graduates really had no advantage over people with a non-technical degree or no degree at all.

I have a BS in Electrical Engineering (emphasis in Telecomms) that gave me knowledge of topics and a way of thinking like an engineer. It did not teach me how to work as an engineer in a phone company. I have an MBA that taught me quite a bit. This degree is providing a lot of information, and all of our work is done on current issues and research. My current role has me dealing with a lot of cyber security issues in the industrial space (I am OT, not IT), and thus far, the education has been very applicable.

 

[Jarine88]

Just to put things into perspective, I have over 25 years of experience, and lead a global discipline engineering team. I started as an electronics repairman in the Marine Corps. Not a greenhorn.

 

[TheDan]

Much of the IT industry is driven by certificates for this, that and the other thing which helps hiring people who at least in theory know what they're doing. However if the hiring process is HR driven, then a degree helps the HR person who's clueless in tech to recognize that there's at least a certain, given level of education.

If the company is that HR driven, you don't really want to work there anyways. Kinda circles back to the original topic of the thread...

 

[DD130]

I work in IT. Its mostly third worlders, low-T men and SJWs. They live for this kind of shit.

True that; it's rare to find a Patriot in the main-stream tech world...

 

[DD130]

I honestly pine for my blue collar days. IT blows. If it wasn't for the money, I would leave right now

I've been working in IT since 1988; it's a soul crushing career (IMHO) but the money is there... I'd never suggest anyone I know get into it and both of my kids have seen first-hand the crappy hours and constant crap, like meetings (including the call I'm listening to right now... wasting time of 8 well paid engineers...), Rah-Rah crap.. ugh... I just want to open a food truck or a coffee shop. I really wish I'd learned a trade, like welding or machinist.. something productive.

- token white guy on the team

 

[TheDan]

True that; it's rare to find a Patriot in the main-stream tech world...

The company I currently work at and the one prior to this is about 50-50 people left of center and right of center. We have a couple of far lefties, but they are a minority. We have a fair number of veterans here, too. I BS about guns and cars with co-workers almost daily.

Again, the company isn't HR driven.

 

[TheDan]

token white guy on the team

So your privilege is to do all the work?

 

[Kar98]

If the company is that HR driven, you don't really want to work there anyways. Kinda circles back to the original topic of the thread...

I've had "hobby" experience in IT for over 20 years, any company I worked at in any position, I somehow turned into the go-to guy for all things computer. Like one time I started a temp job for some extra Christmas money folding year end statements and putting them into envelopes for a bank, and they kept me on after and I somehow was both a courier for the bank and their IT guy for quite some time, both in the server room and as deskside tech support, switching tapes and showing bankers how Lotus 1-2-3 works.
Freelanced for a while, making house calls, advertising my services on Craig's List... one time a staffing company out of New Jersey called me up and then I was that local hands-on guy for a national bank chain, doing server upgrades, desktop refreshes and such things.
Went and got me some IT degree from college, and got hired by the company I'm working for now right after that in 2012. Longest time I've ever been at one job. Some time half way through we went remote and home office, with me baby-sitting the server racks here at the data center, so all of the deskside support went away, which was half of my job. And the other half of my job, I have pretty much automatized. In case you're wondering why I've got so much time posting here, LOL.

Nothing but white guys here. Drama free zone!