@scottalanmiller said in In Demand Jobs / Positions:

aptitude

https://www.kent.ac.uk/careers/tests/computer-test.htm Well, of the first 8 questions I was able to answer, I got them right, but since I only answered 8, I was in the 12 and below range. I guess I practice what I preach to my saxophone students. "Accuracy over speed." 😛

@randyblevins said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@scottalanmiller said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@randyblevins said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@scottalanmiller said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@randyblevins said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@scottalanmiller said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@randyblevins said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@scottalanmiller said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

@jaredbusch said in Enterprise to IT Service\Software Company:

Epicorp makes a product called Profit 21. It has a good size market deployment both on site and hosted by Epicorp.

But it is a legacy design LoB app. It is clunky to use and expensive to license simply because it requires all Microsoft licensing. Server, RDS CALs, User CALs, SQL Server, SQL CALs.

And makes even them, at a decent size, a huge risk if that was their only product. Because a competitor could come along, recreate something for their market using modern tools and methods, charge more and still be chaper by not making half of the cost go to a third party!

Yeah, that is my concern is that the company is a one trick pony. It seems like it's probably not a good idea to jump ship for something like this?

I guess these companies come and go pretty often. I'm not sure on exact company size. I'm looking at their LinkedIn and basing it off that.

I guess I should probably still interview for practice and see what the company looks like.

It can be, you just have to be really careful and make sure that it fits your life goals. SMBs come and go every day. They have no longevity.

What questions would you ask in the interview about the company?

That's tough because companies lie continuously in these things. They'll say anything to make themselves sound good. But ask about the processes used, technologies used, ask them to explain some of their decision processes, ask about what makes them competitive both in tech and in operations, really grill them on their business model, funding, history, ownership, future goals, etc.

So generally speaking 20% increase in salary actually isn't much considering the risk? A company that size would likely have to offer 50% higher than industry standard to get good people based on risk of the company size?

Exactly. We don't know much about them so can't speak to this one. But Cali startups, for example, often pay $300K for skills you could get for $200K in NYC if you were a bank. Stability, long term viability, low stress, big teams, big benefits... they are worth a lot.

So approximately 50% in this case.

Yes, but some percentage of that is extra for making people live in San Fran which is total crap.

Also consider that nearly all enterprises use WiFi. So that's something to worry about.

@scottalanmiller said in I Can’t Even for Job Postings:

We kind of do, a fake job posting list.

Then I’ll find it and contribute as o do my search 🙂

IT is always the last to know.

@storageninja said in Resume Critique:

@eddiejennings said in Resume Critique:

I'm still young within my IT career, so it's not going to be possible for me to craft an impressive, look-at-what-all-I-have-built-and-managed resume and have that resume be connected to reality at this time.

It is not about age or time in the field. I had a resume better than most people with 10-15 years experience less than 3 years in the field. Find the right job (Consulting for a partner/VAR/MSP) and this can change VERY VERY quickly.

And focus on your lab, and what’s missing from your resume.

@penguinwrangler said in Student Loan Forgiveness Rant:

@scottalanmiller said in Student Loan Forgiveness Rant:

@coliver said in Student Loan Forgiveness Rant:

Of course now the Department of Education (which I'm not sure what authority they would have here) is saying they are under no obligation to respect the federal loan forgiveness program. Hopefully that will be ironed out by the time you need it.

In America, the government is under no obligation to anything.

It is a gamble that they won't end it before 10 years. I am still willing to take that gamble. The job still has better pay and retirement so it is still a win if they don't.

The flip side of this is they did change pension benefit programs in Houston and Dallas recently and Colorado I think allowed changing them retroactively.

@nerdydad said in New Job:

@penguinwrangler said in New Job:

Just found out that I qualify for partial student loan forgiveness with this new job. Becuase of my divorce and subsequent child support payments I haven't paid off any of my student loan debt. Now I might have up to $63,000 forgiven.

Fyi...loan forgiveness is also considered income and the IRS will tax the crap out of it and potentially put you in another tax bracket.

Even so - the tax will only be 35% or less of the $63K, so he'll get at least 40K of actual reduction in payment. I call that a win.

@tim_g I agree, defiantly worth doing it this way as well, there are so many html5 responsive templates out there at not much cost at all, even some free.

@storageninja Thanks appreciate that information!

@tim_g said in Forming an LLC:

@eddiejennings said in Forming an LLC:

Eddie Jennings Services, LLC now exists. 🙂

No apostrophe?

"Eddie Jennings' Services, LLC"?

Nope, and if I did, if I did, it would've been "Eddie Jennings's Services, LLC" = meh.

@storageninja said in Spiceworld Trip Cancelled Due to CA Legislation - Alternate Conference Suggestions?:

@anthonyh said in Spiceworld Trip Cancelled Due to CA Legislation - Alternate Conference Suggestions?:

So, I work for a government agency in California. Legislation was passed where the state will not reimburse underlying agencies for travel expenses to states that have law(s) on the book that "have the effect of voiding or repealing existing state or local protections against discrimination..."

Isn't this a breach of the interstate commerce clause?

Since when has anyone paid any attention to little things like the constitution?

@coliver said in Where Does University Need to Focus for IT Students:

Coming from two IT degrees. The most valuable classes were, sociology, business management, and project management.

Yeah, business, math and classes about "people" are where the big value always seems to be.

@john11smith said in Resources for the Network+:

Struggled understanding some questions because the wording of the exam like nothing I used to see.

CompTIA is not known for their clarity.

Pretty much everyone knows that a graduate degree isn't needed to teach little kids. But what they never stop to realize is that they took teachers, one of the largest job categories, and took an average of 1.5 - 2 years off of the career span of everyone in the field without increasing salaries. So entry level, day one teachers are older, more in debt, but have no more per-year earning potential than before, but have a bit less time to earn their retirement before getting old and wanting to retire. This makes it seem like more jobs are created, when in fact, it's just that you've reduced the pool of available workers by a few percentages.

@john11smith said in Getting Started in IT SAMIT Video:

I think bench work would be perfect for me. Please don't say I need CompTIA A+ for this. I feel like it is going backwards. Perhaps Server+ then?

Sadly, A+ is the only broadly known cert in the bench world. The Server+ is a better cert, but only applies to a certain type of bench work and is only known by 1% of employers.

@tim_g said in My K12 Non-Profit Volunteer Story:

@tim_g said in My K12 Non-Profit Volunteer Story:

@brrabill said in My K12 Non-Profit Volunteer Story:

@scottalanmiller said in My K12 Non-Profit Volunteer Story:

Age 3: Decided to go into software engineering as a career.

When you make claims like this, you have to follow them up with
"Stay thirsty, my friends"

My daughter is 5. I have recent knowledge of how 3 year olds are. There's no way you even knew what software engineering was. I think at 3 my daughter decided she wanted to go to the stars in a space ship (astronaut technically).... but I wouldn't list that as a competent career decision like you are doing. Really?

Perhaps you were one of those few wonder kids doing advanced algebra at 4, graduating Harvard at 8. If so, then I take it back. But I haven't seen you mention that.

How do those things relate to making life decisions? Those are not the same kinds of things.

@marcinozga said in Review My CV:

The line about Linux LAMP bothers me, it implies you only know how to setup LAMP stack. It's also on the same line as Windows servers, perhaps change it to "Experience with Linux and Windows servers". You list Apache and MySQL skills below, no need to be redundant.

Corrected, but with some redundancy for girls at agencies and search engines.

"I set up my own country which traded in stationery and office machinery" - perhaps you meant company here?

This line had been corrected by native NI English teacher. Never questioned, though it is an expression.

I don't know if I would list entire employment history, especially if it's not relevant to the position you're applying for. You have a lot of sales experience, but how does that relate to IT position?

I know in the USA irrelevant experience usually not mentioned. In Germany mustn't be any CV gaps. Looks like in the UK something in between, because that English teacher did many things in an effort to fit my CV in 2 pages, but never attempted to delete those.

Is it better now?:

Qualifications:
CompTIA Network+ N10-006 (March 2017)
15 years’ experience of support networked office & production equipment
Excellent PC troubleshooting skills in complex software and hardware problems
Experience support Windows, Apple, Linux desktops and laptops
Servers hardware knowledge and virtualization (Virtualbox, Vmware, KVM) skills
Experience with Windows Linux and servers, confident at command line interface CLI
LAN/WAN, VPN, TCP/IP settings, subnetting, cabling and troubleshooting skills
Strong problem-solving skills

Technical Skills: TCP/IP, Network routing, Cisco, Linux distributions (Ubuntu, CentOS), Linux console, LAMP, Apache, MySQL, PHP, Tomcat, HTML, CSS, Puppet, DNS, NFS, Samba, SNMP, Bash Shell Scripts, MS Server 2008 2012, MS Exchange Server 2010 2013, Active Directory

Education & Training

Diploma of Higher Education in Civil Engineering, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University (2002)
(This is equivalent to BTec Level 5 / SQA Higher National Diploma (HND) Standard)

I have completed multiple IT and customer support training through my employers and taken continuing private education in Linux, DevOps, Cloud, Database and Networking.

Howtonetwork.com – Cisco CCNA Simplified (in progress)

Employment History

Danwood Group Ltd., Belfast (Mar 2010 – Mar 2015)
Systems Engineer
Duties
Install, maintain, troubleshoot and repair a wide range networked machinery and Windows, Unix and Linux based print servers and network controllers in office and production environments and integrate new equipment into clients’ existing systems, Including OS and software installation
Install and troubleshoot software solutions on customers' servers and desktop computers (Windows, Apple). Install printer drivers, configure network scanning, importing address books, configuring LDAP address books, checking Active Directory and Exchange settings.
Support customers on-site, by phone and email. Support and assist colleagues

BMK (Biznio Masinų Kompanija) Ltd., Lithuania (May 1999 – Nov 2009)
Systems Engineer
Duties
Mostly the same as with Danwood
Senior engineer called to the most difficult problems

Additional Information

Driving Licence: Full Category B Licence

Languages: I am fluent (including technical language) in English, Russian and Lithuanian

Personal details: Nationality Lithuanian, Live in Antrim town

Youtube Video