Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab
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@momurda I'm salary.
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@guyinpv said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@momurda said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
Am I the only IT guy that gets a salary anymore?
I like the idea of it but where I work it wouldn't change anything. They would still demand when I come and go and expect the same amount of "on call" available from me.
In other words, salary for me wouldn't change my freedoms one bit. It's my general opinion (based on what others have said) that salary typically just means the boss expects you to work more, longer, and at home, and on weekends too, and on the road, and keep the phone by you at all times, and answer work emails, etc.
We moved our general manager to salary and all it did was make him stay longer hours and answer phone and emails all day and night.
That's what salary has always meant. Or for a very long time. Even in the 1970s a "professional day" was ten hours, not eight. And salary has always meant that you were paid more, and given more flexibility, but expected to be more flexible yourself and that work/life kind of mix together in most cases. Hourly denotes a much stricter delineation between work time and non-work time. Salary denotes a blending.
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@momurda said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
Am I the only IT guy that gets a salary anymore?
Almost everyone that I know in IT is salary.
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@RojoLoco said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@wirestyle22 said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@david.wiese Point being that @JaredBusch has a schedule. It just changes week to week. I don't know how much advanced notice he is given, but hypothetically it doesn't really have to interfere with his life that much.
How does one plan their life if the above is true? A schedule that varies week to week is something I gave up in my early 20s. Plus any work I do outside of M-F 9-6 is paid as overtime and scheduled in advance. I wouldn't give that up for $1600 a year.
Conversely, having any schedule at all is something that I gave up in my early 20s. The ability to work when needed, take off when not needed, be flexible and do what makes sense rather than what is scheduled is great. The last thing that I ever want is to be forced to work for no reason and to be forced to stop working for no reason. My flexible schedule lets me to work when it is needed or practical and lets me not work when it is best suited.
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@RojoLoco said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
Plus any work I do outside of M-F 9-6 is paid as overtime and scheduled in advance. I wouldn't give that up for $1600 a year.
My guess is that you are a planner. I'm a perceiver. I don't want a strict schedule, that's boring and exhausting to me. I love checking in, finding out that there is no work to do and heading to the bar. I like being the guy that gets called in a panic because there is a disaster and working while there is excitement and taking off when there is not.
What you describe as glorious sounds terrible to me. I would hate that rigid schedule. It sounds like punishment to me. I had a schedule like that when I worked in restaurants and hotels (as the cashier or clerk, not in IT), getting into IT let me escape that and set my own schedule.
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@scottalanmiller said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@RojoLoco said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
Plus any work I do outside of M-F 9-6 is paid as overtime and scheduled in advance. I wouldn't give that up for $1600 a year.
My guess is that you are a planner. I'm a perceiver. I don't want a strict schedule, that's boring and exhausting to me. I love checking in, finding out that there is no work to do and heading to the bar. I like being the guy that gets called in a panic because there is a disaster and working while there is excitement and taking off when there is not.
What you describe as glorious sounds terrible to me. I would hate that rigid schedule. It sounds like punishment to me. I had a schedule like that when I worked in restaurants and hotels (as the cashier or clerk, not in IT), getting into IT let me escape that and set my own schedule.
This comes down to personal preference, which is what I was getting at. I definitely enjoy a schedule for work. I like to know what the expectations are. With that said, I also enjoy excitement which I think comes with the territory sometimes.
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@guyinpv said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
Find good people first. Train them. Keep them when you got them!
That's what we are trying to find. I've never found someone that loved working in IT and didn't bring the job home with them. Could the two be separate? Probably. Have I seen it, not really. And that's the question that I keep proposing... if you don't use a home lab as an indicator of passion and self learning, what are you using?
No one is saying that it is the only factor or that you have to have one for every role anywhere. But when you are looking to hire someone passionate, what would you consider a good alternative indicator?
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@JaredBusch said
Depending on skill, an hourly rate between $30 and $50.
65K a year for the $30 rate.
109K a year for the $50 rate.I'm unsure of US salaries but what would people compare that to over there?
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@wirestyle22 said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
This comes down to personal preference, which is what I was getting at. I definitely enjoy a schedule for work. I like to know what the expectations are. With that said, I also enjoy excitement which I think comes with the territory sometimes.
If I'm hiring for the help desk, for a purely 9-5 position that can clock out and leave, I could see this nature working in IT. Sometimes, but certainly not always and it would be very limiting. But outside of very limited end user support, once you get into infrastructure, only very limited roles would work with this planned hours strategy. Some engineering could do it, but only very engineering roles. Outside of that, you need full shift workers in most cases to have a shot at it.
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The ability to be flexible allows our team to run lean. There is very little that must be done during the late hours, but we have guys who don't mind doing it. It works for us. If you're not comfortable with being able to relax for most of the day when it's quiet but have to be able to at least respond to an email at 8pm, it's probably not for you. Personally, I love it. I get so much freedom, with the possibility that I might be needed if something goes wrong.
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@art_of_shred -- But how does it work if you are out and about with no access to a laptop and a client has an emergency?
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@dafyre said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@art_of_shred -- But how does it work if you are out and about with no access to a laptop and a client has an emergency?
You don't have a smart phone? I have email/internet access pretty much everywhere.
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@art_of_shred said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@dafyre said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@art_of_shred -- But how does it work if you are out and about with no access to a laptop and a client has an emergency?
You don't have a smart phone? I have email/internet access pretty much everywhere.
Are you going to remote desktop in to your clients infrastructure from your Phone?
Yes... it's doable, especially with the larger phones, but how much would you really be able ^W^W want to do from a tiny phone in an emergency situation?
I mean, you could call your backup / partner...
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@dafyre said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@art_of_shred -- But how does it work if you are out and about with no access to a laptop and a client has an emergency?
Basically, don't be a 1 man band. If you are the model never ever works. This is why teams are important.
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I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
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@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
Add me to the Been There Done That club. All glory to the smart phone and preserving my bar time.
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@JaredBusch said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
Add me to the Been There Done That club. All glory to the smart phone and preserving my bar time.
Both me and others are probably curious, what type of issues do you resolve from a phone?
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@Breffni-Potter said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@JaredBusch said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
Add me to the Been There Done That club. All glory to the smart phone and preserving my bar time.
Both me and others are probably curious, what type of issues do you resolve from a phone?
Whatever we can, ha ha!
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Server restarts, password resets, admin credentials for downloads, virus stuff, pretty much anything I can do from my desktop. I LOVE Screen Connect.
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@Breffni-Potter said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@JaredBusch said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
@Minion-Queen said in Would You Hire Someone in IT Who Does Not Have a Home Lab:
I have fixed things from my IPhone before just so that I don't have to leave the bar. Totally worth it to take a couple more minutes and have it be slightly more frustrating to do.
Add me to the Been There Done That club. All glory to the smart phone and preserving my bar time.
Both me and others are probably curious, what type of issues do you resolve from a phone?
It really depends. Generally, if I am resorting to using my phone I am not in a "work" scenario. Like most IT people, I triage on the call first and talk my way through it or delay it or delegate it if I can. When that all fails, well thanks to ScreenConnect working so well, I just pop in and see/handle whatever it was that was such an emergency. I have reset passwords, restarted servers, removed and rejoined a machine from a domain, changed firewall settings, etc., all from my phone.
