How did you get started in IT?
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After my early stints in IT, I took a short break around 1996 and then in 1997 decided to switch from what I had been doing into more of an SMB IT realm and put in two years of just devouring books, doing certs, building out a massive home lab, introduced myself to Windows NT and Linux for the first times, got into online IT communities and just went crazy. Did basically nothing but eat, sleep and drink IT education for two years. Started a small MSP focused on SOHOs in Upstate NY, did any odd IT job that I could find, weekend work, night work, IT day labour, whatever. Then in 1999 got picked up based on my crazy hard work and have been on the more traditional career path ever since.
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So in January I will be celebrating 28 years in IT!
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Went to college locally and did 3 semesters. The whole point of going to college was for one class. CIS-292, which was part two of A+ training. CIS-291 was required for my major, but because I had my A+ already, I skipped 291. You had to be a sophomore to take the class, thus why I did three semesters. 292 was 4CH but only two hours of instruction in class. The other two were considered an internship they helped you get. I was the only one who got a paid internship, and I had planned to turn it into a job, which I did. Eventually discovered Spiceworks, began interacting with @scottalanmiller and also met @Minion-Queen and @Mike-Davis at a Spicecorps, where I got a business card from her. Sent her my resume, and started at NTG the next week.
But if you want to go back, my interest in IT started in high school. Took every IT, programming, and engineering course I could to see what I liked. Made as good of use of my time in high school as I could.
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I started as a Mechanical Engineer apprentice. After doing that for 5 years and people knowing I liked computers and gaming etc I was asked if I would like to go help the IT manager write reports. I said yes.
1st job was writing reports off a .......... bloody hell I can't remember the machine I want to say IBM4000 (I know it was running UNIX and informix database, and when a HD Failed the engineer had to raid his personal collection of old kit to find one that fitted lol), the reports were in ACE format.
From there the sales guys wanted E-mail as it was the new "in" thing to have. So bought some laptops and external 56K Modems......After a few months and E-mail taking off more people want it, so wired up a simple network and bought a PC and installed Windows 2000 Server on it and set-up some free internet sharing software and connected it to a ISDN 2 line for twice the speed
From there the network grow from just 5 people having network and internet to all machines connected (even CNC machines having config files uploaded) sharing internet and me creating a AD domain more advanced internet control etc etc. -
geezz this thread is almost 3 years old.
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Talk about necroposting @scottalanmiller !
My story is relatively short... Pops brought home a TI-99 and showed me how to type on it, and I was hooked.
I pretty much never walked away from computers after that. I've seen everything from an AS/400 to 8088 systems, 8086 systems, and up.
By 10, I was getting paid by neighbors to fix their computers, lol... and I never looked back.
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In 2003, started college and while in school I volunteered. In 2005, I was offered a part-time job at the college. And in 2006, I was offered a full time job at the college.
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Same as everyone else I think, killed my boss. As he was dying, mortally wounded by my sword, he whispered the admin credentials to me. As is tradition.
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@Dashrender said in How did you get started in IT?:
geezz this thread is almost 3 years old.
How can anyone find this old stuff?
I can't find stuff in threads from yesterday with the search.
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@BRRABill said in How did you get started in IT?:
@Dashrender said in How did you get started in IT?:
geezz this thread is almost 3 years old.
How can anyone find this old stuff?
I can't find stuff in threads from yesterday with the search.
Umm... Google?
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@BRRABill said in How did you get started in IT?:
@dafyre said
Umm... Google?
Bah. I like to use the search box and struggle for 15 minutes.
Me too, ha ha.
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@BRRABill said in How did you get started in IT?:
@Dashrender said in How did you get started in IT?:
geezz this thread is almost 3 years old.
How can anyone find this old stuff?
I can't find stuff in threads from yesterday with the search.
Tags.
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I guess I've always been in it. My dad had a side business and ran a PDP 11 for his company. He did all of their internal IT also. He gave me a Tandy 1000 when I was around 3 and it had a game called Amy's First Primer http://www.danielsays.com/ss-gallery-dos-sw-amys-first-primer-12.html
Load the truck was the best!Then moved to a 386 and then a 486. We had a program called HDM IV (I think). It gave us a menu interface that we could assign programs to. I mostly used it for games (like Wolfenstein 3D and Doom). I also did my 5th grade science fair project on the internal parts of a PC.
As I got older I started helping him with his business. I had a couple classes in high school and college. I was hired as a project engineer before I graduated and I did a lot of help desk stuff for them since internal IT was in a different area. I ended up starting my own consulting business which wasn't a super success money wise but I learned a ton by doing that. When Bentley was born I started working for a small manufacturing shop. Now I'm a systems engineer/administrator for a fortune 1000.
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@MattSpeller said in How did you get started in IT?:
Same as everyone else I think, killed my boss. As he was dying, mortally wounded by my sword, he whispered the admin credentials to me. As is tradition.
Was their lightening? I remember vaguely being electrocuted after beheading the previous admin.
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@coliver said in How did you get started in IT?:
@MattSpeller said in How did you get started in IT?:
Same as everyone else I think, killed my boss. As he was dying, mortally wounded by my sword, he whispered the admin credentials to me. As is tradition.
Was their lightening? I remember vaguely being electrocuted after beheading the previous admin.
Classic!
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I've always loved computer, they're logical, whereas people almost never are. Actually started as an assistant to the sole IT person at the county Career Center. I ended up as said assistant because nobody else knew a thing about computers/networking and I was in a program that was supposed to give me some training in that. One of the best things that could've happened for me, as I got a little real-world IT experience while still in high school, and also other business basics like accounting and management principals (or, what people say they should be anyway.) So I can have conversations with accounting, finance, marketing, etc and have a clue.
Spent two years getting a worthless piece of paper. "Associates of Computer Repair and Network Technician" between 1997 and 1999. During that same time I was working for a large car parts manufacturing plant as an IT Co-op, where I was hired on after graduating and continued to work there till 2002.
And that's where I got started.
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Pinging on this as it is a good topic and it would be great to see new stories coming out of it.
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I've always been into electronics and how things work. My first real summer job in HS (apart from yardwork / babysitting etc) was a student position setting up a CAP (Community Access Program) site, basically a gov't sponsored location where people could get online or get general computer and internet exposure. From there it was a long and winding road through an attempt at university (2 yrs) and a 7 year run doing customer service and tech support in a couple of different call centers. Due to "restructuring" I was able to return to school with gov't assistance and did a 2 yr college program in Networking and Security..... Got into Linux because I got fed up with having to fight with windows and overpriced software, cut my teeth on Slackware back in 2004 or so.
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@Bill-Kindle said in How did you get started in IT?:
handed me a CD and that boot floppy said good luck and to make sure I brought back his CD.
But did you give back the CD or not? Five years is far too long to leave us hanging.
