How did you get started in IT?
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My dad started as a data entry person in the AirForce which gave him a desire to learn about computers for personal use (I was about 10 at the time).
When I turned 13 I bought my first computer, it was an 8088 Hyundai with an amber screen and two 5 1/4 floppy drives (no HD) for $250. Next I purchased a 30 Meg HD from SAM's Club for $300 that my dad installed for me (It was pre IDE I don't know what it was called).From there my dad's second job somehow ended up with extra motherboards for 286's and together we were assembling and installing DOS. Then we started hitting local computer shows buying all kinds of odds and ends and of course who can forget the Computer Shopper?
I didn't stay very involved in the learning side through most of high school. I did take Fortran and C programming but I've completely forgotten it now. Fast forward a few years, I graduate from HS and start college and a job at a local telemarketing company. College doesn't really go anywhere for me, but luckily the job did. I was invited to be a temp worker in the excuse they had for a helpdesk at the time. After a year (for a job that was only suppose to last eight weeks) I was brought on as a full time Tech I doing desktop (Windows) support. We were a WIndows 3.1/Novel shop - again those were the days. Windows 95 came on the scene shortly followed by Windows NT 4.0. I can't tell you why but for some reason I was really drawn to NT 4.0. I started reading anything I could find and as soon the considered expert for NT 4.0 in the company. I took and passed the NT 4.0 MSCE thing were pretty good, but didn't last to long. Things in our department kinda stagnated, there was no upward mobility and my department was a projects department so it was just the daily grind.
in 1999 my friend who worked for a consulting company mentioned there was a job opening, so I jumped ship. The consulting company was in the middle of being bought out by another consulting company (which at the time seemed fine). But a year later my friend and I, as well as all of the other Windows support personal in the company were let go being sited "Microsoft is not enterprise class stuff and we want to focus on enterprise stuff only."
The only good thing about that, was that it meant they weren't going to be supporting any of our clients any more because we only supported Windows based clients. I instantly found my self opening a new business with my friend.
After 5 years working for myself with all that entails, between possibly losing a major client or instead going to work for them full time, I decided to close my business and work for my client full time. I'm still here today 6 years later. -
I hated school because it was boring. Refused to do homework and aced the tests, so I got out of highschool with C's. Went to ITT (what a waste) from 91 to 93 and then got a job as an Alarm installer for a local Alarm Company. I quickly specialized in Access Control systems because I was apparently the only person in the company with a brain that did not freak out when they had to use a computer to set things up. Access control systems grew from single door units to NT server and client based systems. I also grew out of the mom and pop shop to working for ADT.
I left ADT in 2000 to take a helpdesk job @ SBC (now AT&T (again)). The helpdesk job was for their newly spun off DSL division ASI Solutions. It was a regulatory separated company as a condition of the approval of SBC's purchase of Ameritech. I spent less than a year doing helpdesk work before getting offered to join a special project team to handle fallout and system automation. Spent the next 6 years doing that before getting blackballed by office politics and let go (and am now "not rehirable" ) from AT&T (no longer SBC) 2 weeks before my wedding in 2007.
Finally found work 6 months later for a 20k pay cut as the internal IT guy for a company making Easter grass. The IT administrator left the company 6 weeks later and they gave me the responsibility along with a whole $2k raise. I accepted it due to needing things like insurance and having a pregnant wife at the time. Spent 2 years at that company before movingon to the company I am with now.
Now I am a programmer, network administrator, SQL DBA, etc. Name it and I do it. I am not a specialist in anything, instead I know who to ask when I need help (looks at NTG (you are on my short list next time i need to outsource assistance)). -
@JaredBusch said:
The helpdesk job was for their newly spun off DSL division ACI Solutions. It was a regulatory separated company as a condition of the approval of SBC's purchase of Ameritech.
Don't you mean ASI.
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Yes, ASI.
#lazytypist -
Well, Got started in highschool in the late 90's. Me and another fella was responsible for setting up our first computer lab from there I was kinda hooked. spent a couple years in college which just wasn't for me. Got an internship at Stennis Space Center (nasa) with the IT Security group, spent two years there editing technical documentation and building a database containing all of our Wireless communication information. Jumped into a 2 man it department at a mental hospital for 4 years, then a consultant for 2 years, and now a business owner for two years. been a long road, but I love where things are headed!
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I sorta got started with having to fix my first computer, an hand-me-down HP desktop with an AMD K6 CPU, 32MB RAM and a 20GB HDD. Was running Win95, until it broke one day.......
Guess what, Bill was about 14 and about to install his first OS! Win 98 SE Yay.......
I got a school copy (yeah I know, I was bad) of Windows 98 from the schools network admin who must have thought I could do it by myself, he wrote down the instructions on a purple or blue post-it note, handed me a CD and that boot floppy said good luck and to make sure I brought back his CD.
Well I fixed it, managed to load drivers and configure my dial-up connection in a few hours. I found it to be easy so I went and got a book and started doing "IT stuff". Went to vocational school for 2 years for business and networking studies, went to ITT too (I feel your pain Jared) for 2 more years, got a degree and after moving away from home (no jobs in 2005) started working for a Dayton based IT shop. Been living here ever since.
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I started IT when I was 18, I applied for a job As Data Processor. I don't have any idea what kind of job is that, But since data=I define as files or documents. Processor=referring to people who is working on it.
So they send me message for exam. Of course I ask my friend to come with me. Then follow the interview. The President inform us that my they will hire my friend as their Technician but after few days they call me that they want me to hire as their IT Lols. They said( we reviewed your resume etc...) Fine, I don't have any idea so after a brief orientation they showed me 25 units of computer for testing install etc. I am glad I survive... I am still here now in my first job .. off topic When I was young I want to become a Nun
Happy Weekend -
When I was a kid, I saw this not Good looking,Charmless, Muscle less guy Called Bill Gates which happens to be the Most Badass Guy of our generation. That time, I started to like IT
hoping to be someone, someday. -
@Joyfano said:
I started IT when I was 18, I applied for a job As Data Processor. I don't have any idea what kind of job is that, But since data=I define as files or documents. Processor=referring to people who is working on it.
So they send me message for exam. Of course I ask my friend to come with me. Then follow the interview. The President inform us that my they will hire my friend as their Technician but after few days they call me that they want me to hire as their IT Lols. They said( we reviewed your resume etc...) Fine, I don't have any idea so after a brief orientation they showed me 25 units of computer for testing install etc. I am glad I survive... I am still here now in my first job .. off topic When I was young I want to become a Nun
Happy WeekendAnd now you're the Network Queen in our business
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I fell in love with computers in the summer of 1979 when my dad brought home a Commodore Business Machines SuperPET and showed me how it worked. He had worked on computers for years and so did some programming in BASIC to show me how some stuff worked. I was too young to understand what he was doing but I could understand that he was telling it to do things and he made it animate a stick figure. I was entranced.
I am from the era when computers were things talked about on television and not things that you actually have at home. I spent a lot of my early years trying to figure out how to get access to the cool computers of the day like the VIC=20, Apple ][ and TRS-80. In 1984 I managed to start getting regular access to first release Apple Macintosh computers and loved them.
In 1985 my father was able to bring home an IBM PC XT and set it up in the basement for me and taught me to do BASIC programming myself. I loved it and that became my hobby. I had always known that I wanted to program but this is when I actually learned how to do it.
In 1987 my family got our first computer of our own, a Commodore Amiga 1000, a major advancement over the other computers that I had used up until then. I got lots of programming books and did AmigaBASIC for years there and learned C as well and played with a few other languages here and there, but really used AmigaBASIC primarily. The Amiga was the first computer that I ever used that used a Bourne Shell, so I was getting prepped for a life on UNIX without knowing it.
In 1989 my father managed to get me an intern project at Eastman Kodak doing a database front end. So I started, in the 80s, with database based software development.
In 1994 I fell into a FORTRAN and C programming position and a Solaris helpdesk position (two roles at the same place) for what is now Kettering University. Later on they added computer controlled manufacturing tech to my role list. That was a great position because it was more advanced programming in additional languages, the first time that I was a lead or manager position and the first time that I did IT (with the Solaris support) rather than only programming. So I learned a lot in that job.
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I sorta fell into IT. My husbands best friend from highschool was really into them and got me interested. Granted my abilities are not anywhere near any of yours, I am a helpdesk tech only. I still really enjoy working around the technology but I get to boss around IT people all day which is almost as cool as playing with it all, and I get lots of gadgets to play with.
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@Katie I still do not really know. It just sort of happened by association with @scottalanmiller. Every time I get overwhelmed with the IT industry and try to get it he ropes me back in!! That is what good Friends are for.
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@ejmillen said:
@Katie I still do not really know. It just sort of happened by association with @scottalanmiller. Every time I get overwhelmed with the IT industry and try to get it he ropes me back in!! That is what good Friends are for.
There is no escape. You've past the event horizon.
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@scottalanmiller said:
@ejmillen said:
@Katie I still do not really know. It just sort of happened by association with @scottalanmiller. Every time I get overwhelmed with the IT industry and try to get it he ropes me back in!! That is what good Friends are for.
There is no escape. You've past the event horizon.
LMAO
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I did a traineeship (payed internship) in high school. Was working 2 days a week and at school the other 3. Went from hell desk to full sys admin for the firm before moving to my current job, Supreme Network Overlord for an ISP in Australia.
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@Katie
My title was Network Engineer until I put Supreme Network Overlord on my leave form and the boss signed off on it. -
@slazer2au said:
@Katie
My title was Network Engineer until I put Supreme Network Overlord on my leave form and the boss signed off on it.Wow very cool Title
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Writing games on the ZX Spectrum when I was about eleven.
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My story on my entry into I.T. is a bit backwards. I was a naive boy when I moved to the U.S. from Germany (Navy Brat) and got a job working with a Metals Company. We sold Aluminum, Stainless, and other metals to machine shops, military, and contractors. Great stories while there and it was neat to work with some cool customers. Quick aside: received commendation for logistics support for a military base just prior to the 1st Desert Storm. I handled the logistics coordination for the aluminum that went on all the armored vehicles that used rakes for the mines they cleared. Anyway, back to I.T. After working in sales, purchasing, and management, it became clear to me this was an old boy's network and upward mobility was just too far off for me. As a young, headstrong person, I didn't want to wait till I was 50 to make VP, so I had a friend that was part owner of an IT company that wanted to grow, so I moved over there for sales.
I had played with DOS and like technology so I made the jump. My only requirement when I made this move was that I wanted to learn from the ground up. Well, the first week had me building 30 workstations to hook up to NetWare 3.12. For the first two years, I was given all the crap stuff until I started taking on more sales stuff. Eventually took over sales full time and eventually was promoted to VP, but during the whole time I played with stuff in the office and developed a tight relationship with the Engineers. I listened really well and had them teach me a ton of stuff. To be honest, I ended up taking on tech support, sales, project management, and politics. I was a bit fed up with the latter and resigned so I could go back to school.
After 3 months of going to school full-time and gauging my workload, I put out feelers to executives looking for some part-time work. One company called me in so I could help them with their business processes. They were growing like crazy, and about a month later was asked to come work full-time as VP. In addition to running IT, I also handled 3 other departments. Fast forward to today, after a massive layoff there and a 3 year stint of running an IT company part-time with two others, I now work here at the Engineering company.
While I made VP twice before I was 50 (remember the headstrong boy at the metal company), I really now enjoy just working and playing with technology. I've built/replaced tons of servers and PCs, am migrating Exchange at the moment, and just am in love with virtual technologies. I'm in a good place right now.
