Anyone else work in IT?

[Blackbird96WS6]

Does anyone else happen to work in IT or just have a hobby of working on computers?

I'm sitting here messing with this new ultrabook my aunt bought for my cousin for Christmas and I'm supposed to be setting it up for him before she wraps it up, but this Windows 8 is driving me nuts. Trying to work with it feels like taking my past 5 yrs. of IT experience and chucking it out the window because I feel like I'm re-learning how to use a stupid computer... This is ridiculous. :banghead: The jackass at Microsoft who decided to build a tablet/phone style interface and slap it into a laptop/PC needs to be bitchslapped because trying to do this without a touch screen only compounds the issue. :angryfire:

/rant

[HAND HERPES]

I'm good with computers but can't get a job in IT, go figure.

Anyways, I dual booted Windows 8 just to try it out and it's awful. I uninstalled it the same day. I don't want to re-learn how to use Windows. It's designed more for a touch screen computer.

If I were you, I would put Windows 7 on it.

[McCauleyWB]

I work in IT. Though I have not played with Windows 8, there are ways to disable / change certain parts of the new GUI to get something resembling 7. You can bypass the start screen, disable hot spots and activate the classic style start button. I have only browsed the articles on it, so you'll have to do a search for specifics.

[Blackbird96WS6]

Believe me, I would, but my aunt wants it to have Windows 8 on it, and since she paid for it, I gotta do it her way haha. I guess it's not so bad for the fact I'm getting some good hands-on experience with it since there has been some mention of it at work. I hope to God we never move to it in a work environment though, this would be a nightmare to try to support in a corporate environment. The most frustrating thing so far is having to find a round-about way to get to the Control Panel since my habit is to click to Start button, but that gets me nowhere lol. I really can't see Windows 8 getting much of a warm welcome once more people start buying new computers and being forced to use it.

[McCauleyWB]

http://reviews.cnet.co.uk/software-and-web-apps/how-to-make-windows-8-look-like-windows-7-50009546/

[HAND HERPES]

I work in IT. Though I have not played with Windows 8, there are ways to disable / change certain parts of the new GUI to get something resembling 7. You can bypass the start screen, disable hot spots and activate the classic style start button. I have only browsed the articles on it, so you'll have to do a search for specifics.


Believe me, I would, but my aunt wants it to have Windows 8 on it, and since she paid for it, I gotta do it her way haha. I guess it's not so bad for the fact I'm getting some good hands-on experience with it since there has been some mention of it at work. I hope to God we never move to it in a work environment though, this would be a nightmare to try to support in a corporate environment. The most frustrating thing so far is having to find a round-about way to get to the Control Panel since my habit is to click to Start button, but that gets me nowhere lol. I really can't see Windows 8 getting much of a warm welcome once more people start buying new computers and being forced to use it.

Bouncing off McCauley's idea, here's multiple ways on how to get the start menu back. I avoided this all together because it uses up resources.

http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-33642_7-57496506-292/how-to-get-the-start-menu-back-in-windows-8/

[Blackbird96WS6]

Hmm, I'll keep those bookmarked in case they come back to me after Christmas wanting me to change it. Deep down I'm kind of just hoping they'll hate Windows 8 altogether and ask me to put Windows 7 on it so that I don't have to worry about jacking with it in the future when they call me with questions. :devil:

[Blackbird96WS6]

I'm good with computers but can't get a job in IT, go figure.

Btw, sometimes you just luck out at getting your foot in the door if you want to get to an IT position. I started out just messing with computers at home and learning from friends, then lucked into a start-up company that was doing OEM machine building. From there, I ended up in computer sales at Best Buy for a year (that was god-awful... but the start-up company bankrupted, so didn't have a choice [embezzling is fun guys!]). Then I was desperate enough to get out of Best Buy that I landed at the company I'm at now, but I started out as an Operations Intern and just made it known that I wanted to move over to IT if they had any space. The work they gave me only lasted me a half-day's worth, so I started just helping out the IT guys when I'd finish because they were sorely understaffed. I made such an impact in helping them get caught up, they pulled me out of Ops and put me in IT full time and here I am lol.

My suggestion, if you really want to get into IT, is just to find someone in the business and make a friend. Then have them pull some strings to get you in the door. Not every company requires specific certification of some kind in IT, I'm a perfect example of that. I have no certs yet and I graduated college with a major in German and a minor in Spanish. I just happen to have the experience working on computers, so going hands-on and proving myself to them worked out for me. Just gotta be patient ;)

[HAND HERPES]

Man, I went to VoTech for Programming. I got a certificate for Scientific Programming and multiple Student of the Quarter Awards and a medal for the most outstanding senior in my shop. I got straight A's the three years I was there. Nobody will give you a chance because I dont have a lot of work exp.

[Blackbird96WS6]

Try looking for even an IT intern level position just to get in the door and put the time worked on a resume. Once you have a year or two that you can put on a resume, it gets a lot easier to get hired in more places.

Do you have any expertise with networking at all?

[McCauleyWB]

Blackbird hit it right on the head. Knowing people gives you a huge advantage. The alternative is to saturate the different job sites with your resume and stay vigilant checking for positions. I will still get an offer every once in a while from a resume I uploaded years ago. Any experience that can be remotely associated to IT can lead to something different...something permanent. I had a similar experience.

I did begin getting certifications while in high school, but I was never given an opportunity to use them. Eventually I found a wanted ad for a web developer at a small company near me. This was in print mind you (not online). I had very little experience in the "real world," but I was completely comfortable doing anything with computers. After talking with the owner, I wasn't offered a position right away. Kinda discouraging to be honest. However, they called back a couple months later and gave me a shot. In addition to the web development, I soon took over the IT department and expanded to customer service and marketing. This entailed client acquisition & retention, campaign management of promotional & internet advertising and event based direct marketing including presentations & trade-shows. With this new knowledge, I eventually started my own business doing computer work on the side. Did pretty well for a while, but privately owned companies just wasn't where it is at. For more job security and better pay you really need to find something corporate. Big business FTW! Eventually an opportunity came up to hire on with LinkedIn.com. Now I run their production data center with my buddy. Couldn't be happier.

Nowadays I am able to write code, work in web development, graphic design, hardware / IT and networking. I have experience with marketing, project management, etc. This all came from one work experience to the next. Long story short...keep at it and always strive to learn new trades. Something will come along.

[meissen]

Dude running LinkedIn's data center has to be a freaking blast.

I started out in entry level Desktop Support and when the IT department was rolling out a new implementation of BMC Service Desk Express it was in desperate need of attention... wasn't properly tested, our server for it was underpowered, and it was a mess. I had been running Mifbody for 2 or 3 years at that point so I was very comfortable being an administrator of a web-based application so while I juggled Desktop Support tickets I also worked on all the backend stuff for the Service Desk. Eventually they created a Service Desk Administrator position and I took over full time responsibility for the application while building out new processes into it. I basically "owned" the whole system from the servers (both physical and virtual), OS to the MS SQL server to the application... it was all mine to take care of. BTW - if anyone is looking for a damned powerful Service Desk that's highly customizable (although pricey!) -- BMC Service Desk Express is where it's at :laugh: I was able to create so much automation with the Service Desk it was nuts -- we had HP's printer administration application running which polled all the printers in the company and would trigger e-mail alerts when printers were running low on ink. We had it send the e-mail alerts to the Service Desk which in turn would receive the e-mail and automatically open up desktop support tickets for us to change the toner. Inventory, Change Management, Service Level Agreements, etc all soon added into the Service Desk. I truly miss those days. After a reorganization of the department, they classified me as a System Administrator. From there I got my Server+ cert and was gun ho on learning more about running our data center as we were doing some awesome transformations with our IT department... new top of the line Cisco networking equipment, new EMC VMAXe SANs brought in, etc. But the CIO had a tendency to be a major dick and I felt like I was sorely underpaid for what we were doing. I ended up sending a text message to a guy who used to be our Security Manager but was now working at GM saying "I am jealous of how much holidays and time off you guys get. You suck" to which he replied "Actually we have an opening in my department, send me your resume" I did and as they say "the rest is history" - now I work on the "dark side" (from the IT folks viewpoint) as an IT Auditor at General Motors making $20k more than I was as a System Administrator :woot: It's great finding problems and not being responsible to fix them (or lose my job over it like a few of my auditees have) but I do miss IT operations and being in the data center... that really always had me excited to learn more and come into work each day. I enjoyed the problem solving too. Now I spend most of my time writing documentation reports for my audits... I ask someone to send me proof that they have proper password controls in place, for example, and then I document it in a report. Just putting my time in where I'm at - when you hire into GM's IT audit team they only expect you to be on the team for a couple of years unless you're weird and really like audit, otherwise they want to train you and move you on to other areas of the company so they have their alumni in influential areas. :laugh:

If you're really trying to find a job try getting hooked up with a recruiter. When we had the dickhead CIO at my last job, we lost over half of our IT department because they couldn't stand working for him. Most of them found new jobs through recruiters. Even after I hired in to GM I had recruiters calling me for jobs, took a good 3-4 months before they understood I was happy to be at GM.



As for Windows 8 -- dudes you guys are nuts! Windows 8 is awesome! I installed it on my laptop the first day it went public and haven't regretted it once. Admittedly finding things in the control panel was a challenge, but it's really otherwise pretty easy to use. You just get accustomed to using the Search function. But otherwise, most of the time the average user is going to be in the Desktop mode where it's just like Windows 7 minus a start menu. Especially while using browsers, Word, etc. I do like having some metro/Win8 based apps though -- I hope more banks will join the bandwagon and make windows 8 apps just like they do for iOS and Android.

[Mystery Bird]

I've been in IT for thirteen years. I'm looking for a person to hire right now. Windows 8...yuck, sorry just don't like it. There is a way to switch it back to a traditional desktop view somewhere, I just can't remember how off the top of my head.

[meissen]

You just click the "Desktop" icon on the Metro/Win8 interface and it takes you back to a Windows 7-esque desktop that's just missing the Start Menu. They have apps you can install that adds the Start Menu back.

The Task Manager in Windows 8 is amazing.

[Blackbird96WS6]

Cool stories guys, I need to start looking into a way to keep advancing up the chain. I've been working in a Site Support role for a year and a half now, but I can only see that carrying me so far.

Windows 8 - I was doing about 99% of the setup of this laptop in desktop mode, but I never realized just how much I rely on that Start button to get places haha. After an hour or so, I started messing around a bit in the metro view and I can see *some* functionality out of it, but it still just feels weird to me. I like the separation of PC UI and phone/tablet UI. I want my android to be an android and my PC to act like a PC lol.


The Task Manager in Windows 8 is amazing.
+1 I opened that up and was like :yikes:
Anyone else run into an issue with trying to change the Boot options in msconfig and getting a message that you can't without messing with some other feature to unlock it first?

[meissen]

Hrm I thought I disabled boot up programs through the Task Manger? I remember whatever interface it was that it was spiffy -- told you how much load it puts on the system as it boots up.

[Blackbird96WS6]

I'll have to play with it some more tonight after work.

Have you ever had to use Help Desk Authority? If so, how does it compare in your opinion to the BMC SDE you mentioned? We currently use HDA and it works fairly well for the most part, it's just a bit slow at times. I know I've heard comments from my boss that he'd like to look into upgrading to a better application at some point and figured I'd toss in an idea for him to look at if SDE works well.

[meissen]

I haven't. SDE requires big pockets, but it will encompass a lot of functions. In addition to Problem and Incident management it handles Change Management, Inventory Management, Vendor/Contract Management, Service Level Agreements, -- basically everything ITIL it handles.

[HAND HERPES]

I did work at an IT place for Co-Op my Senior Year but that was only temporary.

Any of you guys get me in if the company is nation wide? :D

[Blackbird96WS6]

The company I'm at is nationwide and they have a couple offices in PA about an hour or so from you. Check https://presidio.silkroad.com/epostings/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.allpositions&company_id=16228&version=1 if you're interested in applying for a job. You can put that I referred you on the application if you want lol.

[Epro]

I'm a web developer who is currently unemployed...

http://www.evanparsons.net

Anyone need some work? :D

[HAND HERPES]

The company I'm at is nationwide and they have a couple offices in PA about an hour or so from you. Check https://presidio.silkroad.com/epostings/index.cfm?fuseaction=app.allpositions&company_id=16228&version=1 if you're interested in applying for a job. You can put that I referred you on the application if you want lol.

What's your name lol

[Blackbird96WS6]

Peter Alpiger

[HAND HERPES]

I'll take a look and fill it out tonight.