geekhack
geekhack Community => Off Topic => Topic started by: mrbishop on Tue, 01 March 2016, 10:51:07
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This will somewhat be a rant... FYI
So i currently work as a Help desk tech for an outsourcing call center company (NDA no names blah blah blah)
HOWEVER
i do the job of a Systems Administrator, Data center Administrator, Remote package deployment admin/pc imaging(IBM BigFix, Altiris, Ghost)... i made a list :thumb:
and yes i know that some of those things are often limped together so lets just say System Admin and keep it consolidated.
as i'm under paid by about 4$ an hour to be a help desk tech much less the SA role i started applying elsewhere. My company tells me they are going to pay me more money and give me a raise yada yada. its all starting to sound "charlie brown's teacher" at this point. not to mention they want me to travel to other sites in other states to help them out with either on boarding new IT employees or launching new clients. I really love IT, especially the server/datacenter/remote deployment aspect which is what i want to specialize in. but i'm suffocating here. totally office spacing this thing right now (not Milton, more Michael ).
applied at a local hospital, 2 interviews later, no call... both interviews went really well we talked for over a hour about stuff.... "we are going in a different direction" thanks for the soft let down guys. So i didnt get the job... sad face... no idea what to do now. i really can't move, nearest town with IT jobs is at least an hour away each way. I have a small business but its not really going anywhere plus i'm so busy at my primary job i dont have time for much. when i get home i'm so tired i want to vege out and sleep. probably a touch depressed. with the Kids and wife and projects, chores, repairs, etc at home i'm swamped.
i've spoke to my boss, ive spoke to other management. not really feeling like i have anyone here that can actually do me any good. I'm to the point where i'll just go dig ditches or something. litterally career change option has started looking better and better. but its not what im passionate about. no idea what to do now. suggestions or ideas would be nice.
rant over
paying for it with cat tax:
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Are you near a military base or any DOD element?
Military is always hiring contractors. I would look into boeing, Lokheed, Northrop, etc.
They are always hiring IT professionals. The biggest thing is that you need to be able to get a TS clearance.
If you have a lot of foreign contacts or do drugs, it will be hard to obtain.
They pay well and the training is the best perk.
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If you have a lot of foreign contacts, it will be hard to obtain.
That's not necessarily true.
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Are you near a military base or any DOD element?
Military is always hiring contractors. I would look into boeing, Lokheed, Northrop, etc.
They are always hiring IT professionals. The biggest thing is that you need to be able to get a TS clearance.
If you have a lot of foreign contacts or do drugs, it will be hard to obtain.
They pay well and the training is the best perk.
yes there is a military base in my county. most of the contractor jobs require the TS clearance from the jump. but i'll start applying for those. the big thing that worries me is the "contractor" part. not sure what all that means exactly. i dont want to have a job one day then the next "we dont have any work for you today, go away"
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I worked as a help desk tech some time back and I felt the same way you did. Nearly exactly. I was desperate to get out of my job and move on to something bigger. I also thought I was quite well qualified given my experience, yet I wasn't getting anything. I kept trying, and I did eventually land another gig...as a help desk technician. And I learned very, very quickly that it was the best move I could have made. I was very good at my job, but that did not translate well into the 'more' I wanted it to be. And I was never going to get 'more' in the place I was at. So, I took a job where I could move up, or on in to something else as the opportunities presented themselves. It was the best decision for me. I no longer work on a help desk, but I had to learn a lot more then I thought I would in order to be good at what I do now.
So, my advice? If you can't find the job you want, look for a place that you want to work that will give you the opportunity to get the job you want. I interview people all the time, and one of the best things is when someone comes in and says "I know I don't know everything, but I want to learn, and I think that is what I can do here". I always advocate for 'junior' people who have the drive to move forward rather then greatly experienced people who think they know everything. Someone took a chance on me once, and I want to do the same.
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If you have a lot of foreign contacts, it will be hard to obtain.
That's not necessarily true.
Said it would be hard to obtain not impossible.
It all depends on what you will be doing and what you will be handling.
TS branches off into a lot of sub categories.
The more complex your past is, the more the investigation will cost.
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Contractor in my experience (I've worked in two positions at at military contractor company) means you're a civilian or employed at a civilian company but your work is on and for military stuff.
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I worked as a help desk tech some time back and I felt the same way you did. Nearly exactly. I was desperate to get out of my job and move on to something bigger. I also thought I was quite well qualified given my experience, yet I wasn't getting anything. I kept trying, and I did eventually land another gig...as a help desk technician. And I learned very, very quickly that it was the best move I could have made. I was very good at my job, but that did not translate well into the 'more' I wanted it to be. And I was never going to get 'more' in the place I was at. So, I took a job where I could move up, or on in to something else as the opportunities presented themselves. It was the best decision for me. I no longer work on a help desk, but I had to learn a lot more then I thought I would in order to be good at what I do now.
So, my advice? If you can't find the job you want, look for a place that you want to work that will give you the opportunity to get the job you want. I interview people all the time, and one of the best things is when someone comes in and says "I know I don't know everything, but I want to learn, and I think that is what I can do here". I always advocate for 'junior' people who have the drive to move forward rather then greatly experienced people who think they know everything. Someone took a chance on me once, and I want to do the same.
:thumb:
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If you have a lot of foreign contacts, it will be hard to obtain.
That's not necessarily true.
Do you have one (you don't have to say if you are uncomfortable with it)? I was going to take a job that required TS Clearance and in the end I decided against it. That process is crazy invasive. And one of the things they look for is foreign contacts. Not that it automatically excludes you, but if you have family or friends living in certain parts of the world the government won't make it easy on you. And the trouble is you have to be sponsored for these clearances (you probably know that). So if you don't get cleared, you lose the job. That is a lot of risk. :(
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I'd rather not say either way inanis.
@mrbishop I will say that military work is very interesting and it pays well. But I've seen it where the government decides they don't want the widget you're working on and then it gets really awkward because your company can't exactly sell it elsewhere so your jobs get into a weird spot. But I'm more on the manufacturing/engineering side of things. I'm fairly sure IT and computer work is much more stable.
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Contractor in my experience (I've worked in two positions at at military contractor company) means you're a civilian or employed at a civilian company but your work is on and for military stuff.
Civilian and contractor are different.
One is a GS scale and works directly for the government. The other is outsourced through a contracted company.
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I'd rather not say either way inanis.
Yeah, I feel ya.
It was eye opening for me though, the process that is. I deal with some heavy stuff at work on occasion, but I am thankful that having to disclose my sex life isn't a requirement to work here. I think I'm far to private a person for Government Clearance. :))
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my grandfather had eyes only, TS, and my brother n law has at least that, i was also part of a friends TS background investigation. i dont really have anything to hide so its not overly an issue. just hope they pay for the back ground test pass or fail LOL :))
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Contractor in my experience (I've worked in two positions at at military contractor company) means you're a civilian or employed at a civilian company but your work is on and for military stuff.
Civilian and contractor are different.
One is a GS scale and works directly for the government. The other is outsourced through a contracted company.
TIL. It's so confusing @.@
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I'd rather not say either way inanis.
Yeah, I feel ya.
It was eye opening for me though, the process that is. I deal with some heavy stuff at work on occasion, but I am thankful that having to disclose my sex life isn't a requirement to work here. I think I'm far to private a person for Government Clearance. :))
this one time at TS clearance investigation camp i stuck a ......
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I'd rather not say either way inanis.
Yeah, I feel ya.
It was eye opening for me though, the process that is. I deal with some heavy stuff at work on occasion, but I am thankful that having to disclose my sex life isn't a requirement to work here. I think I'm far to private a person for Government Clearance. :))
this one time at TS clearance investigation camp i stuck a ......
:))
While I don't have any skeletons in my closet I worry about the government finding, I'm not sure I feel they have the right to know that anyway. So I just decided to walk away from that opportunity. It was an otherwise absolutely perfect job. Sometimes, when I'm having a bad day here in the office, I wonder if I made the right decision. But I learned some time ago to trust the instincts. They are usually not wrong.
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I'd rather not say either way inanis.
Yeah, I feel ya.
It was eye opening for me though, the process that is. I deal with some heavy stuff at work on occasion, but I am thankful that having to disclose my sex life isn't a requirement to work here. I think I'm far to private a person for Government Clearance. :))
this one time at TS clearance investigation camp i stuck a ......
:))
While I don't have any skeletons in my closet I worry about the government finding, I'm not sure I feel they have the right to know that anyway. So I just decided to walk away from that opportunity. It was an otherwise absolutely perfect job. Sometimes, when I'm having a bad day here in the office, I wonder if I made the right decision. But I learned some time ago to trust the instincts. They are usually not wrong.
yeah i hear ya. i have some reservations on what should and should not be looked into from a persons past government or otherwise. just not a ton of IT jobs in my area so it makes the entire thing more irritating.
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I'd rather not say either way inanis.
Yeah, I feel ya.
It was eye opening for me though, the process that is. I deal with some heavy stuff at work on occasion, but I am thankful that having to disclose my sex life isn't a requirement to work here. I think I'm far to private a person for Government Clearance. :))
this one time at TS clearance investigation camp i stuck a ......
:))
While I don't have any skeletons in my closet I worry about the government finding, I'm not sure I feel they have the right to know that anyway. So I just decided to walk away from that opportunity. It was an otherwise absolutely perfect job. Sometimes, when I'm having a bad day here in the office, I wonder if I made the right decision. But I learned some time ago to trust the instincts. They are usually not wrong.
yeah i hear ya. i have some reservations on what should and should not be looked into from a persons past government or otherwise. just not a ton of IT jobs in my area so it makes the entire thing more irritating.
They already know everything..
When no one came after you after the NSA turned on their 100 billion dollar spy machine, You're good to go..
The Clearance is just a formality, like, oh, well we already know everything about you, just gotta click open on the NSA document computer with your name on it.
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move to sunny california and work somewhere around me
then we can meet up at chick fil a and type on each other's sweet boards
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Contractor in my experience (I've worked in two positions at at military contractor company) means you're a civilian or employed at a civilian company but your work is on and for military stuff.
Civilian and contractor are different.
One is a GS scale and works directly for the government. The other is outsourced through a contracted company.
GS is such a nice gig sometimes. I was kind of jealous the guys that never had to pull duty or stay late. :mad:
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nearest town with IT jobs is at least an hour away each way
This is your problem. You apparently live in BFE. You can try for remote but that's usually the software side. Other than that its if you want work move to where work is. You are in IT so getting multiple offers should be easy.
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With my current job the background check took 6 months, they wanted to know where I lived, who I lived with, and jobs from 16 years old. That said, it has been the best job I've had. ^-^