The Official IT Thread

[King Erauno]

yo what ive learned is that recruiters are mostly full of shit. they're just about submissions and getting that commission. most of them aren't technical at all and they'll submit you and 100 other people for the same position..and forget about all of you.

i had a situation where i talked to this recruiter almost everyday for 2 weeks...got a job interview and never heard back from the recruiter or the hiring company. safe to say that i didn't get the job but...it would have been nice to hear back at least no they went with someone else

its better to apply directly to these companies but how things are nowadays in IT, its better for a company to send someone out to search to fill a position than to wait for people to go to their website and apply.

and dont get me started on all the indian niggas callin me about the same job every day.

 

[traestar]

yo what ive learned is that recruiters are mostly full of shit. they're just about submissions and getting that commission. most of them aren't technical at all and they'll submit you and 100 other people for the same position..and forget about all of you.

i had a situation where i talked to this recruiter almost everyday for 2 weeks...got a job interview and never heard back from the recruiter or the hiring company. safe to say that i didn't get the job but...it would have been nice to hear back at least no they went with someone else

its better to apply directly to these companies but how things are nowadays in IT, its better for a company to send someone out to search to fill a position than to wait for people to go to their website and apply.

and dont get me started on all the indian niggas callin me about the same job every day.

OMG, lemme tell you! Now I respect and understand the grind and hustle of my fellow asiatics and appreciate them reaching out to me when my resume goes through the ATS, but these guys NEED to understand the American culture in terms of respect and availability to positions looking to fill. I give 50% of my job search story to them because even tho I've spoken to some polite people on the phone, most of them I spoke to didn't even understand that I could be at work looking for a better job and I don't want people hearing our conversation or reading technical interview questions from the internet is not a good way at all to screen a candidate. It's terrible and thats one of the main reasons why I want to talk to the manager directly and then if they approve of me, they'll talk to the recruiter firms and put me in.

I'm up around the Philadelphia area and I talk to a dual recruitment firm of which I'll keep private for right now. Every last one of them who work there have seen me at many of their sponsored networking events and know what I look like. In what would be a shoe-in to work with these guys and land a position, they still haven't done anything for me. "There's no positions out there that meet your description"....really? So I can't learn a position off the streets in my first 3 months and be a good fit? I have to match the position perfectly? ...ok smh. Just like the chapter in the career book I've read, Recruiters are not in the business to help you.

Finally, that same thing that happened to you is the reason why after a week or two, I've sent emails to those recruiters only to find out "we've decided to go a different direction" or "we've just hired someone in our department" ...one thing that I do know is that the hiring process is a game. Everybody is screaming Unemployment rates are high, you'd think these companies find a better way of bringing people aboard because of this but unless you can't read minds, you have to bring your best sales pitch for someone to invest in you.

 

[King Erauno]

the hell yall been up to?

 

[diminished_chords]

I've been in IT for quite some time, I work as a Systems Engineer and Web Developer as a nice little boost for the nest egg. It was a tremendous amount of work and studying to finish my Comp. Undergrad degree, but it was worth it. I've worked in corporate, medical, legal, and academic IT, doing contract work which gave me a tremendous amount of experience that could never be replicated in a classroom environment. A nice example is your developers don't test the latest patch for their Citrix Environment and deploy it without warning in spite of your research showing the failures of attempted patch, "Whoops, 3000 users just lost connection to their medical billing app"....

I always wanted to do IT work since I was a kid, so I was willing to stay up till the break of dawn learning Linux, UNIX, C++, scripting, routing, etc. to live comfortably by 30 and I've achieved that. My job that I have now offers 100% tuition reimbursement, so I can go back and get the MBA or any follow-up training and then maybe start my own thing or consultancy.

I learned early on that recruiters don't do anything for you and rope you in to get your contacts and boost their database, but the job is fictional, so never rely on them as an option. Apply directly to the corporation/company rather than try to use a staffing agency.

A BA/BS will look nice on the resume, but experience really helps with getting your first IT gig.

Some good places to apply:

Colleges/Universities

Schools

Hospitals

 

[traestar]

I've been in IT for quite some time, I work as a Systems Engineer and Web Developer as a nice little boost for the nest egg. It was a tremendous amount of work and studying to finish my Comp. Undergrad degree, but it was worth it. I've worked in corporate, medical, legal, and academic IT, doing contract work which gave me a tremendous amount of experience that could never be replicated in a classroom environment. A nice example is your developers don't test the latest patch for their Citrix Environment and deploy it without warning in spite of your research showing the failures of attempted patch, "Whoops, 3000 users just lost connection to their medical billing app"....

I always wanted to do IT work since I was a kid, so I was willing to stay up till the break of dawn learning Linux, UNIX, C++, scripting, routing, etc. to live comfortably by 30 and I've achieved that. My job that I have now offers 100% tuition reimbursement, so I can go back and get the MBA or any follow-up training and then maybe start my own thing or consultancy.

I learned early on that recruiters don't do anything for you and rope you in to get your contacts and boost their database, but the job is fictional, so never rely on them as an option. Apply directly to the corporation/company rather than try to use a staffing agency.

A BA/BS will look nice on the resume, but experience really helps with getting your first IT gig.

Some good places to apply:

Colleges/Universities

Schools

Hospitals

YES sir, everything you said!!! Absolutely!

I've talked about it in the previous posts about the recruiters and you are right on the money. Recruiters do string you in for a position that no matter how hard you try, "we have found a better candidate" or "we have decided to go another direction". When I first graduated college 3 years ago, the first place I've went to was a staffing agency. I was applying for all types of jobs and did manage to strike an interview with the recruiter. However since then, NOTHING came back. The even funnier story is that that same recruiter a year later after I land my job, he JUST got fired from the staffing agency and started to work at my contract organization.

I've talked to alot of my network connects and they say the best places to apply are the colleges and hospitals. I've applied directly to some companies, but I haven't really received feedback like I want to, but I will continue to do that.

But yes everything you said is on the money!!

 

[traestar]

Well I'm talking to a recruiter about a Application Support Engineer position at Comcast. He said he works directly with Comcast. Waiting to hear back from him. Also waiting on the other Comcast position to get back with me. And looking to apply to Facebook.

The past few months, I've been trying to work out a portfolio website to which I could display to employers and customers alike. At my earliest brainstorming stages of the progress.

 

[diminished_chords]

Well I'm talking to a recruiter about a Application Support Engineer position at Comcast. He said he works directly with Comcast. Waiting to hear back from him. Also waiting on the other Comcast position to get back with me. And looking to apply to Facebook.

The past few months, I've been trying to work out a portfolio website to which I could display to employers and customers alike. At my earliest brainstorming stages of the progress.

Glad to see you are getting responses and feedback with this whole process as it can be really frustrating, especially with recruiters. The only recruiters who seem worth their salt are Comcast's which I've had a very nice pleasure of interviewing with in the past. Just keep applying until you get what you want at this stage in the game. If it wasn't nuclear disaster that was the economy in 2008, I would've been on the Comcast team, but they rescinded the offer, oh well.

As for web programming and website administration, you can easily cook something up with wordpress or any other CMS to make a presentable project. Add some social media links, e-commerce buttons, and a great landing page, and that should impress potential employers. If there isn't enough time to properly build the site's traffic, you can easily buy some social media traffic and subscribers. You can also use this to bulk up your resume:

Job 1 - Lead Developer @ xxxx - 2014

Job 2 -Developer @ xxxx - 2013

Job 3 - Web Admin @ xxxx - current

So even if you aren't at job 1 or 2, that web admin position will keep you current and attractive in their eyes.

The field is somewhat rebounding as many of the Boomers are close to retirement, so a lot of shops are opening up spots...The days of turning off a computer and getting 50Gs a year to do it was in 1993 lol.....

The huge transition is medical IT as there are billions of dollars going over into EMR (Electronic Medical Records) Systems, so that means support, training, upgrading, maintenance, updating, and migration....Add to the fact that the lifespan and medical needs of Americans is an incalculable levels, you can work your way into that field of IT and do very well.

Ultimately, whatever people do in IT, the studying will never, ever, ever, stop. It is a Medusa, the field advances all the time in comparison to other disciplines. You never will hear a Physicist say, "Oh well, the string/pulley method doesn't work this week, it is so outdated, let me just use The Force to get the job done." That is the world of IT....

 

[traestar]

Thanks for the advice @diminished_chords

And as you mention about hospitals, I have a phone interview with CHOP as well as waiting for an interview schedule from Comcast.

So right now I'm on the move, no offer has been made yet but there is progress at least. My backup plan is a job fair/ networking event called Net/Work up in Philly that'll be in Feb.

 

[traestar]

Information Analyst CHOP, through contractor

6 month contract, possible extension

 

[black caesar]

Is there anyone in here besides me that's trying to get a cert in Project management?

 

[traestar]

Is there anyone in here besides me that's trying to get a cert in Project management?

which state are you from black caesar?

 

[major pain]

Got my PMP mid 2013.

 

[Ounceman]

I want to get into cloud computing after I finish obtaining my ccna. As many say thats a valuable skill set to have nowadays. I'm trying to familiarize myself with the service models like IaaS and SaaS. And also cloud platforms like AWS, Azure, and Rackspace. Anybody have any further knowledge or experience in this area? What are some good certs to go after in this field?

 

[major pain]

You should focus on server infrastructure/virtualization first. That will provide a basis of knowledge.

 

[Ounceman]

You should focus on server infrastructure/virtualization first. That will provide a basis of knowledge.

Ahh I see. I remember reading in itworld about cloud computing that the VCP cert was very essential to the foundation of it. which is basically for VMware certified professional. I mean I do know a little about virtualization already, I as i have the 70-659 hyper-v cert under my belt. which I guess is a progressive step forward into the world of virtualization. but after reading that and hearing what your telling me, I may also try to acquire the VCP one to make myself more marketable in that regard. I will also read up more on server infrastructure as well. thanks for your input

 

[major pain]

I have VCP, you should read up on the requirements for the cert. It's not a simple test > certified. It is also the most expensive cert I've ever obtained from study materials to class to test.

 

[black caesar]

Is there anyone in here besides me that's trying to get a cert in Project management?

which state are you from black caesar?

@traestar I'm in VA I have a bachelors so that means I have to get 4500 hours of leading a project management team. I don't know how to go about this and I only have coach experience..

 

[major pain]

Is there anyone in here besides me that's trying to get a cert in Project management?

which state are you from black caesar?

@traestar I'm in VA I have a bachelors so that means I have to get 4500 hours of leading a project management team. I don't know how to go about this and I only have coach experience..

For PMP?

It does not have to be "leading" a project. Just participating in any of the phases, in any way.

 

[MrSoutCity]

@major pain @black caesar @King Erauno I am trying to get my own training lab. What equipment do you guys recommend.

I was checking this out on ebay. But its for the outdated exam
http://www.ebay.com/itm/18125567619...kparms=gh1g=I181255676199.N31.S2.M-255.R2.TR2

This sites suggest getting a 1841 or 2801 router for the new exam...
http://www.certificationkits.com/cisco-lab-suggestions/

 

[King Erauno]

what exam are you studying for? if its the CCNA you can get away with using a program called packet tracer or GNS3. gns3 is more realistic because you actually use real IOS images to work with, but it takes a little more to set up than packet tracer.

CCNP/CCIE id recommend using rental lab time from many different providers unless you got the bread to get every device/IOS that is on the blueprint for the exam. if so then id just bite the bullet and buy exactly what cisco will test you on

that second link says real routers/switches are required for the exam. I haven't taken it in years but there are 3 simulator questions that you have to answer (at least 1 correctly, i believe) or else you will fail the exam...even if you answer all your other questions correct. you don't need to buy equipment to pass the CCNA though. they're just trying to push the sales