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TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#227: Aug 9th 2012 at 12:50:34 PM

The biggest problem is that, all of these inspirational stories seem to be "Shit sucked (years before the financial collapse) but then they turned out. Now I'm unemployed again oh wait I'm not I got another job (because I have prior work experience)."

For those of us in the "zero prior work experience" boat, particularly those of us in that boat despite being in our late twenties, the inspirational stories don't apply.

Though I'm hoping to get an internship or something. An unpaid internship is probably ideal at this point.

Gabrael from My musings Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?
#228: Aug 9th 2012 at 4:46:49 PM

@Jonnyfog, have you actually read/watched "American Psycho"? There's a reason I picked that one.

@Tomu, I haven't had a paying job since 2012. I didn't get paid for the classes I have taught since then, nor my translaton work. In all my life I have only made 8K a year max.

It can only get better from here because the only way for it to be worse means I'm on the streets. Making it better is the only option I will allow in my life. I get your fustration. And as cheesy as it sounds it seriously can always get worse.

My impoverished life in a first world country is still far better than the richest lives in a third world country.

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#229: Aug 9th 2012 at 4:50:18 PM

Gab: If I had ever made 8k in a year, I'd be in about 10 times as good a position as I am now ;P

Though, I do like the "If you're at rock bottom, things can only look up" mentality.

And it's not even about frustration. I'm mostly over frustration. It's just that when I hear a bunch of platitudes and implicit "I did it so can you"s I like to say "Let's keep our models of reality accurate."

edited 9th Aug '12 4:51:22 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

Barkey Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#230: Aug 9th 2012 at 4:58:24 PM

^^

Camels, drugs, and a harem aren't so bad.

Gabrael from My musings Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?
#231: Aug 9th 2012 at 5:01:31 PM

I make about $200 a month now. Sometimes I can score the occasional photography or modelling job. I do sewing work and paintings rarely, but they pay well when I can get them. My financial aid has been cut in half beginning last semester (thank you Congress) and because I am a grad student, it's not like there is a lot available.

I don't mind looking at those who have succeeded and see if there is anything I can gleen from their success. But otherwise I take on the "Regardless of your success or failures, I still have a kid to feed."

EDIT: Barkey I will give you the camel part. I love riding camels. They don't taste that bad either. Besides, any animal that can hold a grudge for years bad enough it will kill you has some level of badass only my polar bears can top.

edited 9th Aug '12 5:06:53 PM by Gabrael

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#232: Aug 9th 2012 at 5:04:15 PM

Part of the issue is that I really have no idea what I'm good at, so it's hard to go forth in terms of finding a job that really conforms to my skill set.

[up] Axolotls regenerate their brain. Check. Mate.

edited 9th Aug '12 5:11:49 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

Bur from Flyover Country (Living Relic) Relationship Status: Having tea with Cthulhu
#233: Aug 10th 2012 at 9:36:27 PM

The only strategy I've had work for me is networking. I got my first accounting job because my Dad got chatting with a friend at a craps table and found that friend's son had need of a dirt cheap accountant. With no experience, no dignity, and stuck in the most soul-sucking, black mold infested, incontinent-coworker strewn rut (which I'd only been able to get into because the CEO had worked for a member of the family fifteen years ago), I fit the bill. [lol] A year later the company gets bought out and I've kind of suddenly found myself with the chance of an actual career if I can keep up with the learning curve.

But lately I found a second job because a friend of a friend owns a pawn shop and he's been having terribad luck with employees stealing from him. Apparently I'm one of the few people they know without a criminal record, so now there I am on Saturdays watching the shop while he goes on errands and emphatically not stealing things. ...and actually giving him business, because, man, $200 32 gig iPad2. And a Wacom Bamboo tablet. ...and a banjo. ...and god I'm paying that place more than I make working there...

Never ever have I been able to get an interview for a job just on the power of a cover letter and resume.

edited 10th Aug '12 9:43:24 PM by Bur

TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#234: Aug 10th 2012 at 10:00:47 PM

Networking is easier when you know people. Right now, I'm still just trying to get an unpaid internship or something ;x

Gabrael from My musings Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?
#235: Aug 10th 2012 at 10:07:25 PM

[up] maybe so, but can you eat them?

Be careful with networking though. One of my friends tried hooking me up with a bartending position at the local gentlemen's club. Instead of just giving the manager my name and credintials, she showed him a few of my facebook picks.

She meant well, but now at least I know I can always be a stripper anytime I wanted.

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#236: Aug 10th 2012 at 10:51:34 PM

-__________________-;

edited 10th Aug '12 10:51:41 PM by TheyCallMeTomu

Belian In honor of my 50lb pup from 42 Since: Jan, 2001
In honor of my 50lb pup
#237: Aug 10th 2012 at 11:17:19 PM

Someone I met works for Life Vantage selling Protandim and talked about getting me hooked up. That is, hooked up as a seller myself, not as someone in their offices or whatever.

Two problems with this idea:

  • I am HORRIBLE when it comes to social networking. I don't see a RL person for a month and I hardly think of them let alone keep in touch.
  • WAY too close to being a Pyramid scheme.

Not wanting to be offensive, I only explained the first part to him. To which he started asking if I had at least shown the website to the rest of my family to see if they were interested (buying it or being a seller).

Nice guy, but NO THANKS.

Yu hav nat sein bod speeling unntil know. (cacke four undersandig tis)the cake is a lie!
Gabrael from My musings Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Is that a kind of food?
#238: Aug 11th 2012 at 12:04:18 AM

Most of those jobs are commission only too. And god knows if they'll pay correctly.

"Psssh. Even if you could catch a miracle on a picture any person would probably delete it to make space for more porn." - Aszur
ohsointocats from The Sand Wastes Since: Oct, 2011 Relationship Status: Showing feelings of an almost human nature
#239: Aug 11th 2012 at 9:08:30 AM

I'm hoping all this work-study I'm doing might help when I get out of school.

Probably not.

TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#240: Aug 11th 2012 at 9:16:52 AM

Work-study is better than school itself! No one cares about your education anymore, they care about real world experience. Work-study is the closest thing to that.

Barkey Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#241: Aug 11th 2012 at 9:34:55 AM

^

I think they just don't care Tomu. I didn't have fuck all for luck and I have lots of experience. It took getting my roomate to put a bug in his managers ear(who is already one of my shooting/smash bros buddies) to get in where I am now.

Relevant. Funny. I'm sure we all want to do this. Ironically, it will probably get her a job.

Don't forget that your parents can be good network tools. It ended up not being worthwhile, but I almost got a job in woodland hills with Healthnet because my mom is a senior case manager there. Gotta find people you know and just flat out go "I need a job. Know anyone who can help?"

But yeah Tomu, I have the opposite form of anger that you do right now. I'm a very smart guy with lots of experience and only an associates, and everyone acts like a bachelors is somehow required for anything. If I got passed over by some fucknut graduate with a degree and no experience, I would be uber pissed off.

edited 11th Aug '12 9:36:10 AM by Barkey

Thorn14 Gunpla is amazing! Since: Aug, 2010
Gunpla is amazing!
#242: Aug 11th 2012 at 9:41:33 AM

Having friends who are also all jobless doesn't help. [lol]

edited 11th Aug '12 9:41:52 AM by Thorn14

TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#243: Aug 11th 2012 at 9:43:12 AM

Hey Barkey, want to kill me and wear my skin? You can fuse our resumes together, so you'll have two bachelors degrees and a load of military experience! All it will require is cold-blooded murder and reconciling how you managed to get two bachelors considering your work history. You know, simple stuff.

Wow, that joke was morbid...

Thorn14 Gunpla is amazing! Since: Aug, 2010
Gunpla is amazing!
#244: Aug 11th 2012 at 9:44:54 AM

I'm starting to notice that many college students are suffering from the "YOU NEED A DEGREE" due to the recent recession, and now I'm reading reports that there aren't enough skilled workers now.

TheyCallMeTomu Since: Jan, 2001 Relationship Status: Anime is my true love
#245: Aug 11th 2012 at 9:45:20 AM

This is the greatest proof of the inefficiency of a market system in the history of mankind.

Barkey Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#246: Aug 11th 2012 at 9:56:58 AM

I wish it was like it used to be, back in the early 2000's. Back then having extensive military experience that was relevant to the civilian job you were applying for was considered commensurate with having a degree sometimes.

That being said, things are working out decent at my new job. Because I got hired for military qualities, I'm stressing them. 15 minutes early or more every day, I keep coffee going and the trash actually gets taken out without the operations guy having to remind someone to do it(who is a former marine) and while I've been furthering my own abilities in handling IT issues by learning, I'm also keeping the tickets flowing to people so that nothing stays unassigned for long, and the workload gets spread evenly and mostly based on the talents of the people in the office.

Say, one guy is good at issues involving Exchange and troubleshooting email bounce backs from Outlook. He is also one of the few people who knows how to make ADP accounts for the car dealership that we manage(I've learned how to do this already as well. So I make the ADP account and kick the ticket his way so all he has to do is make a login and an email account for new hires)

Then another guy is good at troubleshooting ADP, and another guy knows his way around Group Policy better than anyone else. Sometime in the next week or so I'm going to find time to sit down with my supervisor and just have a brass tax conversation about how I'm doing versus his expectations. I'm cranking shit out because I'm currently a temp on a contract that is month-to-month. So for the meantime I have until 1 September, though this company has never had a temp that it hasn't offered a permanent position to eventually. But I might as well hedge my bets as much as possible.

Thorn14 Gunpla is amazing! Since: Aug, 2010
Gunpla is amazing!
#247: Aug 11th 2012 at 9:58:13 AM

So what do they do at your job? Like, what is it about?

Barkey Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#248: Aug 11th 2012 at 10:18:43 AM

Well we have a few departments, but I'm in Managed Services. Clients(other companies) pay us based on what sort of agreement they make with us to manage their IT. In a way you can consider it like health insurance for the IT of a business.

There are T&M clients which are projects, we've came in and done a specific job for them and have them on file. They always have the option to call and get service, but every service call gets billed to them.

Then there is Netmanage, Netmanage Complete, and Netmanage Essentials. All NM contracts involve monitoring and being responsible for keeping their servers up. NM Essentials means we also are responsible for making sure that Outlook/Exchange is operational, as well as backups for all their servers and workstations. Netmanage Complete is like having a sort of full coverage insurance, it means that whatever is fucking up or goes wrong, it's already billed. They pay a flat rate for service that encompasses everything, it's the most expensive contract, but it's a good deal for small businesses because we charge the monthly fee based on an agreement reached with Sales which is based upon how much infrastructure they have(servers and workstations)

Any client who is under any agreement can call our support desk and get solutions. The only difference is that what type of problem it is and what type of contract they have determines if the service is billed as a cost. If you have Essentials and your outlook server goes down and nobody has email access, we immediately get to fixing it and bringing it back up, with no charge. If the same thing happens to a NM client, we still do it, but we charge them.

Our biggest client is a large hospital in Montebello, for instance. They don't have Complete, because if they did we would charge them through the nose, and to have Netmanage Essentials by itself already costs them about 100k a month because they have lots of stuff, and we have 4 techs who are embedded at the hospital who I've never met. They work at the hospital as the on-site IT staff, while we back them up and take the service calls to assign to them. Although they are coming to rely on us more and more heavily, to the point of where NM Complete might not be far off, though it would cost them around 200k a month.

Application Development(appdev) is the department that makes applications for businesses from the ground up, or does modifications to existing programs to tailor them to the business. They also build sharepoints and the like. Tech Services are project guys, they are the ones who go out to a client and build new systems for them, say by putting in cisco conferencing systems or putting in servers and workstations. Audio/Visual works with things like projectors, TV's, integrated monitors in conference rooms, and speaker systems.

I'm in Managed Services at the ground floor. I take phone calls, and if I can't solve the issue on the spot, then I create a ticket describing the issue with all the pertinent information I can get. Normally that ticket goes into a pool of tickets that are not assigned to a specific person, but my job is essentially to also act as a dispatcher of sorts, assigning those blank tickets to people so the shitty ones don't just sit around all day because nobody wants them, which pisses off clients. I also take calls, create tickets, and assign tickets to myself to troubleshoot.

My current focus is on learning small procedural things that happen often so I can smash out a lot of tickets and carry my own weight. Simple things like logging into a server and setting up forward mailboxes or new users in Outlook, and other shit that is very procedural and easy. I basically take one ticket that is just slightly out of my comfort zone each day and I give it to myself, then find time for my roomate or someone else to come over and walk me through doing it so that from then on, I can take care of that type of issue.

I'm doing my best to keep up, but it is difficult sometimes. This company is the #1 IT company in So Cal. Everybody there is smart as fuck, but in my defense, I've grown up around computers since I was too young to remember, and have been troubleshooting problems on them since my dad died when I was 12, leaving me with his computer as my most prized possession and nobody else tech savvy in my life. My crowning achievement is that for about 7 years I dealt with overclocking and troubleshooting a computer with outdated hardware and windows ME. So while I'm not the knowledgeable trained professional that most of these guys are, I'm no slouch either, and I learn quickly.

Oh, and my roomate is NOC. They are one level above managed services. They do the same shit as us more or less, but they are the nuclear option. They are people who are skilled at the network engineer level. When a server goes down, they are the ones who jump on it. They handle the really complex issues. They also handle our issues when they have time, and if we can't take care of something because it's too complex, we escalate it to go to them.

edited 11th Aug '12 10:20:45 AM by Barkey

Thorn14 Gunpla is amazing! Since: Aug, 2010
Gunpla is amazing!
#249: Aug 11th 2012 at 11:21:39 AM

Sounds like a great place to work.

May I ask a favor? Ask them for someone what someone should do if they want to know IT is for them or if they should go into it? You know what I mean right?

Barkey Since: Feb, 2010 Relationship Status: [TOP SECRET]
#250: Aug 11th 2012 at 11:37:03 AM

Dude I wouldn't know, everyone there just went to school doing an information technology program, got some certificates, and started applying for a job. My roomate and I are exceptions, because he did commo in the Air Force and I got in through networking and my organizational background.

Your first step would be trying to get into a community college to get some cisco certs or something.


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