CareerAdvice
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This thread is for discussing tech careers, asking for job/career advice, and giving tips/advice. If you want include
>Age
>Country
>Job Title/yrs worked
>Wage
>Experience/School/Certs
>>54809820
>Age
23
>Country
'Murikka
>Job Title/yrs worked
Network Tech support at local ISP. Been there 8 months
>Wage
12$/hr pretty low but the job is aight
>Experience/School/Certs
Hadn't had any real tech experience, I've just worked in customer service or grocery positions before. No school beyond high school and no certs yet, been studying for the CCNA to advance my position at work.
>27
>USA
>Clinical IT Coordinator
>$34/hour
>2 high school programming classes, 2 years of nursing school, RN license, 3 years as a Med Surg RN, many years playing vidya, building computers, and lurking /g/
>>54809938
Dang son, was your only experience those 2 programming classes? If so I get paid 1/3rd as much, have a couple years IT experience and went to school with.
Is healthcare IT really worth it?
>>54809820
>Age
27
>Country
Cheesebugerland
>Title/Years
System Administrator (been doing this for a year, got ~3 years experience otherwise)
>Wage
Hourly with shift differential that comes out to between 66-67k/yr
>Experience/School/Certs
Tons of personal experience, 3 years professional, Associates in Database Management, Took CCNA courses but not certified (killed the courses, straight As)
>>54810021
>Is healthcare IT really worth it?
Not him but money it is if you can negotiate. It's worrisome to see someone with that low of exp as an IT coordinator though. Security is a HUGE problem in medical.
>>54809820
>Age
28
>Country
Australia
>Job Title/yrs worked
Communications Technician at large telecommunications company.
>Wage
$81k p.a (not taking into account weekend call outs/overtime, probably add another $10k-$20k depending on how hard I need/want to work)
>Experience/School/Certs
Experience - 8.5 years communications work in the Royal Australian Navy.
Certs - Cert IV in Electro-Communications and Cert IV in Electro-technology (qualified electrician)
I could probably earn a lot more working for myself wiring up new houses, but fuck, this is the most easiest, relaxed gig I have ever worked. Great work, and it's doing what I love doing; getting into circuitry, problem solving and repairing, although most problems are the usual 'turn-the-system/equipment/program-off-and-turn-it-back-on-again' type.
>>54810175
>Australia
>large telecommunications company
You mean Telstra? The only game in the Australian biz lol
>>54810089
>low of exp as an IT coordinator though
That's kinda what I was thinking. I mean, It took me years to be trusted with stuff. I had to prove it.
>Security is a HUGE problem in medical
Yeah, I have a friend who told me about some of the shit he dealt with as a health IT contractor. Won't go into specifics but huge security gaps before they moved in.
>Age
25
>Country
America
>Job Title/yrs worked
Hadoop Administrator - 1.5 yrs
>Wage
22$/hr
>Experience/School/Certs
Nothing but personal experience and retail before this job. Was hired on a stipend at next to nothing for my first 3 months.
>>54809820
>25
>USA midwest
>Help Desk I/1.5
>19/hr
>previous help desk job, internship during college, plus a computer lab job during college/b.s. IT/none
Basically I'm kind of nervous about wanting to tell my manager I want to apply internally for other (better non help desk) IT jobs. One I found opened up closer to me and does mostly tier 2 stuff, imaging PC's, etc. Seems pretty comfy, no talking to people on the phone shit, and it pays better to boot.
I've only been in my current role for like 10 months though, almost a year basically. I don't want my manager to think I just want to leave, but I do. Then afterwards see me very differently. Then during my year performance review take what I asked into account. FUCK I JUST WANT OUT OF HELP DESK.
>>54810902
Usually HelpDesk is the highest turnover position in IT. See where you can go.
>>54810175
>22
>AUS
>telecom eng student
how to get job in telecommunications industry. I didnt do vac work and now im getting fucked for it. Instantly rejected right before interview stage.
got to the final interview stage for a non eng company and they said my interview skills were fine they just had slightly better candidates. Only hired like 1/20 people that got to the final stage.
Also have good marks like first class honours level.
>>54809820
>24
>México
>Web Development/translator/customers service
>6 years in mexican university studying IT related shit, get kicked out and planning into going back
I just want to get my fucking degree. I would like to work as social media community manager, blog administrator or whatever thing that I can do remotely so I can travel and move constantly from country to country without having to worry too much about money, any advice on this?
>>54811199
cool story, see ya in 3 days bud
>>54811296
What you mean senpai?
>>54811189
Unfortunately man, I can't give you a solid answer. I left the Navy because I hated what it was turning into, spent a year at TAFE while doing another apprenticeship to get my quals for my electrical license (because that's where the money is), and pretty much walked into a techo job at Telstra just on the back of my my Electro-Comms trade and naval experience. They apparently love hiring ex ADF members. I don't know why, generally we're the most laziest techo's out there.
After I got my license I originaaly applied at Ergon Energy during one of their recruitment cycles. Same deal as you, everything went super positive, the interviewers were extremely pleased, and after weeks of waiting and a few phone calls back and forth, I didn't receive an offer. Shit happens, but there's always something else over the horizon. The only thing that makes you really stick out in this industry I've discovered is getting that bit of paper that says you are qualified to do something, or that says you have been taught something. If you can spend the money on those useless courses, some awesome job will find you sooner rather then later. It's a great industry to get into, it's only going to get bigger and bigger as our reliance on technology further grows.
>>54809820
21
USA
Network Technician
32/ hour
0 experience, 1 year community college, CCNA
>>54810021
It will be worth it for me. I mostly work at designing front end of the EMR charting system my hospital's doctors and nurses use. It takes a very rudimentary understanding of programming to do, but you need more clinical experience to do it well. Mostly to understand clinical workflow and needs. My projected salary after a few years of experience and the right position at a consulting firm could net me upwards of $120/hr according to my hospital's CIO.
>26
>Brazil
>worked for a year as an undergraduate research assistant in my university
>I-- I am unemployed student, living in mom's proverbial basement as I try to make progress in my CS degree
>said research assistance job was in a robotics lab, I did C++ coding for the graduate researchers and fiddled around with ROS, me and a colleague implemented a little program that made a toy drone follow a ball; I also taught basic Japanese for teenagers for less than a year; I'm just a computer science student at a local federal university who's been struggling to keep up with his classes
My problem is most programming job postings here that don't require a finished CS or IT-related degree are Web positions of some sort, and, though I do grasp the basics of how to make a website, I'm no specialist in anything about it and don't really care about Web at all.
>>54809820
> Age
35
> Country
Land of the thief, home of the slave.
> Job title/years worked
Service Ops 2, 27 months
> Wage
About $180K/year + benefits
> Experience/School/Certs
20 years of IT
2x college dropout
HP APS, Server+, A+ - back when the SCSI stuff was relevant, MCITP.
The contract ends at the 36 month mark. It was a good gig, but I'm tired of IT. Thinking about taking a crew position in the oil fields in North Dakota. Everything is already paid off, so no worries there.
25
Canada
Worked retail for 6 years before going to Uni
N/A currently
2 year CIS Diploma/Self-taught webdev shit
I basically wasted a bunch of time in retail, then got a 2 year CIS diploma, then spent the last year unemployed teaching myself web dev skills. Is there any chance in hell a company in US would hire a Canadian and sponsor a Canadian to move to the US? Ideally I'd like to get a job in devops/web dev, don't really care if the salary isn't great as long as it's livable for the area. Or do US companies only hire locals and/or Indians?
>>54811708
U R fucked bra.
Same shit here, minus years in wasted retail. We have neither the business or the scale of the US. Apply to californian companies and do hackerrank for Yahoo.
>>54812040
Yea I was kinda hoping for Texas or even some flyover state with a decent tech job scene, where the cost of living is low. I could move to Vancouver or Toronto and find a basic web dev job pretty easily but the cost of living is crazy in those cities and the Canadian dollar is going to shit on top of that.
I just don't know even know how to go about finding companies that want to hire someone from across the border, like what's in it for them, to go through the trouble of sponsoring me for a visa? So I haven't bothered trying.
>Age
22
>Country
USA™
>Job Title/yrs worked
Financial Risk Analyst (aka a data scientist), new hire
>Wage
$67k base
>Experience/School/Certs
Public Big 10 university (business school); couple of internships along the way in financial analytics
>>54811708
>CIS diploma
lol.
>Age: 18
>Country: USA
>Job Title/yrs worked: Computer technician, a little over one year
>Wage: 7.45 an hour before commission which is neglible right now because business is slow with fixing things
>Experience/School/Certs: None, actually. I have been studying for A+ which covers a vast amount of what I have to do on a daily basis. There are a lot of entry level tech jobs that require just an interest in technology.
>>54812276
I just wanted to do the fastest/cheapest thing that allows me to put the name of a Uni on my resume to get past initial HR filters. I'm not trying to get into a 300k starting infosec position.
>>54809820
>>Age
25
>>Country
Staya
>>Job Title/yrs worked
Business analyst - 2 years
>>Wage
$60k
Grad wage, likely to bump up to $80K when I finish the program
>>Experience/School/Certs
High school (yr. 12)
Finishing my bachelors of IS this year
>>54811425
thanks m9
>>54809820
>29
>Germany
>Developer/~4yrs
>~21€/hr
>below mediocre CS Bachelor degree
Job is fairly comfy, but it feels like a dead end. Looking to apply somewhere else in the future. Maybe outside of Germany.
Doing some development in my free time to gain some experience.
My question: what technologies/languages/etc can I focus on in my free time, to be employable in a lot of companies? Are there some things I can learn, that are used almost anywhere and thus would make me more useful? I feel like most things I learn at my current job are so specific, that they won't help me at all, when I'm applying for a new job.
>>54814562
>below average
what did he mean by this?
>>54814605
My grades were slightly below the grades that other students at the university I went to achieved on average.
>>54814741
You know they don't care about your grades anymore right?
No one asks your GPA for a job. People don't ask what you scored on your cert exams. If you feel that you should've tried harder then do so now.
18
US
Grocery Bagger
$9
CompTIA A+ and the MTA (for what it's worth) from school, extensive CTE computer courses
gonna be going to a local CC for an associate's in "computer networking"
I just want an okay paying job. I don't need to make $100k, $60k will do.
The problem is I live in Florida where the industry is well nigh dead, and the places where it's thriving are all incredibly expensive
I also don't think anyone will hire an 18 year old with an A+ and some (admittedly extensive) linux knowledge, or eventually a 20 year old with that stuff and an associate's degree
>>54809820
> Age
24
> Country
USA, yo
> Job Title/yrs worked
'Site Reliability Engineer' whatever that means/2
> Wage
$140k/yr
> Experience/School/Certs
Bachelor's degree in computer engineering
>Age
24
>Country
USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!
>Job Title/yrs worked
Software Developer at General Motors / Not even a single second yet (I start June 13th)
>Wage
$58,008 with a pay raise twice a year for the first 3 years (not sure how much to expect each raise but I thiiiink 3 years in it should be like ~$75,000?)
Also if it counts they have a profit sharing program that comes out to roughly $5000 give or take each year it seems + benefits and car discounts for myself, family, and friends, and $3000 too a new GM car each year
>Experience/School/Certs
Pretty much all school and hobby project related experience. Besides the usual CS stuff I took extra classes and had an interest in Algorithm Design, Information Retreival, and AI.
BS in Computer Science from ASU (ASJew more like)
No Certs.
I dont think anyone with as little experience as me can give real career advice, but to any graduates: If and when GM is hiring entry level positions they seem to be a pretty simple company to land a job with. And by that I mean other companies I talked too wanted to fly me to another state for a day or two for interviews, had 4 - 5 back to back interviews, basically had you take a timed test, or asked questions about stuff you couldn't possibly know so they can make you defend your wrong answer. Im not saying I think most companies do those things or that all those things are "bad" but I must have gotten unlucky and got a bunch of those, and personally I don't care too much for the stress. GM was a pain in the ass because I got unlucky and scheduling only got me my second interview in March (originally scheduled Oct 15th 2015 WTF srsly) but besides that, it was just two interviews 1st was 30min and mostly behavioral making sure you arnt a scum bag and fit the culture, 2nd was 1hr asking longer behavioral questions and a few technical questions.
If anyone has any kind of advise for a new CS grad, GM employee, or Software Dev send it my way please. :D
>>54814847
Just thought about that raise thing
>: ( fucking better come out to be higher than $75,000 in 3 years
>>54814842
Oh, and for experience I guess mainly a couple of internships while I was in school. I also maintained/still maintain a handful of Debian packages.
>>54814769
see
>>54814562
Yes, I know that experience counts more than my GPA. This is why I asked about what I can do in my free time to make myself more valuable. Don't care about my degree, just wanted to mention it.
>>54810902
In my opinion, wanting a better job in the same company isnt a negative quality. To apply for something better and to do better work takes ambition. You should do it. If you dont push yourself forward, who's gonna do it?
>>54814965
program lots, that's really it.
>>54814965
We'll I hear Azure is/will be the next big thing in cloud technology. You could use channel 9 to learn it, start at 500 lvl courses to get the important stuff and work your way down
if you are into Machine learning, check out R
>>54809820
> 24
> UK
> Jr Software Engineer
> 25K + a lot of benefits
> BEng + 1.5 yrs in industry
My experience of the software industry so far is that there are very few people that can genuinely program, even fewer people that can start, manage, complete and maintain a project and even fewer people that have original ideas.
I may go for some certs in time but these seem to be very academically focussed and don't transfer well to industry - anybody can rote learn and answer multi-choice questions. I work with a guy that can solve any equation you give him but he has no imagination or creativity.
I've been lauded at my company for solving a few big problems with out of-the-box methods. I want to be the best at being creative - which means that I have a long and lonely time ahead of me with personal projects.
>>54815175
Don't pursue certs if you're a programmer, people will think you're retarded. Instead, just continue to build your portfolio, commit on github, program, program, program.
However if you're IT then that's different.
>>54815206
That's what I'm doing.
The most important thing I've found for a programmer is deliverables - completed projects in industry.
Anybody can learn a new language or framework online, but deliverables are the ultimate mark of pedigree. In a job interview if you can explain your last role using the phrase "In my last role I had the position <x> within project <y>, which delivered a product <z> overcoming technical difficulties <a,b,c>. The sociological issues my team and project overcame were <Major concepts>" - you come across as an actual programmer.
> In my last role I had the position test engineer within project 'server infrastructure diagnostic library', which delivered a product that could analyse problems with aws overcoming difficulties of security, api design and performance. The sociological issues my team and project overcame were maintaining agile with many stakeholders and a large legacy codebase, architecting a software library for use by multiple teams across multiple products and maintaining a dialogue with many open source component developers."
vs
> "I can write fizzbuzz in 9001 languages and I have a $4000 cert where I had to explain fizzbuzz on paper"
>>54811586
Salutations lad.
I hope that an B.S. along with Net+ and CCNA will get me in the salary range.
>>54815175
UKfag here
where you located?
>>54816618
Newcastle.
>>54811650
>Thinking about taking a crew position in the oil fields in North Dakota.
Good luck, the low oil prices got alot of people laid off in CO.
>>54812099
Iowa and Texas are your best bet. Pretty much anywhere else that has a booming tech scene is going to be expensive to live in.
22
Russia
Mechanical engineering
500$/month
Majors in mechanical engineering
>>54819769
>$500/month
This is why Steam is cheaper in Mother Russia
>>54819801
Yeah, other SNG countries have even less money and aren't even big enough for steam to care about them
>>54809820
23
USA
Jr. Systems Developer (.NET), just hit 2 years
61K
BBA in MIS
Is it normal to still be called Jr. when I am a stronger programmer than our Sr devs? Granted they are overall better at the job in a lot of other respects, but I don't get why I'm not at least dev II-equivalent if that makes sense. All my coworkers on my specific team are 30+ so I feel they have little respect or understanding of my perspective here. I probably don't even need to explicate the generational differences with my boss that cause a lot of misunderstandings.
What's more is I feel uncomfortable bringing it up to my boss since he has brushed it off in the past and lately I've missed several (admittedly arbitrary) deadlines. I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to just get out now and go somewhere I can move up without having to put in 25 years of trash tier work. Our technical debt is just astounding due to voluminous outsourcing (though I know that is not unusual in the industry).
>>54809820
44
USA
AP, consultant in primarily financial industry
$200-250k, benefits, some work-from-home, some travel
BA in Psych + 20 years of busting my balls in IT and working my way up. Started with UNIX sysadmin, brief diversion into teaching, back to consulting as UNIX sysadmin, then networking, database and all else infrastructure, then mid-level management which gave me some biz experience also (budgets, contracts, etc.), then back into consulting.
FWIW, you have to manage your career - move/leave when you are stagnating or the company is going nowhere, or you are not getting paid what you think you are worth. Assemble a network of decent recruiters and help them fill roles, give them recon and answer when they call - it pays off in the long run.
25
U.S.
Work at a library
Shit
A.A. and A.S. Music Technology certification (everything funded via financial aid)
Thinking of purchasing https://www.amazon.com/dp/0789756315/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_VYgtxbWFKJX0J
Getting my A+ and net +, get a simple IT job to support me through my bachelor's in IDon'tKnow. I got two meme associates and realized I need something more substantial since there's no money in music.
>>54814847
Is there a list of all the companies you applied to? IS there a specific site you apply to or do you contact each company individually?
>21
>USA
>Helpdesk support/1.5 years
>$7.25
>Student at University of Alabama, school is paying for me to get A+
Not sure what my next move will be. I'll graduate with 2 year experience working helpdesk. Should I go for more certs and try to move to system administration? Which certs should I be looking at? Network+ and Sec+?
Can one obtain certifications without a degree and is it worth it?
>25
>Poland
>webdev, 3 years exp
>4200 pln/mo = ~$1110 / mo
>currently in 2nd year of cs bachelor
Thinking about changing jobs, my current gig has me maintaining some really ancient CMS. I'd want to go into embedded, but there aren't many openings in my area (and most of them want 3 or 5 years exp). If I'm crazy enough I may try looking for remote work.
>Age
19
>Country
Denmark
>Job Title/yrs worked
Still in College
>Wage
Educational grant = 374 month
>Experience
Eh
So my question for you guys, shouls I go to an IT University and study there?
And what possible jobs couls I get out of this?
Link: www.itu.dk
>Age
27
>Country
USA! USA! USA!
>Job Title/yrs worked
Operations Manager @ IT Managed Services Provider
>Wage
100k/year, not including overtime (12k-17k)/bonuses
>Experience/School/Certs
A+ Fundamentals
ITIL Foundations
I manage a team of 20 field engineers and 4 helpdesk guys supporting mostly financial institutions. I'm pretty technical, but I want to stay on the management track. Any advice?
>Age
26
>Country
Germanistan
>Job Title yrs worked
half a year internship in dev
half a year private webdev
currently finishing my masters degree in comp sci
>Wage
20€bux/hr
>Experience / Certs?
What is this Cert bullshit. Aside from ITIL Foundation I never heared about those things being offered or even presented at university.
I just want some lazy job where I can walk away with 2k€ monthly. I gladly trade less pay for less work hours.
>26
>USA
>Senior Support Engineer/4 years
>$100K
>Bachelor of Business Admin in Management Information Systems
I have some certs, it's all SAP shit.
>>54809820
>38
>SoCal , USA
>Principal Software Engineer
>124k
>16 years of experience, University CS dropout. Full stack, 9" uncut, pragmatic > pretentious.
>>54809820
>>Age
21
>>Country
USA
>>Job Title/yrs worked
Network Engineer. Just started this month.
>>Wage
17/hr
>>Experience/School/Certs
Work technical support for a ISP was my first tech related job, jumped around from there. Schooling was all trade school no uni.
>Age
24
>Country
Russia
>Job Title/yrs worked
Research Engineer (satellites and other space shit) / 1 year
>Wage
1k$/month. Pretty decent for just-graduated kid in Russia. Cost of living here is very, very low so I save 50% of my wage.
Also I am invalid so I have free public transport, 150$/month extra cash and free meds (Humira costs like $2,458.00 every month). Kek.
>Experience/School/Certs
Shitty agrocultural university, one of the shittiest on this planet. Waste of time.
>>54821585
invalid?
>>54821750
Entry level of invalidness - I have all my body parts but have won in genetic lottery and got 2 autoimmune deceases.
>>54809852
how did you even get jobs like this with no experience or degrees?
>>54811199
where do you live?
>>54820932
Get a project management qualification
>>54819694
Yeah, and the same is happening in the Bakken as well. But I have near zero expenses, and family in the area. It's not an I need the money change, it's an I need something different change.
>21
>usa
>junior web dev/ >1 year
>40k
>AS in mathematics
>31
>USA/Palo Alto, CA
> Senior Engineer
>$128,000
>3 Years/BSME/CompTIA A+ & Network+
Don't move to Silicon Valley unless you like living in a small room with 4 other people, or if you want to live by yourself, unless you're making at least $140,000. The cost of living is horrendous.
>>54809938
why wouldn't you just work as a nurse?
>>54822179
What would you suggest, PMP?
I want to get into a large company, Samsung, Asus, Alphabet, Microsoft, etc. Don't really know what I need to do to get them to notice me over the 1000's of other applicants.
>Age
24
>Country
USA
>Job Title/yrs worked
Associate Software Engineer (IT type shit like creating CI/CD software and Corporate infrastructure) but also can do Full stack.
1.5 Years
>Wage
125k
>Experience/School/Certs
BS Aeronautical Engineering
Trying to figure out what the hell I want to do. I left the Aero industry because it was boring as hell. Want to go back to school and get some specialized knowledge. Web Dev is boring as fuck. I was thinking possibly robots or machine vision? I have no fucking clue, I don't want to be a code monkey or a fucking web dev.
>>54809820
>Age
23
>Country
USA
>Job Title/yrs worked
Web developer for feds, 2 years
>Wage
$14.71/hr
>Experience/School/Certs
Recently received CS B.S. but no real industry experience. Studying using online resources in my down time.
>>54814847
I recently got hired by a defense contractor in Scottsdale. The pay and benefits are amazing and I'm fresh out of school (NAU, CS degree). How was your GPA in school?
>Age
23
>Country
San Francisco, US
>Job Title/yrs worked
iOS Software Engineer
>Wage
130k base + 20k bonus
>Experience/School/Certs
Bachelors in CS, multiple GitHub projects, previous internship at semi-popular startup.
