how many guys in this forum are IT pros?

Dan_D said:
Outside of the A+ which doesn't expire, everything else I have is no longer valid.
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I had been meaning to get my A+ cert back in the 2000s. By the time I did it in 2013, new rules were in effect, and the new ones being issued had expiration dates. Mine expired back in 2016. That's what happens when you procrastinate. My friend who is an Oracle database admin has one of the A+ certs that lasts forever. He also has a shit-ton of other certs, some which don't expire, and a whole lot which do, so he has to keep up with them. His company pays for most/all of the training and test-taking so it hasn't really been an issue for him. Anyways, yeah I'm kinda salty about the new rules for A+ shit, but whatever, that cert hasn't made too much of a difference really. Like you said, it's mostly about experience.
 
Stugots said:
I made the mistake of turning my hobby into my career, now I generally don’t like messing with computers at home.
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I have a Nest, an Xbox, and some Roku's. I hate everything else, technology in general, that is.

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Professional.

Got a couple of CompTia certs, back when they were supposed to be "good for life". Never bothered to renew them, now that they expire every couple of years or whatever.


I was a hardware nerd in my teens. Joined the Air Force at 20, and that was my first professional experience with computers and networking.

Got my hands in a lot of situations and experienced many different sides of IT. Stationed on a base with over 10,000 computers and 15,000 users on the unclassified network, and few tools to automate things; it was common to find yourself face-to-face (so to speak) with each situation.

After that, worked at a lot of different places. Many of them contracts. Somewhere in the middle, I also worked for a while at Staples in a small town area. Doing sales, in-store support/repairs, and actual house calls.

Unfortunately though, finding it difficult to find long term/permanent jobs which utilize newer tools and ideas about managing computers and data.

At home, I'm not that high tech. I have a nice computer and some nice screens. And that's it. My cell phone was truly free/isnt a flagship. And I have zero smart-home features.
 
philb2 said:
Yeah, me too. I don't much miss those days. Also don't miss the days of Hayes-compatible modems and configuring modem7 (IIRC).


More than other industries?


Me too, even though I joined only a few years ago.

Absolutely! It's my GO TO tech forum.
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I can't speak to other industries. I do know people that don't run into the petty bullshit I have seen in my life. Corporate America is one thing, that's its own Ethics violation... Though I am working for a fairly conscious global company (as a contractor) that cares more than most. It all comes down to the people. Local IT companies (small) are dumpster fires. Almost every one of those I had been a part of has been absorbed or run out of business.

I don't miss manually configuring hardware, though, to me it seemed easier than the Plug and Pray Era.

The more advanced stuff gets the more we need to know. I'm a jack of all trades, master of nothing these days. Too many damn programs and systems to support.
 
Legendary Gamer said:
...I'm glad the [H] is still around in some capacity. This has been my site of choice for advice and knowledge for well over the indicated join date. I still enjoy coming here and lurking and reading.
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Yeah I been here since 2000 or 2001. I know I was on this site before I built my Athlon Tbird machine. Didn't join the forums until 2007, but I had been lurking for years before that.

Legendary Gamer said:
Best damn technical forum for PCs on the planet.
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Gonna have to agree with that.
 
20+ years as a Network/Security Engineer. Before that MCSE+I in the NT4 days. Before that, PC tech with A+, Lenovo, IBM, AST, HP, Toshiba and probably more certs I've long forgotten. Before that, a kid with an Apple ][+ and a dream to wanna know how it all worked.
 
MikeTrike said:
I have a Nest, an Xbox, and some Roku's. I hate everything else, technology in general, that is.

View attachment 616756
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I chuckled. When troubleshooting some home networking issues, I complained out loud "I hate computers". The other half stares at me, finally says
"You might be in the wrong line of work."

I love technology. I hate most implementations of technology other people make.
 
Not IT exactly; been involved with database engines in one form or another for just about 40 years. The last couple decades were spent inside a commercial DBMS. I've absorbed enough of the IT side of things to be moderately dangerous.
 
pitingres said:
Not IT exactly; been involved with database engines in one form or another for just about 40 years. The last couple decades were spent inside a commercial DBMS. I've absorbed enough of the IT side of things to be moderately dangerous.
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Oracle? SQL Server? MySQL? something else?
 
pitingres said:
Not IT exactly ...... I've absorbed enough of the IT side of things to be moderately dangerous.
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I worked in software product management, which is related to IT. I too have absorbed enough to be dangerous. But I've also noticed just how fast things change. If you don't work in a particular area for a few years, what you know has a short shelf life.
 
Pro is another over-used marketing term for sure!
When it comes to gear we always used to say if it had "pro" in its name, it wasn't professional gear!

Professional services typically mean a trade with a degree or level of training to actually do the job. In many cases you'll run across the NCNEs (no certs/no edu) that have so much field experience they can do just about anything! And too, those individuals tend to be the most interesting to hang out with! ;-)
 
Sysadmin for almost a decade, now DevOps where I write code and complain about yaml.

Stugots said:
I made the mistake of turning my hobby into my career, now I generally don’t like messing with computers at home.
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I'm half dreading building my next computer. I like the end result, but it mostly just feels like a chore to do at this point. I know the only part of it that I'm going to enjoy is when I press the power button and it works.
 
I'm an IT Professional. Like what I do but don't care for most of the people I deal with. :D
 
I am a programmer. I like hardware and sometimes give build lists to professional customers. I guess you can say I use messing with PCs as procrastination from getting code done, occasionally :)

I learned that you cannot answer a
"make this code faster"
with
"sure. Let's watercool and overclock".
 
Been building PCs since the mid-late 80s. Ten year College program for a double BS - EE/CS putting myself through working crap jobs. Graduated to wonderful Corporate America (large and small) doing Applicaton/SysAdmin stuff, run mostly by back stabbing stooges with delusions of Grandeur.

A little story.. A large banking corp was running SQL servers on VMs where I worked. Almost every day they would get overloaded and I'd be on a call all afternoon - high cpu util. Over and over - and every time I'd tell the infrastructure group the same thing - you're VMs are CPU overloaded. Infrastructure would say "no.. we baselined and you're wrong." I escalated to a VP and I think they just put SQL on a real server and behold no more pegged cpu and conference calls. But no, infrastructure had plans for me - the next patching cycle they loaded up all my app servers with a knowingly defeciive MS patch and i spent all weekend pulling it off to fix my app servers while infrastructure was laughing in the background. I quit that Monday after. Never worked again.

Bought a shitload of AMD at 14 bucks a share, Retired. Fuck Corporate America. Make it work for you.
 
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Mega6 said:
run mostly by back stabbing stooges with delusions of Grandeur. 25 years of that and done.
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Can you elaborate any? How does a sysAdmin or network support guy backstab a colleague? I thought that happened only in marketing and sales. (No I am not channelling Dilbert.)

Mega6 said:
Bought a shitload of AMD at 14 bucks a share, Retired. Fuck Corporate America.
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Good on you. I once had to deal with Samsung in my job. Those guys were maniacs. Super demanding, impatient, you name it.
 
philb2 said:
Can you elaborate any? How does a sysAdmin or network support guy backstab a colleague? I thought that happened only in marketing and sales. (No I am not channelling Dilbert.)


Good on you. I once had to deal with Samsung in my job. Those guys were maniacs. Super demanding, impatient, you name it.
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See above, edited post with just one example of many occurrences.
 
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I am an infrastructure architect specializing in UEM (Ivanti/MobileIron, AirWatch and MS Intune). I also custom build computers ,do consulting, computer maintenance and repair on the side. I used to own cell phone stores but retrained myself once cellphones became a commodity.
 
30 years in the IT industry, from system admin to building PC's to security engineer and everything in between. Now, I'm building my own PC's and won't work on other people's computers for the most part (kids/family excluded, I'll help them out).

Still not really an IT pro, though. Just a guy that knows a thing or two about a thing or two.

I'm working on both a 6502 PC (going to make a custom PCB and all that jazz just to satisfy my childhood dreams and make a 'console' version as well... Dev kit with keyboard, etc., then the console with joystick ports) as well as a new AMD 7800X3D watercooled PC. I haven't used AMD since the Athlon 64, haven't made a custom loop since around the same time (had a Corsair AIO with my i2600K). I've been just kind of a lurker with desktop stuff for a while due to work and things like that, so it's a whole new learning experience specing things out. A lot of the same ol', but a lot of new things to take into consideration, too. Always learning! :)
 
Senior dev AND I can most likely fix that printer issue or slap in a new vidjacard and download more ram for ya'.
 
philb2 said:
Just wondering. A lot of people here seem to build PCs for others.
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"IT Pros" is a pretty broad term. IT also consists of UX/designers, product managers, and many other non-technical roles like change management, release management, incident management, etc. And then with the technical, sure you have help desk, desktop, sys admin, network, etc. Also have developers, staff engineers, architects, security. And many other things I am forgetting.

Everyone thinks IT just means you do computer support lol.

I do release management. I haven't done any technical work in probably 7-8 years now aside from some process automation. Building computers was something I did as a hobby since I was a teenager, and came in handy when I did desktop support. Outside of that...
 
Former professional...

While I was in grad school, I worked a side job at my friend's computer store, where we were often times doing wholesale jobs as well. If there were anything wrong with computers from the DOS 6.22 / Win 3.11 For Workgroups / Windows 95 / Windows 98, I could always diagnose and fix it. I do miss the old days when a floppy disk with F-PROT on it could get rid of most viruses...

I also helped out our IT guy in my department while in grad school, and did some side jobs for custom builds. Back in those days, there was no wireless networking, and everything was hardwired into the ethernet ports.

After grad school, I didn't have time for it anymore, but I still do custom builds and troubleshooting for my closer friends. These friends understand that I'll build them the best system for the money spent, and that troubleshooting is only to be used in extremis.
 
I’ve been doing IT work since grad school in the mid 90s. I’ve been a consultant most of the last 10 years at a senior architect level. Like another guy in this thread says, my career path has pretty much burned me out to the point where I don’t want to mess with system builds in my personal life. When I was younger, I’d rush home from work and then test things in my lab and build new things all the time. Now, I just stare at my server, think about everything I need to update, and then look the other way and do other things. :). My last system build was in 2021 and I think I’m just going to get a high-end gaming laptop every 5 years and be done with it.

I‘m hoping to call it quits within 5 years and then maybe do something I actually enjoy without having to deal with corporate America stupidity. As someone who has worked IT since the 90s, it used to be fun but for many reasons, it no longer is.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
I’ve been doing IT work since grad school in the mid 90s. I’ve been a consultant most of the last 10 years at a senior architect level. Like another guy in this thread says, my career path has pretty much burned me out to the point where I don’t want to mess with system builds in my personal life. When I was younger, I’d rush home from work and then test things in my lab and build new things all the time. Now, I just stare at my server, think about everything I need to update, and then look the other way and do other things. :). My last system build was in 2021 and I think I’m just going to get a high-end gaming laptop every 5 years and be done with it.

I‘m hoping to call it quits within 5 years and then maybe do something I actually enjoy without having to deal with corporate America stupidity. As someone who has worked IT since the 90s, it used to be fun but for many reasons, it no longer is.
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I almost... ALMOST mind you ... just bought a Digital Storm Aventum for my workstation last time. Almost. I don't regret what I built - but next time, I might just buy it.
 
I'm a railroad electrical/mechanical instructor/subject matter expert (as per my employer) on locomotives and rail cars. I deal with onboard networks that do speed control, brake systems, propulsion and power generation, including onboard fiber optic and communications networks. All this on locomotives from 1965 that have been upgraded computer controlled engines to $9 million German built modern units. Been building and troubleshooting PCs for fun and a little profit since 1988. I try to learn something new here every day. I read a lot more than I post.

I do support a network/workstations/printers/security camera systems for a local church that my friend goes to for the last 10 years. I almost do it for free.
 
spent the first twenty years of my life building /supporting everything, but now that i have huntington's, i no-longer trust myself with hardware swaps more complex than usb, and even software engineering has gotten impossible

now, i have to make a very dangerous career4 change in the middle of the pandemic -any suggestion for remote work?
 
lopoetve said:
I almost... ALMOST mind you ... just bought a Digital Storm Aventum for my workstation last time. Almost. I don't regret what I built - but next time, I might just buy it.
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I just bought a Unifi Dream Machine SE and a Unifi 6 Pro AP because I really need to restructure my network in order to get rid of my server. Finding the motivation to do it is super hard at this stage.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
I just bought a Unifi Dream Machine SE and a Unifi 6 Pro AP because I really need to restructure my network in order to get rid of my server. Finding the motivation to do it is super hard at this stage.
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Good choice. You really can't find anything that offers the features and performance on the market for the price that's super easy to set up and manage.
 
Sir Beregond said:
"IT Pros" is a pretty broad term. IT also consists of UX/designers, product managers, and many other non-technical roles like change management, release management, incident management, etc. And then with the technical, sure you have help desk, desktop, sys admin, network, etc. Also have developers, staff engineers, architects, security. And many other things I am forgetting.

Everyone thinks IT just means you do computer support lol.

I do release management. I haven't done any technical work in probably 7-8 years now aside from some process automation. Building computers was something I did as a hobby since I was a teenager, and came in handy when I did desktop support. Outside of that...
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I was a product manager for many years. Been there, done that over and over again.
 
IndyColtsFan said:
I‘m hoping to call it quits within 5 years and then maybe do something I actually enjoy without having to deal with corporate America stupidity. As someone who has worked IT since the 90s, it used to be fun but for many reasons, it no longer is.
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True for a lot of us. (y)
 
wra18th said:
I'm a railroad electrical/mechanical instructor/subject matter expert (as per my employer) on locomotives and rail cars.
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Which system?

wra18th said:
I deal with onboard networks that do speed control, brake systems, propulsion and power generation, including onboard fiber optic and communications networks. All this on locomotives from 1965
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GP35? GP39-2? SD units? Modern GE or Progress Rail units?
wra18th said:
that have been upgraded computer controlled engines to $9 million German built modern units.
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Which manufacturer?
 
Stugots said:
I made the mistake of turning my hobby into my career, now I generally don’t like messing with computers at home.
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I'm the exact opposite. I was working a non-IT job years ago, because I didn't want my hobby to be my job. The people there (aged mid 30's to mid 40's) there were miserable both to each other and in their own life. I decided I didn't want to grow up to be that way so I might as well use the one interest I have as a job and it's worked out well for me.
 
philb2 said:
Which system?
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NJ Transit
philb2 said:
GP35? GP39-2? SD units? Modern GE or Progress Rail units?
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GP40-2, F40. No SDs as we're passenger only. We operate and maintain some Metro North GP40 and F 40 that were upgraded to Dash 3 by Progress Rail but they did a crappy job with the upgrade. We also have 5 MPIs.
philb2 said:
Which manufacturer?
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Bombardier which is sadly now Alstom.
 
bigdogchris said:
I'm the exact opposite. I was working a non-IT job years ago, because I didn't want my hobby to be my job. The people there (aged mid 30's to mid 40's) there were miserable both to each other and in their own life. I decided I didn't want to grow up to be that way so I might as well use the one interest I have as a job and it's worked out well for me.
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So you were able to switch careers? How deid you do that? Still in your 20s? I know from my friends' experience that as you get older and more advanced in your career it becomes harder and harder, even impossible to switch careers, no matter how "creatively" you write your resume.
 
wra18th said:
NJ Transit
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Cool. Major passenger carrier. I have ridden NJ Transit several times out of Penn Sta, NY. to various points south.
wra18th said:
GP40-2, F40. No SDs as we're passenger only. We operate and maintain some Metro North GP40 and F 40 that were upgraded to Dash 3 by Progress Rail but they did a crappy job with the upgrade. We also have 5 MPIs.

Bombardier which is sadly now Alstom.
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philb2 said:
So you were able to switch careers? How deid you do that? Still in your 20s? I know from my friends' experience that as you get older and more advanced in your career it becomes harder and harder, even impossible to switch careers, no matter how "creatively" you write your resume.
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I'll send you a PM with some details, I don't want to leave all that info posted here.
 
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I guess i could be considered a "pro" been doing "IT" for 25 years and being paid for it... :D
 
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