Remote Support / Admin positions? Help me escape my tormentors!

mooncrater

Heya folks!

I have about 2.5 years of L1 support experience, and I have A+, Network+, and will have Security+ soon as well. CCNA after that.

I HAVE TO escape the office. The office lifestyle doesn't suit me very well. I'm quiet, controlled, and I don't play politics - I just want to do my work in peace...and quiet. At my current job, my coworkers talk loudly on and off the phone, and pig out at their desks. We have a very nice cafeteria. If you have to eat at your desk, you should at least try to eat like ninja. This is actually just fine by itself (I have my foibles as well), but it's not good for me for compatibility reasons, so I'm trying to remove the incompatibility - myself.

I could become a field service tech, but what I'm really interested in is finding a remote support position where every day I could VPN in to work. Last year, I interviewed for one of these positions at (an entry-level helpdesk position at HUMANA), but was rejected for whatever reason. I have been searching since then for a similar position. I have checked Odesk, ELance, and did a month of Flexjobs - absolutely nothing. Searching for these positions using the big job search engines doesn't turn up very much.

I know part of it is a matter of building my expertise - higher level positions seem to have more potential for working away from the office. While I get there, I'm hoping to find something lower/medium level.

Aside from HUMANA, what other companies have embraced this technology? Where else should I be looking? O techexams forum, I pray to thee.

UnixGuy

Even when you work from home, you're not really shielded from office politics. I recommend you learn how to deal it, and handle it professionally. It's part of your development as a professional, you have to know how to deal with different characters.

I understand it can be frustrating (initially), and some environment are not healthy to be in, but for the most part it's not that bad.

mooncrater

UnixGuy wrote: »

Even when you work from home, you're not really shielded from office politics. I recommend you learn how to deal it, and handle it professionally. It's part of your development as a professional, you have to know how to deal with different characters.

I understand it can be frustrating (initially), and some environment are not healthy to be in, but for the most part it's not that bad.

I have a somewhat common condition called misophonia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misophonia

Basically, I get very irritated by certain sounds. I can't block them out and focus like other people can. The most suitable work environment I've encountered was at a map library on one of the basement floors.

So when guy on a healthy kick is crunching through celery stalks at his desk, I hear every single crunch. When chips and salsa guy gets his daily chips and salsa, it's pick up a chip with the left hand, pause, dip, and crunch! Pause. Repeat for ten minutes.

I don't mind the regular din of a busy work environment or coffee shop sounds, etc. - it's only avoidable sounds that people make, that I don't make myself out of courtesy for people like me. Knowing I'm heading into this same environment every day stresses me out.

Sometimes you see an IT guy who is working from wherever on his laptop. I really want to be that guy.

UnixGuy

This is a tough one, I know nothing about your situation...but a sysadmin position CAN be quiet...depends on the environment really. Two things come to mind really: 1) Can you get a medical certificate with your condition and then request to be transferred to a quiet environment? 2) Have you tried using some headsets/noise cancellation and just play music all day?

mooncrater

UnixGuy wrote: »

This is a tough one, I know nothing about your situation...but a sysadmin position CAN be quiet...depends on the environment really. Two things come to mind really: 1) Can you get a medical certificate with your condition and then request to be transferred to a quiet environment? 2) Have you tried using some headsets/noise cancellation and just play music all day?

I'm a contractor, and they show contractors the door if they don't fit in unfortunately....which is fine by me.

I'm on the phone most of the day. I use earplugs and that helps a little.

But I'd much rather VPN to work - I'm just very particular about my environment. I know I just gotta keep digging to find the right opportunity.

RHEL

I've got something similar, I think. Obnoxious eating, slurping, crunching drives me nuts. Clipping nails at work, even worse. Talking on the phone or to co-workers with food shoved in your mouth, my nightmare.

It's clearly a condition as it doesn't seem to bother most other people, while it can literally drive me nuts. You learn to get over it, block it out, or force yourself to tolerate it in hopes that things get better. I won't downplay it, and I get you. It's tough.

I've spent the past 6 years as a sysadmin for large organizations. I've got to say it has been a very quiet atmosphere in most scenarios. More importantly, it comes with a lot of flexibility.

I really do enjoy being around people... However, there's just times when I need to block out noise or step away. That's where the flexibility comes into play. I can come and go as needed. Although I have a desk in a quiet office 5mins from my home, I work from home a couple days a week, travel to headquarters once a week, and even have Fridays off for the entire summer.

Flexibility comes with the job, though what you'll really want to search for is a company with flexible policies as well. Stay FAR away from open office environments.

My jobs have been found as follows:

1. Indeed.com -- applied right before getting out of college.
2. Word of mouth -- Ex co-worker had a director-level friend at another company who was hiring.
3. Official company website -- my current and best job ever came from going directly to the company's website. I hadn't seen them in my expansive web searches because they didn't advertise the opening outside their own site.

UnixGuy

@RHEL: Sounds like a dream environment! Why did you leave?

RHEL

Oh, I'm still at the environment I described. Going to hang on here as long as I can!

aderon

We've got a lot of network engineer guys at my current position that all work from home. Actually I'd say 90% of them don't even live in the same state as our office lol. I'm not sure if this is a normal occurrence or if my company is an outlier, but it might be something worth looking into.

Another idea would be going onto a job search board and just searching for "system admin work at home", "network engineer work at home", "programmer work at home", etc. Whichever category of work at home seems to have the most job postings, could potentially be a good specialization for you to work towards. Good luck!