Advice for My New Job

VHubb16

Hello Everyone,

I need some advice about my new job. First a little background... I graduated from Murray State University in May of 2016 with a bachelor's degree in Telecommunications Systems Management. The following July I was hired on at a non-profit organization managing the Gerber Accumark System for computerized cutters which wasn't really in IT but did have to do with Computers. The pay was more than I expected and in my interview I was told that after about a year I would be joining the IT department, so I took the job. It has been a year now and from what I understand I will be joining the IT department soon. My concern is that I'm afraid I will be going in blindfolded... The guy that does IT now is sub-contracted, so once I join I will be replacing him. I don't have any doubt that I can the job, I'm just worried because I haven't had that much prior experience. My internship was with a bank and a few tasks that I performed was updating the systems, installing software, troubleshooting printers, and so on. Any advice or tips would be great. I'm thinking about checking on the daily tasks and the system management tools so I can try and study up on a few things before I join. What would you suggest I ask about and study up on to help me start my new IT position. For example, our WiFi messed up a few days ago... what would be the steps that I would have been the steps to get it back up and running if I would have been the one to try and fix it. It ended up being a bad wireless router, so a new one had to be ordered. It hasn't arrived yet but should be on it's way in a few days so most likely I will be the one to have to install it once it gets here....

Thanks,
Lynn

VHubb16

Just wanted to numb my thread to see if anyone had any suggestions.

scaredoftests

Google is your friend, or look up what you are worried about on forums (a great place to learn).

yoba222

Start developing a relationship with IT department. Email the IT manager so that you are on his or her radar. See if there is some side project you could help out with to get your foot in the IT department ahead of time.

TheFORCE

VHubb16 wrote: »

Hello Everyone,

I need some advice about my new job. First a little background... I graduated from Murray State University in May of 2016 with a bachelor's degree in Telecommunications Systems Management. The following July I was hired on at a non-profit organization managing the Gerber Accumark System for computerized cutters which wasn't really in IT but did have to do with Computers. The pay was more than I expected and in my interview I was told that after about a year I would be joining the IT department, so I took the job. It has been a year now and from what I understand I will be joining the IT department soon. My concern is that I'm afraid I will be going in blindfolded... The guy that does IT now is sub-contracted, so once I join I will be replacing him. I don't have any doubt that I can the job, I'm just worried because I haven't had that much prior experience. My internship was with a bank and a few tasks that I performed was updating the systems, installing software, troubleshooting printers, and so on. Any advice or tips would be great. I'm thinking about checking on the daily tasks and the system management tools so I can try and study up on a few things before I join. What would you suggest I ask about and study up on to help me start my new IT position. For example, our WiFi messed up a few days ago... what would be the steps that I would have been the steps to get it back up and running if I would have been the one to try and fix it. It ended up being a bad wireless router, so a new one had to be ordered. It hasn't arrived yet but should be on it's way in a few days so most likely I will be the one to have to install it once it gets here....

Thanks,
Lynn

Ask them for a job description, that will dictated 80% of what you will be doing. Based on that you will have a starting point on what you should be studying and learning as the items in the job description will be most relevant to your job. Many of us learn on the job, if you cant fix or troubleshoot something, you call your next line of support or you call your vendor etc. No one has knowlege about everything these days, the systems are too complex for 1 person to know how everything operates. Try to do learn all the items on the job descriptions and depending on how fast or easy you catch up on certain things take that to the next level and try to become better on the things you enjoy or like the most.

VHubb16

yoba222 wrote:

Start developing a relationship with IT department. Email the IT manager so that you are on his or her radar. See if there is some side project you could help out with to get your foot in the IT department ahead of time.

Thanks, I'm working on that relationship before his contract is up and I'm already working on a project. Love my new job!

scaredoftests wrote:

Google is your friend, or look up what you are worried about on forums (a great place to learn).

Thanks scaredoftests Google has helped me out in the past along with a few other forums. Will use google and probably post more on the forum here until I get the hang of what I'm doing. I'm so excited about everything... I actually started in IT Yesterday!

TheFORCE wrote: »

Ask them for a job description, that will dictated 80% of what you will be doing. Based on that you will have a starting point on what you should be studying and learning as the items in the job description will be most relevant to your job. Many of us learn on the job, if you cant fix or troubleshoot something, you call your next line of support or you call your vendor etc. No one has knowlege about everything these days, the systems are too complex for 1 person to know how everything operates. Try to do learn all the items on the job descriptions and depending on how fast or easy you catch up on certain things take that to the next level and try to become better on the things you enjoy or like the most.

Thank you too TheForce, I was just thinking about asking him for weekly or daily job task so I would know more to the point of what I needed to study to begin with.

Thanks Again,
Lynn

VHubb16

Thanks yoba222, I'm working on that relationship before his contract is up and I'm already working on a project. Love my new job!

Thanks scaredoftests Google has helped me out in the past along with a few other forums. Will use google and probably post more on the forum here until I get the hang of what I'm doing. I'm so excited about everything... I actually started in IT Yesterday!

Thank you too TheForce, I was just thinking about asking him for weekly or daily job task so I would know more to the point of what I needed to study to begin with.

Thanks Again,
Lynn

DatabaseHead

I would see if they capture the incidents in a system and review what comes in most often and prioritize that way.

Then you can stack them and ask accordingly.

HTH

Seether12603

I would get a subscription to CBT Nuggets bro. Example being ran into issues with both QoS and TCP window sizing at my last job. I logged into CBT nuggets and searched both topics and myself and other 2 techs watched videos and were able to help find a solution. And yes you can also use google.