Does working on POS systems really count as experience

avx

I just started a job this week working on POS systems,and it's not what I'm use to, so it takes sometime to figure out the problems that occur, But I hope I'm not wasting my time here, hopefully this is still looked at as IT experience.

Anyone else here worked on POS systems, and if so did it hinder you when it was time to move onto something better?

Ricka182

I've been working on POS systems for a few years. It's not really heavy IT, but it is experience for hands-on.....

spike_tomahawk

Definitely good, I have done 1 day projects for a well know POS install / maintenance company, the machines are IBM, OS if I remember were XP or 2000, hooked into a LAN. Also bios upgrades, and memory upgrades.

Put that stuff on my current resume and blasted it to the usual places, got call from multiple companies, the one I chose talked about my working for company above.

So…… good? Yes all experience is good no matter how you look at it, and also how you relate that experience on your resume later

sylex

Done POS for three years. I do POS for restraunts and assuming you do to. On the surface it seems like a great job to get yelled at every day by owners of Bob's Country Bunker that don't understand that if you don't pay your bills you won't get service.

Will it hinder you in a finding a better job? No. As long as you put in the time.
There are alot of instances that let you use all your basic computer skills.
A customer has a hardware problem A+.
A customer has a Windows problem MCDST ect.
A customer has two computers that cannot talk to each other Net+, CCNA.
A customer gets a letter from Visanet about their encription of their credit cards. CISP.
If you get into those coin-op bar top games they sometimes use Linux. Linux+.
You get the point.
Not to mention that in every situation I have found an opportunity to innovate. I hate imaging a computer and then setting the IP and computer name. I wrote a small VB.net program to change this for me by asking a few questions upon startup. I know there are other ways to do this, but the coolness factor to your boss is a 10 plus you'll get practice in programming for a better job and more to talk about in the interview.
There are basic project management skills to be learned in POS. If you are asigned an account you have to do it start to finish. Staging, menu, deliverables, champion ect.
Communication skills. The ability to talk to a customer in a way that they understand without using common IT terms that confuse everyone but IT professionals. The ability to troubleshoot a problem over the phone either at a desk or while driving to the next onsite location.
Most POS software uses a ton of DBF file is one form or another. Learn how to make SQL queries, or just a little data mining.

Even though POS (depending on your company) is considered the bottom of the barrel of IT work, learn something new every day, do something to make your job easier every day and rack up as many certifications as you can.

TechJunky

No way. I just took a POS job a month ago and I am doing more IT based stuff than ever before. I used to work as a Internet Tech, Internet Lead, Network Analyst, and now I am working as a Network Admin for a local POS company and I mess with more Windows 2000 Servers than I have ever in my life at any of my previous jobs that were supposed to be based around IT. This job allows me to get experience with setting up VPN's, Domain Controllers, DNS, Mail, Webhosting etc. However, since I have been hired I have been pitching to customers that since they already have purchased the server why not host everything from your local site instead of having to pay someone for it. I get to setup all these servers and its great experience.

Also, you will work with databases daily which is great for any job in the future.

We deal mainly with Counterpoint SQL and Micro's Systems.

Wait until you start converting peoples old databases into new servers and new software programs. Talk about database experience.

TeKniques

I myself have set up two POS systems for two different restaurants, and IMO it is valuable experience. In both cases it was setting up the AD Domain from scratch and configuring all the users, printers, reports, etc.

Ricka182

It depends on what avenue of POS your on. I do hands-on repair at the customer site. The machines are pretty old, and badly abused, but most customers don't care because they work. The ones that are new are all preconfigured upon the install, and everything is an easy swap nowadays. Not a whole lot of IT there..........

Danman32

TechJunky wrote:

However, since I have been hired I have been pitching to customers that since they already have purchased the server why not host everything from your local site instead of having to pay someone for it.

Tell me about it. I love it when clients call to fix OL 2K to properly send mail out to the ISP because they are using a POP3 account there for internet mail, when they have a perfectly good and legal Exchange server they can use for internet mail, especially when they are already using Exchange for in-office mail, calendaring and such. Just direct your router to forward port 25, have your MX record for your internet domain be redirected to your router's public IP, and add your internet domain as a 2nd SMTP address on the recipient policy, make it primary and be done with the POP3 accounts.

The only problem is though that because of spammers, some mail recipients won't accept SMTP connections from IPs registered to be dynamic IPs, even if it is broadband.

TechJunky

Danman: Yea, we are a local distributor and due to upcoming credit card policies we are going to be super busy. With Micro's 4.0 releasing and credit card laws I believe in Jan of 07 the work load is going to be insane. We are already getting together a distribution list so we can mail out our letter of intent to upgrade clients credit card systems to the new standard encryption coming in 2007 to save our asses. If they decline it we no longer take the fall if they get hacked etc.

I think most people who think POS system's are the bottom of the barrel need to work with them for more than a month. We deal with Bars/Restuarants mainly but we also deal with inventory systems which require some pretty complex databases for many other clients.

If you are doing simple hardware installations, then yes I would say POS is easy enough. But the same could be said for Installing Windows 2k on workstations all day long.

My philosophy is this;

Your job is what you make it.