Should I learn programming for this job or just bail in 2 years

thomas130

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hex_omega

THey "dislike dhcp"? I lol'd.

thomas130

Tell me

MentholMoose

hex_omega wrote: »

THey "dislike dhcp"? I lol'd.

Seriously. 1400 PCs with static IPs? What a mess.

jsolari

let me guess - a CIO said something like this about DHCP - and let me guess he has 20 years of experience. LMAO

chrisone

Seems like a tough spot , however i see you want to get into networking, thats great but networking is probably one of the most toughest skill in the IT industry. Getting your CCNA and CCNP in 2 years is a great goal but keep in mind it wont be easy and i dont think you have the slightest clue as to how hard all of us have studied and put in the hours to obtain our certs. Once you start with your networking studies i highly doubt you will even want to pursue Microsoft certs. Honestly i would say pick one or the other and dedicate 100% to either networking or server support.

It seems like your more experienced in Server support. Let me put it this way, if you were working on troubleshooting a networking problem, be it routing or switching, trust me, the last thing you want to hear is a server went down and then you need to go fix some BullS... on a microsoft server lol Same thing with server support, after fixing a windows issue the last thing you need is to focus your mind and attention to a routing problem lol

I am no one to say what you can or cant do. I am not trying to tell you what to do, im just giving you advice many will probably tell you here.

RouteThisWay

chrisone wrote: »

Seems like a tough spot , however i see you want to get into networking, thats great but networking is probably one of the most toughest skill in the IT industry. Getting your CCNA and CCNP in 2 years is a great goal but keep in mind it wont be easy and i dont think you have the slightest clue as to how hard all of us have studied and put in the hours to obtain our certs. Once you start with your networking studies i highly doubt you will even want to pursue Microsoft certs. Honestly i would say pick one or the other and dedicate 100% to either networking or server support.

It seems like your more experienced in Server support. Let me put it this way, if you were working on troubleshooting a networking problem, be it routing or switching, trust me, the last thing you want to hear is a server went down and then you need to go fix some BullS... on a microsoft server lol Same thing with server support, after fixing a windows issue the last thing you need is to focus your mind and attention to a routing problem lol

I am no one to say what you can or cant do. I am not trying to tell you what to do, im just giving you advice many will probably tell you here.

I kinda agree with you. Thanks for not being the typical "omfg networking is the shiz and so much harder/better/more challenging than server support. N00bs do server support, real IT pros do networking" lol.

Anyhow, to the kinda agree part. I agree somewhat, but you don't want to pigeonhole yourself either. You want a broad base of skills to make yourself more marketable. I would think if you enjoy doing server support, a CCNA would suffice and help round out those skills nicely to validate some networking knowledge. You don't want to be a one trick pony- many places are trying to cut costs by getting people who can do more than just one thing.

Just like it is good for systems guys to have some good foundational networking skills, it is great for network guys to have some server skills as well. In fact, I am not sure why there is this huge divide on these boards between server support and networking.

chrisone

I agree with you on a Server support candidate perhaps obtaining a CCNA to know some understanding of networking. However in no disrespectful way, no microsoft cert will help me with networking... sorry but those are the facts. Anything i need to learn on how dns, dhcp, active directory, and any other protocol services run on a network i learn with my cisco studies. I dont have to configure the servers but i learn enough to know how to allow those ports and services to run through a network.

In these days companies go the route of splitting network and server support. Once i see an add for a "network administrator" with experience with X,Y,Z, microsoft, linux, cisco, avaya, foundry, wi-fi, firewall, and pay 70K you would have to be a fool to torture yourself with such a job responsibility. I would never apply for such a death trap lol Id rather take a JR networking position doing networking grunt work and getting paid 55-60k ...

Chris:/*

There is nothing wrong with using Linux instead of Microsoft but it has to be implemented correctly just like using Microsoft instead of Linux.

Seeing as their hatred of Microsoft irritates you so much, instead ignoring it I am going to assume that is where all your experience is. There is nothing wrong with that but if your place of employment is using Linux I would concentrate your studies there. Everything that can be done with Microsoft can be done with Linux it is just done differently.

I agree with chrisone about concentrating your studies right now. You can earn your CCNA and CCNP in two years but you need a lot of experience to make that a possibility you also really do need to understand Cisco products.

What I do disagree with chrisone on is that networking being one of the more difficult skills. I personally believe that depending on the scope of the infrastructure servers and networking can be equally as difficult. The big difference is that high level Cisco certifications are more difficult generally then most server infrastructure certifications. This is a generalization and there are exceptions but from my experience it appears to be true.

If you do not have a working VMware cluster in which you admin you will have a difficult time passing the VCP in that time frame.

For diagramming your network and the resources within it there are open source resources that provide you that capability. Utilizing Open Office and items like it can be found here http://www.osalt.com/visio.

I mean all this with respect but as a lead tech within my organization you can suggest things up the chain but in the end it is not your choice. If you are not moving in the direction the company wants you to then you are typically not what a company would want anyway.

thomas130

Guys just

tpatt100

1400 machines, NO AD, and no DHCP???

thomas130

Yep 5355se5es

Chris:/*

thomas130 wrote: »

Yep stupid is'nt it

Not using Active Directory is not stupid there are comparable products that are not Microsoft (nothing against AD). Though not using DHCP is really pretty ridiculous! The funny thing about this is that this is not the first time I have heard of occurrences like this. Many old school uneducated system admins believe that this and the internet are the devil,

Hyper-Me

MentholMoose wrote: »

Seriously. 1400 PCs with static IPs? What a mess.

At my last job, before I convinced them to finally move ahead with AD, we had over 12000 machines at nearly 100 sites all running static addresses and we had no active directory domain.

earweed

Chris:/* wrote: »

. Many old school uneducated system admins believe that this and the internet are the devil, !

Did they look like this
Attachment not found.

fly351

I would try to talk to them about implement DHCP and just setting up reserved IP addresses for the machines that "need" it. Obviously that is a huge job but you can argue that when the need for dynamic addressing is required, the system is in place and you can just blow out the reserved addresses. Like the others said, probably an old school IT guy running the show that doesn't like "change" lol.

As far as learning stuff for the job, if you have to do it than do it to get the experience. Just something else to throw on the resume.

Chris:/*

earweed wrote: »

Did they look like this
Attachment not found.

Just add a beard!

thomas130

I have 64366dr6rd6

Kikode

2 options basically either (A) start building it for the experience and knowledge or (B) Say screw em it's a lost cause. If they don't care about your idea or keeping track of assets they sureley won't recognize you for developing it. Let the boss take the heat when Accounting can't give reliable figures.

Zartanasaurus

I would look at this as a learning experience. It's great you have a two-year plan for your future and all, but life gets in the way of that. Won't kill you to learn some linux and programming. At the very least it will help you do your job more efficiently so you don't have to focus on how everything doesn't fit into your Microsoft world. And I say that as a guy with almost zero *nix experience.

I'm not required to learn anything in my current job about SQL or databases, but I took it upon myself to learn it at some rudimentary level. It helps me do other parts of my job better, and my peers/bosses appreciate my commitment to getting things done. Plus it was its own reward since I exposed myself to something I was clueless about and learned that I actually like that type of work.

I remember your story from before when you posted it. You may not feel you come across this way to your peers, but eventually they will start looking at you as that guy who never wants to do anything the way they ask and always have some other thing they should try. Getting people to change the way they do things is tough. You can't spend your entire time there swimming upstream. Build yourself some political capital there first before you go trying to make sweeping changes to how they do things. This is how I got my previous employer to start making changes. Once they see you as a guy who wants to get things done the best way possible instead of just doing it the way you want it done, they'll listen to you more. Or maybe they won't, but by then you'll have added significantly to your resume and added to your professional references, right?

Zartanasaurus

Kikode wrote: »

If they don't care about your idea or keeping track of assets they surely won't recognize you for developing it.

This is very presumptive. And even if I get zero credit for it at my current employer, demonstrating the fruits of that project to a future employer in an interview seems valuable as well.

impelse

Because they hate Microsoft and use Linux a lot, concentrate in your linux skills and try to improve your network. After that you will get more respect from them and you will able to sugest diferent technologies to improve your network.

Paul Boz

Look on the bright side. At least in that jacked up environment you're guaranteed to have to fix stuff on a constant basis. Consider it job security

forkvoid

Paul Boz wrote: »

Look on the bright side. At least in that jacked up environment you're guaranteed to have to fix stuff on a constant basis. Consider it job security

And security that he will go insane.