My first I.T. job!!!

Samurai004

Well it is official, I got my first I.T. job. It happens to be in the same city in which I am currently a cop. I didn't want to talk about it much until it was for sure...didn't want to jinx the chance.

The company is a a large international information company. I will be working in the global data center. The job title is Production Support Analyst. The job basically entails monitoring many mainframes and servers watching for any performance problems that may occur. During the interviews the managers stated they like their analysts in this job to take ownership of the issue and attempt to resolve it before escalating it. I told them the concept sounds a lot like my current job as a uniformed police officer in that I am handling unexpected problems, gathering informaiton, taking action most of the time to resolve the issue and only calling for a specialist (CSI, Homicide, Traffic Reconstructionist, ect...) if it is beyond my level of understanding. They agreed with that generalization of the job mindset.

The compensation is exactly what I make now, so that is awesome for an entry level job, without a computer science degree and no on the job experience.

During the last interview, the director stated he almost became a cop himself and turned down a local sheriff when the job was offered because he made more as a manager at McDonalds than he would have as a deputy. He did say he had great luck thoughout all the years hiring police officers, mathmeticians, and music majors...when hiring non-I.T. degreed individuals. He said these types of people had a good ability to take a lot of information, put it into order and take action based on the information at hand. He also stated this job was about the best entry-level I.T. job he could think of for a career changer. He said this was because I would get exposure to all the areas of I.T. (networks, databases, ect...), I would get to work with hardware and software from Microsoft, Linux, Sun, Solaris. Also, I would be with a team of about 10 people so I would never be completely alone when dealing with an issue. The hours are awesome too...three 12 hours shifts one week and an additional day every other week to make up the difference. Because of all of this during this interview, I felt like he was sent from the heavens just for me to speak with.

Considering I couldn't even get a phone interview with many companies and I was getting discouraged slightly, I feel really blessed to have this opportunity.

Sorry for the long post...I am just really excited to get to learn a lot about a lot soon!!! I just wanted to thank you guys here on TechExams.net forum for your information over the past two years. I started with 0 certifications, a bachelors degree in criminal justice and no real world enterprise experience, and with your help I was able to get where I am today...and it feels good!:D So THANK YOU ALL.

Essendon

A BIG BIG Congratulations to you. Well done and make the most of the opportunity.

NickDog

Hey im in Dayton too! I already work at a datacenter but are these guys still hiring? It wouldnt happen to be L**is N**ius would it?

sheckler

Why don't you want to be a cop anymore? I'd drop IT in a second if I could get into law enforcement.

Samurai004

I sent you a private message...I am not sure if it is taboo to talk about that in a public forum. I am used to the public sector so I am not used to this. In the public sector, nothing is off limits. We discuss pay, benefits and a lot of other things openly. So this is something I am trying to figure out, but I am erring on the side of caution.

networker050184

Congrats!

mikej412

Congratulations!!

-DeXteR-

Congo

Samurai004

Why don't you want to be a cop anymore? I'd drop IT in a second if I could get into law enforcement.

1. Poor pay. No raises and I get paid the exact same amount as someone who avoids work like the plague. So there is no real motivation to do a great job from an advancement perspective. We have had no pay raises in 5 years...even before the recession we were looking at 1% increases for 3 years, not enough to keep up with cost of living, gas prices and increasing food costs. Now we might have to go from paying 10% of healthcare to paying 30% for healthcare. Essentially, we have been working for less and less money every year for quite some time now. This isn't the way an individual typically advances in a career. Out of the 70 plus police departments in the adjacent counties, our police department is the 3rd lowest paid.

2. The courts suck. Even when spoon fed a great case with all the trimmings, they will plea it down to a lesser charge almost everytime. See when a prosecutor is running for election and they are touting a "97% conviction rate" that includes domestics, assaults, assaults on police that are plead down to a disorderly (a win is a win so to speak).

3. I have had more than my fair share of very close calls and have been in a shooting myself. In the past 5 years, my small-medium sized city has had 8 officer involved shootings. So I am thinking in another 17 or possibly 27 years (depending on the outcome of Senate Bill 5) my luck might run out. If I don't end up killed, I have a great likelihood of being severely injured or maimed. We already buried one officer this year, she was the first officer killed in the line of duty on January 1, 2011...RIP Suzanne Waughtel-Hopper.

4. That leads to this point. In my city more officers retire due to injuries sustained on duty than actually retire normally after a full term of service.

5. There is not much room for lateral movement. And testing into a promotion (uniform sergeant) would actually result in a pay cut...due to the lack of court time.

6. The jail is a joke. We can't have anyone kept in jail unless it is a violent felony, domestic (state law), protection order violation (state law) or failure to appear warrants. So basically, if your house is broken into while your at work (burglary), the suspect steals your car (theft / receiving stolen property), has a vehicle pursuit with the police (failure to comply) and crashes it into a tree (failure to control) before we arrest him/her they will be refused at the jail, fingerprinted, photographed and ordered into court with a piece of paper for the next court date...the jail never takes custody of the suspect at all (not even for a few hours to post bail). The suspect is walking out the door about 1 - 2 hours after arrest without ever being in a cell.

All I wanted to be growing up was a cop, I lived it and breathed it. I had family and many close friends who were all cops. But after being in the job for 8 plus years, I can tell you it is a dead end...especially in my city unfortunately. Luckily I have a love for all things computers, so I have another career I hope to dive into.

Another reason I know it is a good move is everyone at the PD said congrats and pretty much said they didn't blame me one bit. Even my chief said he thought it was a smart move.

Samurai004

I think it all depends on your situation. If you are in an area that has a lot of great companies then I would apply for both local and global companies. If you get an interview that is great, even if you don't get the job you gain experience in the interview process. Also, if you get a job offer and don't like relocating, the salary, ect... you can always turn the job down.

Put yourself out there and sell yourself. These companies aren't going to come looking for you unless your a frickin superstar I.T. god; you have to be there right in their face yelling "HIRE ME!!!". And you have to have patience as well, it took me about 6 months of sending out resumes to everyone I could find. I searched DAILY for new opportunities and it eventually paid off. Your no different than me, however I am sure there are some really awesome things you bring to the table that I don't have (experience, ect...). Use your strengths to get HR's attention and remember to send thank you notes or emails for any interviews.

N2IT

Congratz on the new position!

Bl8ckr0uter

Congrats. PM sent

NetworkingStudent

Samurai004 wrote: »

Well it is official, I got my first I.T. job. It happens to be in the same city in which I am currently a cop. I didn't want to talk about it much until it was for sure...didn't want to jinx the chance.

The company is a a large international information company. I will be working in the global data center. The job title is Production Support Analyst. The job basically entails monitoring many mainframes and servers watching for any performance problems that may occur. During the interviews the managers stated they like their analysts in this job to take ownership of the issue and attempt to resolve it before escalating it. I told them the concept sounds a lot like my current job as a uniformed police officer in that I am handling unexpected problems, gathering informaiton, taking action most of the time to resolve the issue and only calling for a specialist (CSI, Homicide, Traffic Reconstructionist, ect...) if it is beyond my level of understanding. They agreed with that generalization of the job mindset.

The compensation is exactly what I make now, so that is awesome for an entry level job, without a computer science degree and no on the job experience.

During the last interview, the director stated he almost became a cop himself and turned down a local sheriff when the job was offered because he made more as a manager at McDonalds than he would have as a deputy. He did say he had great luck thoughout all the years hiring police officers, mathmeticians, and music majors...when hiring non-I.T. degreed individuals. He said these types of people had a good ability to take a lot of information, put it into order and take action based on the information at hand. He also stated this job was about the best entry-level I.T. job he could think of for a career changer. He said this was because I would get exposure to all the areas of I.T. (networks, databases, ect...), I would get to work with hardware and software from Microsoft, Linux, Sun, Solaris. Also, I would be with a team of about 10 people so I would never be completely alone when dealing with an issue. The hours are awesome too...three 12 hours shifts one week and an additional day every other week to make up the difference. Because of all of this during this interview, I felt like he was sent from the heavens just for me to speak with.

Considering I couldn't even get a phone interview with many companies and I was getting discouraged slightly, I feel really blessed to have this opportunity.

Sorry for the long post...I am just really excited to get to learn a lot about a lot soon!!! I just wanted to thank you guys here on TechExams.net forum for your information over the past two years. I started with 0 certifications, a bachelors degree in criminal justice and no real world enterprise experience, and with your help I was able to get where I am today...and it feels good!:D So THANK YOU ALL.

Congrats on the new job. I think you made a very interesting career change. I’m looking for an IT job and it’s not easy. Currently, I have worked in printing for the last 6 years and it pays the bills, but it feels like a dead end and non challenging job. I have my A.A.S IT degree and I graduated in December 2010. Also, I have the A+,Net+, and Sec+ certifications. Lately, I have been getting at least one interview a month. I keep feeling everything goes great in these interviews, but I missing one thing “IT experience”.

There are a few things that I do that help keep me motivated. I volunteer for an organization doing whatever IT tasks they want me to tackle one day per week. I go to the gym and ask my girlfriend, family, and friends for advice when applying for jobs. I try not to look for jobs on the weekend. Also, I’m studying for the Windows 7 70-680 exam. I hope I can find a IT job before June.

nimrod.sixty9

NetworkingStudent wrote: »

Congrats on the new job. I think you made a very interesting career change. I’m looking for an IT job and it’s not easy. Currently, I have worked in printing for the last 6 years and it pays the bills, but it feels like a dead end and non challenging job. I have my A.A.S IT degree and I graduated in December 2010. Also, I have the A+,Net+, and Sec+ certifications. Lately, I have been getting at least one interview a month. I keep feeling everything goes great in these interviews, but I missing one thing “IT experience”.

There are a few things that I do that help keep me motivated. I volunteer for an organization doing whatever IT tasks they want me to tackle one day per week. I go to the gym and ask my girlfriend, family, and friends for advice when applying for jobs. I try not to look for jobs on the weekend. Also, I’m studying for the Windows 7 70-680 exam. I hope I can find a IT job before June.

Are you turning down any offers? You seem to be over qualified for a few positions, and most certainly Help Desk. Im in IT at a Casino and all I have is some college and an A+...

Congrats Samurai004!

Mike-Mike

congrats, sounds like a great position

Ryuksapple84

CONGRATS!!!! that is an awesome position for your first IT Job.

Samurai004

Congrats on the new job. I think you made a very interesting career change. I’m looking for an IT job and it’s not easy. Currently, I have worked in printing for the last 6 years and it pays the bills, but it feels like a dead end and non challenging job. I have my A.A.S IT degree and I graduated in December 2010. Also, I have the A+,Net+, and Sec+ certifications. Lately, I have been getting at least one interview a month. I keep feeling everything goes great in these interviews, but I missing one thing “IT experience”.

There are a few things that I do that help keep me motivated. I volunteer for an organization doing whatever IT tasks they want me to tackle one day per week. I go to the gym and ask my girlfriend, family, and friends for advice when applying for jobs. I try not to look for jobs on the weekend. Also, I’m studying for the Windows 7 70-680 exam. I hope I can find a IT job before June.

Dude, you sound like you will have a job sooner rather than later. Your volunteering and certs show that you are willing to put forth the extra effort. If possible, highlight those attributes during the interviews.

Do you have a suit to wear to the interviews. I invested (tax write-off) in two suits for my interviews with part of my refund check this year. I had them fitted, so they felt great. Everyone I interviewed with, even the Sr. Director of Global Operations, was wearing jeans...the Sr. Director had on a Harley Davidson fleece hoody actually. And there I was in a suit and tie. Everyone walking out the building at quitting time was dressed casual too. I initially felt a little out of place, but went in confident. I had a relaxed friendly demeanor and got the impression the suit helped a lot. I also sent thank you emails to everyone I interviewed with. I took a notepad and a pen with questions already written down to ask them towards the end of the interview. I also used this notepad to get all the interviewers names. I later called HR and asked for each persons email to sent thank you emails. In each area, I tried to go above and beyond what a normal interviewee would do, just to stand out a little. I had no technical experience with mainframes and they weren't worried about that...

I think they were looking for several things:

1. Someone who is willing to work hard.
2. Someone who is teachable.
3. Someone they can get along with for 12 hours at a time without having homicidal thoughts.

Hope this helps you out. Just keep pushing on despite the frustrations and eventually you will get the job.

Xcluziv

Congratulations on your career change!!!!

- X

blargoe

Congratulations!

Dakinggamer87

Congrats!!

CheesyBread

Congrats on the position. It looks like the certs under your belt will compliment it nicely.

I'll keep my thoughts on law enforcement private, however I'm sure you will find a much more rewarding career with the private IT sector.

There's constant room for promotion. If the company is big enough, the sky is the limit as far as salary. You'll get paid for as much as you want to achieve. My job now started at 16/hr and 2 years later I was one step below engineering making almost 70k. I busted my ass mind you but the opportunity is there.

drew726

Congrats on the job. The fact that you were able to study and get your certifications while having, which sounds like, an extremely high stress job, you are a man amongst men. I doubt I could do what you do.