Adventures of a new grad (A.S.)

ehnde

Phone interview went well, I thought. Lasted about 45 minutes. There were questions about background and experience, then technical questions. My technical questions were on subnetting, stp, rstp, and routing protocols. I feel like I did fairly well, but there were details I couldn't remember about OSPF and when asked about maximum number of hops in RIP I accidentally answered with the TTL

He asked when I could start if I were hired...suppose that's a good sign. I'd rather take this job over other jobs. It sounds very hands-on and if I didn't get a job in networking I'd feel like a poser if I even THOUGHT about going up to professional level cisco certs!

ehnde

I was just woken up, but with great news. I have a second round face to face interview tomorrow morning for the NOC position I previously mentioned.

Yesterday was the last day of class, and I've passed everything. That completes my A.A.S. in IT - Microsoft Networking. I've got mixed feelings. On the one side I expected to have a job by now, but on the other hand it feels good to finish something.

Pishof

ehnde wrote: »

I was just woken up, but with great news. I have a second round face to face interview tomorrow morning for the NOC position I previously mentioned.

Yesterday was the last day of class, and I've passed everything. That completes my A.A.S. in IT - Microsoft Networking. I've got mixed feelings. On the one side I expected to have a job by now, but on the other hand it feels good to finish something.

Congrats, that sound's promising. Looks like your graduation present may be a new job.

ehnde

Pishof wrote: »

Congrats, that sound's promising. Looks like your graduation present may be a new job.

Hey you were right. I got the job! Got a call from the recruiter 2 hours after the in person interview, they want me to start ASAP. I'll be working as a Tier I NOC Technician (nights). So I guess this post will serve as the final touch on the Adventures of a new grad thread. Some things to consider:

• CCNA was not a golden ticket, but it was required for this job. I also had to prove I had the knowledge and not just a piece of paper saying I had passed the CCNA exam.
• The degree was required.
• I am having to move to take this job (only 2 hours, no big deal)

Those are the 3 major things that I think were the make or break criteria. Oh...I wore a suit. It's not stupid at all, even if you are overdressed compared to everyone else. So basically everything I've just said echos advice from other threads on Techexams, and I would not have made it this far without help from you guys....I sincerely thank you for that!

YuckTheFankees

I've been following this thread for a while, I'm glad to hear you landed a job. It gives other people some motivation and hopefully we'll all get jobs haha

Dakinggamer87

Congrats awesome news!!

ehnde

Thanks guys, this is BY FAR going to be the coolest job I've ever had. Everyone there was really nice...They even have a lab people can use when things are quiet/slow.

Mike-Mike

where is this NOC job? Louisville? if not, where is this NOC that hires people in Louisville?

and congrats!

ehnde

Yessir this NOC is in Louisville, I'll PM ya.

Essendon

Congratulations!! Glad things worked out for you.

Learn as much as you can and try not to waste any downtime you have during your night shift. Many organizations do their changes at night, shadow the tech that comes out to implement the change, look over their shoulder and offer to help them. Show genuine interest (without being too pesky) and they might just might offload some of the basic tasks to you. Good luck and you definitely deserved this!

ehnde

Essendon wrote: »

Congratulations!! Glad things worked out for you.

Learn as much as you can and try not to waste any downtime you have during your night shift. Many organizations do their changes at night, shadow the tech that comes out to implement the change, look over their shoulder and offer to help them. Show genuine interest (without being too pesky) and they might just might offload some of the basic tasks to you. Good luck and you definitely deserved this!

Thanks, solid advice They told me I probably wouldn't get configuration access for the first 2 or 3 months. I will do just as you described, and also hopefully I can bring in reading material (like Cisco Press books).

-DeXteR-

Congrats! Nice inspiration to others !

Hypntick

Well done on the job! Hopefully it's everything you want it to be.

MickQ

Wahay! Congrats!

ehnde

Thanks guys, and another thing I forgot to mention. The final total on job applications was 30, and I got an interview with two different companies out of those 30 job apps.

I never went out of my way trying to contact companies following up on job applications, with the exception of asking the recruiter who got me this job if he'd heard anything from the ISP a day after doing a phone interview.

On a scale of 1 - 10, 1 being little to no effort, and 10 being maximum effort trying to get a job, I would give myself a 5.5 out of 10. This being only the actual job seeking process. I'm not counting the work of getting a degree or certifications

boxvic

Glad things are working out for you.

I actually just put in an application to go back to OCTC. I'm not giving up on finding a full-time position; but I'm coming to the conclusion that I won't be finding anything "career" oriented in electronics or industrial maintenance. So if I can just find something full-time that pays some bills (I'm too old to still be living at home dang it, I want to make enough to pay rent!) I'll be happy for a while.

Apparently you can get the AAS IT: Network Administration degree totally online through KCTCS; so that is the route I'm going. I figure that way it won't matter where I end up working come August, I can still take classes.

Pishof

It's a hard time finding any sort of decent employment in Owensboro. I've had a couple steady jobs for years across the river so it's never been an issue for me but my girlfriend hasn't had much luck past retail.

She's just graduated OCTC and we're moving to Evansville next month for more opportunity.

One place that's hiring is ATT in Evansville. It's phone support but pays 12-13$ an hour starting and has frequent raises with great benefits. I'd recommend that to anyone looking for a fulltime job to just work while getting some customer service skills and finishing out school.

ehnde

Pishof wrote: »

It's a hard time finding any sort of decent employment in Owensboro. I've had a couple steady jobs for years across the river so it's never been an issue for me but my girlfriend hasn't had much luck past retail.

She's just graduated OCTC and we're moving to Evansville next month for more opportunity.

One place that's hiring is ATT in Evansville. It's phone support but pays 12-13$ an hour starting and has frequent raises with great benefits. I'd recommend that to anyone looking for a fulltime job to just work while getting some customer service skills and finishing out school.

If you finish your B.S. and get some experience I have a feeling you wouldn't have any trouble at all finding a job in Owensboro 3 - 5 years from now. Especially with that new hospital being built.

veritas_libertas

Congratulations on the new job!

I really think this thread should be turned into a sticky. You did a great job of laying out a plan for recent graduates on how to pursue employment in IT.

boxvic

Pishof wrote: »

It's a hard time finding any sort of decent employment in Owensboro. I've had a couple steady jobs for years across the river so it's never been an issue for me but my girlfriend hasn't had much luck past retail.

She's just graduated OCTC and we're moving to Evansville next month for more opportunity.

One place that's hiring is ATT in Evansville. It's phone support but pays 12-13$ an hour starting and has frequent raises with great benefits. I'd recommend that to anyone looking for a fulltime job to just work while getting some customer service skills and finishing out school.

I've looked at stuff in Evansville, but I'm wary of making the move if I'm going to have to settle for something in the 10-12 dollar range. I mean I'm sure its possible, I've heard rent is cheaper in Evansville; but I know some people I went to high school with that did it and they are barely scraping by pay check to pay check.