New Job Update

I'm finishing up my first week at the new job and thought I would write about it.

Since my new job has a 90 day probation period, I decided to keep my old job for the first 90 days in case it's not a good fit. I'm basically working from 11pm-7:30am at the old job Mon-Fri and 8:30am-3pm Mon-Thurs, 8:30am-5pm Fri, and 8am-5pm Sat at the new job. So far though, I have to say I really enjoy it. My old job didn't really give me the hands-on experience in diverse technologies that I would have liked to have had and the new job is completely the opposite. I don't even know what job title would encompass everything I'm doing in the new role. I'll be doing system administration for existing clients, network design for new clients, network engineer work for new and existing network infrastructure, server maintenance, VM administration work, network security, R&D for the creation of new and innovative products, project management, scripting, etc, etc, etc. I'm working with every product I've ever seen or heard of: Citrix, Netscaler, VMware, Unix, Juniper, Baracuda, Cisco Pix firewall, AD, Linux, etc, etc, etc. My new boss is giving me a list of certifications to pick up so in the next month I'll be studying for the CCA (If anyone could recommend some good books for this one, I'd appreciate it) then I'll move onto the MCITP:EA and the CCNP.

I feel like I should be intimidated but all I can feel is excited about all the things I'm going to learn. My old job was good for getting me through school since they gave tuition reimbursement and they allowed me to have tons of free time during the day to study, but I hit the limit of what I was going to learn by the third month of working there. I've always had technolust when it came to learning new technology and I don't think I'll be bored at this job anytime remotely soon.

Anyways, I've been up all night working and I'm probably going on and on too much but I just wanted to share that things are going well and write an optimistic post. I would have never gotten this far without the wise advice of some of the regulars on here. After sitting in a holding position for so long while waiting to get through school, it's finally nice to be moving ahead.

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Comments

N2IT

Awesome opportunity and wise decision holding onto your position until you have verified this position is for you.

Keep us posted on your new gig, it sounds like a great chance to really master a lot of technologies. Plus an employer pushing for certifications is a good sign imo.

rwmidl

While I say congrats that you are enjoying your new job, with those hours I'd be very careful about not burning yourself out with lack of sleep/rest.

blargoe

Congrats on the new gig! It sounds like you should pick up a lot of great experience in your new role. You will probably be very happy there.

Iristheangel

Thanks, rwmidl. My hours at the new job were supposed to be 8am-6pm Monday-Friday but I told my new boss that I wanted to keep both jobs until the end of the introductory period so we could both know its a good fit. To accommodate me, he gave me short days Monday-Thursday and lets me come in on Saturday to do server maintenance. That gives me enough time between jobs to get a good 7 hours of sleep in and my graveyard job is EXTREMELY easy so I think I'm burnout-safe for now.

VAHokie56

That is really cool of your new boss to accommodate, grats on the spot!

swild

I think that 3 months is a reasonable amount of time to pull off that schedule. Anything more than that would definitely be taking its toll on me. In the mean time, you should be making quite the nest egg for future studies or fun time.

Let us know it goes for you.

Iristheangel

Heh. That nest egg will probably go towards a vacation with the SO. She deserves it. She's been an AMAZING support for all my crazy schedules and studying that I've been doing for the last 3 years.

the_Grinch

Congrats and lots of props for doing the two jobs! I'm normally cranky, so any less sleep and the few people that can stand me would probably toss me in the river outside my building. Sounds like an awesome place to be and very nice that the technologies they have you working/certing on actually fit all together. Keep us up to date and again congrats! Now go get some sleep!

rwmidl

Excellent! Congrats (also looking forward to hearing your results for the CISSP!)

ChooseLife

First, congrats on the new job! Sounds very exciting.

Second, ensure you have as much sleep/rest as possible as doing two full-time jobs will be extremely difficult. You probably don't need to hang on to the old job for the entire duration of the probation period, cause by the two-month mark you should have an idea whether things are working out for you. Also, you could consider reducing hours at the old job to the minimum just to have safety net/continuous employment history.

Best of luck!

YuckTheFankees

That's awesome you're able to work with so many technologies. Stay strong for the next 3 months

Legacy User

sounds like a great opportunity! I did the 2 job thing for 3 months kept my old job as a weekend gig. until they gave me a hard time since i had to take off a couple of saturdays to get my wisdom teeth removed. I called it quits at that point dont need the aggravation as I was hanging around to help them out.

MrBishop

Excellent post and damn, you're a workaholic with all those hours. The new job role seems to give you the perfect opportunity to gain a lot of experience working on many difference technologies. Good luck and remember that sleeping is a good thing!

Iristheangel

Three months isn't too long of a time to be doing it. The only thing that's kind of a pain is trying to find time to get my capstone done. I already procrastinate when it comes to writing papers so finding the time to bang out a 25-50 page paper is becoming daunting

onesaint

First, congrats on the new position. You've really taken great steps to land this position and deserve it. Not to mention the recent certs, WGU, and all that. Your ambition is commendable. Plus, your new employer sounds fantastic.

On the double shifts, certs, and capstone; I would line your tasks/certs up one at a time and do what it takes to knock them out (mostly referring to the capstone). Take advantage of the slow night position and knock out what you can. Also, get some sleep.

Keep us updated on your progress.

Iristheangel

I'm actually pretty discouraged by the capstone. I don't know if it's just being tired or being a procrastinator. I've finished the "summary" of the proposal and I'm at the "review of other work" and just hit writer's block. It's hard to get motivated to do this thing

onesaint

What are your rewards when it's completed? WGU done, BSIT, task completion (not on your shoulders anymore), don't have to pay another 3K for next term, etc. Take some small steps with it. Have a goal of writing 1-2 pages a day, minimum. Some days write 1 others 2. Lay out when you want this done by, keeping your minimum pace in mind (1 pg. per day). And write out your rewards for completion all over the place as a reminder. Heck, schedule that nest egg vacation as a reward for capstone completion. Although, I think you might have to put it off for a while with the new job.

the_Grinch

I always tell people to do whatever it is you do to clear you're head. Sometimes you just need to clear everything out and then begin again. For some people it's a trip to the beach to sit and stare at the waves. For me, it's a nice long drive cruising at 60 and then stopping at a shrine. Always quiet and usually very few people, I just sit and daydream. Always seems to help me.

itguy7

the_Grinch wrote: »

I always tell people to do whatever it is you do to clear you're head. Sometimes you just need to clear everything out and then begin again. For some people it's a trip to the beach to sit and stare at the waves. For me, it's a nice long drive cruising at 60 and then stopping at a shrine. Always quiet and usually very few people, I just sit and daydream. Always seems to help me.

Truly wise. Thank you.

tprice5

You are in a very enviable position. Congratulations on landing what sounds like an encredible job.

swild

Iristheangel wrote: »

I'm actually pretty discouraged by the capstone. I don't know if it's just being tired or being a procrastinator. I've finished the "summary" of the proposal and I'm at the "review of other work" and just hit writer's block. It's hard to get motivated to do this thing

The capstone is tough. I just got my Tech Writing pass and am glad to have it behind me. I submitted my Capstone and am waiting on that pass.

Make sure you have at least 7 other works to review or you won't get full credit.

Iristheangel

7 other works? Whatttttttt? it doesn't say that in the rubric or instructions. The review is only supposed to be 2-4 pages long. My capstone is going to be about building a network for "my" company. Basically just setting up and securing the network equipment. I have a full CCNP lab so the legwork won't be that hard. Thanks to this site, I was able to find a really comprehensive blog from someone doing their CCIE and I figured that could be my other work to review since this guy has like 4 years of network and labbing info posted.

Scamceno

congrats Iris, I just wanted to say your quite the inspirational individual.

itangel

Congrats Iris! I am also on a new job doing so much more than I did before is really exciting. Talk about playing with all kinds of OC systems,Sonet, Junipers, Extremes, T-Marc, Cisco etc.... I feel I get better hands on experience and will allow me to obtain some nice certs in the long run. I am also building a new lab with all kinds of hardware. I will be posting pictures on my album soon once i get it finished. But I am really glad for you and good luck on your new job.

Iristheangel

Nice! I always like seeing everyone's home lab. I have an album on my TE profile that shows all the nerdom/home labbing going on in my house. I have four times as many computers than rooms in my flat

itangel

Iristheangel wrote: »

Nice! I always like seeing everyone's home lab. I have an album on my TE profile that shows all the nerdom/home labbing going on in my house. I have four times as many computers than rooms in my flat

LOL! Nice, I got to check it out here soon. I am the same way love checking other people labs as well.

swild

Iristheangel wrote: »

7 other works? Whatttttttt? it doesn't say that in the rubric or instructions. The review is only supposed to be 2-4 pages long. My capstone is going to be about building a network for "my" company. Basically just setting up and securing the network equipment. I have a full CCNP lab so the legwork won't be that hard. Thanks to this site, I was able to find a really comprehensive blog from someone doing their CCIE and I figured that could be my other work to review since this guy has like 4 years of network and labbing info posted.

Yeah, I know. If it would have said 7, I would have submitted the first time with 7. Oh and when it says "goals and objectives" it means more than one of each. I had a goal to "explore the hardware, software, and policies" and an objective to "provide hardware, software, and policy recommendations". This is one goal and one objective, according to TaskStream. So I changed it to "one goal is to explore the hardware. another goal is to explore the software", etc. This is what they wanted. My final paper is horribly written and organized because of these little nit-picky things that they want. This is not a paper that I would publish as is, even though it is on a topic that I plan to continue research on.

Iristheangel

Thank you SSSSOOOO much for this information, swild. I really needed it. I spent the last three weeks starting, stopping, deleting, rewriting my introduction because I thought I HAD to write X amount of pages. Ugh. I hate page minimums because I feel the pressure to add unnecessary fluff

netsysllc

I think it depends on the grader and your paper. I was not asked to do that for my capstone and I got a nearly perfect score on it.