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Left the NOC after a month
W Stewart
Member Posts: 794 ■■■■□□□□□□
So here's the first part:
I've been hating my job for the past month. It pretty much consists of sitting around until something happens and when something does happen, all I can do is try to reboot the device. If that doesn't work I have to either send a tech or escalate the issue to engineering. They also put my desk right out by the helpdesk so they could see how much time I had on my hands while they took calls all day. The busy work my manager made me do was even worse because none of it was IT related.
I was under the impression that I was hired for my linux experience but I have done nothing but sit around and make bulletins for the past month about outages usually caused by bad weather. I feel like I was given poor training and that my manager was also incompetent. He scheduled us for the less busy hours so we wouldn't be overwhelmed our first two weeks on the floor but it's so quiet that I've only gained experience in being a couch potato. And when something actually does happen I may or may not know what to do because I've barely done anything and to top it all off, I'm here by myself.
I had helpdesk asking me questions that they would ask the engineers and I didn't have the slightest clue due to the lack of training. I was honestly only going to stay because they were paying me 15 dollars an hour.
Now here's the second part:
When I got that job I received an email from another NOC job that was impressed with my linux experience and wanted to interview me. I turned it down because I already had the job and didn't want to go through the hiring process again. There have been times where I decided to just not show up for interviews but I decided not to burn bridges and politely cancelled. They told me if I ever changed my mind to give them a call.
Well after a month of working here I decided to take them up on that offer. It turns out that they were still hiring for two positions. Linux people must be really hard to come by. I went to the interview and felt the questions were a little too simple so I decided to show off my knowledge. He basically told me in the interview that I already had the job. I also asked for 16 dollars an hour and they approved it since that's what all NOC techs start out at. They showed me around and showed me the datacenter and I can tell this is going to be a place that I'll like.
There's not actually much networking outside of firewalls and cables. It's a webhosting company and the description included installing upgrading and repairing intel based servers and troubleshooting windows and linux server operating system issues along with their webhosting platform. To be honest I don't think I'm much of a networking guy anyway. I know enough to do my job but networking equipment doesn't interest me nearly as much as servers or operating systems.
Now here's the bonus:
The guy that interviewed me called me back when I got home and told me that after running it by his manager, he decided I was to knowledgeable for the position I was being hired for. They decided to bring me on as a junior administrator and bump my pay up to 18 dollars an hour. I never thought I would see my self here with a little over a year of IT experience but I've been planning and trying to make the best moves for my career and it's been paying off.
He said that they wanted to keep me happy because they didn't want to see me running off after 6 months for another job. I guess it's because I'm young and I stayed at my last two jobs for less than a year but I have a kid and I need some financial stability. I just want to make sure it's with a decent company and this company definitely seems like a great place to work. I'm just glad I'll have a chance to be awesome again like I was at my previous job working with linux. I can't feel comfortable at a job if I can't prove to my employer that I'm worth what they're paying me.
I've been hating my job for the past month. It pretty much consists of sitting around until something happens and when something does happen, all I can do is try to reboot the device. If that doesn't work I have to either send a tech or escalate the issue to engineering. They also put my desk right out by the helpdesk so they could see how much time I had on my hands while they took calls all day. The busy work my manager made me do was even worse because none of it was IT related.
I was under the impression that I was hired for my linux experience but I have done nothing but sit around and make bulletins for the past month about outages usually caused by bad weather. I feel like I was given poor training and that my manager was also incompetent. He scheduled us for the less busy hours so we wouldn't be overwhelmed our first two weeks on the floor but it's so quiet that I've only gained experience in being a couch potato. And when something actually does happen I may or may not know what to do because I've barely done anything and to top it all off, I'm here by myself.
I had helpdesk asking me questions that they would ask the engineers and I didn't have the slightest clue due to the lack of training. I was honestly only going to stay because they were paying me 15 dollars an hour.
Now here's the second part:
When I got that job I received an email from another NOC job that was impressed with my linux experience and wanted to interview me. I turned it down because I already had the job and didn't want to go through the hiring process again. There have been times where I decided to just not show up for interviews but I decided not to burn bridges and politely cancelled. They told me if I ever changed my mind to give them a call.
Well after a month of working here I decided to take them up on that offer. It turns out that they were still hiring for two positions. Linux people must be really hard to come by. I went to the interview and felt the questions were a little too simple so I decided to show off my knowledge. He basically told me in the interview that I already had the job. I also asked for 16 dollars an hour and they approved it since that's what all NOC techs start out at. They showed me around and showed me the datacenter and I can tell this is going to be a place that I'll like.
There's not actually much networking outside of firewalls and cables. It's a webhosting company and the description included installing upgrading and repairing intel based servers and troubleshooting windows and linux server operating system issues along with their webhosting platform. To be honest I don't think I'm much of a networking guy anyway. I know enough to do my job but networking equipment doesn't interest me nearly as much as servers or operating systems.
Now here's the bonus:
The guy that interviewed me called me back when I got home and told me that after running it by his manager, he decided I was to knowledgeable for the position I was being hired for. They decided to bring me on as a junior administrator and bump my pay up to 18 dollars an hour. I never thought I would see my self here with a little over a year of IT experience but I've been planning and trying to make the best moves for my career and it's been paying off.
He said that they wanted to keep me happy because they didn't want to see me running off after 6 months for another job. I guess it's because I'm young and I stayed at my last two jobs for less than a year but I have a kid and I need some financial stability. I just want to make sure it's with a decent company and this company definitely seems like a great place to work. I'm just glad I'll have a chance to be awesome again like I was at my previous job working with linux. I can't feel comfortable at a job if I can't prove to my employer that I'm worth what they're paying me.
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MAC_Addy
Member Posts: 1,740 ■■■■□□□□□□
What a great story and congratulations!2017 Certification Goals:
CCNP R/S -
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neo9006
Member Posts: 195
Congrats, sounds like a winner and you can gain that experience that you want.BAAS - Web and Media Design
Working on A+ -
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eansdad
Member Posts: 775 ■■■■□□□□□□
Congrats, good things can and do happen.
Question - $16/hr is really what they pay NOC techs is that just for rack and stack types or NOC analyst/admin positions also? -
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networker050184
Mod Posts: 11,962 Mod
Congrats on getting what you really wanted! It's not a good thing to job hop, but sometimes things just aren't a good fit. I think you made a great choice!An expert is a man who has made all the mistakes which can be made. -
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Zartanasaurus
Member Posts: 2,008 ■■■■■■■■■□
You tricked me with the title. Thought this was going to be a tale of woe. Congrats.Currently reading:
IPSec VPN Design 44%
Mastering VMWare vSphere 5 42.8% -
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QHalo
Member Posts: 1,488
Now that's a story. Good stuff man. Yeah, I keep hearing that Linux admins are tough to find as well. -
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ptilsen
Member Posts: 2,835 ■■■■■■■■■■
Awesome. I think it's best that you moved so quickly. Job-hopping looks bad, but a month is enough that you can just leave it off your resume and be done with it. Hope you like the new gig. It sounds good. -
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Death Dream
Member Posts: 149
Awesome story! I wasn't even expecting the part where they were going to bump you up to $18. Figured they'd be like "sweeeeet, $16." This seems to be a rare case, nice score! -
Optionsptilsen
Member Posts: 2,835 ■■■■■■■■■■
Honestly, that's really smart on the employer's part. Hire someone qualified to do $18 work for $16 work and they are guaranteed to leave sooner. There's way too much turnover in this industry because companies grossly under-pay employees and don't give fast enough raises.
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RouteMyPacket
Member Posts: 1,104
Congrats! Sometimes making a change is good eh?
So one thing you should now realize about your new company, they value your skillset. Now that you have your foot in the door, focus on learning your environment, document everything and make appropriate changes where needed.
I'm basically saying, if you continue to improve and show that you are learning at a fast pace i'm guessing they will continue bumping you up the ladder.Modularity and Design Simplicity:
Think of the 2:00 a.m. test—if you were awakened in the
middle of the night because of a network problem and had to figure out the
traffic flows in your network while you were half asleep, could you do it? -
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wave
Member Posts: 342
That's awesome, congratulations!
ROUTE Passed 1 May 2012
SWITCH Passed 25 September 2012
TSHOOT Passed 23 October 2012
Taking CCNA Security in April 2013 then studying for the CISSP -
Optionsinstant000
Member Posts: 1,745
Congrats!
I'm with prior posters in saying it's nice that they decided to go ahead and upgrade you now, rather than let you slip away.
Get in there and do your best.
We (LOL, claiming ownership, must really like this site) have a "LPI, RHCE, SAIR" forum here, might be interesting to you.
Hope to see you around.Currently Working: CCIE R&S
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/in/lewislampkin (Please connect: Just say you're from TechExams.Net!) -
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TLeTourneau
Member Posts: 616 ■■■■■■■■□□
Congratulations!Thanks, Tom
M.S. - Cybersecurity and Information Assurance
B.S: IT - Network Design & Management -
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Devilry
Member Posts: 668
I thought this was going to be a bummer thread, but it was a great story! Congrats on the new and improved gig. Now, remember, since they hiring manager went out to get you better money.. give him satisfaction in knowing he did the right thing by repaying him with hard work and continued education. -
OptionsIsmaeljrp
Member Posts: 480 ■■■□□□□□□□
Congratulations, that's some really motivating stuff.
