What do you do?

I think it would be quite interesting to see the spread of IT concentrations on this forum, plus it's interesting to see what people do for a living. I've tried my best to make the poll an encompassing as possible, without having too many options. If your job falls into two categories, pick the one that consumes the majority of your time and make a post. So, what do you do? (not what you aspire to do, but what you currently do)

For me, I do desktop support with a few forays into systems administration.

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Comments

Knives Out

Nice poll!

I am a network admin and a videoconferencing MCU admin/support.

ColbyG

Since there's no "Network Engineer" option I guess I'll pick net tech/admin... but, for the record, it makes me sad.

Kaminsky

Since there is no pure comms I put network admin. Closest thing I guess.

I look after our data centre comms rooms for our 7 data centres in the south of england. About 250+ pure comms room 42u cabs that bring client traffic in and out of my company's data centres. About 15,000+ 42u cabs in all our tech halls combined just in southern uk. (2nd largest it outsourcer in the world apparantly) I also look after the hand off circuits in pop sites we have in global switch and telecity sites which handle 90% of the internet traffic into the uk.

My first day show around and "you'll be looking after this" was sum scary sh*t !!!

Comms is the lowest of the network disciplines. Stick a NTU box in. Carrier commissions a circuit to it. I run cables from it to where the client hand off router is and then server lads run from router and put the rest of the client gear and wiring in. For me, it's about 10+ new client circuits (from pstn, 64k to 30gb) regularly a month across all sites. Server install guys never stop.

EDIT: When I get home and tell the mrs and the kids, they just yawn and put the cartoons on. /sigh

forkvoid

ColbyNA wrote: »

Since there's no "Network Engineer" option I guess I'll pick net tech/admin... but, for the record, it makes me sad.

Ever worked with real, true engineers, the kind who hold state-regulated PE licenses? Most of my friends are engineers, and calling yourself a 'network engineer' REALLY sets them off. So, force of habit that the option isn't there.

ColbyG

forkvoid wrote: »

Ever worked with real, true engineers, the kind who hold state-regulated PE licenses? Most of my friends are engineers, and calling yourself a 'network engineer' REALLY sets them off. So, force of habit that the option isn't there.

That's pretty silly.

GAngel

ColbyNA wrote: »

That's pretty silly.

Same here they really get pissy. If you don't have a P.Eng according to them you're not an engineer.

Paul Boz

Security consulting / services rendered. Pen testing, social engineering, IT audits, risk assessments, vulnerability assessment, physical security assessment, etc.

veritas_libertas

GAngel wrote: »

Same here they really get pissy. If you don't have a P.Eng according to them you're not an engineer.

I work with engineers daily, and that attitude does not at all surprise me. They can be very cranky. In fact, I once had an engineer try to start argument with me over whether or not the pixel density of an LCD screen would work for him

I could be wrong, but my experience is that engineers think they can understand anything.

vCole

veritas_libertas wrote: »

I work with engineers daily, and that attitude does not at all surprise me. They can be very cranky. In fact, I once had an engineer try to start argument with me over whether or not the pixel density of an LCD screen would work for him I could be wrong, but my experience is that engineers think they can understand anything.

I work with Plastics engineers daily - so I feel your pain.

Paul Boz

"real engineer" VS "network engineer" stems from "real engineers" going to college for 4-6 years then passing an accredited exam to get their title. It is the same argument of formal education VS self taught with certs that has been going on for years.

drainey

Help Desk/Desktop support currently

Formerly Sys/Net Admin (before the economic crash and a layoff).

ilcram19-2

GAngel wrote: »

Same here they really get pissy. If you don't have a P.Eng according to them you're not an engineer.

Come on guys is just a title only for IT. real engineer are another story

ColbyG

Paul Boz wrote: »

"real engineer" VS "network engineer" stems from "real engineers" going to college for 4-6 years then passing an accredited exam to get their title. It is the same argument of formal education VS self taught with certs that has been going on for years.

I get the argument, but it's still silly. If you engineer something, you can be called an engineer, IMO.

Bl8ckr0uter

ilcram19-2 wrote: »

Come on guys is just a title only for IT. real engineer are another story

I mean I can see their point though. If I went through intense schooling for 4-8 years so I can be crowned an engineer, I would be pissed if some dude who went out in 6 months and got some certification was given the same title.

Maybe IT workers should be call Network Doctors or how about PC Surgeons.

Paul Boz

ColbyNA wrote: »

I get the argument, but it's still silly. If you engineer something, you can be called an engineer, IMO.

The next time I go to the bathroom I'm going to say I'm "engineering" some sewer pickles.

chrisone

You need the Network Engineer position. This is a tech IT forum, not an engineer forum. Your asking IT people about their job positions, Network Engineer is definitely one of them.

broc

In many countries (mainly mainland Europe), the title can only be used by people who obtained an engineering degree, it is illegal to call yourself an engineer without such a degree.

If you apply to a job in France and call yourself a network engineer because you have a CCNP (or a CCIE for that matter), it will be consider a lie.

I live in England now and it seems everybody can be an "engineer", I even met a plumber who called himself a plumbing engineer...

But to get back on topic, I voted Security (and no I am not a security engineer...:D)

chrisone

knwminus wrote: »

I mean I can see their point though. If I went through intense schooling for 4-8 years so I can be crowned an engineer, I would be pissed if some dude who went out in 6 months and got some certification was given the same title.

Maybe IT workers should be call Network Doctors or how about PC Surgeons.

i went to college for 4 years too, studied another 3 years to get my ccna/ccnp. Probably going to study another 2 years for CCIE Written and Lab. I dont care how jealous they get, i will put our networking material up against theirs in a heart beat as being just as hard.

RouteThisWay

broc wrote: »

In many countries (mainly mainland Europe), the title can only be used by people who obtained an engineering degree, it is illegal to call yourself an engineer without such a degree.

If you apply to a job in France and call yourself a network engineer because you have a CCNP (or a CCIE for that matter), it will be consider a lie.
)

Wasn't this one of the reasons stemming behind the whole renaming of the MCSE? People upset about the Engineer in the title?

forkvoid

broc wrote: »

In many countries (mainly mainland Europe), the title can only be used by people who obtained an engineering degree, it is illegal to call yourself an engineer without such a degree.

If you apply to a job in France and call yourself a network engineer because you have a CCNP (or a CCIE for that matter), it will be consider a lie.

I live in England now and it seems everybody can be an "engineer", I even met a plumber who called himself a plumbing engineer...

But to get back on topic, I voted Security (and no I am not a security engineer...:D)

Some US states have similar rules, though it does not seem to be enforced, aka, I've never met a hiring manager bat an eye at 'Network Engineer' on a resume.

ColbyNA wrote:

If you engineer something, you can be called an engineer, IMO.

Totally agree. Silly cranky engineers. Maybe they're just upset that their first employer starts their orientation with "All that stuff you learned in school? Forget it. It's useless.", thus negating their four-six years of schooling and all the work that went into the PE to begin with(you can't obtain a PE without graduating from an ABIT-accredited program).

chrisone wrote:

You need the Network Engineer position. This is a tech IT forum, not an engineer forum. Your asking IT people about their job positions, Network Engineer is definitely one of them.

I totally agree with calling someone a network engineer; I've done it before. It's not listed due to force of habit, not my disagreement.

Met44

Same reason Microsoft Canada wanted the MCSE title changed, no?

I think it's a bit silly looking at the whole picture, but I understand see why a state accredited engineer, who was awarded that particular title from their efforts, might be upset. I don't blame the engineer, except for not realizing how silly it is -- after all, the accreditation instution was a little short sighted in coming up with that phrasing. It's not like the word "engineer" is a new thing. Engineer of what? If you don't procure cannons, or at least a solid trebuchet, surely you are not deserving of the title.

Imagine if Cisco or Juniper had a lockdown on the words "Associate", "Professional", and "Expert" from their certification tracks and it were the accepted norm and that it had been that way for years. Or better yet, "Architect" out of the new CCA. If some "Very Good Structural Integrity Modeller for Houses" started referring to himself as an "Expert Architect", I can see some CCIEs and prospective CCAs getting their feathers ruffled up pretty well.

Then again, my company bills my time to the US govt as a "Network Engineer". I hope no one was expecting me to weld a network together, hehe.

ilcram19-2

Engineering is the discipline, art and profession of acquiring and applying technical, scientific and mathematical knowledge to design and implement materials, structures, machines, devices, systems, and processes that safely realize a desired objective or inventions.

i guess we all engineers

ColbyG

Paul Boz wrote: »

The next time I go to the bathroom I'm going to say I'm "engineering" some sewer pickles.

Works for me. We'll call you a turd engineer.

NightShade03

I work with a network manager and he calls himself an engineer....kind of wrong in my opinion because he isn't....

chrisone

ColbyNA wrote: »

Works for me. We'll call you a turd engineer.

lol funny...

Kaminsky

I spent 3 years at university, 4 years before that at college and before that, lots of years doing other things. I still am on the lowest rung of networking.

In my experience you get some that say they are different because they spent so much time at study getting an academic certificate that makes them a such 'n such and those that haven't done that time in academic study, are no way as good ... is such complete BS !!

We have a guy in our central team that hasn't got any college/university study or any cisco/junper/microsoft/etc certificate to his name. Senior core network techies I spent time with reckon this guy could go to Brussels and run through the CCIE practical (closest place you can take it in the uk) tomorrow and pass with flying colours. I met him once and I believe them. The guy who told me had just failed his final practical CCIE by 5% the week before. The no cert guy is the one, completely unassuming guy by the way, that the whole company looks to when it comes to running a global, multi client network. All client designs must be passed by this guy and I have seen email where this guy has refused a new implemetation on a design by an up an coming network designer with the words "Refused - this design is just silly .. go away and try harder next time"... one of my heroes.

We have another guy, who I would put in the handfull of true network engineers I have ever met, who again has no qualies whatsoever and is employed to go anywhere in the world, at a moments notice, (pi$$es his wife no end so he told me) to troubleshoot network problems and fix them when we have a high severity incident. I came across him once fixing a sev 1 on my site so I stayed late with him and just listened and learnt. He was monitoring one particular gig port on a 6500 using wireshark (ethereal) and had set it up so that it dumped to a new file every 10mb of data. By the time he set that up and switched windows to look at the files created, it was already on file 3, there was that much duff traffic flowing through it. He stayed there all night and by 7.30am he had figured out what the problem was just by reading wireshark packets and told the net ops what needed correcting ..... To me .. that is an engineer ! I didn't get to find out what the problem was. I got to work at 9am and the guy was already on a plane to Berlin on another sev 1. </bow>

We can all hype ourselves up to be whatever we want to make others think we are. We can all do it. Blind them with our superiority, rank, time served or technical nmenonics that makes all the possible questions go away.... It's the unsing heros that are the engineers, in my mind. Come to me with whatever bit of paper you want.... Proof is in the pudding as the old women say... The rest of us are just wannabe's without the talent or the determination or the sacrifice, that try to put ourselves in the same league !

Now lets get back to the thread ... what do you do ?

forkvoid

Kaminsky wrote: »

We have a guy in our central team that hasn't got any college/university study or any cisco/junper/microsoft/etc certificate to his name. Senior core network techies I spent time with reckon this guy could go to Brussels and run through the CCIE practical (closest place you can take it in the uk) tomorrow and pass with flying colours. I met him once and I believe them. The guy who told me had just failed his final practical CCIE by 5% the week before. The no cert guy is the one, completely unassuming guy by the way, that the whole company looks to when it comes to running a global, multi client network. All client designs must be passed by this guy and I have seen email where this guy has refused a new implemetation on a design by an up an coming network designer with the words "Refused - this design is just silly .. go away and try harder next time"... one of my heroes.

We have another guy, who I would put in the handfull of true network engineers I have ever met, who again has no qualies whatsoever and is employed to go anywhere in the world, at a moments notice, (pi$$es his wife no end so he told me) to troubleshoot network problems and fix them when we have a high severity incident. I came across him once fixing a sev 1 on my site so I stayed late with him and just listened and learnt. He was monitoring one particular gig port on a 6500 using wireshark (ethereal) and had set it up so that it dumped to a new file every 10mb of data. By the time he set that up and switched windows to look at the files created, it was already on file 3, there was that much duff traffic flowing through it. He stayed there all night and by 7.30am he had figured out what the problem was just by reading wireshark packets and told the net ops what needed correcting ..... To me .. that is an engineer ! I didn't get to find out what the problem was. I got to work at 9am and the guy was already on a plane to Berlin on another sev 1. </bow>

I would love to have at least few years of doing those jobs. Those guys are awesome.

ilcram19-2

i mean i been also going to school but the only thing good that i learned at school (and im still going) was read and writte, i been working in IT since i was 13 i met alot of people that they've graduated from university with engeeners degrees and a 15 year old boy (me) was making more money than them and they would get pissed. all that i've leanred was on experiance school and certs they just papers that prove it. to me school is crap they dont teach you ****!!! is just for us to fit in sociaty and to say that we have acomplished something which is just a paper and a waste of years and years of time. We are what i called self-sustained slaves, but oh well people wont learn any ways we are used to living this way and no one wants to make a change so lets keep working for the rest of our lives and get a slap on our face once we are 60, "" but i have a degree and lots of certs and over 40 years of experiance

"" lol no one cares

msteinhilber

It's really difficult to make a single selection for me. We have over 40 sites and around 1200 users now with 3 of us supporting everything. One of our guy's is basically helpdesk and desktop repair but occasionally messes around with other things if you help him through it (preconfigure a router for him to swap, etc).

Me and the other guy handle anything from simple things like setting up new users or backing up and wiping spyware infected machines to administering servers both Windows and Linux, Cisco routers and ASA's, HP switches, etc. Really the jack of all trades type role.

NinjaBoy

I'm just below the "Executive(CIO/CTO/Director)" option, an IT Manager. However I'm also hands on doing anything from helpdesk/servicedesk to systems/network administration/engineering with the rest of the team.

-Ken