What is your job/ what do you do there

JoeSTech

Just curious to learn what some of the IT field jobs are like and what I should learn for certain jobs. Thanks

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Paul Boz

I'm the lead security engineer for a large nation-wide enterprise (25k+ users and systems, 200+ locations). I'm on a security team of about five guys. My primary job duties include management of our perimeter security (firewalls, VPN, and IPS modules), secure configuration creation for various deployments (Windows 7, Server 2008 recently), security oversight on internally developed applications and services, forensic evaluations, and general security-related maintenance tasks.

Its hard to really put a finger on what I "do" because I'm all over the place all the time. For example, one project I'm working on right now is providing security oversight for the integration of an imaging system into an HR system. Its a large-scale deployment and I don't know anything about either system, but I have to analyze the deployment and look for security faults, then provide remediation advice. Another example would be creating a secure baseline for Windows 7. I don't have any Microsoft certifications and I've never been a sysadmin by trade, but I was tasked with making a complete secure baseline (over 300 GPOs) for deployment on future devices. I was assigned that task two weeks ago and we've already got the config in the test environment. Its in some places more hardened than the CIS "secure" config. I'm pretty proud of that

JoeSTech

Paul Boz wrote: »

I'm the lead security engineer for a large nation-wide enterprise (25k+ users and systems, 200+ locations). I'm on a security team of about five guys. My primary job duties include management of our perimeter security (firewalls, VPN, and IPS modules), secure configuration creation for various deployments (Windows 7, Server 2008 recently), security oversight on internally developed applications and services, forensic evaluations, and general security-related maintenance tasks.

Its hard to really put a finger on what I "do" because I'm all over the place all the time. For example, one project I'm working on right now is providing security oversight for the integration of an imaging system into an HR system. Its a large-scale deployment and I don't know anything about either system, but I have to analyze the deployment and look for security faults, then provide remediation advice. Another example would be creating a secure baseline for Windows 7. I don't have any Microsoft certifications and I've never been a sysadmin by trade, but I was tasked with making a complete secure baseline (over 300 GPOs) for deployment on future devices. I was assigned that task two weeks ago and we've already got the config in the test environment. Its in some places more hardened than the CIS "secure" config. I'm pretty proud of that

I was thinking of going in the security direction.

eansdad

I'm a computer technician by title and jack of all trades but duties. I work for one of the largest school districts in South Jersey with 10k+ students, 2k+ staff and 6k+ PCs. In my own world (one of the high schools) I am responsible for a user base of 1600 students, 150 staff and about 700 PCs. I do everything password resets, building and deploying images, group policy, software testing and deployment, running cable, configuring switches etc .. you can get the point. Of the many fun things I get to do I am currently setting up a deployment for AutoCAD 2011. Were it might have been easier to just walk around with a disk I'm trying to get it done the right way through group policy and a network license server. I'm also working on packaging and deploying Turbo C++ (because the teacher doesn't want to use Visual Studio 2010). I'm also working on upgrading the XP boxes to 7 (only about 25% done on that). It's a lot of work but I get to do a lot more then your typical desktop support type.

In my years of working in IT and going through various companies I've learned that you will always have to learn something new. Learn how to program in a few different languages (I'm currently working on Python and have taken a few classes on VB), learn about active directory and group policy, learn about other operating systems. Learn whatever you can get your hands on because you never know what you might use down the line.

Essendon

I'm a Systems Engineer for a government company. Over 150 servers (2003 and a few 2000 boxes), 2500+ computers, multi-domain forest. Huge variety of apps scattered on numerous servers (thankfully we only provide some support for these apps)

Usually break/fix of AD, DNS, DHCP, GPO's, Print Services, some Citrix and teeny-weeny bit of HP SAN stuff. Nothing spectacular, but I want the experience to put on the resume.

shodown

network engineer on a network of 35K+ users. I design new sites from end to end. Provide Tier 3 support for our NOC, implement new technologies, and put out fires.

Aldur

I work for Juniper and I am currently a Resident Engineer stationed in Edmonton Canada doing network consulting for TELUS' design group.

I'm right in the middle of changing jobs though, as many people here know. I'll still be apart of Juniper but with the title of Cirriculum Developer. This role involves developing the Juniper courseware and working with certification development. And it's strictly a work-home-job, so no commuting or getting up early to make it to work.

cablegod

IT Operations Manager, and I do anything & everything. I'm more of a "working" manager than a people manager.

CrapMasterZero

Security Engineering/C&A Support for the federal government on a major program. Nothing technical (hands-on) but require IA knowledge as we are the government representatives on the contract and need to make sure that the contractors are implementing security correctly. The contractor's incentive is in saving money...while we (the government) have to ensure that the system is safe against our adversaries. Can't really go into much more detail.

it_consultant

I am a consultant for the SMB market in Denver. My specialties are Exchange and general network design and optimization. Lately I have put a lot of focus on data leak protection since a few of my clients are MD offices.

veritas_libertas

IT Operations Specialist

I deal with desktop support issues, manage/update images for our laptops, and administrate our Checkpoint Full Disk Encryption system.

thenjduke

I am Network Administrator for a large medical group. I am responsible with 3 other administrators for 5000 users and 300+ servers. My primary dutires include alot of things with LAN / WAN and AD. I do some exchange as well.

undomiel

I'm a senior engineer for a consulting company in Phoenix in the SMB area. Companies we support range from 5 - 2000 users. I mostly work on Exchange and Hyper-V designs and support, though there is a good bit of work with Cisco and Sonicwall networks these days. Sometimes I have to step in and do some desktop support when the front lines have been completely overrun. I don't enjoy that part but the cluster work is pretty fun.

xenodamus

I'm a Desktop Support Analyst for a hospital. We have around 2000 users/PC's. My job duties include all the basic Desktop Support tasks (hardware, OS, email clients, printers, scanners) as well as minor AD stuff for user accounts/permissions. We just started deploying WYSE thin clients on our network that pull virtual machines from VMware and applications from Citrix. I've gotten to lead the deployment of these clients and work closely with the admins doing the back end infrastructure lately.

falcon101

I am a full hands-on IT Manager for a Real Estate/Escrow firm with about 12 sites in SoCal. About 1000 users and 20 Servers. The environment is a mixture of ALL Windows Server (AD) and Desktop, Linux and Mac OSX, Fortinet Firewalls, KERIO.

My actual job description should be:

Sys/Net Admin, HelpDesk Support, IT Purchasing and Contract Management and so on. I do everything IT related but Telcom and Software programming.

Its a challenging job since I do it all with the help of an occasional Consultant for bigger projects but it has its fun.

JoeSTech

nice seems like you all have a good job

Mike-Mike

cablegod wrote: »

IT Operations Manager

I learned about you in my ITIL V3 Foundations class

phantasm

I function at the Tier II level in a NOC performing a wide range of configuration and hardware troubleshooting. Tier I escalates to me and the other Tier II's and we fix it. If for some reason it's beyond us it goes to Tier III, if it's beyond them it goes to the Engineers. If it's beyond them... well... I would hate to have my name in the ticket. lol.

ArabianKnight

I'm unemployed and spend way to much time on TE!

docrice

My title is Senior Systems Engineer. I don't know what that means, except that I push buttons for a living.

cablegod

Mike-Mike wrote: »

I learned about you in my ITIL V3 Foundations class

Uh oh..... That sounds bad. Haha, titles really means nothing at my company. 70% of the company is at "Director" level with "Director or Manager" in their titles, yet they "direct and manage" absolutely nothing. Me? I'm just the IT department. My CFO that I report to set that title, since I really am the "IT" department, but with budgetary, contract signing, and decision-making authority, as well as Oracle DBA duties. I do it all, and at times, am way over my head swamped with work. My work week will vary from the normal "45" hours to 100+ hours, depending on what's hit the fan. It is fun though.

Bl8ckr0uter

cablegod wrote: »

My work week will vary from the normal "45" hours to 100+ hours, depending on what's hit the fan. It is fun though.

Dude, how? That seems extremely stressful. I hope they are paying you well $$$

cablegod

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

I hope they are paying you well $$$

Oh they do, but I thoroughly enjoy my work too. It's win-win to me. I put in most of the overtime via SSL-VPN (Juniper SA by the way) from home, but my office/datacenter is only about 7 miles from home. All servers have lights-out or DRAC cards, so I can do baremetal recovery & fresh server build-outs remotely. I do have a good work & family life balance. It's not that hard nor stressful, at least to me. I guess it's not stressful when you love it as much as I do, not saying that you don't, but it works for me. Those 100+ hour weeks are rare though. I average about 50 a week.

Bl8ckr0uter

cablegod wrote: »

I guess it's not stressful when you love it as much as I do, not saying that you don't, but it works for me.

There is only one thing I love enough to do 100 hours a week but she would probably chafe up and my member would fall off at some point.

cablegod

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

There is only one thing I love enough to do 100 hours a week but she would probably chafe up and my member would fall off at some point.

Haha, + rep for that one!

L0gicB0mb508

Bl8ckr0uter wrote: »

There is only one thing I love enough to do 100 hours a week but she would probably chafe up and my member would fall off at some point.

That's a lot of sessions at 10 seconds a pop.

Bl8ckr0uter

L0gicB0mb508 wrote: »

That's a lot of sessions at 10 seconds a pop.

Wait, you can go for 10 seconds?

rwmidl

I'm a systems integration analyst for a contractor. I help design, test and implement Windows security policy and GPO's for a pretty big entity. Also when they are implementing our recommendations and have issues with it (ie they break something) I look at the issue and see if it is something with the policy, or how it was implemented. We also write (not me but the developers I work with) a custom security auditing tool and I help test that. I'm also manage the windows servers in our labs (3 domains, multiple DC's, 50 or so VM's in our test lab, everything from NT to 2008 R2).

imfrom51

Security Analyst. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks, Security Engineer. Oh, and what do I actually do? Analyze Security.

N2IT

Monitoring Networks/WANS/LANS
Support several SAP modules. (PP, MM, CRM, FICO)
Support client side Windows and Office 2003 and 2007 applications along with Project and a few other application software
Also do system administration on some of our legacy mid ranges
Support HCM Peoplesoft Payroll and HR modules

BradleyHU

IS Analyst. I do desktop support.