Potentially the longest thread in history...

[S0ULphIRE]

I'm not trying on purpose to be an arrogant dickbag either so -snip- clearly we disagree about the attitude you should approach jobs with.

 

[kmanmx]

What in the flying **** is up with that aesthetic choice?! Getting some serious /r/trypophobia vibes and I ain't liking it one bit :S that sub is my nightmare



Ya know, my current company is only ~55-60 users tops, we have a pretty simple list in the end and only 1 tiny remote office, but it somehow keeps all 4 IT staff pretty damn busy
I'm thinking they should replace all 4 of us with you, as we just don't understand how easy it is like you do


Picked up my first fine today -_- parked in a reserved spot without seeing the sign (cause I reversed in, and the sign was way in the back on the wall covered in dirt/grime), was only there for 20 mins but the ticket guy must've been hiding just around the corner cause he pinged me a few mins after I parked. Asshat cost me $100

55 users keeps 4 IT staff busy ? wtf ?. When you say IT staff are you all different roles or just support ? what kind of issues are you dealing with ?

We had about 50 office staff, then 2 people at each depot (5 depots), and 30 field staff. My boss did all the management politics stuff, I did all the support and server maintenance / technical project stuff, and the other guy did database analyst stuff. And, well, you've seen what i've been saying for 6 months. Hardly ever busy, probably 1 or 2 hours of work a day. Nearly everything just worked very reliably.

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Oh for ****S sake. Wrote out a giant reply and was logged out by the tiem I hit submit -_- need to get lazarus installed again.

TL;DR we have different roles (manager, sysadmin, tech support lead, junior it assistant)
I deal with all the usual tech issues + am "personal support" for ceo/wife and GM

Curious, for your old job - if I walked up to any PC in the office, could you confidently tell me before I check that all windows updates are 100% applied, browser & plugins are latest/correct versions, AV is installed & up to date, etc? That's the kind of thing expected at my current job.

A big part of it isn't just maintaining status quo tho, I have to find ways to improve the business. Just finished doing up some SQL queries for finance so that they can query the DB directly for the data they need instead of exporting credit cards one by one to separate excel files, then trying to amalgamate them all into one monstrous excel doc - was taking 20+ mins and crashing the **** out of their machines, now it takes ~4 mins and hasn't crashed once. Turns out they'd been using that system for YEARS like wtf why didn't you say anything! Turns out most office workers are dumber than a stack of bricks

 

[PP Mguire]

I'm not trying on purpose to be an arrogant dickbag either so -snip- clearly we disagree about the attitude you should approach jobs with.

If that attitude is confident in my ability to run IT for a small company with small IT needs and you're in disagreement then yes.

Oh for ****S sake. Wrote out a giant reply and was logged out by the tiem I hit submit -_- need to get lazarus installed again.

TL;DR we have different roles (manager, sysadmin, tech support lead, junior it assistant)
I deal with all the usual tech issues + am "personal support" for ceo/wife and GM

Curious, for your old job - if I walked up to any PC in the office, could you confidently tell me before I check that all windows updates are 100% applied, browser & plugins are latest/correct versions, AV is installed & up to date, etc? That's the kind of thing expected at my current job.

A big part of it isn't just maintaining status quo tho, I have to find ways to improve the business. Just finished doing up some SQL queries for finance so that they can query the DB directly for the data they need instead of exporting credit cards one by one to separate excel files, then trying to amalgamate them all into one monstrous excel doc - was taking 20+ mins and crashing the **** out of their machines, now it takes ~4 mins and hasn't crashed once. Turns out they'd been using that system for YEARS like wtf why didn't you say anything! Turns out most office workers are dumber than a stack of bricks

Bold 1 = most of your issues and we've seen you post them before. I remember the whole PC vs Mac debate and I'd wager most of the day to day issues also deal with that. Not exactly the kind of thing we were discussing specifically as it's scenario specific for you. So in that case your work load and doubt stems more from them using and abusing you than the actual work load from the company as a whole.

Bold 2 = Probably not directed at me but being a large company these are managed by a different team and in the case of my previous job we received our update packages every 2 weeks so yes I could. I applied what was approved for patching and upgrading every 2 Sundays. In the case of running IT for a company I'd use a deploy system for a 10+ device setup. Just makes things easier, with automated reboots every 7 days to make sure these are applied.

 

[kmanmx]

Sooo, I had my interview!

It went pretty well. They are interviewing about 20 candidates, so the odds are still stacked well against me.

I interviewed with the Managing Director and the Sales Director. Apparently basically the entire company is ran by pretty young people, they were only 30ish themselves. The company was founded in 2004, and since then they have increased profits every year and now are making £35m turnover per year with 70 staff. They have a new head office under construction a few miles away.

In terms of the role, essentially they wanted someone young and enthusiastic to pick up and learn new stuff. They reiterated multiple times that they do not expect someone that knows everything, they just want someone who has a good overall knowledge of most of IT who can present good ideas and shoot down the bad ones. If we decide to rollout Cisco kit, they are not expecting me to be an Cisco engineer and deploy it all, they are more than happy to bring in consultants to pick up all the more technical stuff that requires someone with certification. The problem they have right now is they are a staff of 70 who are a little technically competent, but not much so. They resell IT equipment to enterprise so they know their servers from their switches and their firewalls from their routers, but they don't really understand how to work with them etc. Their IT is also **** and old (their own admission), and they've decided the company is at a size and profitability where it needs a total revamp. Queue the IT Manager role. They want someone who can advise, asist and deploy (with outside help) a whole new IT suite. Everything from choosing and spec'ing new laptops, to advising on MDM suites, arranging exchange server migrations to O365, deploying new WiFi networks and servers etc.

Sounds like a great role that I would enjoy, and they seemed like good down to earth guys who were very realistic about what they want and expect. I think it went well, but they didn't give much away.

 

[PP Mguire]

Sooo, I had my interview!

It went pretty well. They are interviewing about 20 candidates, so the odds are still stacked well against me.

I interviewed with the Managing Director and the Sales Director. Apparently basically the entire company is ran by pretty young people, they were only 30ish themselves. The company was founded in 2004, and since then they have increased profits every year and now are making £35m turnover per year with 70 staff. They have a new head office under construction a few miles away.

In terms of the role, essentially they wanted someone young and enthusiastic to pick up and learn new stuff. They reiterated multiple times that they do not expect someone that knows everything, they just want someone who has a good overall knowledge of most of IT who can present good ideas and shoot down the bad ones. If we decide to rollout Cisco kit, they are not expecting me to be an Cisco engineer and deploy it all, they are more than happy to bring in consultants to pick up all the more technical stuff that requires someone with certification. The problem they have right now is they are a staff of 70 who are a little technically competent, but not much so. They resell IT equipment to enterprise so they know their servers from their switches and their firewalls from their routers, but they don't really understand how to work with them etc. Their IT is also **** and old (their own admission), and they've decided the company is at a size and profitability where it needs a total revamp. Queue the IT Manager role. They want someone who can advise, asist and deploy (with outside help) a whole new IT suite. Everything from choosing and spec'ing new laptops, to advising on MDM suites, arranging exchange server migrations to O365, deploying new WiFi networks and servers etc.

Sounds like a great role that I would enjoy, and they seemed like good down to earth guys who were very realistic about what they want and expect. I think it went well, but they didn't give much away.

Yup, basically what I was saying. If you last a good while it'll look damn good on your resume too. Pretty much the situation I want to stumble on myself.

 

[iFargle]

I guess PP and i are on different pages here too.
This entirely sounds like a 90-hour workweek startup.
I'd do it, but be aware your 40 hour work weeks will start to grow.

 

[kmanmx]

I guess PP and i are on different pages here too.
This entirely sounds like a 90-hour workweek startup.
I'd do it, but be aware your 40 hour work weeks will start to grow.

Well I won't be doing that, and that's all there is to it.

If there is more work than I can do, I will say so. At which point either they can hire someone to help me, or i'll leave. I don't mind doing 40 to 50 hours a week for a while, but ain't no way i'm doing 12 hour days.

To be honest I don't think they will expect that anyway. They explicitly said no weekend work and flexible approach to hours.

 

[Joe C]

I'm not positive but I think that workers in the U.K. are under a different set of rules than we are over here on the other side of the pond, as far as working hours on a salary. Please let me know kmanmx

 

[kmanmx]

I'm not positive but I think that workers in the U.K. are under a different set of rules than we are over here on the other side of the pond, as far as working hours on a salary. Please let me know kmanmx

Yes, they would struggle to legally fire someone for not working hours that were outside the scope of their contract of employment.

https://www.gov.uk/overtime-your-rights/compulsory-overtime