What do you do?

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Cad

scientia potentia est
<Bronze Donator>
25,821
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They liked to snatch up every task they could, we eventually had to split up the workload so that they had 2 server types and we had 2 (plus a new server which I took the lead on). They also liked to make sweeping design changes without consulting us.
The indians were different, they were paralyzed without detailed specs of what we wanted them to do, and they'd never take the initiative on anything. With the specs they asked us to deliver it would have been easier to write it ourselves. We had to detail the interfaces of every function, even internal utility functions. If we didn't we'd end up with a 1000 line single function. Sometimes we ended up with that anyway. The produced code would literally implement the spec whether it worked or not and whether it was a good idea or not, no brains were used while implementing. No alternatives were ever proposed. It just turned into a shit show, they did nothing helpful because they only did EXACTLY as they were told.
 

Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
14,163
607
My last project was half USA/half UK. Like Noodle my experience was pretty positive outside of the time. And the fact that UK seems to get like double the amount of national holidays as USA and I became acutely aware of that working with them daily.
 

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,359
16,249
The funny thing with china is they get 2 weeks off for the new year, but they save up vaaction time to pad that time so it's like 3 weeks they're out. Half the country travels to the other side of the country and vice versa (50 lane highways, no joke). It's crazy though because our production was in china too, so it's a 3 week blackout period for everything.
 

Tenks

Bronze Knight of the Realm
14,163
607
That isn't terribly uncommon even in the USA. My friend who worked at Honda and now at Boeing get "shutdown time." Basically they acknowledge around the holidays people are going to take off so much time that it is impossible to staff a full squad to make the cars so they just shut the plant down completely -- including the white collar people -- for 2 weeks (or maybe 1 week but twice a year? Can't 100% remember.) Obviously they get less free PTO because the shutdown times are baked into their vacation time off.
 

Vinen

God is dead
2,791
497
The funny thing with china is they get 2 weeks off for the new year, but they save up vaaction time to pad that time so it's like 3 weeks they're out. Half the country travels to the other side of the country and vice versa (50 lane highways, no joke). It's crazy though because our production was in china too, so it's a 3 week blackout period for everything.
/shiver Spring Festival

Wife and I are booking our Hotel in Shanghai a year out... so we can be there next year for it.
 

a_skeleton_03

<Banned>
29,948
29,763
In my startup our engineer is an Indian masters student up in Canada. He fucked it up bad. Just took some hobbyist boards and slapped them onto a breadboard ....
 

Draegan_sl

2 Minutes Hate
10,034
3
So after 8 months at my new job I'm looking for a new one already. GM who hired me quit after my first 40 days and all the support team, marketing and other budgets he was promising me never materialize and the higher ups in the company don't have any interest investing in my division. No one knows what's going on. The job is not really economically feasible for me.

I have two interviews set up for next week already. Started looking a few days ago.
 

Brand

Molten Core Raider
1,159
313
I'm probably the devil to most you IT guys. I come in and outsource jobs to our Follow the Sun teams in Malaysia, Slovakia, MX, and SA. If we take in a Mid-Tier company with 2000-3000 US IT workers...Within 2 years, we've winnowed that down to the core 400 critical/solid producers (first people we axe are single point of failure squatters). The rest should be converted into off-shore workers who are managed through our stringent IT process (ITIL based process of course). I'm basically a unix/linux service line manager with 60 dotted line and 12 direct line reports (US based). I moonlight internally as the DR backup lead for a few customers...

We're starting to see a reversal in out-sourcing across the board as companies in the States realize there are severe issues with divesting yourself of skilled IT that integrate Core Business and technological knowledge...but don't be fooled into IT. IT is a tradeskill...No different than being a plumber, or a carpenter. Outside of security and a few corner cases...There is no future in IT. The days of billing huge rates and running specialized companies are gone. You can make a good living, but it is no different, or more special than being a tradeworker.

One area that there is a sweet spot in the IT world is mid to high level managers who are US based...Commonly, in the past, those spots were filled by low level IT graduating up into more senior roles...But off-shoring has killed that pipeline and there are serious holes in the mid-upper area...Of course, most those roles are in major city centers and people generally want deep resumes. You might be able to bluff up into one, but that really depends on your company.

Oh yeah, anyone sending work to India (or Ireland) is backing out of it now...They are too pricey in comparison to Eastern Europe and other Asian locations. MX is getting pretty pricey as well.

Just my ramblings...You experience might vary (or your perception).
 

Palum

what Suineg set it to
27,449
43,638
My OWN father would bill me at standard rates. I've billed more on basic tech support on enterprise network hardware to "help out" much less legit engineering or development.
 

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
9,714
3,211
That isn't terribly uncommon even in the USA. My friend who worked at Honda and now at Boeing get "shutdown time." Basically they acknowledge around the holidays people are going to take off so much time that it is impossible to staff a full squad to make the cars so they just shut the plant down completely -- including the white collar people -- for 2 weeks (or maybe 1 week but twice a year? Can't 100% remember.) Obviously they get less free PTO because the shutdown times are baked into their vacation time off.
As I just started at Boeing, working on contract for Dell, this is true. Not everyone is off, as contract employees don't get the Holiday, and they do a lot of network upgrades as well, but for the most part, Boeing turns into a ghost town which is really weird.

I'm a month into my Network Tech job at Boeing, and the new and shiny has worn off. I still enjoy it, but the corporate BS and red tape is starting to shine through, and the job is pretty repetitive. I'm getting great experience though, as this is my first networking job, and when things go wrong, because the Cisco IOS config we received from the designers is wrong, we sometimes have to troubleshoot, and that experience is invaluable.

I'm working 3rd shift, 11pm-7:30am, and some nights we are done by 2am, and sit there until time to go home. There are so many approvals things have to go through in order to take the network down for anything that when done with a job for the night, we are done, regardless of how long it took.
 

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,359
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Corporate BS is annoying, for sure. Just keep your head up and realize you got a good job going and it'll get better.
 

Palum

what Suineg set it to
27,449
43,638
As I just started at Boeing, working on contract for Dell, this is true. Not everyone is off, as contract employees don't get the Holiday, and they do a lot of network upgrades as well, but for the most part, Boeing turns into a ghost town which is really weird.

I'm a month into my Network Tech job at Boeing, and the new and shiny has worn off. I still enjoy it, but the corporate BS and red tape is starting to shine through, and the job is pretty repetitive. I'm getting great experience though, as this is my first networking job, and when things go wrong, because the Cisco IOS config we received from the designers is wrong, we sometimes have to troubleshoot, and that experience is invaluable.

I'm working 3rd shift, 11pm-7:30am, and some nights we are done by 2am, and sit there until time to go home. There are so many approvals things have to go through in order to take the network down for anything that when done with a job for the night, we are done, regardless of how long it took.
Don't have such a negative perspective - learning to navigate the red tape and get things done in spite of it and with good communication skills will be worth 2-3x anything else. Murphy's law means your next job will be at a place which uses nothing you have a lot of experience with. Maximizing personal reward in a corporate environment never goes out of style, though.
 

Crone

Bronze Baronet of the Realm
9,714
3,211
Corporate BS is annoying, for sure. Just keep your head up and realize you got a good job going and it'll get better.
Don't have such a negative perspective - learning to navigate the red tape and get things done in spite of it and with good communication skills will be worth 2-3x anything else. Murphy's law means your next job will be at a place which uses nothing you have a lot of experience with. Maximizing personal reward in a corporate environment never goes out of style, though.
My bad, I didn't mean to come off as a whiny bitch. I'm so thankful for my job, and while most of my co-workers are bitching about the low pay, I think $20/hour is great for having no prior experience in networking. An enterprise network of this size, to get my first hands on experience with, is just amazing. I love it!
 

Flipmode

EQOA Refugee
2,094
313
So what part of the IT field has the best future? Programming, Desktop Admin, Network Admin, or Security? I'm finding it difficult just to even break in.
 

Borzak

Bronze Baron of the Realm
25,946
33,951
I have no clue about IT. I will say don't overlook the small businesses that have a dedicated on site IT person. I know we have paid our guy and other guys around the $100k ballpark figure. These are companies with between 25 to 50 office people with a larger overall number of 100 to 300 if you include the shop. Just something to think about. Most of it is the everyday stuff of keeping the small network running, making sure email comes and goes, updating the software and such. One thing that contributes a large part of the pay is the ability to connect very outdated equipment via cableing and such. Not office stuff but multi million dollar shop CNC equipment and such that may have been made in the 40's and updated with CNC equipment in the 70's to now.

Just something to think about.

Not for everyone, but the advantages would be you basically are the only person there making decisions and basically no boss other than "make sure it works and turns on each day".