What do you do?
- Thread starter Alkorin
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Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!
Go here and give us your nominations!Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!
Kuriin
Just a Nurse
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I don't know why people don't do this more often. Seems like a good idea to me. :}
First month is over for my new job. Still training. Still a noob. Still the youngest on the team by a decade and I'm 35. Job is easy though. Just rough going from an expert to a new type of product.
Vinen
God is dead
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Fifey
Trakanon Raider
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So that new job I posted about taking 6 months ago is likely going to end this month. Having some very strong issues with the quality of work they expect to make me put out and be ok with. While the money is still good, I just don't approve of their business model and corporate bullshit.
They hired a new estimator two weeks ago and we've already gotten into it multiple times to where he cried to management and we all had to talk it out even had the regional manager get involved.
Really hope this is the last time I ever have to work for a corporate shop, independents really are so much better to work for and the quality of work. Told my old shop that I'd be willing to come back to work for them but only willing to work half days but they weren't having that guess I'll just keep my eyes and ears open.
They hired a new estimator two weeks ago and we've already gotten into it multiple times to where he cried to management and we all had to talk it out even had the regional manager get involved.
Really hope this is the last time I ever have to work for a corporate shop, independents really are so much better to work for and the quality of work. Told my old shop that I'd be willing to come back to work for them but only willing to work half days but they weren't having that guess I'll just keep my eyes and ears open.
Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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Anyone ever take an online course? I see for an extra fee you can be "certified" for taking the course and putting it on your resume. I really have no desire to put it on my resume. Just more hobby related, thinking of taking a few of the electronic oriented courses. These are from MIT. Any experience.
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials
Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | MIT OpenCourseWare | Free Online Course Materials
Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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The MIT courses are pretty good. I heard from a few people that it might be a bit hard to keep up.
Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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Basically self paced. So would have time to do outside research. Dunno. I looked at the exams (no answers) for the course and I could do about 1/2 of them off the top of my head just based on electronic knowledge I had to pick up to get the top amatuer radio license from the FCC. My weak point would be the math by a long shot. Never took an algebra or calculus class in my life, even high school.
Vinen
God is dead
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I took the Stanford Machine Learning class for fun. Could not keep up due to obligations.
If the MIT one is anything like that dear god. Made me realize how much free time I had in college.
Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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Just fair warning man, and I don't know what classes you're intending to take, but for any electrical engineering courses you're going to absolutely need calculus and algebra.
I mean, there's knowing electronics and then there's electrical engineering.
Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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I took the first test for 6002 electrical engineering focused on the abstraction. IE using a resistor instead of having to know all the laws that go into what makes a resistor and got a 100 on it. We'll see. It's focused on circuit design and the first exam was stuff like figure out the voltage and current at given points in a circuit. That was all pretty basic stuff.
I had to really skip forward thru the first 3 video lectures and take the first exam. Nothing really in depth at all so far. Just basic shit like capacitors, resistors, op amps, timing, diodes, thermistors and their volt/current charts, pretty basic stuff. Hopefully it picks up a little, only 9 lectures in total for this course. Maybe the class is really shy but nobody could answer the professors question of what happens when you push too much current thru a resistor. Umm it burns out and catches on fire and he did just that. The class was like "wooow, oooh, cool". Um Ok I would hate to be college aged going into circuit design and not having heard the term "letting the smoke out" lol.
Guess I knew more than I thought, he said if you could solve KCL and KVL you could solve almost any circuit. Well that's below electronics 101. He seems to be big on the abstraction into practical math which is more my strong suit.
I had to really skip forward thru the first 3 video lectures and take the first exam. Nothing really in depth at all so far. Just basic shit like capacitors, resistors, op amps, timing, diodes, thermistors and their volt/current charts, pretty basic stuff. Hopefully it picks up a little, only 9 lectures in total for this course. Maybe the class is really shy but nobody could answer the professors question of what happens when you push too much current thru a resistor. Umm it burns out and catches on fire and he did just that. The class was like "wooow, oooh, cool". Um Ok I would hate to be college aged going into circuit design and not having heard the term "letting the smoke out" lol.
Guess I knew more than I thought, he said if you could solve KCL and KVL you could solve almost any circuit. Well that's below electronics 101. He seems to be big on the abstraction into practical math which is more my strong suit.
chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
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I do about half my courses online for my degree. It is what it is, you get out of it what you put into it. There are topics that I'm not so interested in and I do the bare minimum for the A, then there are topics that I really get into. I don't know what kind of services the MIT free courses have available for students, but I know that in actual colleges that do online courses there have metric fucktons of assistance and resources available and people just don't take advantage of them.
Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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I need to pick another course. I can't really believe the one I picked is a college level course. I took the first couple of exams and passed by watching a total of 20 minutes out of 4 hours of lectures. Think I just picked the wrong one to start with. Seriously, did we need a 5 minute discussion on why a mechincal switch can't operate at the speed of light.
Borzak
Bronze Baron of the Realm
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Online wasn't available when I was in school. The dean would meet with every student every semester and specically tell you which cross campus courses (those not in our college/major) you could sleep thru and it wouldn't matter as long as you got a C lol. I complained about our entomology professor was a first class nutcase. He wore ladybug suits to class and shit. Dean said "I know", also pointed out where the library was if I needed to actually learn anything.
Crone
Bronze Baronet of the Realm
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Speaking of school, I'm pretty excited to be enrolled at WGU (Western Governor's University). I've heard good things about it's reputation, and of the 124 credits required for the Bachelors in IT Networking Security, they gave me credit for 46 credits of that from my community college classes and my CCNA. WGU is self paced, and you pay the same amount per 6 month term regardless of how many classes you take. Co-worker said that some terms he's pushed 20 credits just because he was able to cram, take the test, and pass the class.
Will start probably in June, and start knocking out classes. First time in my life at age 33 that I've had a degree plan in front of me. All my time in the community colleges and I never had it laid out so plainly, that this is what I need for a degree. But I guess it makes a difference now that I know what I want to do, instead of just taking classes for no reason.
Gonna just work my current job as a Network Tech while I crank out this school, then come out of it with CCNA, CCNA Security, truck load of CompTia certs, and a bachelors, and look for a better job at that point.
Will start probably in June, and start knocking out classes. First time in my life at age 33 that I've had a degree plan in front of me. All my time in the community colleges and I never had it laid out so plainly, that this is what I need for a degree. But I guess it makes a difference now that I know what I want to do, instead of just taking classes for no reason.
Gonna just work my current job as a Network Tech while I crank out this school, then come out of it with CCNA, CCNA Security, truck load of CompTia certs, and a bachelors, and look for a better job at that point.
Vinen
God is dead
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Noodleface
A Mod Real Quick
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Kcl and kvl and shit like that is all covered in circuits 101 so that's probably the class you're in. Most people would have no exposure to that these days.
chaos
Buzzfeed Editor
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Not trying to discourage you. But consider that maybe you don't need a degree.
I am getting one sure, because it was paid for and I intend to be your fucking boss so stop slouching. But consider that maybe your time might be better spent targeting specifically what you want to do. You want to do the CCIE track? Focus on that. You want to do security? Focus on Sec+, CCNA Sec, and learn python. There are better ways than school.
I say this as a 36 year old finishing up an MS I don't even really want anymore, forced to take boring as fuck classes, most of which I am waaay overqualified to be in, instead of focusing on getting the credentials Ireallywant and learning the skills Ireallywant. The degree will pay for itself, statistically. But there are other ways to do it, it's worth thinking about before you commit yourself.
