It just hit me this weekend: I am going to survive. My new job pays a, barely, livable wage. And for all those firms who chose younger folks over me, I gloat! In the training for my new job, there were plenty of younger people. They were sharp, they caught on fast, some had experience already and all were educated. But it turns out having a stable lifestyle and just showing up on time, alert and ready to work everyday, is still a valuable commodity. That reliability and my past experience vaulted me from confused and frightened on day one to natural class leader who devoured the material faster than it could be delivered by day ten. By the time it was over I was practically the substitute instructor. Remember this: there is great value in maturity and experience. That gives you a natural advantage, don’t let anyone convince you otherwise!

The labor market is also improving. One recruiter and an HR lady from jobs I was turned down for earlier this year have called me in the past few weeks asking me to re-interview. I politely told them, hell no, it’s too bad the young people you hired instead of me burned out, disappeared, quit, got sick, or partied too hard and missed too many days in the first few months, but you had your chance. I was standing right in your office, I-9 documents and resume in hand, desperate for a job, willing to work for peanuts and crumbs — I would have showed up an hour early and stayed an hour late on my own dime just to get up to speed — and you guys all fucking blew it.

But my ultimate goal is to make at least a measly ~60k, preferably more, and have an actual semblance of middle class life. A goal so low I might have laughed at it a decade or two ago. But anyway, the recession … another story. To succeed in the local tech market here in Austin, I know mastering network level stuff is important. Powershell and Active Directory are a decent start, besides, that’s part of my new job. I get paid to do learn and use them. The other thing people have told me, if the goal is to be well rounded, is to pick up the basics of at least one, modern programming language. The language I’m considering is Python. Is that as good a choice as any? The first step in the online Python course is to download Notepad++, located here. Any downsides to this?
‘

I should be able to get back to a more reasonable and predictable schedule in the next week or two. I’m telling you, it took real effort, no social life combined with the benefit of lots of hard math classes long ago, to be able hit the ground running and get up to speed when starting with zero network experience. But training is done, I have passed and can now, somewhat at least, manage a series of domains or directories, AKA, My Forest.

It’s just amazing how these networks have to be nursed and coddled as they often barely limp along. For the past few weeks, when I got home from what is basically a 24/7 urgent care facility for broken domains and servers that won’t sync, it was like being an off-duty, lowly resident trauma doc. The last thing I wanted to see was a working keyboard, because keyboards lead to dying hardware and broken software.

After a few weeks of being a network guy … I’m super busy, it’s hard, so hard! But I’m picking it up and besides, after what I’ve learned I’m almost afraid to do anything online anymore. Why?

Here’s a public known example [Read more…]