From: "Tyler Bushman" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 4:08 PM Subject: [uug] a job >It seems that a lot of the posters here are sysadmins or something of the >like. My major is information technology and I'm working for Sentos doing >phone tech support for turbo tax. I want to get more experience in almost >any field of technology and want to know what you guys would do if you were >me. Here's my resume : http://www.geocities.com/tylerbushmansresume/ > >I am willing to work for free -almost - just to get experience. Here's my >dilema though. I don't have any experience right now, and noone wants to >train you. I'm not much of a programmer either. Anyone want an intern? > >Tyler Bushman
My advice: First off, avoid any mail clients that automatically place an advertisement at the bottom of your emails with the phrase "Email has finally evolved" accompanied by a flashing envelope icon. Try to steer clear of the gimimicky/cheesey things. As a side note, more people will read your email on this list if they aren't sent in html as yours was. My opinion is that html is for web-pages and text is for email (no need to flame here, just an opinion). Also, it can be considered rude to double post your messages when many of the people on one list are also subscribed to the other list (uug-list and newbie). Please don't feel like I'm picking you apart, I just wanted to give you a little advise, don't take it personally. Now for the good stuff. As someone who will graduate in Information Technology, you will become one of a few different types of professionals: *Type I: This is the person who takes the classes, studies well and graduates. The degree looks good on a resume; he gets hired and is able to do his job though not very efficiently, he really doesn't know whats going on. Because this person hasn't engrained himself into the technology, he'll really never progress. He supports Windows desktops and sometimes thinks that being a sys admin means being able to change the colors of the windows on his computer. *Type II: This guy is a hard worker; he loves messing with computers and does so. He buys/pirates all sorts of Microsoft products and tinkers around. He graduates with the degree, gets a job and is able to do great things with Win2K or WinXP. He can do a lot more than what was taught to him in class and he continues to learn because it is part of his life. He'll probably go far in todays market because it is largely comprised of Microsoft server OSs/applications and Windoze desktops. However, he is still limited, there is a whole other world out there that he is oblivious to. *Type III: This person is just like type II. However, not only does he understand the World of Winblows, but he tinkers around with a lot of different types of OSs and applications that are common on them. This goes beyond just installing RedHad linux and setting it up to send email. He plays with linux, unix, *bsd, anything he gets his hands on. He configures these to perform all sorts of functions and offer many different services; he gets them to intereact with M$ products. This other world has opened him up to a multitude of great career possibilities and has helped him gain a better understanding of the innerworkings of computer hardware and software. This is the most powerful of all the types. So what would I do if I were you? You have to start somewhere, usually on campuses you can slide your way into a job that will give you experience -hopefully this is a little more than working in a computer lab and rebooting computers when a blue screen comes up. Learn what you can there, learn from your tinkering at home. Later, take that experience to a better paying job where you can learn more. This is how you will progress. Hopefully you can pick up a couple semi-old computers that you don't care about so you can install/break/fix/learn things on them w/o upsetting your wife cuz she can't check her email. I personally have 7 fully functional computers around, none of them are very fast. The router (openbsd) in my closet would serve a medium sized company very well. Try the BYU surplus sale or the DI; keep your ears open at work for anyone throwing old computers away -it happens. Throw linux on one, openbsd on another. Next try a different flavor of linux. Try to get these computers to do things, add hardware, install programs, setup services. Read man pages, read how-to pages(see www.tldp.org). Don't be afraid of breaking things. Learn about shell scripting, learn other languages (perl would be a great start). Ya, this is a lot of work and it will take a lot of time, but you will be rewarded. Including your job and all the "at home" tinkering you will do, the most important thing is your degree. Don't let anything get in the way of that (except your family), cut back on the job and computer time if needed. The degree is gold in the world of management. Sorry this was long winded, got carried away, hope it helps. Matt PS Don't pirate software . . . unless you actually are a pirate, then beware of the police or maybe the coast guard. PSPS All written mutations of M$ Sindows was completely unintentional. ____________________ BYU Unix Users Group http://uug.byu.edu/ ___________________________________________________________________ List Info: http://phantom.byu.edu/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/uug-list
