Taking my first step in the Job world

Hey People!

Well, I have been studing networking for a really, really, really long time now. got cisco certed when i was 16, now expired, couldnt find a job... too young, no experiance. but for some reason i just got offered a job as a network admin for the city. I mean experiance is priceless so im going to take it.

but as much as i studied, and learned i cant come up with the slightist thing do to first when i enter that job. so I ask those whom are network admins for there company to give me some advice....

how should i start a normal work day?
what things should i keep in mind?
what do they (emplyoer) want to see?

or any other tips would be helpful. thank you!
Thnx, i just need a little adivce!

Chris

The most important thing is learning from your peers. Don't dive straight in with recommendations on ripping out the whole infrastructure to put in the 'perfect solution'.
The world of books and exams is not the same as the real world! In a perfect world everyone would have the latest hardware, fat pipes to the net etc.. unfortunately unless you are very lucky most of the equipment you deal with on a day to day basis will be old and abused.
Ask questions, there is no such thing as a stupid question, show initiative where you can, but don't be tempted to implement something without checking with your sysadm.
Keep on studying if you want to progress, by that I mean learn subjects that are interesting to you and helpful in your job. Don't be tempted to download cheat sheets to pass exams, you will soon be found out!
I wish you every success in your chosen career.

Crookie
[email protected]

yo mate ..

any way , congratulation for your job :). so it is the first time you work for real eh ?
i had an experience too, at the first time it's really hard for me to sholve many problem ( network troubleshooting ) in my office.. so many ppl mad and didn't satisfy for my result. but that was 7 yesr ago. But my uncle gave me so many support and advices .. he said "Never Give Up " he asked me to read more and more. sometimes theory not always correct ( 90% ) the most important is experiences. if you can mix both of them ( ur theory and experiences ) you will be a great netwrok admin ( i believe that ) . evevyone has changes to be a great guy. so pls don't give up .. what ever had happend to you will grow you up and make you more better .

:)

Quote:

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i cant come up with the slightist thing do to first when i enter that job. so I ask those whom are network admins for there company to give me some advice....

how should i start a normal work day?
what things should i keep in mind?
what do they (emplyoer) want to see?

or any other tips would be helpful. thank you!
Thnx, i just need a little adivce!

---

First thing to do is make sure you arrive earlier than anyone else. This way you can have a couple of cups of coffee in you before the (L)users start making ridiculous demands of you. ;)

Seriously though, I doubt any employer is going to expect you to jump head first into decision making right off the bat. Take a little time to get to know your network. First, ask for all documentation that was done by your predecessor. Then read it. It may help you figure out why some of the decisions have been made in the past. Check out your server rooms and wiring closets. Make sure you know where all your key pieces of equipment are and what they do. It sucks to make what you think is going to be a "minor repair" on something unimportant and find out that you just bounced the server that payroll was using to print everyone's checks. Users don't like things like that too much.

Do's
Always smile and be nice to the users, even when they want you to do something that you are sure a minimally trained rat on crack could do. They are just trying to do their job, and when their computer prevents them from doing it, they are going to take it out on you.

Haggle with vendors.

Get three quotes.

Be on time, be neatly dressed, have a good attitude about working, even if the rest of your world is falling apart. (this is a good do for any job.)

Be honest about what you know, and what you don't. I'd rather have one of my guys tell me "I have no idea how to do that, could I get some help?" Then have him say "Yeah sure, I'll get right on it" and because he doesn't know what he's doing, screw things up.

Document everything you do. Use something like VISIO to make pretty little pictures that a drunken monkey could understand. Everyone will love you for it.



Don't
March into the bosses office after three days of being on the job and proclaim "This network sucks!!!"

Tell a user you will do something for them and then not get around to it. Users will hold it against you forever

Reboot ANYTHING unless you know who's connected to it at the time.

Complain, unless you already have a better solution all thought out.

Yell at a user or call them stupid. To them, you are like the janitor or maintenance man. If their trash is full, they call the janitor, if their light bulb is burned out, they call the maintenance guy..........If they need a new printer cartridge they are going to call you. Even if you have a job title like "Super Duper Uber Diety of Technology Who Will Not Change A Print Cartridge!" Explain very patiently the proper procedure for getting a printer cartridge changed, and that it doesn't involve you. You may have to explain this concept fourteen times to some people.



Anyway....good luck on the new job, and congrats!

You must be have much of experiences "thread_killer " .... great advices and and it is so detail about how to respect ur job and ppl around you "TSeNg".

good advices Thread.

:)

:) Good luck TSeNg.


Just be your self, if you dont know something, just say I'll find out for you.Dont bull - s**t and get into trouble.

Never let others push you around .If they can do it on the first day, they'll do it for the rest of yourlife.

need experiance - yes know I that feeling. And also, ever been to an interview where the manager knows sh*t all about IT. Brings back some memory :- once I was asked how many pins are there on a pci network card for an administartor post.

Ha, Ha, Ha

Anyway good luck, if it's your first job then try to stay for at least two to three years.Cuz the next interviewer will ask:- how many years experiance have you got on the last job ?

Ha, Ha, Ha,

Good luck

Dr_Evil

One, tip I haven't seen yet,
If you are designing an new system for the company or changing a system, make sure you design it around how people work and not get people to work around the way you have designed it.

Good luck sounds like a great oportunity

First off, congrats! It's always hard to get that first admin job and get going at it.

Now, all the advice offered here is excellent and you should take it to heart. There is one more piece of advice I'd like to offer that I tell my students: have fun! :D Part of being a networking-security geek is that we often love what we do. If it isn't fun, then why do it?

Anyways, good luck and let us know how you survive your first day. ;)

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Originally posted here by waverebel
One, tip I haven't seen yet,
If you are designing an new system for the company or changing a system, make sure you design it around how people work and not get people to work around the way you have designed it.

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This is so true. Just because you think the new Ultra-|337 Binford 1600 VPN concentrator authenticating to a TACACS + server after filtering through two proxies is a good idea, your users will not be happy if they have to type six passwords just to check their E-mail.


A little more concrete advice now that I've had some coffee.

Check your backups first thing every morning
If your backup failed, tell somebody!
Have a written policy in place for everything. If you don't have a policy, come up with one. Don't do it in a vacuum though, get user input.
Make sure your virus scanners are up to date and running.

That ought to get you off to a good start. :)

It's a well duh thing, but above all. Don't make major network changes on a Friday...that is assuming you like your weekends to be yours.

I was in that situation

I have found that a good CV is the key to getting interviews.

The presentation and content are taken into consideration.

Prep on interview techniques as this is the key part of getting a job.

There are lots of sites to help you prep for this and lots of available questions ad answers.

If you are lucky you will be interviewed by a tech minded person who you can talk to regards IT type stuff. Otherwise if its a Human Resources type the interview technique and CV are all that seems to matter.

MB - Bytes Ahead.

If you want to earn a little money and have any VB coding skills give me a shout.

hmm well my instructor once said "If you think you know it all just coz u are top of the class.. wait till you start working. You would know absolutley nothing at all till taught." and boy he was right.. LOL

i knew da ins and outs of networking but when i started on a field test in my insititute, i didnt knew da slightest thing to do, i had to be coached.

Well ... here's what I would do.

[sarcasm]

Start out by being rediculously late. Come in around 9:30 or 10:00 and say "boy, traffic was hell". Sit down at your desk and pretend like you were right on time.

Get some coffee and brag about your late night of hax0ring your buddy's Dlink home firewall. Say things like "that guy's such a n00b". This process should last about an hour.

It's now lunchtime, so cook something in the microwave that smells horrible ... like fish ... and eat it at your desk. Extend your lunch break by conversing with your now very pleased co-workers. If you don't know what to say, try asking them if they're "1337". They'll be so impressed with your control of hax0r jargon, they'll be wrapped around your little finger.

It's around 2pm now and you haven't gotten anything done. Time to log in to the server. By now you should have a r00t account, so first things first: change all the passwords on the system. This way, you ensure your own job security. They can't fire you if they can't log in. Make sure you use really short dictionary words so john the ripper will be able to plow through them all with ease in the future.

Once this is complete, it's time for some real work. Go to http://www.counter-strike.net and download the latest server. Install that bad boy on the most beastly box you have there. Kill any other little processes that may bog that server down ... we wouldn't want any choke or framerate problems now would we? Processes like "httpd", "oracle", "kswapd", "bash", and "init" can really get in the way of a good LAN game.

By now it's around 3 or 3:30 in the afternoon. Time to pack up! Start opening and closing droors randomly. Shuffle paperwork on your desk while chatting with your buddies on IRC and surfing through your ssh proxy for pr0n. Re-compile a kernel in a terminal in the background and make sure you have your alt-tab combination down to a science in case your boss comes up behind you. He'll never know that the text scrolling in your terminal isn't really some magic code you're running to fix all their problems.

As soon as the boss walks off, grab your gear and jet out of there. Leave notes on your desk like "meet Jim RE: portscan @ 4:00" so that if anyone checks your desk, they'll think you're still around doing something.

Hurry home to catch the sitcoms. Pat yourself on the back for a hard day's work.

[/sarcasm]

:P

First i would like to say "Thank you very much" "I appricate how many posts this has attracted in one night. I had a paper and pen down jotting things in my journal. and this has been wonderful how much every one helped.. thnks Thread Killer for all your advice as well, and everyone who put your chunk in.

as for this this post above me, i must say.... I ll try to avoid that... but it does have a point... lol just playing! ill see you guys around thanks for all your help!!

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Originally posted here by thread_killer

Take a little time to get to know your network. First, ask for all documentation that was done by your predecessor. Then read it. It may help you figure out why some of the decisions have been made in the past. Check out your server rooms and wiring closets. Make sure you know where all your key pieces of equipment are and what they do. It sucks to make what you think is going to be a "minor repair" on something unimportant and find out that you just bounced the server that payroll was using to print everyone's checks. Users don't like things like that too much.

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I couldn't agree more with that!

Knowing your network in and out is probably the most important thing for an admin. If you're lucky, the network is already well documented and you can start by studying the docs and maps. If you're unlucky there's no doc at all or it's as pitifull as a network drawn by hand on the back of a recycled piece of paper (pretty much what I had when I came in:rolleyes:!). In the latter case, start by documenting the network yourself; try to understand the rational behind choices that have been maid in the past so you don't screw yourself changing things to what seems to be the better/right way and find out it can't be done for some reason.
Besides, personally, I find documenting the network to be actually an interesting job to do.

Ammo

I can Agree with that ammo, Documentation is very important... almost as important then air.

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Originally posted here by ammo


If you're unlucky there's no doc at all or it's as pitifull as a network drawn by hand on the back of a recycled piece of paper (pretty much what I had when I came in:rolleyes:!).

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He he....that's exactly what I had when I came into the job I have now. For about three months, I'd have to go to this guy who had been there forever and say "How is this put together?" He'd grab a napkin or old fax, and doodle out some of the most illegible crap you've ever seen in your life. It was pitiful.