OT: Career advice

[Thordic]

Something I've always pondered

How important is it for an intern to be willing to participate in redundant administrative stuff?

Like, on one hand it's great to show that you're invested in the company's success and you'll do a lot to help your team. But that isn't the kind of work you get to discuss with future employers or even your internship (where you're gunning for full time), and is for the most part a waste of time. What do y'all think

An intern generally knows very little about how to add value to the business they are being hired into. What work are most interns qualified for? If I trained an intern to be able to do non-administrative work, by the time they are up to speed their internship is half over and I just wasted time training someone who will soon be leaving.

The best interns I have had came in, did the boring work they got assigned, and then asked for more. They showed ambition and drive. They spoke up and said "I think I can do this boring work better if I do it this way..." They show they can intelligently approach a project, even a boring one, and leave their mark on it.

Those interns are the ones who get invited to tag along to more interesting meetings, and that you keep an eye on after they leave. The intern who comes in, slowly plods away, and grumbles about it? You just wait for them to leave.

 

[Raspewtin]

thanks for the answers guys!

i have an intern coming in this summer for the first time and i just wanted insight on how to judge this process

 

[Vinny DeAngelo]

Has anyone here worked for SAS? I was wondering more about their hiring process

 

[jaywills1020]

I always advise younger guys to take all of the civil service tests. It's something to fall back on and at your age, what you think you want to do with the rest of your life, could drastically change in a few years.

 

[The Gloaming]

An intern generally knows very little about how to add value to the business they are being hired into. What work are most interns qualified for? If I trained an intern to be able to do non-administrative work, by the time they are up to speed their internship is half over and I just wasted time training someone who will soon be leaving.

The best interns I have had came in, did the boring work they got assigned, and then asked for more. They showed ambition and drive. They spoke up and said "I think I can do this boring work better if I do it this way..." They show they can intelligently approach a project, even a boring one, and leave their mark on it.

Those interns are the ones who get invited to tag along to more interesting meetings, and that you keep an eye on after they leave. The intern who comes in, slowly plods away, and grumbles about it? You just wait for them to leave.

What if you're an intern who will do any administrative work, but would also prefer to leave at 5? It's complete ******** that you're expected to put extra hours in that don't earn you anything (this goes for regular jobs too). Company loyalty is not a two way street.

 

[silverfish]

What if you're an intern who will do any administrative work, but would also prefer to leave at 5? It's complete ******** that you're expected to put extra hours in that don't earn you anything (this goes for regular jobs too). Company loyalty is not a two way street.

Interning was the bane of my existence. I got hired as a marketing intern, but quickly fell in to doing nothing but business development and finding contacts for the bizdev team to cold call

Luckily it was only three days a week, and I got a daily stipend so it wasn't for free. And, it got me my first full-time job. Can't be that mad about it... but man, those were gloomy days.

 

[East Coast Bias]

Moving to a new role within my company and going to have to learn SQL. Unfortunately the company is going through a training vendor contract gap (one ended, next hasn't began) so there is nothing offered by the company. I'm on my own.

I know a few people have self-taught on here. Would anyone be able to point me to any website/books that would help my self-training pursuit?

Appreciate any guidance.

 

[Raspewtin]

What if you're an intern who will do any administrative work, but would also prefer to leave at 5? It's complete ******** that you're expected to put extra hours in that don't earn you anything (this goes for regular jobs too). Company loyalty is not a two way street.

It's the unfortunate reality. Interning ****ing sucks but it's quite literally the only way to get jobs in most professional sectors.

 

[Kane One]

Moving to a new role within my company and going to have to learn SQL. Unfortunately the company is going through a training vendor contract gap (one ended, next hasn't began) so there is nothing offered by the company. I'm on my own.

I know a few people have self-taught on here. Would anyone be able to point me to any website/books that would help my self-training pursuit?

Appreciate any guidance.

I may have a **** load of slides. I'll look for them.

For starters: http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp

If you need any help, let me know.

Edit - I can't find my slides

Edit 2 - Looking back through this thread, Jon reminded me of Codecademy.com. Definitely check that out. I didn't take their SQL course, so I can't tell you if it's good or not, but the site is incredible for noobs.

 

[Thordic]

What if you're an intern who will do any administrative work, but would also prefer to leave at 5? It's complete ******** that you're expected to put extra hours in that don't earn you anything (this goes for regular jobs too). Company loyalty is not a two way street.

If its an unpaid internship that blows - all our interns are paid. I'm not a fan of unpaid internships at all.

But outside of paid vs. unpaid, get used to it. Salaried employees don't get overtime either. If you want to succeed, you have to pay the price.

As a manager I never try to keep my staff here longer than I have to, and usually they can get out on time. But if something is going on that requires people to be here late, then I expect people do what needs to be done. I try to find a way to make it up to them somehow but that's part of their job.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Career advice: Always be pleasant to your superior. Even if you disagree. Being cordial, friendly, and engaging will help you out in more ways than one.

 

[Vinny DeAngelo]

If its an unpaid internship that blows - all our interns are paid. I'm not a fan of unpaid internships at all.

But outside of paid vs. unpaid, get used to it. Salaried employees don't get overtime either. If you want to succeed, you have to pay the price.

As a manager I never try to keep my staff here longer than I have to, and usually they can get out on time. But if something is going on that requires people to be here late, then I expect people do what needs to be done. I try to find a way to make it up to them somehow but that's part of their job.

where do you work? if you dont mind me asking

 

[Vinny DeAngelo]

Is there a standard proficiency scale i should be using on my resumes? i have varying levels of skill in multiple computer programs

super good skills :Excel (vlookups, pivot tables, all that jazz), word, power point

medium level skills: SAS R STATA Gretl

low level/just learning: SQL(so many people recommended learning it so im taking up that task on my own)

 

[TheTakedown]

funny this thread popped up, I could use some advice too...

I've been doing IT Admin work for about 8 years, like it, don't necessarily love it, but it's always been a passion of mine (not gaming, not business, but Information Technology, and management of it specifically)...

Anyways, goal is to get out of IT and top out at around $80-90k/year... That's pretty much what I want to end up making. I am actively saving a solid $5k/year for about a year now, and I've already made changes to bump that up to $6k/year. I live at home, but even if I move out, I'm not spending more than $650-800/month on rent expenses.

Anyways, this said, I've had my eye on Project Management for awhile, and I want to know what you guys think of it as a career advancement. I have a friend who has gone into account management, some others I know of have gone to sales (which I know i could do due to my personality, but I also know I'm not a pushy person so I don't think I'd be very successful at it). Again, not really looking for a change right now, but I want to keep an eye out for the foreseeable future

 

[Oscar Lindberg]

funny this thread popped up, I could use some advice too...

I've been doing IT Admin work for about 8 years, like it, don't necessarily love it, but it's always been a passion of mine (not gaming, not business, but Information Technology, and management of it specifically)...

Anyways, goal is to get out of IT and top out at around $80-90k/year... That's pretty much what I want to end up making. I am actively saving a solid $5k/year for about a year now, and I've already made changes to bump that up to $6k/year. I live at home, but even if I move out, I'm not spending more than $650-800/month on rent expenses.

Anyways, this said, I've had my eye on Project Management for awhile, and I want to know what you guys think of it as a career advancement. I have a friend who has gone into account management, some others I know of have gone to sales (which I know i could do due to my personality, but I also know I'm not a pushy person so I don't think I'd be very successful at it). Again, not really looking for a change right now, but I want to keep an eye out for the foreseeable future

I don't have any advice for you unfortunately, but what do you do as an IT admin?

I'm currently shadowing the internal IT team of my company, and working with their network engineers, which why I ask

 

[Trxjw]

funny this thread popped up, I could use some advice too...

I've been doing IT Admin work for about 8 years, like it, don't necessarily love it, but it's always been a passion of mine (not gaming, not business, but Information Technology, and management of it specifically)...

Anyways, goal is to get out of IT and top out at around $80-90k/year... That's pretty much what I want to end up making. I am actively saving a solid $5k/year for about a year now, and I've already made changes to bump that up to $6k/year. I live at home, but even if I move out, I'm not spending more than $650-800/month on rent expenses.

Anyways, this said, I've had my eye on Project Management for awhile, and I want to know what you guys think of it as a career advancement. I have a friend who has gone into account management, some others I know of have gone to sales (which I know i could do due to my personality, but I also know I'm not a pushy person so I don't think I'd be very successful at it). Again, not really looking for a change right now, but I want to keep an eye out for the foreseeable future

Project management can be lucrative, depending on where you end up. Consultancies will pay north of $90K, even in smaller metro markets, for quality project managers who have an above average understanding of the technical side of things.

That being said, IT is pretty broad. Do you have any kind of specialization? What kind of IT work have you been doing thus far? If you've been doing server configuration and that sort of thing, you might have more luck moving towards DevOps or something of that ilk. If you're doing hardware management, network administration, or something else, you might have a tougher time getting into project management without some sort of business experience or MBA.

 

[TheTakedown]

I don't have any advice for you unfortunately, but what do you do as an IT admin?

I'm currently shadowing the internal IT team of my company, and working with their network engineers, which why I ask

Primarily, I've done Network Engineering work, which I enjoyed very much. I tried web development and programming in school, neither of it was for me, which always made me feel so "little" but in the end I realized that I was better at maintaining entire environments rather than writing programs. That said, I spent a good chunk of last year trying to get acclimated with scripting languages/commands etc... Already knew command line, but I really got my head into Powershell, started looking into Python, etc.

I did small business IT Consulting for about 6 years... Worked for an MSP, basically had 40-50 clients that the company would do IT services for. It was a great way to get my feet wet into all the different workings of IT Networking. Did everything from Desktops, to firewalls, to servers, to software updates/fixes/engineering.

Now I'm doing something a little more specialized working for a software testing department, but I'm still an admin setting up servers and software.

 

[Thordic]

where do you work? if you dont mind me asking

I'll PM you

 

[NCRanger]

I've been following this from the beginning, and I'd like to think I helped the OP a little bit, but the more I think about it, the more I think all of it is a bunch of bull****.

This may come off as the ramblings of a disgruntled 46 year old who's been walked on, passed over, and generally treated like **** the majority of my working career, so take it for what it's worth. I'm fed up with all of it. I work in IT. Banking world. This is what I've been pigeonholed into, so this is what I do. Now, I'm not paid peanuts by any means, but when you haven't really seen a measurable raise in 8 years, or that you are doing the job of someone who's supposed to be paid a good 25% more, you get annoyed. All of the career advice articles I read on LinkedIn and others basically tell me that I should have left my current role six months ago. (my manager left, I got most of his duties, I didn't get promoted, didn't get a raise, couldn't take time off, etc.) When I asked for some "recognition", I was blown off, and basically told between the lines to leave.

Unfortunately, I can't leave. There are no full-time roles in Charlotte for someone with nearly 20 years experience offering a commensurate salary unless you know some niche, and even that doesn't get you much. I also have team lead and some managerial experience, but I think I'm being age discriminated against there, as "junior managers" are quite a bit younger than 46. There are TONS of contracts where I'd be making even less with no actual future career path. So, yeah, I can get dumped on and I can't do a damn thing about it.

Honestly, if I had to do it all over again, I'd just assume learn a skilled trade.

Only thing I actually "learned" in college was critical thinking. Other than that, it was a giant waste of time. At least it only cost 50% of what a 4 year degree costs today.

Take it for what it's worth. I just don't want any of you going down the finance/IT route, working 65 hours a week, thinking you're getting ahead, and then when you have 20 years in and realize you really haven't gotten anywhere to be living in tons of anger and regret.

 

[Hunter Gathers]

Career advice: Don't walk into your coworker's office and make a snide remark about their change/upgrade in position. Just don't be an ******* to the person who sits right next to you.

 

[Greg02]

Career advice: Always be pleasant to your superior. Even if you disagree. Being cordial, friendly, and engaging will help you out in more ways than one.

Career advice: Don't walk into your coworker's office and make a snide remark about their change/upgrade in position. Just don't be an ******* to the person who sits right next to you.

Career advice: Just generally be pleasant. It never really hurts.

 

[Thordic]

There are no full-time roles in Charlotte for someone with nearly 20 years experience offering a commensurate salary unless you know some niche, and even that doesn't get you much.

Everyone's experience will vary, and I can't speak to the IT side of things, but one comment I wanted to make was that from all I've heard Charlotte is considered too expensive a job market to invest new jobs in at this point so financial companies are looking for lower-cost market. The initial appeal to Charlotte (and other remote hubs of financial offices like Phoenix) was a cheap labor market. But since more and more companies moved to Charlotte, competition drove salaries up, and the appeal isn't there anymore. So no new jobs will be coming in (in any substantial numbers) so all you have is the current pool, minus whatever they move to cheaper locations.

 

[Vinny DeAngelo]

I've been following this from the beginning, and I'd like to think I helped the OP a little bit, but the more I think about it, the more I think all of it is a bunch of bull****.

This may come off as the ramblings of a disgruntled 46 year old who's been walked on, passed over, and generally treated like **** the majority of my working career, so take it for what it's worth. I'm fed up with all of it. I work in IT. Banking world. This is what I've been pigeonholed into, so this is what I do. Now, I'm not paid peanuts by any means, but when you haven't really seen a measurable raise in 8 years, or that you are doing the job of someone who's supposed to be paid a good 25% more, you get annoyed. All of the career advice articles I read on LinkedIn and others basically tell me that I should have left my current role six months ago. (my manager left, I got most of his duties, I didn't get promoted, didn't get a raise, couldn't take time off, etc.) When I asked for some "recognition", I was blown off, and basically told between the lines to leave.

Unfortunately, I can't leave. There are no full-time roles in Charlotte for someone with nearly 20 years experience offering a commensurate salary unless you know some niche, and even that doesn't get you much. I also have team lead and some managerial experience, but I think I'm being age discriminated against there, as "junior managers" are quite a bit younger than 46. There are TONS of contracts where I'd be making even less with no actual future career path. So, yeah, I can get dumped on and I can't do a damn thing about it.

Honestly, if I had to do it all over again, I'd just assume learn a skilled trade.

Only thing I actually "learned" in college was critical thinking. Other than that, it was a giant waste of time. At least it only cost 50% of what a 4 year degree costs today.

Take it for what it's worth. I just don't want any of you going down the finance/IT route, working 65 hours a week, thinking you're getting ahead, and then when you have 20 years in and realize you really haven't gotten anywhere to be living in tons of anger and regret.

You have definitely helped me out a bunch! This forum has completely changed who i am as a candidate. I've begun volunteering at two places in town. i've learned 3 different coding styles because of you guys.(SAS,R,and learning SQL now). Most importantly you guys have helped me get used to the rejection from just about every company i apply too. i would've gotten demoralized so long ago.

I 100% agree with you that college doesnt really teach you anything..

im sorry you feel this way about your current situation. I this forum has taught me anything its to keep your head up and keep looking!

 

[NCRanger]

Everyone's experience will vary, and I can't speak to the IT side of things, but one comment I wanted to make was that from all I've heard Charlotte is considered too expensive a job market to invest new jobs in at this point so financial companies are looking for lower-cost market. The initial appeal to Charlotte (and other remote hubs of financial offices like Phoenix) was a cheap labor market. But since more and more companies moved to Charlotte, competition drove salaries up, and the appeal isn't there anymore. So no new jobs will be coming in (in any substantial numbers) so all you have is the current pool, minus whatever they move to cheaper locations.

Actually, there are a ton of new jobs in Charlotte. However, they are pretty much at the entry level or lower mid-level positions.

What really happened was we pretty much lost two local CEOs from the two largest banks. The LOB heads who were local have retired, and were replaced with people in other places (not necessarily cheaper). Manager locations down the line seem to have moved away from Charlotte, and again, not to cheaper locations. What we seem to have now are a ton of processing roles. The technology roles haven't disappeared, but the manager roles (that I should be transitioning into) are gone, and even promotions to higher levels have dried up.

Charlotte is bigger, younger, and "hipper" in some respects, but it is nowhere near as wealthy as it was 15-20 years ago.

 

[Vinny DeAngelo]

Ok guys some good news! i have an interview at the end of the week! now i need interview advice lol