What is the best degree for IT?
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller said:
- Server Tech: This is a high end bench (not IT) career where you rack servers physically, replace failed drives, do cabling, put labels on things, replace memory, etc. It's the high end data center equivalent to "building a PC at home." If you worked in Manhattan you might cap out at $50K. In most regions, $35K. It's not an IT job. CompTIA has a Server+ cert for this. Only enormous companies hire this position.
My dream job, gotta find a way to make it pay.
Ha ha. Now that it's all about just swapping parts, it just never will.
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@scottalanmiller sigh... if I'm being honest I'd probably take it with the low pay anyway just to be super freaking stoked to show up for work every day at a job I love
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@Draco8573 said:
and as for the Terminology. what about a server administrator?
Not really used. Generally same as system admin. There are only the three roles that I mention. Names could vary, but they really don't. Anything with the word "server" it is is likely to conjure up visions of touching the hardware. And anyone that touches hardware is either very junior or not even in IT. IT is the "tech" side, not the "plugging things in" side.
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@MattSpeller said:
@scottalanmiller sigh... if I'm being honest I'd probably take it with the low pay anyway just to be super freaking stoked to show up for work every day at a job I love
You really like physically racking servers? You can do this in most cities. Every datacenter hires these roles.
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@scottalanmiller Headphones on, rocking out to tunes, surrounded by bits wizzing around at mind boggling speeds - I'd be in heaven. No stress so I could focus on my health and hobbies and .... life!
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Server Techs that I know were always glued to cell phones as they were always doing hardware swaps in coordination with the system admins.
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@Draco8573 said:
@scottalanmiller I understand that I will be 25, but the thing is while I want to learn and want to get better. And you are right schools are a little behind the time. And while I can figure things out my brain doesn't work like the rest of yalls. I don't learn like everyone else. Sometimes I just have to have things explained to me a certain way or it just goes right over my head and if I was all by myself I would probably be lost. For example I had a calc class where the professor was decent but I just wasn't understanding what he was saying so i went through like 8 professors that put their lectures on youtube till I found one that made sense to me. I have a pretty bad strain of ADD, because of it i have very bad short term memory and so like I said it helps when I am able to walk up to someone and ask questions.
That makes sense - do you have any examples of learning methods/styles that have worked particularly well for you when learning other topics? There are a wide variety of online courses and classes out there for online IT learning, so if you have the motivation you should be able to find one that works for you. The best part: they're all cheaper than college!
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Plus books, resources like PluralSight, etc.
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@Draco8573 said:
@scottalanmiller I understand that I will be 25, but the thing is while I want to learn and want to get better. And you are right schools are a little behind the time. And while I can figure things out my brain doesn't work like the rest of yalls. I don't learn like everyone else. Sometimes I just have to have things explained to me a certain way or it just goes right over my head and if I was all by myself I would probably be lost. For example I had a calc class where the professor was decent but I just wasn't understanding what he was saying so i went through like 8 professors that put their lectures on youtube till I found one that made sense to me. I have a pretty bad strain of ADD, because of it i have very bad short term memory and so like I said it helps when I am able to walk up to someone and ask questions.
That is the best part. Forums like ML are great and providing many people perspective on a given topic/issue.
If you don't understand what you're reading in a book, create a post - see what kind of responses you get.
Also, don't limit yourself to just one forum. Branch out. Be uncomfortable. This is kinda a must. If you're comfortable, you're probably not learning.
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@Dashrender said:
Also, don't limit yourself to just one forum. Branch out. Be uncomfortable. This is kinda a must. If you're comfortable, you're probably not learning.
Great way to put it.
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@Dashrender said:
That is the best part. Forums like ML are great and providing many people perspective on a given topic/issue.
This really cannot be overstated. In a class what are you getting, one teacher who likely does not and possibly never has, worked in IT and ten to twenty kids who have little perspective on IT all speculating about what things are like today, could be like tomorrow, etc. When there are forums with hundreds or thousands of working professionals available to have those same discussions and learn from the people not just doing stuff today but building the stuff for tomorrow!
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@scottalanmiller said:
@Dashrender said:
Also, don't limit yourself to just one forum. Branch out. Be uncomfortable. This is kinda a must. If you're comfortable, you're probably not learning.
Great way to put it.
You can ask @scottalanmiller I post things that are wrong from time to time (mostly because I was lazy and didn't confirm something), but his calling me out makes me go and confirm what he is saying. This uncomfortable moment is a learning one.
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Same things happen to me all of the time. It's the constant challenging each other, presenting new ideas, discussing them, kicking them around that makes us all keep improving.
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well i do plan to build a home lab when I get the space(i live in a really tiny room so I will have to throw a lot of stuff out to have the room) and when I can afford stuff. but I do think I am going to stick with school and get it done.
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@Draco8573 said:
well i do plan to build a home lab when I get the space(i live in a really tiny room so I will have to throw a lot of stuff out to have the room) and when I can afford stuff. but I do think I am going to stick with school and get it done.
FYI, you can buy some server space online for as little as $5/month, though You'd probably need to spend closer to $20-30 get get what you want with something like Digital Ocean. They offer servers in the cloud. You spin up what you need, used them for testing, then blow them away and lower/kill your costs.
This also teaches you real IT. As Scott said, typical IT Admins don't really touch servers much. The mange them from afar. This would be great experience there too.
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@Dashrender yeah don't have the money. But my work is going to be throwing away some old pcs and server parts ill see if i can get some of that.
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@Draco8573 said:
@Dashrender yeah don't have the money. But my work is going to be throwing away some old pcs and server parts ill see if i can get some of that.
This is a good example of making a trade off. School costs money, you are choosing it over a lab. I'm not saying that that is right or wrong, just that it is really important that you recognize that school appears to be costing you a lab, which in turn costs you experience.
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@Draco8573 said:
@Dashrender yeah don't have the money. But my work is going to be throwing away some old pcs and server parts ill see if i can get some of that.
Perspective again.
That $5/month gets you a server to build something on. then nuke it and do something else. More money means more at once, but not required for all things.Old hardware? How much electricity that going to cost you. Think about it. Power up an old server and just feel the heat coming off of it. So not only do you have the power for the system and monitor, you also have the power to your HVAC in the house running more. The costs are real. The math is fairly simple to work out.
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Not that you won't have any lab. But, for example, at your same age I built a home lab with a few Compaq Proliant servers, some networking gear and about five desktops (mix of Windows and Linux.) Considering that that was the 1990s, getting those things was a really big deal compared to today. Relative cost is much lower today, availability of equipment is much higher and you have broadband to work with, I had dial up and even that was rare at the time. I had to tie up my only phone line to be on line at 33Kb/s, if we could hit that. Often we were at 19Kb/s.
I was working a normal, minimum wage style job working my butt off to put that stuff together. I studied from books and did everything very "hands on."
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@JaredBusch said:
Perspective again.
That $5/month gets you a server to build something on. then nuke it and do something else. More money means more at once, but not required for all things.And you can work on it and turn it off when you are done. If you are too busy to be using it, turn it off and pay nothing.
