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  • I went to college and got a diploma, not a degree. That was because I knew where I wanted to be in the world. I was going to be a sysadmin/network admin/IT support. That was where I was going.

    At the time, the available courses for system administrators that resulted in a degree didn't fucking exist. A big fuck all for degree programs. So I got a diploma, and went on my merry way.

    I looked at available degree programs last year and there's still pretty much sweet fuck all for degree programs for IT support workers, with a few exceptions. A handful of colleges in my country now have some degree programs, and a couple have created one for system/network administrators. They're massively rare, and the only course plans are for full time class loads. You want to take the degree course, but you have to work? Get fucked. You're not getting anything.

    I actually (foolishly) emailed some of the colleges asking if they would offer enough of the credits in remote learning courses that I could feasibly, eventually, get a degree. If someone could laugh over email, I'm pretty sure that they would have. Needless to say, the answer is a big fuck you.

    Yet... I have well over a decade of real world experience and a lot of places are putting up job postings for sysadmin jobs asking for degrees plus years of experience.

    So, essentially, they want me to go get a degree, probably in computer Science, which, by the way, isn't really computer Science. There's really no Science to it and the only relation to a computer is that you're doing programming. CS majors cannot do my job. They would be so bad at it, that I would laugh, then cry, knowing I probably have to fix all the fuckups that were just made.

    So, they want to hire someone who can't do the work because they want and need a degree for a job that doesn't have a degree that actually teaches you the correct skillset.

    The entire fucking job market is completely fucked. Unless you do development, GFL wading through all the asinine postings to find one that is reasonable enough to recognize that CS majors are not the people you want working in system admin positions.

    The worst part is that businesses can't see what they're doing wrong. C-levels, owners and managers, have no fucking clue what I do, nor how I do any of it. Unless it's a company large enough to have a CIO that's got a lick of fucking sense, the job posting is going to be utter horse shit for the crap that they'll expect from you.

    "Enjoys a fast paced environment" - you're going to be over worked.

    "Works well independently" - because you're always going to be working alone, since they won't hire anyone else to work the job.

    "Requires knowledge of: Windows server, VMware, networking, Wan/LAN, VPN, desktop, printers... " You're the only one working IT and you need to do it all.

    "Enjoys a challenge" - nothing is under warranty, so every vendor will tell you to fuck off anytime you are in over your head and call in for support.

    I've seen this shit so much over the past decade+ that's it's all shit. I don't even fucking read job postings half the time, if it has a salary to it that looks good to me, I check if it's "hybrid" (aka, in-office, but you can work from home, with managers approval that you'll never get), in-office, or remote. If it's anything other than remote, I'm probably moving on. If it passes those first two checks, I skim the requirements for "you should know" shit to determine if I'm working on a team, if they're actually looking for an IT person, or is this posting, just a poorly worded website design or coding job.... And if I don't see anything too stupid on the list I just throw them my resume.

    Look, I've done this job long enough that I know my shit, I know I know my shit, and I couldn't give a fuck less if you call me or not. If you don't see my potential, your loss. I don't want to work for someone who is too blind to see that experience > everything, and that what I put on my resume isn't who I am. I couldn't possibly cram enough info into a CV to accurately convey the sheer amount of shit I've dealt with. Not even fucking close.... And if you need someone with at least 5 years experience with ERP-xyz-Max 2010, and won't even consider anyone who hasn't used that software, well, you're too dumb to be helped. Do you have any idea how much specialized software is out there? Give me a fucking break. My expertise isn't in one specific software, though I have a lot of knowledge of some of the more common ones... My expertise is decoding the shit pile that the publisher calls "documentation" to actually support the program well enough to keep it running. I RTFM so you don't have to.

    There, I said it.

  • Learned CS/Coding at school, ended up with a factory job in manufacturing.

    The meme is right, it is a pretty balling existence all things considered

  • Going to college purely for a career is a hell of a gamble and the most likely positive outcomes are in fields where everyone fucking hates you (business majors, etc).

    Go to improve yourself. Learn all you are interested in. Experience new things. For most jobs, nobody cares what your major is anyway. They care that you can focus on a long term goal and achieve it and a college degree demonstrates that.

    • Going to college purely for a career is a hell of a gamble

      Sure, but it's a gamble that everyone tries to tell you is a sure thing in your youth, and they pile immense pressure on you to do. Maybe things have changed recently, but it hasn't been all that long since I was in high school, in the grand scheme of things, and I remember how you were basically treated like the world's biggest idiot if you didn't plan on going on to get a university degree. Maybe the only exception was if you were going to join the military, with the understanding you were doing so in order to get a degree on the cheap when you finished.

      I think everyone who wants to do so, and who has put in the work to be at the appropriate level academically, should have the opportunity go and study at university, but I also believe that the vast majority of people have no need to do so, and ultimately will not benefit from it. Unfortunately, modern society treats universities not as institutes of education and monuments to the pursuit of knowledge, but as glorified vocational schools. It seems largely to be at the impetus of companies who have decided to externalize any training costs onto potential hires, substituting any sort of on the job training for "Did they check the box that says they have a degree?"

      In the past 30 years, I've seen massive changes in how companies operate just by watching the sort of jobs my father could get. When I was a kid, he could get hired on with nothing more than "I like computers, I'll actually read the whole manual for the system I'm working on, and I understand there's a 6 month probation period to see if I actually do that." for jobs that he would be summarily screened out for today, despite having successfully done in the past.

      Like, don't get me wrong, he's dumb as hell in a lot of ways, but I've still seen extra stupid stuff in his career trajectory that reflects this. I recall him being fired because he got an IT job at Ernst & Young that he'd been successfully doing for years, because they suddenly said "Everyone doing this job needs to have a degree and the following certifications, and if you don't have them and do this job now, you need to get them ASAP and reinterview for your role."

  • "whatever sweetie, just make sure to also study farming so you can grow food when the inevitable apocalypse happens"

107 comments