IT Certifications and Careers (Official Discussion Thread)

[BelowTheMasonDixon]

I know most of yall are advanced and OG's in the cert game. But I have a question about the A+ exam, I've started studying for it around two weeks ago doing a few hours at a time daily. My primary source of info has been Mike Meyers Udemy and his CompTia A+ book(Which has got to be over a thousand pages) like seriously I stopped at like 200 flash cards because I thought I was shorting myself. you could literally make a thousand or more. Now to be honest I am learning. BUT, I need someone who has taken this test to break down what questions are primarily on it. Because seriously this is fukking too much. I could see if it was about ONE particular subject like Security but this shyt hops around a lot. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[David_TheMan]

I know most of yall are advanced and OG's in the cert game. But I have a question about the A+ exam, I've started studying for it around two weeks ago doing a few hours at a time daily. My primary source of info has been Mike Meyers Udemy and his CompTia A+ book(Which has got to be over a thousand pages) like seriously I stopped at like 200 flash cards because I thought I was shorting myself. you could literally make a thousand or more. Now to be honest I am learning. BUT, I need someone who has taken this test to break down what questions are primarily on it. Because seriously this is fukking too much. I could see if it was about ONE particular subject like Security but this shyt hops around a lot. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Get a braindump and run the questions.
That said A+ covers a lot of ttopics, hardware, to customer support,
Sometimes when you look at it you get overwhelmed, if it helps, just focus on sections and focus on completing sections, try a section a week.
Its easy regardless of level of certs to get swamped, but just break it down and remember you eat an elephant one bite at a time, break it down in smaller sections

 

[Sonny Bonds]

Stuff

Are you able to score high on the practice quizzes in the book? If yes, then take the exam.

 

[GollyImGully]

Anybody ever go from a bigger company to a smaller one?

I did that and i'm at the lack of organization and freedom in the IT department.

Complete culture shock to me, the idea of requesting a change simply does not exist..you just do it and hope shyt doesn't break . They have bad habits which has to stop ASAP.

Me and my manager who is new (brother as well) and came from a bigger company be looking at each other like seeing some of this fukkery

 

[Sonny Bonds]

Anybody ever go from a bigger company to a smaller one?

I went from a billion dollar company with thousands of employees in one giant building to an office with ~35 people (about 250 worldwide).

The thing is at my previous job I didn't really do IT. The job I had before was inventory and delivery. Half the job was warehouse. But there were still processes in place.The most technical thing I used to do was entire my password for the automated OS imaging script to run. Now? I'm the sole IT guy in a small office. Underpaid and seeing all kinds of documents (salaries, offer letters) that I'm not supposed to be seeing.

I was supposed to be the junior of 2 techs in the office, but my boss quit back in the summer. He was making 115k and I'm making less than half that. Then, for months I was under a director who never had time for me. One time the CEO came and gave a Q&A. The director to the CEO: "What are our plans for employees, like Sonny, who need training?"

Months later, they switch my day to day manager to the office's HR\finance chick and my technical manager is a director in Australia. Things are a bit better, but sometimes he doesn't email me back.

There's just things that are wrong:
- The only reason I learned what servers I'm responsible for is because I was snooping around my old boss' laptop and found his remote desktop manager file
- Higher-ups not believing me when I tell them I don't have access to something I'm supposed to have access to
- I don't know how to access the Linux servers (that I'm responsible for)
- Recurring issue where some users randomly can't login because their macs won't connect to the correct wifi to authenticate with AD ("It happens in every office," says my boss).
- No policies for when employees get new hardware (one chick had a laptop with 2GB of RAM)
- In the 8 months I've worked here: only developers have gotten new hardware.
- 2 months ago: Gave the new head of PM a 2013 laptop.
- The fact that everyone seems to know that I'm not trained, but no one cares
- Our Adobe account is set up as a non-profit because there's a massive discount (we're not a non-profit)
- Can't get users to make tickets on the regular
- The amount of documentation kept in random Google spreadsheets: product licenses, list of hardware (and who has what)
- The West Coast office is down to 5 people working out one of those co-working rental spaces. Seeing their frustration with the situation via emails after they quit is fascinating.
- Me emailing the director in Australia to delete an ex-staffer's account from Slack and JIRA because I don't have admin access and then a different director emailing a higher-up saying I didn't do it (because my boss said he did it; but didn't)
- That higher-up then freaking out for months about closing accounts every time someone quits because of the above situation

Honestly, my main issue is that I know when I leave this place I'll be looked at funny for doing stuff wrong. I feel like I can't leave either. They keep telling me how the techs in other offices started off just like me and now they're all devops\system engineer rockstars.

 

[GollyImGully]

I went from a billion dollar company with thousands of employees in one giant building to an office with ~35 people (about 250 worldwide).

The thing is at my previous job I didn't really do IT. The job I had before was inventory and delivery. Half the job was warehouse. But there were still processes in place.The most technical thing I used to do was entire my password for the automated OS imaging script to run. Now? I'm the sole IT guy in a small office. Underpaid and seeing all kinds of documents (salaries, offer letters) that I'm not supposed to be seeing.

I was supposed to be the junior of 2 techs in the office, but my boss quit back in the summer. He was making 115k and I'm making less than half that. Then, for months I was under a director who never had time for me. One time the CEO came and gave a Q&A. The director to the CEO: "What are our plans for employees, like Sonny, who need training?"

Months later, they switch my day to day manager to the office's HR\finance chick and my technical manager is a director in Australia. Things are a bit better, but sometimes he doesn't email me back.

There's just things that are wrong:
- The only reason I learned what servers I'm responsible for is because I was snooping around my old boss' laptop and found his remote desktop manager file
- Higher-ups not believing me when I tell them I don't have access to something I'm supposed to have access to
- I don't know how to access the Linux servers (that I'm responsible for)
- Recurring issue where some users randomly can't login because their macs won't connect to the correct wifi to authenticate with AD ("It happens in every office," says my boss).
- No policies for when employees get new hardware (one chick had a laptop with 2GB of RAM)
- In the 8 months I've worked here: only developers have gotten new hardware.
- 2 months ago: Gave the new head of PM a 2013 laptop.
- The fact that everyone seems to know that I'm not trained, but no one cares
- Our Adobe account is set up as a non-profit because there's a massive discount (we're not a non-profit)
- Can't get users to make tickets on the regular
- The amount of documentation kept in random Google spreadsheets: product licenses, list of hardware (and who has what)
- The West Coast office is down to 5 people working out one of those co-working rental spaces. Seeing their frustration with the situation via emails after they quit is fascinating.
- Me emailing the director in Australia to delete an ex-staffer's account from Slack and JIRA because I don't have admin access and then a different director emailing a higher-up saying I didn't do it (because my boss said he did it; but didn't)
- That higher-up then freaking out for months about closing accounts every time someone quits because of the above situation

Honestly, my main issue is that I know when I leave this place I'll be looked at funny for doing stuff wrong. I feel like I can't leave either. They keep telling me how the techs in other offices started off just like me and now they're all devops\system engineer rockstars.

sounds like a hell hole

I noticed the google doc shyt at the place im at now The IT manager before (who got fired) really gave no fukks im hearing

Breh a new company wont have to know how shyt was done wrong just make everything possible. You can ALWAYS leave breh trust me on that one

 

[BaRRyG]

Anybody ever go from a bigger company to a smaller one?

I did that and i'm at the lack of organization and freedom in the IT department.

Complete culture shock to me, the idea of requesting a change simply does not exist..you just do it and hope shyt doesn't break . They have bad habits which has to stop ASAP.

Me and my manager who is new (brother as well) and came from a bigger company be looking at each other like seeing some of this fukkery

You in nyc?

 

[GollyImGully]

You in nyc?

yessir

 

[BaRRyG]

yessir

if i get my A+ cert what are the chances of you puttin me on?

 

[GollyImGully]

if i get my A+ cert what are the chances of you puttin me on?

If they have an open position once you get it I have no problem putting in the word for you

 

[BaRRyG]

If they have an open position once you get it I have no problem putting in the word for you

bro on everything thank you

Also how has your journey been, and why did you leave your previous company?

 

[Sonny Bonds]

sounds like a hell hole

I noticed the google doc shyt at the place im at now The IT manager before (who got fired) really gave no fukks im hearing

Breh a new company wont have to know how shyt was done wrong just make everything possible. You can ALWAYS leave breh trust me on that one

I like the people I work with. All my bosses have been cool even if they couldn't help me that much. I just feel like if I leave I'll get stuck in a support role where I won't have crazy admin access to damn near everything. They're supporting my learning of AWS heavily. It's really weird that I was hired to help out the senior tech and then they didn't replace him when he left though. I'm not looking that hard for a new job, but I did have a phone interview today.

The main issue with small companies is the lack of policy. So, I can access whatever and grab an extra laptop whenever I need\want one. But then there's things like people messaging me whenever they have the slightest issue. Or having to manage inventory via spreadsheets and fighting with finance for every hardware purchase. Or people running torrents on their work laptops.

 

[Mainevent_7]

Just got done with the third day of orientation. Before I left the office I was able to speak with a manager that was trying to fill an identity access management role. Hopefully I don't stay on the bench to long.

 

[Silkk]

Bad lightskin chick in my 2nd class

 

[Obreh Winfrey]

Bad lightskin chick in my 2nd class

You know the drill. Pics or get negged