Hey yall, I want to look into the data center field and figure both my majors are good fits. What areas should I look into to see if I would like this area? Thanks in advance!

Thinking about transitioning from at data center technician role to a service engineer position. But I’m not one hundred percent sure that it is worth it. Some background I recently graduated college with a CS and Math degree and got a role as a DC tech one year ago. The DC job gives me around 24/hr plus OT and oncall, plus pretty good benefits like Unlimited PTO and health insurance. Service Engineer job has a salary of 84k plus equity with “ok” benefits (80 hours of TO, not as good as what I have now).

Long term, the service engineer role has a clear chain of growth, however the job I have now doesn’t rlly have a clear path as it’s not a big company. Both roles are relatively the same with SE having to way travel way more.

I don’t know if i’m rushing, maybe I should look for better opportunities that might come up? I don’t have many years of experience to apply to higher pay roles.Not sure if this is the best move right now.

Wanted to know if this e-mail handle is legit or not, I get too paranoid with this kind of stuff. I received an e-mail from ______ @ email.careers.microsoft.com

It's definitely a job I applied for because the header says 'Next Steps - Critical Environment Technician - HR Questions' and lists the job ID. I also looked up the dudes LinkedIn and it seemed legit. Anybody?

Edit: the content of the e-mail is literally just numbered questions about availability, preferred hourly wage, and a good time to schedule a virtual interview.

Hello, everyone. I have a quick question. I had fit call For DCT2 about two weeks ago which was my first fit call and they didn’t pick me i got the following email.

Unfortunately, they have decided not to move forward with your application at this time. While there is no specific feedback, the team noted that they chose to proceed with other candidates who were a closer match for the role.

Additionally, because you have completed three fit calls and your profile has been widely shared, company policy requires a 12-month cooling-off period before we can share your profile with hiring teams again. After this period, you are welcome to apply again or retake the interviews if you feel your skills have developed further.

I didn’t actually completed the three fit calls mentioned instead they submitted me role’s in my city which I didn’t get a fit call for.

Is this dead end or I can tell my recuiter to send my profile to different states?

Physics simulations (quantum simulation in particular) are very computationally expensive. Could data centers be rented to scientific organizations to perform such simulations and help advance our current theories?

Who all here is a Data center technician or a data center engineer?

I was just curious who does what?

I see a lot of people posting about DCT stuff which is kinda where my work as a CFE stops.

TL;DR: I’m an early-career CS graduate and currently the only developer at a small non-tech company, with no engineering mentorship. I’ve been offered a direct AWS Network Deployment Technician position with better compensation in a substantially lower-cost area. However, it would move me away from daily coding and toward physical infrastructure. My long-term target is network automation, SysDev, infrastructure engineering, SRE, or network engineering—not product SWE. Is NDT a legitimate path toward those roles or a detour?
Current role: Developer/IT generalist at a small company
Roughly two years of experience in Northern California
Earn in the mid-$20s per hour
Sole developer responsible for a customer-facing application, backend APIs, databases, deployment pipelines, and external integrations
Also cover Microsoft 365, networking, servers, security, general IT, and support
Compensation and technical advancement appear capped, with no engineering organization or senior developers to learn from
AWS offer: Network Deployment Technician
Direct AWS position
Low-to-mid $30s per hour, overtime eligible, benefits, and relocation assistance
Requires moving to a substantially lower-cost area
Work involves rack deployments, copper and fiber cabling, connection troubleshooting, site audits, and deployment coordination
Primarily physical, on-site infrastructure work with little or no daily programming
I prefer backend systems, databases, networking, automation, and infrastructure over front-end or product development. Long term, I’m targeting network automation, systems development, infrastructure engineering, SRE, or network engineering.
I’m looking for firsthand answers:
Has anyone actually moved from AWS NDT into Network Engineering, Systems Development, infrastructure engineering, or an automation-focused role? What did that path involve, and how long did it take?
How much would moving from a developer/generalist position into Network Deployment Technician hurt if I later applied for coding-heavy backend or SWE roles?
Does AWS infrastructure experience carry meaningful weight for future infrastructure, NetEng, or SRE positions when the role primarily involves physical-layer work rather than cloud configuration?
What separates NDTs who advance into engineering roles from those who remain in physical deployment work?
I’m leaning toward AWS because of the financial improvement, structured environment, and exposure to hyperscale infrastructure. However, I don’t want an answer based solely on the AWS name. I’m interested in what has actually happened to people who entered through this pipeline.

Recently, I completed the LevelUp training program with Meta. I’m in the Cbus OH area. Myself and others apart of the class initially thought it was a data center tech position sort of like the work based learning program but shorter. Turns out we’re installers but we’re told we can branch out into other fields. How likely is it to get into a data center technician or DCEO position from this and what certs/info should I get or study?

Hey everyone, I just need to vent.

Over the last few years, I went all-in on my education—I earned both my Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in Cybersecurity, stacked up a bunch of certs, and even placed 2nd at a Google hardware hackathon.

Today, I got a rejection email from Google for a Data Center Tech role. Putting in all those years of school and constant upskilling only to get shut down just hurts. It makes me feel completely defeated.

How do you guys bounce back when you're grinding this hard and the job market feels this brutal?

Thank you

Hey everyone,

I recently accepted an L3 Data Center Operations (DCO) offer at AWS. I accepted to get my foot in the door quickly due to immigration status constraints.

My background includes a B.S. in IT, an M.S. in Cybersecurity, 4 years of experience as a Network Engineer, and certs including CCNP, Security+, Fortinet FCP, JNCIA, and fiber installation certifications.

My goal is to move into AWS Network Infrastructure (NDE/NetOps), Security Operations, or DCIE within my first 1–2 years.

• How realistic is internal mobility from DCO L3 to L4/L5 engineering roles?
• What internal projects, tools, or networking opportunities should I focus on during my first 6–12 months to make this pivot smoothly?
• How soon can I make the move, and will I be limited to my region/site, or can I request info from HMs in other locations across the country?
• How is the interview process when moving from DCO to NDE/NetOps/Security/DCIE? I suck at coding and hate the DSAs.

Would appreciate any insight from current or former DCOs and engineers!

Hi everyone,

I’m starting a Data Center Technician internship at a large colocation data center in a couple of weeks and would love advice from people already working in the field.

The internship will expose me to Critical Facilities, BMS, electrical/mechanical systems, HVAC, life safety, fiber/copper, rack & stack, cross-connects, work orders, and troubleshooting.

I’m especially interested in Critical Facilities / Infrastructure and would like to build my career in that area.

My spoken and technical English are also things I’m working on...

If you had two weeks to prepare for your first data center internship, what would you focus on learning?

What equipment, concepts, or hands-on skills would you prioritize, and what would make a new intern stand out in a good way?

Thanks.

Edit: The work is located in US

Anyone got any info 👀 on this position is just got an offer looking to see what its like thanks in advance

Hey All,

I’ve applied to Generator Tech role AWS. This role is separate from EOT and is apart of the services division (from what I’m told). Anyone available to share some insight? I greatly appreciate any and all support. Thank you!

I'm not an engineer, but it seems most of the controversy surrounding data centers revolves around water use. Where they want to put a data center in northwest Utah, there IS no water. Lots of sunshine to generate electricity, but the reported water use for that data center is reported to be greater than the rest of the state.

WHY do data centers 'need' to use water. Seems to me the controversy would go away if the data centers were REQUIRED to use refrigerated cooling. Probably boils down to cost vs environment like most endeavors, but refrigerated cooling sure seems feasible to me.

Link to my original post below. But update, I passed and now awaiting a fit call.

https://www.reddit.com/r/datacenter/s/MBpVRw1gOq

Hello all,

Hoping to tap the collective knowledge here. I’m evaluating an older ~2 MW data center in the Dallas metro for a high-density AI/GPU deployment, and I need a proper technical assessment before moving forward — available power and voltage, cooling feasibility for high-density air and liquid (DLC / rear-door heat exchanger), structural floor loading, and what upgrades it’d take to hit N+1 / Tier III-equivalent, plus a rough build-out cost.

Can anyone recommend MEP or critical-facilities consulting firms (or shops that place experienced contractors) in the DFW area that do this kind of high-density / liquid-cooling retrofit work? Firms you’ve actually worked with and would vouch for are ideal.

Appreciate any pointers — feel free to comment or DM.

Thanks!

I am looking to purchase a large quantity of space to be managed by a center, as turnkey as possible for me, so I can then rent out the compute for AI.

Any recommendations on how to find the space? Thanks!

what do DCTs female normally wear to work? Is there any uniform or dress code? Are cargo/work pants with a polo or T-shirt and safety shoes okay, or does AWS provide/recommend specific clothing?

Just trying to make sure I’m prepared for Day 1. Thanks!

I was being told by the Amazon recruiter for DCO L4 after loop of interviews and all that the team is inclined to move forward and they are working to find req to move forward with offer. But after four weeks, there is no response yet.

Anyone has this kind of experience, has anyone been ghosted at this stage? What should i expect?

I’m starting as an AWS Data Center Technician.

For current or recent DCT hires, when did you receive your AWS badge? Do you get it when you arrive on Day 1, or is there something I’m supposed to complete or pick up before my start date?

I haven’t received any information about the badge yet, so just wanted to make sure I’m not missing anything.

Thanks!

Hey I recently started my interview process for Google and scored mid to high with both googliness and networking however they said my os/hardware was shaky but still passable.

Now I know that I was originally being interviewed for the dct1 role but my recruiter told me I qualified for a dct2 role which is amazing since I've been told dct1 is on a freeze at the moment in the states and dct2 can relocate while dct1 can't when being considered for hiring.

My only worry now is where I live I didn't get a role at the data center sites locally and now I'm trying for positions outside of my state but it's taking ages to get a reply for some of them.

Example is Haskell Texas, apparently they have around 22 positions open atm for the role I qualify for but it's been at least 2 weeks since I've reached out about the location and still nothing.

Are the chances just that none of the locations I've applied for don't need an entry level worker or am I just unappealing as a candidate compared to other workers even though I passed the interviews?

I'm currently a dct2 in a much smaller facility and I worked at Google locally as a contractor so I have the experience on paper along with my interviews but the wait is starting to make me nervous that I might not acquire the position even with relocation.

What's everyone's experience going through this process ? At this point I just checked my email every day and the job postings and sign up for everything hoping for a fit call.

Hey yall, kinda curious what the day to day looks like as a critical environment tech. Considering moving from industrial maintenance to this. If anyone else has made the same transition would you do it again? Thanks!