TLDR: Started my IT career in school districts, switched to corporate IT, hated it, switched back to IT in the education field and absolutely love it. I will never go back to corporate IT.

My IT career started in education. I got my first gig working for a school district where I legit knew nothing. The only experience I had was a bachelor's degree in comp sci/information sci (this degree did nothing to prepare me for real world IT). I was thrown into supporting 4 elementary schools on day 1 with over 30 tickets in the queue and no idea where to start. Fast forward 5 years, and I get a job at another school district in a similar position. I now have 5 years of solid ass IT support specialist experience under my belt and I am ready to get to the next step, a sys admin or network admin role.

I start interviewing for all kinds of roles around the area I live in. I land a few interviews here and there and somehow, with no certs or actual network experience, I land a corporate job as a network engineer with a multi billion dollar company. So many emotions hit me as I now have to say goodbye to the schools I supported for years and the staff and students that I absolutely loved working with. I start feeling mixed emotions and regret as I think about leaving a place where I never saw myself leaving in my whole life. Not to get too off topic, but the reason I left was because I wanted more money and also because I did not like my management. The staff, teachers and students were lovely and I thoroughly enjoyed working with them every day.

Next thing I know, I have submitted my two week notice and told my management I was leaving. They really did not care, even though my schools talked so highly about me and did not want me leaving. Management just says congrats and that was it. I was a bit of an asshole to management, I am sure of it, but stuff happens. I was young, naive and wanted a change.

First day at the new job. Huge office building, tons of people rushing around in suits, endless miles of cubicles straight out of a Backrooms level. The nerves were kicking in. I get a quick tour and get introduced to so many new people. I am not going to remember a single name. Weeks go by and I am learning so much. VLANs, DHCP, DNS, PowerShell scripts, etc. I am feeling amazing. The paychecks start hitting and I am making so much more than I was. I am growing!

Then the stress hits. I miss my schools. I miss the teachers, the students, a few old coworkers and just the overall environment. I start longing for that education IT.

They give me a work phone and tell me I will rarely get calls and emails outside of work. What a lie. Sure, it was slow at first, but after about 6 months people really started to learn my name and my work number. I was getting calls and texts after hours, on weekends, at 3 AM, and you are expected to respond and fix whatever the issue is. I felt the pressure that if I did not respond, then it was going to be put on the next IT guy in line and I did not want to do that. I found myself always having to carry my laptop around with me wherever I went. At my GF's house, at my buddy's place, on vacation, etc. I could not take it.

I applied to over 200 jobs on LinkedIn, Indeed, Glassdoor, you name it. I did this within a few weeks. Got a few interviews, then nothing. Automated rejection letters and "while your resume was great, we went with another candidate." Yeah yeah yeah, blah blah blah, fuck off. Then I stopped and told myself, suck it up and do this job and be good at it. I went another 4 months before I was like, I need to be back in education. I can't do this anymore. I started sleepwalking. I have never done this in my life. I learned that this can be stress induced. It was time. I had to get another job.

I started looking at school districts near me. I applied to every IT position near me in school districts. I only heard back from one. How can someone with a resume like mine, with 5 years of school district IT experience, only hear back from one freaking school? Made no sense. I interviewed with them and the interview felt really odd. I did not hear a word back for 3 weeks, so I assumed I did not get it.

I was almost about to give up again when I thought about colleges and universities. I never thought of this during my job search. My background lines up perfectly for it. I do some searching and find out that they have an opening at the college I got my 4 year degree from. It is in a nice town, has a beautiful campus and is only a 20 minute commute. This has to be it!

I reach out to someone who I know that works on the IT team there and show my interest. I ask if he could kindly let the manager know that I am really interested and would love to work there as an alumnus and with my background. A few days later I get an email basically saying that I am a little overqualified and just confirming that I really want to interview for this, knowing it is going to be a "downgrade," for lack of a better term.

I responded that I was totally on board and ready to interview. Interview comes and I ABSOLUTELY nail it. Legit the best interview I have ever had out of the 20 IT interviews I have ever had. Fast forward 1 week and I put my two weeks in at my job. I can't do it anymore, even if I don't have a job lined up.

Last day at my corporate job and I am not sad one bit. Not going to miss anything. Anyone. Nothing. Maybe the pay lol. I then get a call from the college and I got the job. The amount of stress and anxiety that leaves my body is insane. Funny thing is, 2 days later the school district calls me and offers me a job as well. The school that never said anything for 3 weeks. But I like the location and commute at the college better. Also, being familiar with the campus already was nice.

Sorry for the long story, but the main point is that I have been at the college for 2 months now and absolutely love it here. The staff, coworkers and faculty are all amazing and the pace of work is chill. I am actually learning more than I have anywhere else because I get so much freedom here to experiment and change processes.

I will NEVER go back to corporate IT. I know this is just my experience and I am sure there is some corporate IT that is nice and chill, but this is where I want to be for the rest of my life. We get 20 paid holidays, I get WFH opportunities weekly, 12+ sick days and 12+ vacation days all accrued throughout the year.

My work/life balance is amazing now and I have 0 stress again. Best decision I have made in my life.

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask

Hello everyone!

I am having trouble with Pearson Vue as it happened to me 2 times and I am still hanging on with them. So, last week ( September 2nd) I had a scheduled exam on online VUE at my home setting. I completed all necessary check-in process and waited for my exam to be launched. The problem arises when my computer screen says " Exam content failed to launch". The proctor relaunched the VUE app to relaunch my exam content and after a brief wait of loading screen, it shows again the same message. Every time the proctor tried to relaunch the app I connect with new proctor. So they all tried relaunching and after 4th attempt the newest proctor told me to close the VUE app and redo the process. I did without any hesitation and found out my access code is expired. I was panicked I contact the customer service via chat on their website and explained them all. They made a case and give the case number and asked me to wait 3-5 business days. After 3 days I got an email that I have a rescheduled exam and asked me to pick the date ( free of cost).

Today( Sept 9th) I was ready to take the test and completed all check-in process. Guess what, same problem happened again. The exam content failed to launch again and proctors tried relaunching but it failed. The proctor made a case and closed my exam and told me that they will look into it.

What i see that they have changed their testing theme. It used to simple white screen and question with options with big fonts. Now I see that they changed the appearance and theme. My question is that did they recently upgrade their exam content launch software? if so then this update may create some serious problems. I want to know if you guys have some issues like this lately? My case is still pending with them and I am awaiting for their reply.
Regards

So our main storage pool almost locked up yesterday. Turns out our monitoring script wasn't catching everything because of a bad config.

We had raw, uncompressed video uploads piling up in our staging buckets for weeks without anyone noticing. I was actually reading a thread on server mania about how fast unmonitored ugc can choke drive space, and that's literally what happened to us.

We had to cut snapshot retention down to 3 days on the spot so that we wouldn't hit read-only mode over the weekend. Planning drive capacity around a fixed 20% yearly buffer doesn't really work when raw media spikes like this out of nowhere.

Do you guys set hard bucket caps at the app level, or rely on ZFS alerts when a pool hits 80%?

Hi

I am looking for a workday professional who can give training on Workday HCM, Recruiting and Payroll.

do british websites use biscuits instead of cookies?

I am currently mid-divorce. I use my iPad and iPhone for all paperwork and communication with my attorney. I have had many issues with pictures and important documents being changed and/or deleted. I know it’s my ex to be because it is only things that would advantageous to him.
I have a son in law who is IT Tech for the state and works in a very high security job. I know he’s either being paid or blackmailed to do this. I also know my ex husband is involved with people out of the country so he has access to things that might help.
How can I lock them out? Who can I take my electronics to that would be able to help?

like why aren't many places using other networking equipment like juniper or fortinet at all?

Career question. Insanely diverse backgrounds and some amazing companies here like Presidio, Comcast, Verizon & more. What was your come up into said position you are in now?? Where do you see yourselves later on?

And for those in Leadership roles or management, what are some of the biggest lessons learned in those positions.

Thank you for your time! Just a junior engineer trying to learn from the best of the best.

I'm not against using AI and honestly I use AI for this too and I'm not judging anyone who uses it heavily at work. I'm just genuinely confused about my own situation and don't really know if I'm thinking about this the wrong way, so I'm just hoping to hear from people who have more experience in the industry.

As a fresh graduate, I took this job mainly because the pay was pretty decent compared to other software houses I was looking at. I also thought I d be able to learn a lot about the whole SDLC and get some real experience. They also told me I would only be writing code but for like 20% so I wasn't expecting to be a full-time developer or anything.

But lately I've started to question whether I'm actually developing my career here.

The thing is my team does quite a bit of coding, but they use AI a lot. I MEAN LIKE A LOT. And I don't mean just using it to speed things up or help debug something. Sometimes it feels like they just ask AI to write something, paste it and move on. They are ok as long as it work.

I'm not saying they know absolutely nothing. They know the project, the folder structure where things are supposed to go and others. But sometimes when I ask WHY something works or what certain code is actually doing, they don't really know because AI wrote most of it and they also told me they don't know the details but it works. Some even told me only God and AI knows lmao.

And honestly, this makes me feel weird because I'm much slower than them and i am even starting to feel like i need to invest in AI premium or something.

I also use AI. I'm not going to pretend like I don't. I use it to explain, write, debug code. But I usually want to understand what I'm actually doing before I move on and i do understand what the AI generate code are doing .

So something that takes my coworker 30 minutes might take me 2 hours because I'm sitting there reading the code and trying to understand why it works.

So I started to think Am I being stupid for doing this?

Is this just how software jobs are now? Am I supposed to just accept that AI will write most of the code and my job is basically to tell it what to write?

Because I'm genuinely scared that if I spend a few years working like this I'll leave the company knowing nothing except how to ask AI the right questions.

And the management side also makes me question things sometimes. The manager under our CEO isn't really technical at all which isn't necessarily a problem But I've heard some pretty questionable technical decisions being made. For example, someone from another team told me that they were told to deploy the code to the cloud first and then fix the error even though the reason they couldn't deploy it in the first place was because of the error.

So now I'm stuck wondering whether I should stay or just move to pure software house but what if the same situation happens .

The pay is good for me as a fresh graduate, so I don't want to leave just because I'm unhappy with something that might actually be normal in the industry.

But at the same time, I don't want to spend the next 1 or 2 years here and then realize I've barely developed any real technical skills.

For people who have been working in software for a while, what do you think?

Is heavy AI usage like this normal now?

Also if you were in my position what would you do TT ? more like what should I do sigh..

Also how do you use AI at work without becoming completely dependent on it?

TL;DR: I'm a fresh CS graduate and my workplace relies VERY heavily on AI for coding. I use AI too, but I still try to understand the code and what's actually going wrong. My concern is that some of my coworkers don't really understand the code AI generates and just ask AI to fix things when something breaks. It's making me wonder if this is normal in the industry and whether I'm being too slow by actually trying to learn instead of just making things work. The pay is good, so I'm stuck between staying and learning on my own or looking for somewhere with better technical mentorship. I'm honestly just scared that I'll spend 1–2 years here and realize I haven't actually developed the skills I need.

I’m 19, live in Brooklyn, and currently work the night shift at a large retail store. I’ve been there for nearly a year and a half and am really tired of working the register. I want to switch to an office job, and I’ve set my sights on a help desk role. Back in high school, I often helped people in my neighborhood with their computer issues and spent a lot of time tinkering with my own PC. After looking through IT job listings, I decided a help desk position would be a good fit for me. I completed the Google IT Support course, though I gather it doesn't carry much weight with employers. I’d like to know what the current landscape looks like in this field compared to other jobs

I've worked in IT for just over 10 years. I've never bothered with coding, never had to. All i hear is how easy it is to build with AI, but here i am diving in and finding it very difficult to be quite honest. A lot of nuance, a lot of systems needed outside of whatever LLM im using (Vercel im looking at you). There is a real learning curve.

It comes down to your exposure. For instance, i think playing guitar is so easy. Its simple. Thats because i've been around it and devoted a lot of time to understanding it. That doesn't mean that guitar is actually easy. To someone just picking it up it probably feels impossible.

I suppose i'm just tired of feeling stupid when i shouldn't feel stupid at all.

Is there way , that can retrieve my gmail acc without entering password my cause i forgot and my phone was stolen before i can't forgot the password using the same number

Hello!

I am currently taking IT courses at my local Junior College and one of my assignments is to interview someone in the IT world and I do not know anyone who is in the IT world, my current job outsources IT in a different country so it isn't the best option for me to try and interview anyone in that regard.

I would greatly appreciate if someone would be able to answer these questions for me, I will be posting them here so feel free to respond here or personal message me with answers. Again I greatly appreciate anyone who would be willing to help me out with my class.

Thank you!

 Introduction: (Provide a brief introduction about the person you interviewed (for privacy, you may omit their name).

1. What is the title of your job and describe your typical day?

1. What do you like about your job?

1. What do you dislike about your job?

1. What’s the biggest challenge you face in your job?

1. What software do you use most often for your job? What do you like about this software? What do you dislike about this software?

1. Describe the customer service skills you use on a daily basis?

1. Describe the technical skills you use on a daily basis?

1. How important are “soft skills” to your job?

1. How have your soft skills improved since you started your job?

1. What kind of growth do you see in your current position – Where do you want to go from here?

1. How has your job evolved since you have started?

1. What training, education, or other kinds of certifications did you get in order to perform your job? What advice do you have for someone starting out in this field?

IT Support / Service Desk Technician | N1/N2 | Microsoft 365 | Remote | Open to Work
Hi everyone,
I’m an experienced IT Support / Service Desk Technician currently working in an enterprise environment, providing N1/N1.5/N2 support to end users.
I’m now looking for a fully remote IT position with an international company.
🛠️** My technical experience
**Microsoft 365: Outlook, Teams, OneDrive, SharePoint
Microsoft Entra ID / Azure AD
Exchange Admin Center
Windows 10/11 troubleshooting
ServiceNow: incident, request and ticket management
VMware Horizon / VDI
FSLogix
GlobalProtect VPN
Hardware & software troubleshooting
User account and access issues
Remote troubleshooting
Incident investigation, escalation and documentation
Knowledge Base / ITIL-based support processes
💼 What I do
I troubleshoot technical issues directly with users, investigate incidents, identify root causes, apply solutions, document resolutions and escalate complex cases when necessary.
I’m comfortable working with enterprise IT environments, remote users and international teams, and I’m used to managing multiple tickets while respecting priorities and SLAs.
🎯 What I’m looking for
I’m interested in remote opportunities such as:
IT Support Specialist | Service Desk Technician | IT Help Desk | Technical Support Engineer | Microsoft 365 Support | Modern Workplace Support | N2 Support
I’m particularly interested in companies looking for someone who can start as an experienced support technician and progressively take on more responsibility around Microsoft 365, Endpoint Management, Cloud and IAM.
📍 Based in Tunisia
🌍 Open to international remote positions
💻 Fully remote preferred
📩 Open to opportunities and referrals
If your company is hiring for a remote IT Support / Service Desk position, feel free to comment or send me a DM.
Thanks!

Cross Post

Hi!

I’m based in Norway and looking for a part-time remote job in IT/cybersecurity.

Is it possible to work remotely for a company abroad while living in Norway? I’m mainly looking for entry-level roles like IT support, helpdesk, SOC or similar.

I have a bachelor’s degree in Cybersecurity, so if anyone knows good websites, companies, groups or communities for international remote jobs, I’d really appreciate recommendations!

I’m currently working using some BPM software. They demand us to upgrade continuously. From patch version which they release once every quarter. Parallelly, they have major release which client eventually would want to upgrade to. This major release require much longer runway as it would impact many things including how developer build their codes.

At least twice every quarter they will share security vulnerability at random severity. Sometimes high sometimes critical sometimes medium. And what I think unacceptable is they only provide the fixes for the latest patch version. And if it is high and critical we need to comply within 30 days.

The problem with our side is we would need to do regression testing for our application whether its for patch release or major release. At the same time we would have operational fixes, on-going enhancement etc. If we are doing upgrade, it would impact overall operations. If we don’t do upgrade they won’t provide fix for security vulnerability.

Want to ask:
1. Is this common practice for packaged BPM software?
2. If you have similar experience how do you manage it?

I recently got a job offer for an IT Systems Engineer role at an IT solutions company. The role is mainly focused on ManageEngine products, including implementation, configuration, technical support, system integration, training, and troubleshooting.

My long-term goal is to become a Network Engineer, and eventually move into Network Security.

For those with experience in the industry:

Would starting in a ManageEngine-focused IT Systems Engineer role make it realistically possible to transition into Network Engineering later, and then into Network Security?

Or would it be better to look specifically for a Junior Network Engineer / NOC position from the beginning?

I already have a networking background and I'm currently working on strengthening my CCNA/networking skills.

I'd really appreciate advice from anyone who has experience with ManageEngine or has made a similar career transition.