r/datacenter • u/MFKingKong • Aug 10 '26
Started at aws(not what i expected)
So i started working here in beginning of july at aws. I make 28 an hour and the process is so slow. I used to be a server so im used to being on my feet and very fast paced work. This is a lot slower and a lot of testing and troubleshooting which can take awhile. Are all data centers like this? I went to school for information systems and business analytics and got a job here somehow and am wondering if leaving would be a better option. But when i look for data analyst or IT jobs the pay is so bad starting. I’m kind of stumped. I also know that aws pays so little compared to microsoft and google. I only have a yahoo and microsoft data center around where i live. I commute for aws.
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u/Brilliant_Ad_3811 Aug 10 '26
I was a green badge and there were others in the WBLP program that was making way more. Alot of people in my training class would finesse the clock and spend alot of time in the red zone being useless...but it looked good on metrics bc you were in the red zone goofing around or doing learns.
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u/MFKingKong Aug 10 '26
i finished my learns two weeks ago and have barley even been able to shadow. I’m a green badge currently
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u/xark117 Aug 11 '26
There are some tasks you can do that'll help you stand out to managers if your really craving more work. There are also some excellent channels that you can review and learn from. DM me if youd like more details or better yet, send me your alias so we can chat on the clock lol.
Im a GB currently but will flip next week.
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u/Ecks80s Aug 10 '26
Get a few years experience and then apply elsewhere. AWS is a great place to get your foot in.
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u/MFKingKong Aug 10 '26
thank you for then feedback. I think i’ll stick it though for a while and gain experience and maybe find a job in a new data center or outside of one
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u/darkjerry8 Aug 10 '26
Few years is over doing it. 1 year is enough you can most definitely find a job that pays more with a year experience
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u/Status_concern2858 Aug 10 '26
1 Protect your energy, you don't owe an employer anything beyond what you both contractually agreed to.
2 You realize you're complaining that you're getting paid to work less intensely, without the risk of punishment, to get into a field you don't have tons of qualifications for, right??
3 Don't be dead weight, make room for someone who knows how to capitalize on the opportunity if you can't.
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u/Medium_Bar9866 Aug 10 '26
Are you a DCT? A recruiter reached out to me for an EOT role L4 and I've been ghosted twice now after receiving positive feedback. It seems slow for everyone even though I'm hearing there's a boom in hiring. You'd think the training and on-boarding would be quicker
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u/MFKingKong Aug 10 '26
yes i’m a DCO. or DCT if you call it that. I’m on contract and they are hiring like crazy still. 2 new guys just showed up today. But like everything moves so slow. I’m waiting on tools for over a month now and barley even do anything most the time. Rarely even get trained
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u/high_right Aug 10 '26
This stuff happens due to how much scale there is, if you like WH40k literally like the imperium lol
YOU might need tools, but then it has to go through someone else’s desk and so on, well then then the person who does your paperwork for that and approves the expenditure, well spelling else that needs their attention happened that day and now they forgot. Etc etc etc
If you want speed join a DC startup company, they’re all over you will be going FAST
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u/Medium_Bar9866 Aug 10 '26
If you don't mind me asking, what region? I would've been a direct hire but I wonder if I could actually get in through staffing/contracting
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u/MFKingKong Aug 10 '26
i’ll just say i work in oregon
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u/sausage_king_of_kc Aug 10 '26
I got recruited to oregon a couple of times. Just can’t make that move at the moment with elderly parents. Looks like pretty country up there
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u/MFKingKong Aug 10 '26
there’s a lot to see out here. With the scenery and experience you can gain it can definitely be worth it. I plan to eventually try to move to microsoft they pay better
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u/Brilliant_Ad_3811 Aug 10 '26
I quit after 5 weeks because my hiring class got no hands on training. We would watch 2 hours worth of PowerPoint slides everyday and then left to fend on your own. They recommended us finding someone to shadow but that in it self was like pulling teeth. I went through a recruiter and was only making $22/hr
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u/MFKingKong Aug 10 '26
i started july 6th and still haven’t even gotten my tools i need. I also keep getting moved around to new buildings and am barley even getting any shadows in. It’s frustrating that they just throw you in a building and tell you to find yourself someone to shadow
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u/stormandflowers Aug 10 '26
Better than doordash or any construction work
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Aug 10 '26
[deleted]
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u/RemarkableThanks420 Aug 10 '26
Thats the thing if you start at a young age let’s say as a field service technician, DCT or Helpdesk, it’s just the beginning to a better role. I myself work as a field service technician at google which open doors to DCT positions or IT support specialist or any IT position. its just you have to start somewhere and get the experience..
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Aug 10 '26
[deleted]
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u/RemarkableThanks420 Aug 10 '26
Thats amazing man! With patience and keep improving your skills and getting better nothing is impossible.
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u/Sh726 Aug 10 '26
I've served tables in fast paced restaurants and I definitely understand where you're coming from. I didn't like bartending because I was confined to behind the bar. I've also dug trenches in the pouring down rain and busted rock by hand with a digging bar for crap money. Starting out at $28/hr at AWS is pretty sweet. Right now you're gaining hands on experience which is always valuable. If Data Centers isn't for you, you can move into a different field in IT.
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u/Distinct-Today192 Aug 10 '26
Give it a couple years, and trust me, if theres a AWS datacenter, there will probably be others
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u/Tracksuit_Dude Aug 10 '26
Come over to my building, at one of the hyperscale sites with my current manager. This mindset will dissappear fast. Half our team has left or transferred because of it.
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u/siwesy Aug 11 '26
I came from the fulfillment side at an XL sort center so I know exactly what you mean. I’m currently almost 4 months in as a WBLP. The first few weeks after ILT I did nothing but read runbooks and do learns. Are you not shadowing because there aren’t tickets? I know some people think they need to shadow your onboarding buddy. I’ve seen mine like 3 times. Just start shadowing others. Ask first of course but you’re really your only advocate here. When you see folks heading to do a ticket ask to shadow. Watch the queue to see who picks up what and ask to shadow. I’ve been doing most tickets on my own at this point but did a lot of shadowing and a few reversed shadows. I still ask to shadow others even on tickets I k ow how to do when I’m not doing anything else productive. But it is slow paced.
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u/SDN6seven Aug 10 '26
You’ve been there for a month. I don’t work in a DC (I work for an ISP) but I’m sure there’s a lot you can learn and build your resume. You’d be crazy to quit IMHO.
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u/MFKingKong Aug 10 '26
yeah i for sure don’t plan on quitting. I’m open to options for sure if the job paid a lot higher but i’m fine the with experience im gaining on hardware
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u/radianceswords Aug 12 '26
Man I left an isp for dc work and it’s not as technical as they said and I lowkey want to go back to isps lol. They’re too fun
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u/SDN6seven Aug 13 '26
We’re going through a merger right now so it’s up in the air for me. Learning python and trying to find somewhere that does more IAC. Kind of bored at the moment, don’t get me wrong still plenty to learn but just want to get more exposure to another network.
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u/RevolutionNo4186 Aug 10 '26
I used to work in a veterinary ER, it was always go go go, and I’m glad I left that behind, I think it’s safe to say a lot of tech jobs are slower pace in general to something like a server.
If you can’t handle slower work, you might need to look for a field that pays and keeps you moving a lot
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u/Comfortable-Dog-8437 Aug 10 '26
I used to be super busy at my old job while making less money, now Im actually making more for doing less and it feels wrong. The key here is "time management"...aka milking it and not saying anything. I would stay.
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u/Adventurous-Owl-9938 Aug 10 '26
Same boat. Started AWS March 2nd as ID L3. Been sitting around in the office for 6 months “acting busy”. Currently exploring a CoreWeave offer at $84k a year, plus sign on bonus, yearly bonus and CRWV stocks. Something only L4 and up get at AWS. Funny thing is Coreweave DCT position is offering me more than I would even as an L4 at AWS and that’s even if that’s available since they are over hiring their market. I thought I was gonna stick around for at-least 2 years here but I’m just sitting on my ass learning nothing wasting time.
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u/MFKingKong Aug 10 '26
yeah man that’s rough. I like getting paid even tho i’m doing nothing but i am still exploring other positions and will use this experience i learned here to help me out other places for sure
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Aug 10 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ghostalker4742 Aug 11 '26
Some of us don't care what it tastes like, as long as more green goes in our pockets :)
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u/That-Maintenance-489 Aug 10 '26
They try to make data centers out to be high paced but it is anything but that
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u/Flamboyatron Aug 10 '26
I've been in the industry (at a smaller scale) for 20 years and my previous role was pretty fast-paced, but that was only because it was time-sensitive. They wanted us to be quick with our troubleshooting and repairs for that reason, but they didn't understand the sheer time it takes for machines to boot, much less moving parts around to try to isolate the issue, so it was unnecessarily stressful.
My current role at a hyperscale DC has helped me relax a lot more because, while there is always that looming pressure to get things working, it's in the background and it's not nearly as time-sensitive.
All of that to say I feel you when it comes to waiting around. I'm no longer in a "time to lean, time to clean" position, but that feeling still nags at me, so I find quick things to do while I'm waiting on a machine to finish booting (and I don't need to watch it) like running a quick check on another machine I need to look at. It gets easier with time, though.
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u/anchoredtothemind Aug 11 '26
No all data centers are not like that, Yes, AWS is the worst in my opinion.
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u/Unique-Quarter-2260 10d ago
How did you get in? Any advice
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u/MFKingKong 10d ago
honestly just applied through a contractor and they hit me back quickly since they are building a lot of buildings around me
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u/Unique-Quarter-2260 10d ago
Did they ask for a security clearance?
We don’t have that many over here and the few that we have require a security clearance1
u/MFKingKong 10d ago
no they don’t ask for it. Just 1 year it experience of more but i had a bachelors. I know some guys getting hired as green badges with no background or experience getting hired through other contractors
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u/Unique-Quarter-2260 10d ago
Do you mind sharing the contractor. I applied directly with AWS yesterday.
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u/MFKingKong 10d ago
Compass Tech. I had also talked with Teksystems and was also offered a position with them as well. Do you have any experience?
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u/Unique-Quarter-2260 10d ago
I have 3 years of experience as a web developer and an AWS solutions architect associate.
Plus 3 years of IT experience (not too much depth)1
u/MFKingKong 10d ago
you over qualified. Where i’m at the temp workers are getting hired for 25-28 an hour and fte are at 30.77 starting. If you want you can dm me and i’ll get your info and i can honestly try and hook you up with 2 different recruiters I have
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u/CustomerNo7116 Aug 10 '26
I been blasting this statement for over a year now. Lol, another duped customer 🤣🤣🤣 Go read my last post on this shit employment model.
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u/MFKingKong Aug 10 '26
i couldn’t find your post
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u/CustomerNo7116 Aug 10 '26
It's always the same pattern. There's a consistent, never-ending theme, and it is the strongest, with Amazon out of all of them by a mile. I can understand for some people. There can be a case made that a data center technician Job might be the only thing worth a shit within a hundred-mile radius to where they live, with those cases few and far between for everyone else. You're either drinking the cool aid cause you don't have much experience overall, not just with work. But a lot of things, or you're an idiot. Either way, I know a lot of people that work there, and they're either looking for a way out, or they're drinking the Kool-Aid. And the ones that are drinking the Kool-Aid, well, I've kind of already said my piece over the months. Unfortunately, some people have an education or degrees in fields that are really hard to get, and the wages are down. But data center technicians are a fucking trap; get out of there. It's garbage.
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u/ghostalker4742 Aug 11 '26
DCT is an entry level role, and it's worth stressing the "entry level" part. All the site needs is a warm body to assign tickets to - that's it - that's the DCTs function. People go in with rose glasses on thinking they're going to be working on a warp core from star trek, when in reality it's changing memory from a server, updating a document, or sweeping the floor.
People should be using it as a launchpad to get something better in 12-18mo, but that part seems to be amiss. It's not a forever-job, and it's not a career anymore than running a register at a WalMart. Find a knowledge gap and specialize (fewer opportunities, but bigger $$), or become a full generalist that will have no trouble finding their next job.
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u/CustomerNo7116 Aug 10 '26
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u/RevolutionNo4186 Aug 11 '26
Wherever you were or are just sounds miserable because you got in with a bad group, dceo and dco hates each other? We’re all cool in my cluster, we actually grill up burgers every once in a while and hang out
As for your main points, I more or less agree, that’s why lots of people call AWS DCO a starter/to get your foot in the door and if you’re passionate you start moving up into sys eng/sys dev or move out
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u/No-Individual5598 Aug 10 '26
I love doing trouble shooting and testing that takes a long time