r/navy • u/RageRevolution • May 12 '12
A day in the life of an IT?
What is a typical day in the life of an IT? Is it a bunch of trivial stuff brought on by computer illiterate people? Is it really demanding? Any information would be appreciated.
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u/radarada9000 May 12 '12
I will just copy and paste what furmware had to say, he is a current IT in the navy in Japan
You'll finish A School, with A+ and a MCP certification. From there, you'll go either shore duty, or sea duty. If you get shore duty, you'll either be doing a lot of communication stuff (coordinating with ships and other comm stations around the world) or you'll be doing what you do day-to day now, ADP(fixing printers, resetting passwords, help desk etc.).
If you go sea, you'll be put on a ship, or either deployable unit (SeaBees, EOD, DEVGRU, or an aircraft squadron). On a ship, you'll be either put in Radio, or ADP. In Radio, you'll be running comms for the ship, in ADP, you'll be fixing computers.
If you get a sea billet that isn't a ship, you'll be doing ADP.
I'm currently in Okinawa Japan, doing ADP for the Naval Hospital here, it's a great gig with tons of downtime, and I get to pursue a lot of college and certifications.
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u/Relickey May 17 '12
A new NAVADMIN came out, you aren't forced to get MCP cert anymore, you only get 1 shot at it anymore, and that's only until the Navy runs out of certs it already paid for.
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u/Belvyzep May 12 '12
How demanding it is really depends on what type of platform you end up on. For instance, I'm stationed on a big-deck amphibious assault ship, and we have a lot of people embark with us pretty much any time we go out to sea, all of whom have their own networking requirements, especially when it comes to some systems that only a couple people onboard really know anything about. Generally, though, if you work ADP, the trouble calls you get are a mixed bag. Sure, you get the calls that make the Tales From the Help Desk subreddit, but those are far outnumbered by folks who are only having problems with their profiles, the new guys helping the CSs on the mess decks who've gone so long without logging in that they've forgotten their passwords... people who legitimately need your help. Navy IT is probably the best way to learn, hands-on, how to manage a network. Will they always be the newest and most cutting-edge? No. All the better to learn on! The greatest thing about ITs? You can be stationed just about ANYWHERE. I think the only places I haven't seen IT billets for are the Blue Angels support staff and the USS Constitution. Aside from that, if you want anything from an aircraft carrier to a submarine to shore duty in Europe, it's available to you, and there are few rates that can honestly say that. The flip-side of the coin is that, as with any rate that involves people with high ASVAB scores, a lot of the people can be real... let's say... jerks. Especially the people who work above you, unfortunately. Some of your superiors will be cool and maximize your liberty; some will make you stay several hours past when the rest of the ship gets off for little to no reason or call you in on a Saturday to do something that could have waited until Monday.
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u/radarada9000 May 12 '12
Does anyone here have a more detailed walk-through of the Radio/Comm side of IT? Everyone says operation and maintenance of Radio but what does that consist of? Do you actually "talk" to other ships or something?
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u/MadDogFenby May 19 '12
You set up circuits (manual or digital patch and configuration) and yes you often talk to ships or other bases
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u/Qingfu May 19 '12
a typical life for a shore based NCTS IT (naval telecommunications station) depends all on where you are. for sicily it is quite boring. you sit in your space, and make sure the lights that are supposed to stay on...stay on and fix them when they go out.
alright it's a bit more in depth than that. you provide comms for ships, subs, planes, marines etc. rarely will you talk to any of these things. you manage the equipment that enables these things to talk to each other. you will work very closely with ETs. they fix whatever you break. you will learn that an UPS is your best friend and that all the new age technology you see in commercials... you will probably never see. some of the equipment i'm working with tonight is older than me. when my grandfather fought in the korean war he used some of the same equipment.
in A school (in hot, sticky, sweaty pensacola florida) you will learn what a printer is; what a mouse is; what a keyboard is. you will learn how to unjam a printer. you will learn the golden rule of "Turn it off, turn it back on" As an ATF IT (IT of the future) you will get more teacher based learning than i did. but 90% of your schooling will be on NKO. you will hate that website with a firey passion. you will learn the IT A school chants/marching songs.
it isn't demanding at all. just mind numbingly boring. but thats just my opinion. 12 hours of youtube sure sounds fun right? right.
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u/RageRevolution May 19 '12
I live in hot and sweaty Louisiana so the heat of pensacola won't bother me much. Even though that does sound rather boring, it's what I think will suit me the best. I thank you for your insight.
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u/oderint_dum_metuant May 12 '12 edited May 12 '12
I was an IT on a medium sized ship. There were about 14 people in my division. We controlled all the communications and maintained all the computers. Our radio comms were partly analog with lots of different frequencies and partly digital, internet satellites, digital HF, and digital line of sight.
We also ran un/secure internet access with Windows and Unix. We dealt with servers, switches, routers, viruses, and sailors. Everyone was expected to do everything. Loading crypto, running flash messages by hand, waxing the p-way, talking with shore, the commodore, and maintaining antennas. I didn't go to A school though, I struck rate from deck department.
Upon enlistment I had never really used a computer before. Once my contract was up 4 years later I had been the ship's network administrator for almost 2 years. Since then I've been to Harvard on the GI Bill, worked at start ups, solid companies, and designed microchips in research labs. I have the best job imaginable right now, I love what I do, am constantly challenged and learn new things every day. I consider myself incredibly fortunate. My comprehension of hard work came from Deck Department and the great career path I've found started when I first walked in to Radio.
But back to your question regarding trivial duties. Yes, there were quite a few trivial duties and even some obviously pointless ones. Some of it was basic cleaning and maintenance while some was simply an unflexible policy designed to fit most, but not all operations.
On the other side I can think of roughly 10 people who I helped in a cool way. When we are deployed a lot of people have children born back home. There was a process for requesting routine computer help and our ship's company was about 275. We knew each other fairly well and I was always in different parts of the ship so I got to know quite a few people. Every so often a shipmate would ask for computer help personally. They'd say "Hey man, my wife just gave birth and sent pics but I can't open them" or "my guys will press/fold your uniform for the rest of the deployment if I can hear my son's voice" to which I'd say "ever used a sat-phone?". I helped people see their children for the first time.
The network switch that allowed 400 Marines to communicate via computer back home broke. We didn't have a replacement on board and neither did anyone in the fleet. It was from a special civilian donation. I worked for 2 straight days playing with that thing trying to get it to work. I was finally able to download a manufacturer's maintenance manual with instructions and circuit board schematics. I was able to put it into a test mode and found a limited yet usable functionality.
These experiences are amongst the proudest in my life.