Anyone want an IT job?

[Mar]

I'm hiring a junior IT person at work to handle all the junk that I don't want the rest of my team dealing with. It's a great opportunity for someone to get into the technology industry and you'll definitely learn a lot. Daily tasks can be anything that comes in the door from other employees but most likely will be:
- printers that won't print / scan
- computers that won't connect to the internet (tone the port, find it in the server room and figure it out)
- employees that can't figure out how to adjust settings on their computers
- setting up computers for new hires
- managing virus scan software, keyfob systems and camera systems
- anything else that walks in the door

It's in Okotoks but it's not that far from south Calgary. If you're technically inclined or know someone that is, and would like to work with technology, send me a resume. Preferably someone with at least a couple of years experience but not required. I'm extremely particular with grammar so make sure you run that spell check a few times.

The last guy that I hired for IT ended up moving into a full time software developer position within my team so if you also know how to write code or do UI / UX design, I can keep you busy there as well.

[Mar]

People keep asking for my email address and then ghosting.

[firebane]

Might help to state what sort of knowledge you look for, any possible training that could benefit and salary range.

Junior roles can vary so widely that you could be looking for a dead start entry type role but expect more of a seasoned person. I bring this up especially around the last two points and makes me wonder what else this person would be doing that isnt't mentioned.

[revelations]

Id recommend it to someone if the starting rate is 18/hr or greater.

- how many work stations?

[Mar]

Starting wage is over $20 per hour, varying by experience.

I don't really have any expectation on knowledge, it doesn't take a whole lot of knowledge to install a printer driver. I'm basically looking for someone that just lives a technically focused lifestyle and is just generally interested in technology. You're likely not going to know how to take a camera license and add an additional IP camera to our server but if you have an interest in learning, you'll easily pick it up after I show you once or twice. Eventually after I show you enough things once or twice, you can start picking things up on your own. It's not hard, I promise.
If you have no interest in learning cool stuff and don't have passion for technology, this isn't for you.

There are about 40 workstations, no domain controller, no remote support. You need to use your legs and walk to the machine to fix it.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Your expectations seem to be at odds. You want someone technically focused, who can pick things up fast, but who has a few years experience, and will work for $20/hour. Those are rates you see straight out of school, not a few years experience. I think you need to revisit either your expectations, or your budget.

[Xtrema]

Your expectations seem to be at odds. You want someone technically focused, who can pick things up fast, but who has a few years experience, and will work for $20/hour. Those are rates you see straight out of school, not a few years experience. I think you need to revisit either your expectations, or your budget.

Hey, in this job market, he may get someone like that. Who knows.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Hey, in this job market, he may get someone like that. Who knows.

You're not wrong. Which makes me a bit sad.

[Vagabond142]

Sent you a PM Mar :)

[revelations]

There are about 40 workstations, no domain controller, no remote support. You need to use your legs and walk to the machine to fix it.

Now I know why you need help ..... haha. Have you done a 3-5y cost analysis of switching over to domain?

[firebane]

Now I know why you need help ..... haha. Have you done a 3-5y cost analysis of switching over to domain?

I saw this too and HEAVILY cringed. NO domain controller.. no WSUS... nothing managing? The poor person who has to do this.

[Xtrema]

I saw this too and HEAVILY cringed. NO domain controller.. no WSUS... nothing managing? The poor person who has to do this.

1 FTE @ $20/hr vs $20K CAPEX for servers and MS Licenses, may be cheaper to hire a guy.

40 workstations I believe is over limit of SMB licenses as well.

[ExtraSlow]

I'm not an IT guy, but didn't we have a similar conversation about some network that Mar was taking care of? Might be a reflection of the clients he has.

[firebane]

1 FTE @ $20/hr vs $20K CAPEX for servers and MS Licenses, may be cheaper to hire a guy.

40 workstations I believe is over limit of SMB licenses as well.

Initial costs will always be high, but once the system is up and running and everyone is going smoothly your FTE can become a part time person that comes in for a couple hours a week if necessary. You only need a FTE in an environment like this when things need to be done all the time.

I was involved in an office of 15 staff who had a poorly setup infrastructure and I spent about 3 months in there on a part time basis and by the time I was gone they had properly configured group policies, bitlocker, wsus, and av management.

If clients are having that many issues then you need to start looking at the infrastructure and how things are setup.

Really not trying to make this a crap on thread, but so much to be desired and required that is missing.

And I think Extra is correct in regards to him having a thread earlier about networking stuff.

[revelations]

With 40 stations, and no DC, I wonder if you are better off having an image of one WS and then deploy the same exact system (hardware) to everyone as they go down (licensed of course) - instead of trying to repair a buggy WS.

You can have emails, printers, software, AV, etc. pre loaded.

[D'z Nutz]

I'm not an IT guy, but didn't we have a similar conversation about some network that Mar was taking care of? Might be a reflection of the clients he has.

If you look back at Mar's history of threads, I don't think it's his clients that are the problem.

[Mar]

Now I know why you need help ..... haha. Have you done a 3-5y cost analysis of switching over to domain?

I have zero time to do that, I'm managing a team trying to do a major software release within a month, managing the IT infrastructure of a current office renovation to add 3 board rooms and 30 new workstations, a complete server room rewire, phones that are possessed by a demon and I'm trying to hire someone. I literally haven't taken lunch in so long I can't remember. I need someone else to do half this stuff for me.


I saw this too and HEAVILY cringed. NO domain controller.. no WSUS... nothing managing? The poor person who has to do this.

Nothing. When I started, there were 3 computers running 32 bit Windows 7 with hacked license keys. I've built it to what it is and I'm not even an IT guy.


I'm not an IT guy, but didn't we have a similar conversation about some network that Mar was taking care of? Might be a reflection of the clients he has.

I'm also not an IT guy and I'm even less of a network guy. I started a thread years ago with a photo of a 48 port switch, a 16 port, an 8 port and a D-Link wireless G switch to run the entire company. I got the help I needed and I now have five 48 port managed switches, VMWare server, 3 UPS, phone server, security server, load balanced dual ISP and firewall, all rack mounted. I also have a rats nest of cabling to take care of this week.


With 40 stations, and no DC, I wonder if you are better off having an image of one WS and then deploy the same exact system (hardware) to everyone as they go down (licensed of course) - instead of trying to repair a buggy WS.

You can have emails, printers, software, AV, etc. pre loaded.

That's ideal and I'd like to hire someone that can set that up for me because I've been using Linux for 13 years and my knowledge of Microsoft products is less than zero. We have Pixelbooks at the office so my deal solution would be to have cloud work stations people can log into wherever they are and all of their documents are on their cloud station. I have no idea how to do that except what Amazon offers of a subscription based service and that's a $1000 monthly bill for all of our employees. We're already paying $10 per month for Google accounts for everyone.

[revelations]

You dont need a junior team person - you need a contractor to come in and set everything up so that its easy to manage by someone on call. This involves standardization and some upfront costs.

~4-6 month p/t position.

Otherwise, you will end up 2, new F/T employees JUST dealing with this debacle as it gets more complicated down the road with more systems.

[firebane]

You dont need a junior team person - you need a contractor to come in and set everything up so that its easy to manage by someone on call. This involves standardization and some upfront costs.

~4-6 month p/t position.

Otherwise, you will end up 2, new F/T employees JUST dealing with this debacle as it gets more complicated down the road with more systems.

Let's hope he listens to us

[Xtrema]

So Mar, you are not running a Microsoft shop at all at that place of business?

Then I think $20/hr could be a bit low.

[Mar]

So Mar, you are not running a Microsoft shop at all at that place of business?

Then I think $20/hr could be a bit low.

It's over $20. Varying with experience.
And Microsoft is the devil, I'd rather run to every station and back than give them a dollar.

[firebane]

It's over $20. Varying with experience.
And Microsoft is the devil, I'd rather run to every station and back than give them a dollar.

Well that about sums up everything :closed:

[macman64]

40 workstation environment should be easily supported by less than 1 FTE - including OS upgrades etc. Back end possible being more but sounds like servers don't exist here.

[revelations]

It's over $20. Varying with experience.
And Microsoft is the devil, I'd rather run to every station and back than give them a dollar.

Good luck then.

Another option is a central management system like Pulseway. At least it tells you graphically whats happening and allows for patches to be pushed through manually.

- - - Updated - - -


40 workstation environment should be easily supported by less than 1 FTE - including OS upgrades etc. Back end possible being more but sounds like servers don't exist here.

They are cutting corners everywhere possible with regards to hardware/software. Its a mess - esp. based on past posts.

[Disoblige]

Well that about sums up everything :closed:
Yup :rofl:

[BokCh0y]

if you look back at mar's history of threads, i don't think it's his clients that are the problem.

this.

[Mar]

They are cutting corners everywhere possible with regards to hardware/software. Its a mess - esp. based on past posts.

Us? No we're not, we pay thousands of dollars a month in licensing costs. I'm not sure why you would think that.

[firebane]

Us? No we're not, we pay thousands of dollars a month in licensing costs. I'm not sure why you would think that.

Licensing for specific software doesn't count.

We are talking about infrastructure costs for a small business that you are screwing with and trying to keep things cheap by hiring slave labor to manage an office and thinking its ok.

This thread went exactly how I've seen so many small places with contracts out run a business so poorly.

When the thread started I actually thought about asking a few peeps I know, but now... not a chance.

[Mar]

Licensing for specific software doesn't count.

We are talking about infrastructure costs for a small business that you are screwing with and trying to keep things cheap by hiring slave labor to manage an office and thinking its ok.

This thread went exactly how I've seen so many small places with contracts out run a business so poorly.

When the thread started I actually thought about asking a few peeps I know, but now... not a chance.

I have no idea what you're talking about, I've been managing the IT here for 10 years. Who's doing slave labour? $50,000 per year is a pretty good paycheque for some simple IT work, I know a lot of people that make far less.
I'm not sure why you think anything is running poorly, I've indicated nothing to that fact anywhere in this thread.

I have no clue where you're getting this, don't be telling people things like that.

[firebane]

I have no idea what you're talking about, I've been managing the IT here for 10 years. Who's doing slave labour? $50,000 per year is a pretty good paycheque for some simple IT work, I know a lot of people that make far less.
I'm not sure why you think anything is running poorly, I've indicated nothing to that fact anywhere in this thread.

I have no clue where you're getting this, don't be telling people things like that.

How do you expect a person to ensure 40 workstations are always up to date security wise?
How do you expect a person to ensure 40 workstations have properly installed and up to date antivirus?
What measures do you have in place for such things as malware/spyware/virus infections?
What measures do you have for licensing in place? One off software vs multi-license software?

Your expecting 1 person to be paid $20 to manage an entire office that sounds like from your posts nothing like this is in place.

[90_Shelby]

Calgary’s unemployment rate is ~7% and Mar is trying to offer a job on Beyond. Instead of shitting on him and his business, simply don’t apply for the position and move on.

[firebane]

Calgary’s unemployment rate is ~7% and Mar is trying to offer a job on Beyond. Instead of shitting on him and his business, simply don’t apply for the position and move on.

Nobody is shitting on him. We asked some honest questions about the role of which they replied and those who have any knowledge know it's a bad wage and a badly managed site.

[dirtsniffer]

I'm pretty sure the company I work for doesn't have antivirus, I didn't even know if was a thing. The malware, virus strategy is to send out fake phishing emails.

Thousands of work stations.

But I have no idea cause I'm not in IT

[syscal]

Calgary’s unemployment rate is ~7% and Mar is trying to offer a job on Beyond. Instead of shitting on him and his business, simply don’t apply for the position and move on.

Sadly, you make a good point.

Despite Mar shooting himself in the foot by being anti-<insert effective solution here>, a 40 workstation environment isn't that hard to manage for an eager Jr. There are enough open-source solutions to (kinda) solve all the issues firebane brings up and, despite being a bad idea, Mar's willing to pay someone to fart around and learn.

All-in-all, I'll give this a 8/10 for a Mar thread. He delivered as expected, but then the audience started to heckle itself...

[Disoblige]

History has shown Mar has a way of acting like nothing's wrong even though it's quite apparent there is something that is.

[Mar]

How do you expect a person to ensure 40 workstations are always up to date security wise?
How do you expect a person to ensure 40 workstations have properly installed and up to date antivirus?
What measures do you have in place for such things as malware/spyware/virus infections?
What measures do you have for licensing in place? One off software vs multi-license software?

Your expecting 1 person to be paid $20 to manage an entire office that sounds like from your posts nothing like this is in place.

We have Trend Micro on each work station with an administrative account that allows us to monitor all installs from the dashboard and perform scans if we want to. If any one machine gets an infection, it alerts us and we can quarantine the machine until we can go wipe it. It's not exactly hard to sit at a computer and check the dashboard once every morning, that's all I do now.

I do all of the purchasing for the company so before the new employee gets their machine, we set it up and install anti-virus on it. Nobody else buys anything. Depending on the infection we'll either quarantine the infected files or we'll wipe the machine if it's really bad.

The only licensing we have is as follows:
- AutoCAD for our designers, I get them whichever version they need.
- FoxIt
- Planswift
- Trend Micro for anti-virus
- 5 Microsoft Office licenses for a few whiners that want it.
- A Google account for each employee (includes email, Sheets, Docs, Drive.....)
- IP telephony for each employee
- Quickbooks for all accounting
- inventory software for about 10 users that deal with inventory and point of sale
- camera licenses for surveillance
- Dropbox for only a few people that can't use Drive
- anything else we need, my team writes it. All of our quoting, bill of materials, purchase orders, scheduling, ordering, trucking, crews, deposits, payments all work on custom software built by me and my team.

If your friend has a better suggestion for licensing, message me and I'll send you my email address to get a resume. We don't cut corners and we certainly don't do anything half ass. Please don't accuse me of that, I take things I do seriously, unlike my posts here which are never serious at all.

Literally today's job was:
- go to reception and pick up an Amazon order
- open order, remove monitors, deliver them to employees that needed a third monitor for three dimensional modelling
- install unloaded patch panel in server rack
- go pick up a second Amazon order from reception
- remove internet cables from loaded patch panel. Attach keystone, place in new unloaded patch panel. Repeat 23 times to empty out the loaded patch panel and remove it from the rack. Repeat for 3 other panels.
- tone and label all internet cabling in the server room so we can pull it all back into the attic and feed it down through a different hole to organize it properly (huge job).
- migrate all existing Quickbooks users from a local Quickbooks install to our new externally hosted server accessed via RDP (suggested here in another of my threads.....I took your advice).
- modify a user's permissions in the keyfob system
- ask accounting to purchase an Office license for a user that needs one
- set up an Amazon EC2 instance and test MySQL load times on a server with half the power of our on-premise server (preparation to migrate our hosted web services)
- a user sent an SOS to me because they couldn't connect to the wired internet anymore. Their network adapter somehow disappeared so a reboot fixed it.
- pull an additional 40 cables into the server room and organize them into separate strands in preparation for patching with office expansion.
- call Telus and have them set up one of our numbers to forward to 5 of our SIP lines in rotation. Test with 5 different mobile phones hijacked from nearby employees. Success.

I'm a software developer and I haven't written any code in weeks, I need someone to do all this junk for me so I can get back to the code.

[Amysicle]

.

[bjstare]

Calgary’s unemployment rate is ~7% and Mar is trying to offer a job on Beyond. Instead of shitting on him and his business, simply don’t apply for the position and move on.

My thoughts exactly. There's probably piles of people out there that would want a job like this.


Nobody is shitting on him. [snip] it's a bad wage and a badly managed site.

Ok then.

[sabad66]

Calgary’s unemployment rate is ~7% and Mar is trying to offer a job on Beyond. Instead of shitting on him and his business, simply don’t apply for the position and move on.

So much this! Personally i think it’s a great job for an eager junior person. I would even go so far to say that the apparent issues make it even a better opportunity since it will be challenging and give motivation to automate/improve things.

[heavyfuel]

Jesus Christ, my head is spinning from reading this. I can't imagine dealing with any of this bullshit, as an employer or employee. Holy fuck. I kinda like my small life.

[RX_EVOLV]

So much this! Personally i think it’s a great job for an eager junior person. I would even go so far to say that the apparent issues make it even a better opportunity since it will be challenging and give motivation to automate/improve things.

:werd: I think it's great that he's creating employment in Calgary and given today's market I don't think it's that bad. I know my sister would've jumped all over this if she was still in Calgary.

[GOnSHO]

There is so much "I know more than you" entitled garbage attitudes popping up on this site over the past couple years.
Mar big props to you for creating a job in this city. Ill ask a couple friends I know who are into IT if they are interested.

[revelations]

There is so much "I know more than you" entitled garbage attitudes popping up on this site over the past couple years.
Mar big props to you for creating a job in this city. Ill ask a couple friends I know who are into IT if they are interested.

In this specific case, the OP is ignoring the advise of experts in terms of

a) how to optimize the IT needs of his company
b) how to minimize HIS time loss
c) how to plan for a 2-4 year cost-savings solution

Yes, its opinion, but those who work in the industry - know exactly the story here. Small biz that grew big and did not make adjustments in their IT setup.

ALSO - its a Mar thread. Its standard for him to ask questions he knows the answers to.

[GOnSHO]

In this specific case, the OP is ignoring the advise of experts in terms of

a) how to optimize the IT needs of his company
b) how to minimize HIS time loss
c) how to plan for a 2-4 year cost-savings solution

Yes, its opinion, but those who work in the industry - know exactly the story here. Small biz that grew big and did not make adjustments in their IT setup.

ALSO - its a Mar thread. Its standard for him to ask questions he knows the answers to.

I get it, I am an IT Administrator, yes there are holes... but nothing to bash the dude about in a thread he was literally advertising a job in..

[revelations]

Its a Mar thread. There is always Mar bashing. This has been happening for what, >5 years?

[Darkane]

$20/hr x 40 hours a week x 52 weeks a year = $41,600. Unless you’re including benefits or paying $24/hr?

Don’t pay attention to the Marth.

[GOnSHO]

Its a Mar thread. There is always Mar bashing. This has been happening for what, >5 years?

lol I guess I just am not one to join in on it so I dont see it as often. HA

[Xtrema]

I think it's great Mar is creating jobs.

But it would be nice to list a bit of scope that it's not a Microsoft shop that 99% of the shop runs on. May reduce amount of interviews he has to do.

Because chances are all the referral from this would be mostly MS experiences.


IMHO, if you don't run Microsoft, it's hard to get anyone under $50K.

[Mar]

Its a Mar thread. There is always Mar bashing. This has been happening for what, >5 years?

I've been on Beyond for over 14 years.


I think it's great Mar is creating jobs.

But it would be nice to list a bit of scope that it's not a Microsoft shop that 99% of the shop runs on. May reduce amount of interviews he has to do.

Because chances are all the referral from this would be mostly MS experiences.


IMHO, if you don't run Microsoft, it's hard to get anyone under $50K.

What do you mean by running Microsoft? Is that what runs the domain controller to be able to administer remotely? I made a joke earlier about Microsoft being the devil but a lot of my posts aren't serious, I'm actually looking for someone to set up a domain controller to do just that. I have no clue how to do that so I'm looking more into resumes that mention it and a few of them do. It's not a requirement but it'd be nice to get someone that can set that up or figure it out. We have a Windows 2012 server that isn't being used anymore currently.

I handed most of the resumes to HR this week and she got in contact with or left messages for everyone I wanted to interview. Check your voicemails or emails.

Here's some cool stuff we did yesterday. Instead of just viewing our products on a screen, we used Google's new AR Core engine to develop a proof of concept that can allow customers to take our product and drop them into the real world and interact with them.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct4U4_k78Dw

[sabad66]

Here's some cool stuff we did yesterday. Instead of just viewing our products on a screen, we used Google's new AR Core engine to develop a proof of concept that can allow customers to take our product and drop them into the real world and interact with them.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ct4U4_k78Dw

video doesn't work

[Mar]

It works now, I had the video private. My first time using YouTube.