I got job! Im now a Technical Engineer/Junior Consultant!! WooHooo!!

Discussion in 'Employment & Jobs' started by Adzmobile, Sep 23, 2011.

  1. Adzmobile

    Adzmobile Nibble Poster

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    Hey Guys,

    Soo this week has been amaaazing! I managed to pass CCNA on Monday and on Thursday i was offered a job as a Junior Consultant / Technical Engineer! I am sooo over the moon you would not believe! This role will basically train me up to become an Architect and involves identifying problems, designing solutions, implementation, documentation and pretty much project work for many different technologies.

    I have been working 1st and 2nd line support for around 3 years and touched on 3rd line.. I have been really tring hard to get into 3rd line work but its difficult because people say you need experience and to have worked with all kinds of technologies which is not always possible depending on where you work.

    This is abit about how i got here. Firstly I would say to everyone, HARDWORK PAYS OFF! this you must remember, it does not matter what position you are in, if you find that you cannot progress within the roll you are in, then you must take the initiative to start studying different certifications and learn and look at the market for what is out there and try shape yourself toward that goal.

    I managed to get here by my determination to do well and my drive to learn and even if i have not had experience with all the technologies the important thing you can say is that.. 'I am someone that does not know everything but i think i have a foundation from studying these certs, so you would not need to teach me from scratch' and from there you can try build yourself up.

    I have had to move around many jobs as i found alot of jobs end up sticking you into a corner that you cannot progress within and its very hard to know that from the outset because of the way recruitment talks and how they will pitch the job to you. I think people also get hung up about how long they have stayed in a position... I personally would say it does not matter! Who cares if you was in a job 5 years.. How much did you progess in those 5 years..

    Some people i know they started off as 1st/2nd line and 5 years later still 1st/2nd line support.. so you have loyalty that much i appreciate however i dont appreciate the fact that you have memorised what to do and now you can do it in 5 seconds because you have done it a million times. I noticed that these people have a hard time adapting to something new and actually thinking about a problem and putting a solution to it.


    Anyway perhaps i am rambling on too much but this is my opition and i think everyone can get to where they want with hardwork.. I think it really does pay off.

    Sooo never give up and stay determined!


    Thanks!
     
    Certifications: Commvault Administrator, CCNA, ITILv3, CCA for XenApp 6, CCAA for XenApp 6.5, CCA for XenDesktop 5, CCA for NetScaler 9.2, CCA for XenServer 6,VMware VCP5, VSTP 5, HP SMB Storage, Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer (CCEE), EMCISA, VCAP-DCA
    WIP: DCUCI
  2. Notes_Bloke

    Notes_Bloke Terabyte Poster

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    Congratulations:beers2

    Keep us updated on how it goes:D

    NB
     
    Certifications: 70-210, 70-215, A+,N+, Security+
    WIP: MCSA
  3. Boffy

    Boffy Megabyte Poster

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    Congratulations, hard work definitely pays off in the long run.

    Hope it all goes well for you 8)
     
    Certifications: BSc Computer Game Technology, A+
    WIP: MOS 2010
  4. loca1hero

    loca1hero Byte Poster

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    Congrats! and good luck in you new role, and lets hope we all get to were we want to soon ... with hard work of course :).. as it does pay off.
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2011
    Certifications: Network+ (004), MCP, see signature
    WIP: MCITP & few oths.Cisco aft sum XPri
  5. Adzmobile

    Adzmobile Nibble Poster

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    Thanks guys! I was thinking, does anyone have any experience in a similar role and what their experience of it was? That would be really helpful!


    Thanks!
     
    Certifications: Commvault Administrator, CCNA, ITILv3, CCA for XenApp 6, CCAA for XenApp 6.5, CCA for XenDesktop 5, CCA for NetScaler 9.2, CCA for XenServer 6,VMware VCP5, VSTP 5, HP SMB Storage, Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer (CCEE), EMCISA, VCAP-DCA
    WIP: DCUCI
  6. craigie

    craigie Terabyte Poster

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    Hi mate, congrats on the job.

    I too have been through your postion, in fact I think there are some pinned posts somewhere, 1st to 3rd Line Support in 12 months, then I was a Project Engineer for 12 months and now I consult and design solutions based mainly on Microsoft, VMware, HP and Cisco products.

    Not really been a Junior, as I have installed and configured solutions for customers using SANs, VMware, Exchange 2010 DAG's, SQL Clustering, 3 Tier Cisco Firewalls etc etc so was dropped in the deep end.

    The most important thing is your customer facing skills, the rest of it, you can look it up to confirm the solution with meet business needs.
     
    Certifications: CCA | CCENT | CCNA | CCNA:S | HP APC | HP ASE | ITILv3 | MCP | MCDST | MCITP: EA | MCTS:Vista | MCTS:Exch '07 | MCSA 2003 | MCSA:M 2003 | MCSA 2008 | MCSE | VCP5-DT | VCP4-DCV | VCP5-DCV | VCAP5-DCA | VCAP5-DCD | VMTSP | VTSP 4 | VTSP 5
  7. Adzmobile

    Adzmobile Nibble Poster

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    Hi Cragie,

    Thank you very much for replying back, I have read many of your posts and will be using your study guides for my future studies actually. I have read about your story and how you progressed. I am impressed with your determination and commitment and i hope to also follow you down a similar route.

    I will be doing exactly that, consulting and designing solutions based on those various technologies. I will initially take a back seat in meetings and with the general procedure and trying to increase my knowledge and then assume to be slowly be eased into the role and build from there.

    I feel i do have very good customer facing skills so this should not be a issue. However i do worry about the amount of knowledge you need to pick up in this type of role and how difficult it is to take in this amount of knowledge and then apply it to real work problems.

    How was your experience in this side of things? Technically advancing yourself keeping up with pace. I know that as soon as i start in the first week i will be going on training and immediately have to complete a chosen certifications. I am so excited but so very nervous!

    Any tips on this side of things would be very much appreciated.


    Thank You!
     
    Certifications: Commvault Administrator, CCNA, ITILv3, CCA for XenApp 6, CCAA for XenApp 6.5, CCA for XenDesktop 5, CCA for NetScaler 9.2, CCA for XenServer 6,VMware VCP5, VSTP 5, HP SMB Storage, Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer (CCEE), EMCISA, VCAP-DCA
    WIP: DCUCI
  8. tripwire45
    Honorary Member

    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    Cool title. Congratulations.
     
    Certifications: A+ and Network+
  9. craigie

    craigie Terabyte Poster

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    Crikey, it depends on the level of customer you are talking to, the projects that I work on average around £50k to £250k.

    I spend all my time talking about High Availability whether this be with VMware sitting on MS Clustering technologies for service awareness rather than server awareness, SAN's, Backups and DR.

    The firewall design with Active/Passive, DMZ, SSL VPN solutions are really a given and I don't find that I'm questioned on these.

    Another aspect is site connectivity what the benefits are of MPLS, and this versus LES, Leased Lines etc

    You need to understand the clients business, what regulatory requirements to they need to comply with? eg. FSA

    What level of redundancy do they need? If it's a large scale SAN deployment what iops do they need, do they need tiered storage, you get the idea!.

    I have been on a couple of courses, but the rest of it, I pick up books and read, listen to CBT Nuggets in my car, speak to colleagues, see stuff posted on here.

    You also have to bear in mind, that when you go into a meeting with a Sales person you could be expecting to talk about X and then you end of talking about Y.

    Crumbs seems like alot stuff, don't let it overwhelm you as I refer to other colleagues when it comes to stuff like Link 2010 or SharePoint, I can talk about it, but if they want a design I pass them over.
     
    Certifications: CCA | CCENT | CCNA | CCNA:S | HP APC | HP ASE | ITILv3 | MCP | MCDST | MCITP: EA | MCTS:Vista | MCTS:Exch '07 | MCSA 2003 | MCSA:M 2003 | MCSA 2008 | MCSE | VCP5-DT | VCP4-DCV | VCP5-DCV | VCAP5-DCA | VCAP5-DCD | VMTSP | VTSP 4 | VTSP 5
  10. Adzmobile

    Adzmobile Nibble Poster

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    Thanks for the advice! I think I will be going down a very similar line of work, I am based in the City along with all the clients within the square mile. I am very overwhelmed from what i read... kinda scared now lool But i have always been overwhelmed each stage of my career and once you are in the situation you find ways to deal with it and step up to the mark and deliver basically. So i will just need to put my game face on and put in the hard work as always!

    I am amazed at what you do and really hope i can perform like you have and get to the position you have. I will let you know how i get on. Everything you are talking about i have only seen here and there.. I have never worked with MPLS or Leased lines or DMZ..

    I can see that this will be a big step so its good what you are saying, i am going to prepare myself to take the leap so i am fully mentally prepared for what i am in for.
     
    Last edited: Sep 23, 2011
    Certifications: Commvault Administrator, CCNA, ITILv3, CCA for XenApp 6, CCAA for XenApp 6.5, CCA for XenDesktop 5, CCA for NetScaler 9.2, CCA for XenServer 6,VMware VCP5, VSTP 5, HP SMB Storage, Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer (CCEE), EMCISA, VCAP-DCA
    WIP: DCUCI
  11. Biggjoe81

    Biggjoe81 Bit Poster

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    Thanks Adzmobile for sharing and a big CONGRATS to you. I find your story and experience very inspiring.

    Keep it up and enjoy your new role.
     
  12. Sparky
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Congrats on the job mate, sounds great! :biggrin
     
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
    WIP: Microsoft Certs
  13. Adzmobile

    Adzmobile Nibble Poster

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    Thanks Sparky! I read that you also do IT consultancy. Would you be able to give me any advice from your experiences what I should do as a Junior and anything i should concentrate on to become a good consultant and be successful within this side of IT.

    Would be very much appreciated!

    Thanks
     
    Certifications: Commvault Administrator, CCNA, ITILv3, CCA for XenApp 6, CCAA for XenApp 6.5, CCA for XenDesktop 5, CCA for NetScaler 9.2, CCA for XenServer 6,VMware VCP5, VSTP 5, HP SMB Storage, Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer (CCEE), EMCISA, VCAP-DCA
    WIP: DCUCI
  14. Adzmobile

    Adzmobile Nibble Poster

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    *** UPDATE ***

    Hi everyone, i thought i would give an update for how my new job has been going. So i undstand slightly better what i have got myself into. We do project work only which involves going to customer sites understanding problem snd providing solutions. These solutions are based around virtualisation only. We have a few virtualisation architects who have designed and implemented the entire infrastructure. We do not seem to provide support once a project has fniished, client internal staff take over that responsibility.

    So for example the current client is in the financial sector and we have virtualised 500 desktops. The period of time i joined, i missed all the design and implementation and arrived during the final jiggery pokery stages.

    Sooo, in my recent weeks, i have built an edgesight server, sql server and got the two to speak, a nightmare i tell you! Especially without great documentation. This is where Vmware really comes in handy, if you mess something up, simply roll it back! Beautiful! The edgesight server is a citrix product used to report the status of the xendesktop clients. I have been mainly tring to get upto speed in citrix and vmware working alongside the architects. I had to visit a few cities around UK for migration also.

    Once this stage has finished, we will be configuring a nexus datacenter switch and set up WAN connections to all branches within UK and globally. I will be involved with that right from designing and implementing the network from scratch! I cant wait for that.

    Also we have not setup much of our own environment as been so busy with clients so as i am studying for the XenApp 6, XenDesktop and XenServer exams, I can also get hands on experience my implementing and setting up our own Citrix infrastructure. We have also purchased servers, netapp and datacenter equipment that all still need to be configured!

    Sooo hopefully aloot more things to come but looks like ill be training towards becoming an Citrix/Vmware Architect :)
     
    Last edited: Oct 15, 2011
    Certifications: Commvault Administrator, CCNA, ITILv3, CCA for XenApp 6, CCAA for XenApp 6.5, CCA for XenDesktop 5, CCA for NetScaler 9.2, CCA for XenServer 6,VMware VCP5, VSTP 5, HP SMB Storage, Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer (CCEE), EMCISA, VCAP-DCA
    WIP: DCUCI
  15. Sparky
    Highly Decorated Member Award 500 Likes Award

    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Sounds good mate.

    Best bit of advice I could give you is to try and keep up to date with all the technologies you are dealing with. Even though you are dealing with Vmware and Citrix I would also keep up to speed with what Hyper-V has to offer. You don’t have to be a guru but you may be asked by a customer to why you should go for Vmware over Hyper-V or costing of both products.
     
    Certifications: MSc MCSE MCSA:M MCSA:S MCITP:EA MCTS(x5) MS-900 AZ-900 Security+ Network+ A+
    WIP: Microsoft Certs
  16. Jiser

    Jiser Kilobyte Poster

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    I agree with you so hard here, though hopping every few months for your whole career (not good). Hopefully your new job doesn't stick you in a corner.
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2011
    Certifications: BSc (Hons), PGc, MCTS:Win 7, MCSA W7/MCITP EDST, ITIL Foundation, Prince 2 Foundation, C&G: Web Design, MOS 07: Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Outlook.
  17. Adzmobile

    Adzmobile Nibble Poster

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    That is a valid point, hopping every few months throughout your career is not good. It was a problem that I was also facing, because the question soon starts to become, why do you keep moving? Seems like this guy can never stay in 1 place more than 5 minutes before disappearing.

    Now, what i would say is, the individual must make a judgement call and also even if you feel you are trapped, sometimes you still need to stay in a particular job for a certain period of time for it to all make sense and come together on your CV. So on my CV there was some positions i took as a Contractor and when that position finished, if the next contract was not very good, i simply would not put on CV and jump to the next role.. I made those decisions quickly if I immediately realized i have no future here I quickly jumped to next contract, realizing again I am coming to a dead end... Once i found a role that was reasonable, I stuck to it for 6-8 months to see how it worked out and where it would lead to by assessing the other IT employees progression within the company.

    I think it also depends on the person and their judgement of a 'dead-end', in any role you will learn as time goes by but its at the rate you wish to learn i guess.. I think the other thing was.. I came to a part of my career where i was desperately trying to get into 3rd line, I was studying CCNA and looking into all kinds of exams and daily looking at what 3rd line junior positions was available to try and get my foot into that door.. and once i found it i simply ran towards it.

    I think now that I'm here in a non desktop support role, I will hopefully have a lot of room to process as there are so many technologies and its so advanced to me. I had to do things in this manner to get to where i wanted to be at that particular period of time..

    So i guess although not recommended even by myself.. you must make your own judgement call and weigh up the risks and rewards for moving around in this way.. and also YOU MUST BE ABLE TO JUSTIFY! I guess that is the key point otherwise employers will not be impressed for sure.
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2011
    Certifications: Commvault Administrator, CCNA, ITILv3, CCA for XenApp 6, CCAA for XenApp 6.5, CCA for XenDesktop 5, CCA for NetScaler 9.2, CCA for XenServer 6,VMware VCP5, VSTP 5, HP SMB Storage, Citrix Certified Enterprise Engineer (CCEE), EMCISA, VCAP-DCA
    WIP: DCUCI
  18. Theprof

    Theprof Petabyte Poster

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    Congrats! I am sure you're going to love the challenges even though it seems like a big task at hand!

    A few months ago I started a new job as well as a Technical Consultant doing similar work... Working with VMware, Cisco, and Storage. It's been almost 4 months since I started and it's a pretty interesting job so far!
     
    Certifications: A+ | CCA | CCAA | Network+ | MCDST | MCSA | MCP (270, 271, 272, 290, 291) | MCTS (70-662, 70-663) | MCITP:EMA | VCA-DCV/Cloud/WM | VTSP | VCP5-DT | VCP5-DCV
    WIP: VCAP5-DCA/DCD | EMCCA

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