It just goes to show that you can get a good IT job without any qualifications.

Discussion in 'Employment & Jobs' started by greenbrucelee, Sep 11, 2008.

  1. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    The guy who is replacing our servers and upgrading our systems at the moment has no IT qualifications or certifications and is a senior systems engineer for a company called IPA.

    I was speaking to him about how difficult it was to get into IT and he said to me, all he did was to study and practice at home & take a full time job in a computer repair shop. He did this for a year and then applied to work at IPA where they interviewed him and saw what he could do.

    He says the main thing that got him where he is today is the fact that he was commited and that he did all the practicing etc of his own back. Hopefully this will inspire anyone trying to break into IT like myself.

    I am also trying to learn as much as I can from him and maybe try & plug him for a job.

    I am currently learning about AMD Opteron CPUs for our new servers they kick butt all over the Intel Xeons. Our servers have two opterons in them, task manager looks funny when you see 8 cores :blink
     
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  2. tripwire45
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    tripwire45 Zettabyte Poster

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    That's the key. Beyond any initials you may or may not have behind your name, it's what you can do that will help you get and keep a job. Good one, GBL. As Michael might say, "rep given". :wink:
     
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  3. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    Cheers, I noticed the other day that someone had posted that they were worried that they might never get a job even after being certified. Sometimes qualifications help you get a job but experience is the key.

    I have only ever had one interview where I was asked to demonstrate my knowledge, this was one where I was asked to set up a SCSI chain but I told them I couldn't due to not having any terminators. The only reason I didn't get it was the guy I was in competition with had experience.

    So I'll keep trying, I just hope someday I'll get another interview where I can show my stuff.

    I may follow this guys advice when I have the cash available to move away I will and try and get a repair job in a small company or one man band type of place.
     
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  4. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    Yep. But in truth, the studying (although important) was probably not what made the difference... it was the experience gained while in full-time job at a computer repair shop - his first IT job - that likely made the difference.

    Mmmmm... not always, depending on what the server is being tasked to do, per these benchmarks.

    And these articles indicate that Xeons are faster, but require more power.
     
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  5. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    The servers are ripping PDFs, handling bitmaps and configuration files very quicly, it's cut the processing of files from a couple of minutes to under a minute which means a faster production for me.

    Anyway back to it, I got some configuring to do
     
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  6. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    That doesn't mean Opterons are faster than Xeons... that means that the Opteron servers you're currently processing them them on are faster than the older Xeon servers you used to process them on. That'd be like comparing an Athlon X2 with a P4 or a P4M. Of course the Athlon will be faster than that... :rolleyes: You've got to compare current processors with current processors.
     
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  7. craigie

    craigie Terabyte Poster

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    Experience and qualifications, now thats the best combination you can have!

    One without the other in any profession makes the journey alot harder and longer.
     
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  8. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    We did a comparison before the final decision was made with current Xeons and the current Opterons and for what we do the Opterons worked out about 33% faster. Maybe I was unclear when I said about them being a lot faster but both processors were current ones.
     
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  9. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    I'd like to know where you found the comparisons. :) Not that I don't believe you... but the sites I listed are among the most-respected hardware review sites. I'd like to see which sources disagree with them.
     
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  10. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    We actually had two set ups at my work running the same processes and doing the same things, it wasn't we compared them of any sites or anything it was an actual real world test. Everything was the same apart from the cpus and the Opterons came out top and with our MD harping on about saving energy and **** like that then he went for the Opterons.
     
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  11. zebulebu

    zebulebu Terabyte Poster

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    interesting. I've yet to see Opterons outperform similar Xeons in any real-world scenario (other than as web servers, where they were a little faster - hence using them when I upgraded some LAMP boxes where I last worked).

    I'd be interested to see your benchmarks GBL - and know what sort of tests you were running (i.e. optimised for application serving, file serving, database work etc)
     
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  12. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    ...which is exactly why I was intrigued... my experience has been the same.
     
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  13. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Well said 8)
     
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  14. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    I wasn't actually involved in the testing I was just told that were are going with the opterons as they are processing around 33% faster than the Xeons.

    The two dual Opteron servers are running a system that controls output to the rips aswell as splitting PDFs in CMYK, handling bitmaps, transfer of files through the network, transfer of CMYK files to the appripriate output machine. Handling upto 40 different newspaper publications at once (usually only 8 a day though). The servers also handle proofing to a HP real colour printer and producing screen proofs which are also automatically loaded onto a website for our customers to view the results. Also a lot of publication configuring goes on too.

    As for the tests all I know is that both systems were set up and the same things were done to both, this icluding configuring publications network transfer (incoming & outgoing) basically everything we want the system to do on a daily basis.

    Now I wouldn't disagree that when you and BM say the Xeons are better I am just going of what I have been told that for what we need the Opterons out performed the Xeons.

    Edit: forgot to add there are also various GUIs and configuration programs running at the same time.

    I have only been involved with configuring and testing a new piece of fan out software.
     
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  15. BosonMichael
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    BosonMichael Yottabyte Poster

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    Were they perhaps tested by the same doofus who lost the backup tapes? :twisted:

    Sorry, sorry, I'll get back on topic. :p
     
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  16. Sparky
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    Sparky Zettabyte Poster Moderator

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    Probably running a defrag on the drive while doing the "tests" :biggrin
     
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  17. greenbrucelee
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    greenbrucelee Zettabyte Poster

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    I'm sure I saw that guy working in McDonalds the other day :D probably where he belongs too.:twisted:
     
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  18. dales

    dales Terabyte Poster

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    Was it only me that thought of beer in that first paragraph......mmmmmmm:slidedrin
     
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  19. Phoenix
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    Phoenix 53656e696f7220 4d6f64

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    Without going too off topic, that's the kind of comment that will lose you plenty of opportunities, as technical professionals we need to step back from the brand warring and actually make informed decisions, benchmarks don't really mean squat either, they are not impartial enough

    I'm glad your getting exposure to servers GBL, and it's great your picking up stuff from that guy, but don't take everything he says for gospel, remember to challenge him when needed, and make him give you reasons why you should form such a strong opinion

    There are some instances where Opterons (we are talking Barcelonas right?) shine, but there are plenty more where Xeons shine, horses for courses, the trick is to get the right horse for the course!

    Edit: after reading GBLs follow up, it sounds like the kind of computing being done could be memory intensive, something that Opterons have the edge on due to the lack of an FSP, increasing memory bandwidth (not too long for Intel to crack that one either) which would indeed make the Opterons the likely choice, like I said above though, always try and give the reason, it adds significant credibility to your position!
     
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  20. neutralhills

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    GBL, did the two servers have comparable memory and FSB configurations? It's possible that the Operteron scould have been faster but you had a bottleneck elsewhere.
     
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