voluntary work

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Bit of topic, I am guilty of the external HD of a server sparky. It would have cost my school several hundred bob to get a real old drive for our server - server running out of space. I went for a cheapo external, not ideal but I use it for an extra backup and for files. Anyway new server is being purchsed soon, so prooved worthwhile.

 

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You won't like to hear this... but I'd choose a contractor costing £50 an hour, or an annual maintenance of contract of £x000 plus extra charges. Sometimes a failed install is worse than no install at all. The first time you lose data or revenue or customers due to someone's incompetence, you'll change your opinion.

That gives you theoretical knowledge, yes. But NONE of that can prepare you enough for what you'll encounter in the "real world", where you don't have the "perfect lab" and "perfect users" and no downtime and no managers hovering over your shoulder, wondering if you've fixed the e-mail server problems.

 

Agreed. The company I worked for a couple of years ago made a lot of money off of fixing other people's mistakes. Had those companies hired someone capable from the onset, they'd have saved money.

 

I have posted this link a couple of times but I found some work through these guys www.it4communities.org.uk/ .. it's all good experience and will never hurt your CV, should you put it on there .. plus you get to feel good after sorting out a few problems

 

Yeah, seems to be a good organisation I joined them quite a few months ago, however, I have yet to find an opportunity close to me that matches what I believe I am capable of (i.e. they all seem to want people with a lot of IT experience that I don't have),

I found the organisation that I volunteer to on a Saturday through an organisation called http://www.do-it.org.uk/ and there is another possible volunteering opportunity on their that I am currently at looking through them.

 

I was of course assuming that if you are going to start configuring SBS server you are actually competent and not going to do anything stupid like hang cheapo external drives off the server (do people actually do this?)

I agree that people who think they are good with computers but are actually not are a liablity, my suggestion would only apply to people who are ARE actually good with computers

 

Sadly, most people who don't have experience *aren't* competent. Not because they aren't intelligent... but simply because they haven't experienced what all happens during installations and migrations of all sorts. In a lab, that's not possible.