Ill admit I'm little jealous of IT guys

[BillyOcean]

Been in IT for 13 years now and I'm a UC/VoIP Architect for a Fortune 500. I can assure you it is not easy.

Most of my time is dealing with design and planning, but I still have to get involved troubleshooting complex issues. Normally if I'm involved with troubleshooting it is a major issue with high visibility and all of the simple fixes did not work.

Hours vary. Some weeks, come in at 7, take two hour lunch, leave at 3. Other weeks, like the past one where we are cutting over to a new system - Unity Connection 10.6 - over the weekend, 70-80 easy.

Constant pressure to make sound decisions for the organization that are consistently effective, efficient, and scale all the while dealing with budget constraints, office politics, and Jr admins.

Honestly some times I think I should have just gone into another field.

Oh about degrees, do yourself a favor and get one. Yes, you can have a decent career without one but I can assure you that if you want to get a higher level engineering position at most vendors, a degree, in particular EE, CS, sometimes CIS/MIS, is required. I have worked for Avaya and Adtran and a BS in a tech discipline was mandatory.

 

[the bossman]

Been in IT for 13 years now and I'm a UC/VoIP Architect for a Fortune 500. I can assure you it is not easy.

Most of my time is dealing with design and planning, but I still have to get involved troubleshooting complex issues. Normally if I'm involved with troubleshooting it is a major issue with high visibility and all of the simple fixes did not work.

Hours vary. Some weeks, come in at 7, take two hour lunch, leave at 3. Other weeks, like the past one where we are cutting over to a new system - Unity Connection 10.6 - over the weekend, 70-80 easy.

Constant pressure to make sound decisions for the organization that are consistently effective, efficient, and scale all the while dealing with budget constraints, office politics, and Jr admins.

Honestly some times I think I should have just gone into another field.

Oh about degrees, do yourself a favor and get one. Yes, you can have a decent career without one but I can assure you that if you want to get a higher level engineering position at most vendors, a degree, in particular EE, CS, sometimes CIS/MIS, is required. I have worked for Avaya and Adtran and a BS in a tech discipline was mandatory.

You mean 10.5 or 10.5(2) right? cause I KNOW yall not bout to run a X.0 release of a Cisco UC product in production. that's just asking for it

 

[BillyOcean]

You mean 10.5 or 10.5(2) right? cause I KNOW yall not bout to run a X.0 release of a Cisco UC product in production. that's just asking for it

Yeah it is 10.5(2), not sure why they call that train 10.6.

We were on 8.6 on a POS C-210 C Series. Had to upgrade and with the Cisco UC SW cycle now, we went with the 10.5(2) (10.6).

 

[Disgustya Stallone]

Oh about degrees, do yourself a favor and get one. Yes, you can have a decent career without one but I can assure you that if you want to get a higher level engineering position at most vendors, a degree, in particular EE, CS, sometimes CIS/MIS, is required. I have worked for Avaya and Adtran and a BS in a tech discipline was mandatory.

Nope, you are wrong

 

[acri1]

Been in IT for 13 years now and I'm a UC/VoIP Architect for a Fortune 500. I can assure you it is not easy.

Most of my time is dealing with design and planning, but I still have to get involved troubleshooting complex issues. Normally if I'm involved with troubleshooting it is a major issue with high visibility and all of the simple fixes did not work.

Hours vary. Some weeks, come in at 7, take two hour lunch, leave at 3. Other weeks, like the past one where we are cutting over to a new system - Unity Connection 10.6 - over the weekend, 70-80 easy.

Constant pressure to make sound decisions for the organization that are consistently effective, efficient, and scale all the while dealing with budget constraints, office politics, and Jr admins.

Honestly some times I think I should have just gone into another field.

Oh about degrees, do yourself a favor and get one. Yes, you can have a decent career without one but I can assure you that if you want to get a higher level engineering position at most vendors, a degree, in particular EE, CS, sometimes CIS/MIS, is required. I have worked for Avaya and Adtran and a BS in a tech discipline was mandatory.

Breh I might have to holla @ you for some advice.

I somehow got put in charge of the VOIP stuff and it's a pain in the ass. Basically we use T1 lines and we want to switch over to SIP Trunks. We're waiting for the vendor but I'm not sure how reliable SIP trunking is for voice traffic.

I'm also trying to figure out what to do about faxing since we want to move away from analog lines, so I'm trying to figure out the most cost effective way to get SIP faxing to work reliabley.

 

[Robbie3000]

bruh those are management consulting firms. they don't really focus on IT unless the project requires them to, and I could see that during the interview process. I turned down offers from both Deloitte & Accenture. Didn't like the pretentious culture or payscale. I remember my final interview was with some george bush looking clown who looked like he sold his soul just to make 'partner' status. whole thing just seemed wack to me.

If I'm a CTO or IT director at a company and I need some direction on my company's network infrastructure, I'm for damn sure calling a Cisco, Microsoft, WWT, or Dimension Data before I call a Deloitte/Accenture/PwC, etc. If I need help with my overall business strategy, then I'd call one of those guys you talking about

Do you know how much IT work these companies do? The IT practice usually brings in more than the pure business strategy practices especially at the big four. Now if you are talking about McKinsey, Bain etc., then you may have a point.

 

[Art Barr]

There is a reason why most employers require a bachelors degree.

Not in It, breh.
It, is the if you smart enough and not a hotshot.
You will get paid.

It is the only against all odds industry in the world.
It is why steve jobs and bill gates are who they are.


Art Barr

 

[Robbie3000]

I also want to make it clear i'm not shytting on the posters who got into IT with certs and no college degree. I'm just trying to push back against this anti-college narrative that I see too often in thecoli.

I'd recommend anyone especially black people to pursue a higher education. You can always obtain the certs with a college degree and put yourself in a very good position.

 

[Art Barr]

IT is probably one of the easiest jobs out there once you progress past a certain point. My day consist of meetings, listening to vendors, lunch with vars, and occasionally working on projects. The only hard part is the grind to pull away from the pack when you are at a Helpdesk/admin level. That was a lot of studying, labbing, and researching. But once you separate yourself it's smooth sailing. Our lead security admin is such a fraud and he's making 135k. That's not a ton for security in healthcare but he literally knows nothing except how to BS in meetings.

If anybody is interested in the path I took and the areas in the data center that are worth learning to progress the fastest, hit me up.

I got a friend who drives garbage trucks and he talks down on me because I don't have a real job like him.

He can't talk shyt about you.
Garbage man is the most coveted overpaid job in local government after fire hydrant painter.



Art Barr

*75, dollars an hour to paint fire hydrants.
You gotta be like the mayor's son in law to get that gig, tho.

 

[Nigerianwonder]

Negative. I work for a 110 billion dollar company and have no degree. I have friends in IT who work for major companies and have no degree. The only place where not having a degree MIGHT hurt you is higher up in management or at C-level.

You are only going so far in IT without a degree. A lot of doors will be closed off if your are trying to move up the ladder. That's not to say you cant eat well. Cause their are a lot of jobs out there right now. But if your trying to get into the business, management, and strategy side of IT then a degree is definitely a must. Everyone isn't trying to be a contractor and jumping around temp gigs or be a tech. Relevant Degree + Experience is always better than just experience alone.

 

[The Natural]

You are only going so far in IT without a degree. A lot of doors will be closed off if your are trying to move up the ladder. That's not to say you cant eat well. Cause their are a lot of jobs out there right now. But if your trying to get into the business, management, and strategy side of IT then a degree is definitely a must. Everyone isn't trying to be a contractor and jumping around temp gigs or be a tech. Relevant Degree + Experience is always better than just experience alone.

You quoted my post but must not have read it because that's literally what I said in it...

 

[lowkey0z]

recent CS grad, making 64k/yr for a consulting company w/ 1 cert

 

[Nigerianwonder]

I also want to make it clear i'm not shytting on the posters who got into IT with certs and no college degree. I'm just trying to push back against this anti-college narrative that I see too often in thecoli.

I'd recommend anyone especially black people to pursue a higher education. You can always obtain the certs with a college degree and put yourself in a very good position.

These guys on here are always pushing the exceptions and not the norm. There are lot of low level IT positions are filled with folks with no degrees making $15 - $20 per hour. That's the norm. You can eat decent in IT without a degree IF you have the experience. You will eat much better with a relevant degree and experience. There is no debate about this. The key is making sure your degree is relevant. Contract work and temp gigs are not as glamorous as they are making it seem. And the good ones require specialized expertise and years of experience. I prefer the bonuses, salary, and flexibility I get being in management any day. You can have the experience in the world but if that management or Sr level IT job says degree required you are shut out from that opportunity.

 

[BillyOcean]

Breh I might have to holla @ you for some advice.

I somehow got put in charge of the VOIP stuff and it's a pain in the ass. Basically we use T1 lines and we want to switch over to SIP Trunks. We're waiting for the vendor but I'm not sure how reliable SIP trunking is for voice traffic.

I'm also trying to figure out what to do about faxing since we want to move away from analog lines, so I'm trying to figure out the most cost effective way to get SIP faxing to work reliabley.

SIP reliable now as long as you have a good carrier and a good SBC to clean-up any SIP dialogs that cause problems. It still is not as reliable as TDM.

You want to start looking at SIP trunking now anyway since large carriers like Verizon and AT&T want to get out of providing TDM access at some point (AT&T is slated to stop 2020).

For faxing over VoIP you will want to use T.38 with a good carrier.

 

[Reginald Noble]

I look down on them. They're like the errand boy of the office.

Are you forreal????