@scottalanmiller said:

@ajstringham said:

I hope to find an MSP that offers training benefits someday. That'd be heaven for me.

MSPs lack the necessary margins to do that.

A guy can dream!

@Bill-Kindle said:

@scottalanmiller My jaw dropped when I heard that guy say that. Why does he still have a job? If it were any place else people would be calling for his head!

I find this one of those annoying examples where because someone is an expert in one field (running an IT company) they are asked for their opinion on another field (HR). The guy clearly hasn't a clue on whether or not women should ask for a raise, not least because he's not a woman and it's been a very long time since he was in a normal job. He knows about as much as me, but no-one would ever ask my opinion, or take my answer in the least bit seriously.

When "business leaders" are asked questions like this I wish they'd just answer "No idea - not my field. Why don't you ask an expert?"

I find it part of the culture where we worship the rich and powerful and seek their opinion on everything and I hate it.

@Dominica said:

A valid consideration here is your family situation - how will a job change affect them, if they exist? Is your perceived job security actual security? In other words, if you stay at that company for another 12 years and they fold, will you be able to get another job, or will you be unable to adapt to a different environment after so long in one place?

I'd like to think I'd adapt, it would be a little depressing to think otherwise. But I still currently feel young enough to make some big changes - that feeling will probably only weaken as I head into my fifties.

I do have family, wife and two kids, and having kids doesn't half change the way you think about your career. I work for medium sized manufacturing companies and the term "job security" hasn't existed in this sector since the mid-Seventies. But we are making a profit, and I'm fairly close to the CEO, so would probably recognise when the shit was about to hit the fan. I would also be entitled to a few grand redundancy pay if my current employer folded and that is always at the back of my mind. In the UK, you basically have no employment rights at all for the first two years in a new job. And as my wife doesn't work, and I have a mortgage and two kids to support, that's pretty scary.

Perhaps @Katie 's next seminar should be "Mid Life Crisis: When to Hold, When to Fold" 🙂

At least these guys realize how stupid it is and it's only really feasible for the time you are getting venture capital.

Youtube Video

@scottalanmiller said:

Awesome. I really need to join the NYC VMUG. Have not had a chance to get around to that yet.

Yes, you really do need to join VMUG. The content even at just regular meetups is often very valuable. Sometimes they talk about technologies that would not apply to SMBs, but it really is interesting to learn about them. Overall, I find the content very good if you have a good VMUG leadership group.

I have not seen anything in as high of demand as Linux has been the last several years. Other things get more attention in the news because they are newer, flashier or more interesting to the public, but in the business space it seems that Linux is remaining the big ticket item.

@scottalanmiller said:

Nothing compares to actually attending. It's held in Barcelona, my favourite city ever.

Favourite? What are you? British?

Nothing for true cloud is actually useful in the SMB market.

i know it used to be very very simplistic. probly better now. i think at some point i was "certified"

Congrats on the new gig. Hope that we don't see you disappear.

Thanks everyone. I will take these suggestions to heart!

@thecreativeone91 said:

If I count volunteer experience I've been doing some IT since I was 13 or 14. But don't put that on my resume or anything most people wouldn't care I don't think. It depends on where the internship was at. I did work for some local churches, a non-profit housing authority and a small local film production company (It was a non-profit as well). I would certainly call them better than helpdesk. I learned far more setting up Apple Servers at a production company with an Xsan and fiber to the desktop (1GB fiber at the time lol). then I ever did in helpdesk.

I did an actual POC database development project that cost a consulting firm their contract. I actually competed against a paid consulting group and beat the entire team on the project. Not only did they lose the contract but were banned from working at the company. Kodak was in the Fortune 100 back then, top 25 I believe. They were one company behind Pepsico then.

@thecreativeone91 said:

Exit interviews are a thing in the HRs handbook that never actually happen in real life.

I've actually seen/heard them happen quite frequently. I'm guessing the only reason I didn't get one before I left that company was because they were trying to keep me, but they cheaped out over $2K so I left.

@scottalanmiller said:

That's a 90s meme 😉

haha its okay i am from 90s hehe

Jump on the HOL material—

http://labs.hol.vmware.com/HOL/ http://blogs.vmware.com/hol/

To accommodate time constraints and workload, first understand your peak learning time. Carve that time out and make it sacred.

Congrats 🙂

@scottalanmiller

Ah, secretses. Has lots of secretses in his pocketses, he does!

One of the ways we encourage people to submit tickets, besides reminding them about it when they phone/e-mail/walk-over-and-interrupt us, is we more or less drop everything to deal with issues submitted via tickets. We accept/assign the issue as soon as someone reads it (which is usually within 5 minutes during business hours, rarely more than 15 mins.) If we're working on a project, or something that wasn't submitted via ticket, we'll stop that to address the ticket. If it's a relatively simple issue we will deal with it right away. If it it's more involved, we'll reply and indicate what we'll be doing to address it and when.

On the other hard, if someone e-mails us we generally take our sweet time replying (e.g. after lunch, end of the day, next morning.) Phone calls are usually responded to with "we'll call you back", unless it's some sort of a legitamit "system down/I can't do my work because this thing is broken" call. We also make hints like "Ok, I just have to finish fixing this ticket from Joe then I'll come look at it"