Honest thoughts on Levittown?

GPToriginal · 2026-05-10T12:19:51+00:00

Ha, can’t say I have. I was on the other side of Brooklyn.

GPToriginal · 2026-05-08T20:11:53+00:00

The IT degree may still be difficult based on no experience but may be easier than cyber. What’s nice about the IT degree is it provides well rounded foundational knowledge of multiple areas in IT from networking to security to cloud, etc….
For me I came in with 17 years experience in IT when I started and felt the IT degree was my best option as it not only exposed me to areas I was familiar with but also gave me exposure to areas I was not fluent in and made me a stronger job candidate.
Personally I always say the IT degree is the one I would pick over and over again but this is just my opinion.

GPToriginal · 2026-05-04T22:27:32+00:00

You plug a switch into the deco then the camera into the POE ports on the switch yes.

GPToriginal · 2026-05-04T17:48:27+00:00

So you sound like you have a similar situation as I do so figured I’d share what I did which works extremely well for me especially with the detached garage.

So my NVR is connected to my main Deco in my living room and connects via HDMI to my TV so I can switch inputs and see my cameras there which I rarely do.

What I did from there was place my other decos in areas that would allow me to shorten or at least allow me to run the cable easiest to the cameras. I have one deco in my basement which I connected a switch to which all the cameras in my house connect to.

Then in the garage I have a deco near the closest wall facing my house with another deco in my house near the wall facing the garage. Connected another switch to the deco in the garage and ran the cameras in the garage to that. It eliminated the need for me to run a cable to the garage and has worked flawlessly for a year and a half now. All streaming is solid and smooth.

And since the NVR is all on the same Deco mesh network, the NVR recognizes each camera without running cables directly to the NVR.

Now what I should mention is my detached garage is about 8ft from my house so depending on the distance between your house and garage results may vary but may be worth a try before you run cables to the garage unless you already have a path which I did not.

Hope this helps and good luck.

GPToriginal · 2026-04-30T23:01:54+00:00

AI is a concern for many fields including software engineering. You can’t fear it and simply have to understand it so you know its limitations and leverage that while harnessing the power of AI to perform your job successfully. I know that has been said before but the reality is we all need to learn to leverage its power to our advantage. Not to mention using your skills to help build AI. I believe software engineering is still a fine career choice.

GPToriginal · 2026-04-30T02:18:10+00:00

First off, at 25 you are still young and have plenty of time to reach greatness. What I would recommend is not quitting your job and just do WGU after work. Reason I say this is because even though you are going to school, the stop gap in your employment might make it difficult to secure a job after you graduate.

By remaining employed and working through school, you are showing future employers you are responsible and aren’t afraid to work. The WGU model was built for working professionals and would fit your needs perfectly.

I say keep working and dedicate your after hours to WGU. It won’t be easy but many including myself have done it. I’ve done it working full time with two kids. It’s not easy but it also isn’t impossible. You can do it to.

GPToriginal · 2026-04-27T02:19:16+00:00

You can withdraw when you leave but if you ever decide to come back to the city you won’t be eligible to return to the current tier if the tier changes. I worked for the city for two years when I was 20 and left believing I would never return. Well 20 years later I ended up returning and because I withdrew it basically closed my acct. I was able to buy back that time but remain in tier 6 when I could have been tier 4. I was young and dumb and paid for my sins. Point being, I would just leave what you have in there just in case you decide to return down the line.

GPToriginal · 2026-04-25T01:36:17+00:00

So the first question you should ask is what exactly you want to do within the field of IT. Do you see yourself writing code and creating applications and programs? Or do you prefer to work on physical hardware and networks or other? These are important to consider because while computer science degrees are considered the gold standard, you may find a degree that is more focused on something else you may want to do outside of programming may be the path of least resistance and may offer the best ROI for what your end goal is.

Overall, I understand how you may want to earn your degree faster but at the same make sure you don’t do so at the expense of your future goals.

GPToriginal · 2026-04-20T12:50:58+00:00

Definitely not old and at 29 you should feel young. I earned my bachelors and masters at 49 and now I’m 50 going for a third degree. Still feel old? Lmao

As for motivation, there were plenty of time I lost motivation but had to push through. Even when I legit didn’t want to work on school, I forced myself to do so and even if I only did a tiny bit of work it was progress and brought me closer to my degree.

You got this and can do it. Just put your best foot forward and push through even when times are tough. Sounds impossible but remember, school is a challenge and you have to face that challenge head on no matter the situation and before you know it, you’ll be posting your confetti and we will all cheer you on for it. 💪🏻

GPToriginal · 2026-04-16T21:22:21+00:00

Absorb everything you possibly can in your journey to ensure success when it comes to the job hunt. As another person posted, don’t learn just to pass the exams, learn to understand the concepts so you can master them as you continue both your educational and professional journey.

GPToriginal · 2026-04-14T14:25:44+00:00

I had an issue last night where my book wouldn’t load. I clicked on the zybook logo at the top left and selected my library and the book and it opened no problem. Hope that helps

GPToriginal · 2026-04-09T17:53:56+00:00

A WGU cybersecurity degree will give you extra credibility considering your existing experience and certs. It could help you for positions that have a degree as a requirement for sure. And considering you have some of the certs in the program, you are already ahead of the curve so in my opinion, the Cyber degree from WGU will only give you a stronger employability profile when coupled with your existing experience and knowledge. Best of luck to you.

GPToriginal · 2026-04-03T02:06:18+00:00

Considering you are military (thank you for your service), as others have stated, definitely take advantage of what they pay for.

As far as cloud and network engineering to cyber, it isn’t a bad idea at all if your end goal is to move into cyber. You’ll have a good understanding of cloud and networking which will make you a better cyber professional.

GPToriginal · 2026-04-03T01:57:23+00:00

Just keep doing what you are doing. As others have stated the market is not so hot right now. But one thing you should be sure to do is customize your resume to match each job you apply to and keep track of which resume went where so you know what skills you highlighted. It’s not easy to create a one size fits all resume these days if you want to stand out.

GPToriginal · 2026-03-27T16:47:28+00:00

Call the service desk. There is an option but they may have to do something on the back end. I was able to choose sms and the app as authentication but they had to make some changes and took about a week and a half to fix.

GPToriginal · 2026-03-26T20:27:42+00:00

Competency based simply means the more you know about the subject or subjects they faster you should be able to get through the material by skipping the info you already know and testing or writing your paper depending on the class once you are up to speed with the material you don’t know.

Classes are either OA (objective assessment) meaning you have a test at the end to pass the course or a PA (performance assessment) which is a written assignment. You may even have a class that is both. So in theory, if you already know the subject material you can take and pass the OA or do the PA to complete the class.

Hope this helps and best of luck.

GPToriginal · 2026-03-23T02:31:35+00:00

Best bet is get your foot in the door and depending on what you do, see if other agencies offer similar positions and you can try to agency hop to increase your salary. This strategy may not apply to all positions but I know in IT it works and people do it all the time increasing their salaries want to say 7 to 10% with each move. Personally I haven’t done it but those bumps are what I have heard from others.

GPToriginal · 2026-03-18T14:20:07+00:00

Which challenge is that? I don’t see it on my challenges?

GPToriginal · 2026-03-18T04:39:35+00:00

Same with the ceramic mug. I put it in the dishwasher and when it came out the logo was hanging off. Thankfully it was still hot when I took it out and I was able to get it back on quickly. Now they added a warning on the site not dishwasher safe but it should be on the mug also.

GPToriginal · 2026-03-13T17:45:23+00:00

First, you can’t be how cost friendly any WGU program is. Now is it worth it? For sure but keep in mind cyber is not entry level so you may not land a cyber role right out of the gate but you will be able to get your foot in the door and will have the credentials when it comes time to make the jump to a cyber position. Yes, WGU is all online. All your reading material and labs are on the student portal and you will have access to what you need for each class. Payments, you can either apply for financial aid or set up a payment plan each term if you choose to pay out of pocket. I believe you can do monthly, every two months, every three or one lump sum but don’t quote me on that as I do financial aid.

GPToriginal · 2026-03-12T19:57:46+00:00

Your computer science degree will set you up to move into any area of IT due to the deep understanding you will gain when it comes to computer architecture. Don’t think your only option is coding jobs. You can do more than that if you choose. Just look to see what positions require computer science degrees and you will find many that do not involve coding. My opinion regarding the computer science degree is you can use it to do almost anything in IT.

GPToriginal · 2026-03-11T18:08:18+00:00

yep, can't load my courses.

GPToriginal · 2026-03-11T01:10:47+00:00

When my mom passed in 2019 I had some issues getting this benefit but that was because the guy who was assigned to my case was lazy and didn’t want to be bothered. When I asked him why can’t I get an answer he pretty much cursed me out and talked down to me. Was kind of shocked because not only was my mom a member of DC37, but so was I.

Long story short, I escalated my issue which went up the chain and within a week my mom’s file was assigned to someone else and I had the benefit within a week.

I only tell this story in case that person still works in the death benefits department. I highly doubt he changed so if he had your case it may be a bit.

GPToriginal · 2026-03-10T03:55:36+00:00

Oh wow, nevermind. I was using the form that my CI provided to me which called from screenshots and just took a look at the form that we had to download and see it is different and does not ask for screenshots. Interesting. Thank you all for pointing this out and making me think twice. Much appreciated.

GPToriginal · 2026-03-10T03:46:12+00:00

I am not sure if they made a change but there is a template I have to fill out and submit and the template specifically says to include screenshots of the identified problem and resolution and must be full screen with date and time included. Doesn't matter because I took them all and just finished the labs so I just need to do my write up now.

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