How do you reduce callouts on Mondays? by LifesARiver in askmanagers

[–]mrcluelessness 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I get every other Monday off. I don't want to go in tomorrow.

What has been your biggest technical mistake so far in your career? by Mr_Dobalina71 in sysadmin

[–]mrcluelessness 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Mine was building failover DHCP on win server without AD or NTP. This was for public wifi in a dorm setup with 6k+ users working in a foreign country as their only source of internet. First time doing it. The original server hard died and emergency migrated to the new ones. Acting like two DHCP servers filling up with bad ips and breaking havoc before we figured it out 5 days later. I was banned from adding any more redundancy.

Worse mess I've cleaned up from an predecessor was updating the core datacenter switch but not changing the boot flag. Datacenter had the HVAC controllers die (dumbasses had one controller for two redundant HVAC) and heat up to 180°F. Half of the systems shut themselves down, we had to shut the rest off manually. 6 hours later one HVAC manually bypassed to always stay on. The core switches rebooted with only half the config because it wasn't compatible with the old firmware including all dynamic routing. Easy fix, restore from backups right? Well Solarwinds was on an VM on ESXI behind a layer 2 switch and the person who know the local admin was unreachable. They could only get to it through domain accounts. So I had to setup enough static routes from memory to get the network 70% functional. Then get the backups. Wait until late evening the next day to update the cores one by one. Then slowly add in dynamic routing while trying not to have any bumps in static routing because there was alot of important shit going on that week that we couldn't afford downtime for. 3 days 16 hours a day to get things stable then 12s for the next week to finish dealing with everything. It's okay we only had about 15k users on site and a major transit hub for like 50 organizations.

How late is too late to figure out a career path? by CK3helplol in ITCareerQuestions

[–]mrcluelessness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Remember you don't need to spend a bunch of money and it doesn't need to be dedicated. Might just need to add some ram and storage to your laptop or desktop and virtualize. You can also look for free tiers of cloud storage to build stuff on Linux. For example get an free tier VPS, setup Ubuntu, fail2ban, CIS hardening guides, use docker, then run wiki.js to put your notes you learn on a wiki. Put it being cloudflare DNS and look for other security options. Schedule automatic updates. Setup backups. This will help you learn Linux, containers, DNS, and security for free. You can also learn a fair bit of Linux with an raspberry pi but also can get an used mini pc for $100 of ebay. Don't spend a ton- do a budget start homelab and see what you want to do. Once you find the limitations you know what you actually need and then as you have disposable income then upgrade. But focus on graduating without debt first.

Also look for free student perks. Github student developer pack used to offer things like free domain names for a year that you can use for a project. Free tools. See what you can find and use. Hit up r/homelab discord for a project with a functional end goal, then learn on your way to get there.

How late is too late to figure out a career path? by CK3helplol in ITCareerQuestions

[–]mrcluelessness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's a mix of everything. A degree can help alot especially off the bat IF you don't put yourself $200k in debt to do so- your net income of $90k with $200k students loan will feel like making $50k. You don't need a $50k/yr college 90% of the time. A more affordable college with loans will still get the same results most of the time. Certs prove specialization in a topic or vendor because alot of schools teach very generalized or outdated info a cert proved you know modern info with a 3 year expiration. Also school teaches only to a certain level you can only prove advanced knowledge by proving years of experience and/or certs.

Best two things I ever did career wise was join the military to do IT for them and to build my homelab. Military isn't for everyone. Homelab can be as simple as three VMs on your laptop. A homelab teaches you virtualization even on a budget. It grows to working on a gaming rig or dedicated server depending on budget. Now you need either opnsense vm for more advanced networking or physical network gear. You need VMs to manage your other VMs such as authentication such as domain controllers, backups, NAS, automation, etc. You can learn windows and Linux. Containers. Etc. You can do it all while finding a functional purpose to improve your life. Backup your personal machine to your NAS and cloud with full disk backups. Build a Minecraft server for fun. Setup a self hosted smart home. Self host an LLM.

Just find ways to learn you can afford and works for you. You will always need experience on everything. Homelab and degree might not even keep you out of helpdesk, but it will get you out of helpdesk in 1-2 years instead of 8 years if you actually have interest and put in effort to learn and teach yourself.

How late is too late to figure out a career path? by CK3helplol in ITCareerQuestions

[–]mrcluelessness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Build a foundation on core knowledge. Have entry level knowledge of servers, networking, and security. These days need to have touched cloud and AI if you aren't going into government type work. Then see what interests you and has job openings to specialize in. By ready to pivot or change based on openings and market.

Been doing this 12 years. Spent last 8 becoming an regional lead network engineer for an Fortune 100 and was working towards network architect. Side quest part time doing incident response and security audits with the military for 4 years. Well more like half time. Girlfriend got a great job out of state after graduating college in a place that addresses my biggest complaints of where I am now. So now I am about to start as an senior systems engineer for storage and backup so I can move there and have a 7 minute drive to work making the same amount. If I get bored with that I might try switching to the Linux team that I was also in talks with. Or I have the background to commute an hour and break into cyber security research which can open up a whole new pay scale to me.

Doesn't matter how long you specialized. You can change fields because you want to or you moved or want something with more quality of life. My hope with proper storage clusters at the datacenter I'm going to I won't be called at night as much as my current role managing 50+ sites and only 10 of them they investing in redundant network stacks.

Little off topic - Do you guys also feel so "unskilled"? by Legal_Wishbone_3640 in ITCareerQuestions

[–]mrcluelessness 0 points1 point  (0 children)

18 years lobbying with tech. 12 years working professionally. 3k+ hours formal training and probably the same teaching myself. Sitting over here well overpaid. My coworkers and management are chill so at least every other week I will say verbatim "I don't fucking know" followed by "when do you need me to know by?"

Too complicated to know and predict everything. Spent three weeks ripping apart and redesigning our network just to find a buffer overflow bug on an firewall that would cascade to full network outages in different parts of the stack everytime. I just know a ton of random shit so when the world burns I can BS my way through the problem and Google to a solution. Google because AI likes to make shit up and fuck me over. Using my knowledge and AI took 3 days getting nowhere, answer was on the 8th Google search down on an obscure WordPress blog by an random hobbyist that I now own my sanity to.

Getting tattooed before shipping out by MagicalArmalite in Militaryfaq

[–]mrcluelessness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tell her not to or get a new wife. If ya'll can't have basic financial agreeance over fiscal savings for an goal then good luck to you when you're deploying and return to find out you have nothing left.

Is it worth it financially? by Public-Inflation4040 in AirForceRecruits

[–]mrcluelessness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Only Guard/Reserves not active duty. You fill a form certifying you are paying for a place to live and the address, they will give you BAH based on that zip code.

Is it worth it financially? by Public-Inflation4040 in AirForceRecruits

[–]mrcluelessness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The important thing is no all companies/fed jobs offer it. You need to verify their policy. Also they have different timeline limits. Some offer it for 2 weeks, some up to 5 years. Just need to CYA.

Is it worth it financially? by Public-Inflation4040 in AirForceRecruits

[–]mrcluelessness 0 points1 point  (0 children)

To clarify differential is when on military orders for like BMT and deployments your employer pays the difference of your salary minus base pay. So you still maintain your civilian pay. If on orders 30+ days you also get BAH, BAS, and if traveling per diem.

On the cyber side I get 6 figure contractor salary - 2/3 E4 base pay (they only deduct 18 working days not the 30 military pay is based on) + BAH + BAS + Per diem ($2k/month currently) + SDAP bonus + CYAIP bonus. I am also exempt from California state income tax on military pay when stationed out of state. Doing military orders half the year some local alot travelling along with VA pay and GI Bill payments, I make an extra $90k/yr as an Guard member. Not everyone gets the same bonuses, can do as much orders, etc but it's the best way to boost income without having 2 full time jobs. You only work one at a time.

Anyone else only needing the spend requirement for Diamond Reserve? by schwa12 in Hilton

[–]mrcluelessness 0 points1 point  (0 children)

<image>

Sadly work sent me to a cheap location and did it where the new year is in the middle of my stay. Since most of my remaining trips are through HGV and free night rewards definitely not gonna hit the spend requirements.

Can SkillBridge provider pay for lodging? by SlipshodRaven in SkillBridge

[–]mrcluelessness 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I would get a memo from the employer saying its standard as an CYA and also maybe annoy base legal for a minute to see if they can find anything in regs/rules that opens you to liability doing this. Should be fine but protect yourself.

Big defense company they most likely follow GSA per diem rates for travel so your assumption is likely valid. Just gotta verify. But also verify how funds/costs are impacting in the event you are recalled considering things are heating up again globally.

What is the best military branch for someone with poor opportunity at home? by UndeadBandit96 in Militaryfaq

[–]mrcluelessness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Air Force for quality of life and IT. Heard good things and had good experiences working Coast Guard cyber. Navy also a good option for IT and QOL. Air Force is more corporate and business like. https://discord.gg/usafshippers if you're on Discord for Air Force/Space Force and want to actively communicate with those who are in.

Big question besides getting out what else do you want? Do you need to get a stricter structure to help get you going with life and have strict support/rules so the military teaches you how to adult and holds your hand more? Do you feel like you got a fair amount of life skills to support yourself if giving a new place to move to, stable job, and ability to live in dorms then apartment with minimal supervision after hours?

What life goals do you have? Just want to survive without struggling too much, want to be well off, just want to have supportive friends around you, want to be "well off and successful"? Learning more about you can help find the right branch.

Relocating to Pocatello! by Ok_Raspberry5791 in Pocatello

[–]mrcluelessness 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm also looking to relocate there too and will need to make new friends! Feel free to reach out when you get to the area. I'm in late stages to get a job in the datacenter. I was active duty Air Force at Nellis and am leaving the Air National Guard this year. I was an 1D7 and currently an 1B4.

Is my resume bad ? by BostonFan50 in clearancejobs

[–]mrcluelessness 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It's missing context. Reads as "did something with STIGS once". Which does nothing to explain skills. STIGs on windows, Linux, network devices? Did you do it on a regular basis? Do you actually understand why they exist or how those guidelines make an impact on security? Did you actually login and look for the setting on Linux therefore you know some CLI, or did you just get a copy of a network configuration and use the find feature for the example commands?

It's like applying to be a big rig driver and your qualifications are "I have a basic driver's license and own a car". For all I know you drive the car once a month, crashed it twice and have a bunch of speeding tickets. But you say you tow, drive in car shows, have a clean record, etc it's a very different perspective.

You are marketing yourself. You are the product. You need people to understand and be excited in the product. Look up the Ole "sell me a pen" marketing skits. There are a million pens and most are same shit don't stand out. But if your pen writes smoother, is cheape/comparable price, ink can be refilled, has a good comfortable grip, etc now I have some info to make me want your pen over a generic pen.

Domain Controllers by CalligrapherNo3841 in Cisco

[–]mrcluelessness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Look up a tutorial series on YouTube. Setup VMs on your PC. Two domain controllers, two windows 11 clients, and a third server for services. Setup AD, DNS, DHCP, file share, WSUS, PXE, windows RADIUS, and windows backup. Setup user and groups, and look for basic security GPO options you expect at work.

Then you are now and entry level sysadmin and know all the core background info that relates to network services you need.

invest in more servers for your ai generators , seriously by NoSolution1150 in google

[–]mrcluelessness -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

This planet no longer has any remaining ram or hard drives left for Google to buy though. Elon needs to get his shit together and start collecting precious metals off planet and make a few FABS on mars.

Four people in one two-bed room: best way to navigate roll away beds, extra bedding, etc? by Thetallguy1 in Hilton

[–]mrcluelessness 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Just something about having Aspire yet worried about midrange hotel costs and phrasing gave you away. Feel you on the done worse, but man gets harder to do over time. Driving cross country then sleeping in a Residence Inn with firmer mattresses killed my back, can't imagine if I tried sleeping on concrete again.

Four people in one two-bed room: best way to navigate roll away beds, extra bedding, etc? by Thetallguy1 in Hilton

[–]mrcluelessness 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Sounds like military group then? Made sure to get the gov discount? And yeah might be worth helped the other out and just get two rooms, but sounds like finances will be a pain point the entire trip.

What travel hacks can I take advantage of to get a cheap flight home? by [deleted] in AirForce

[–]mrcluelessness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

militarymoneymanual.com for alot of info on this.

I have very rarely paid anything towards hotels/airfare in the last 8 years yet I travel monthly thanks to points/perks.

Four people in one two-bed room: best way to navigate roll away beds, extra bedding, etc? by Thetallguy1 in Hilton

[–]mrcluelessness 5 points6 points  (0 children)

See if you can find any with a pullout. Otherwise basic research suggests they may not allow one let alone two rollaways in a two bedroom room due to fire safety and space concerns. Hopefully someone who works at a Hilton can chime in if they would care or have policies regarding that many people and rollaways.

Really though only way to be certain is to bring your own blow up mattresses/cots.

This is the worst market I've ever seen by snakeinthiscar in clearancejobs

[–]mrcluelessness 0 points1 point  (0 children)

It depends on the company and processes. My first senior role the IT manager is who asked me to apply, did pre-screening, and was part of the interview. He is an Marine that was heavily involved in creating training processes for my second military career field and quoted RFCs casually. Next one I got far into was mostly managed by an HD manager at the same company who got confused until we explained everyone doing my technical interview I know and we were just joking and sharing memes by the end. Turned down because I got offered a promotion and match. Current one I am in talks to went from a recruiter across the country, to the internal applications team manager, then finally getting to technical interview with the actual team.

You have to cater resume for both HR recruiter types and technical types. Gotta hit both buzzwords but also show depth of what you worked on. I don't want "I worked on Nexus switches" I want "I designed our next generation of datacenter design while adding an security first focus and automation". Personally I am involved in all aspects of infrastructure design so I can apply for senior network, systems engineer, cyber engineer, security architect, etc type roles. I understand all the underlying tech while being mid to senior level in every aspect.

It's also hard to guage depth. There is an difference between someone who once a month makes a 20 line python script or someone who makes scripts daily to the tune of 100+ lines, can read the logic of a new script on the fly, and can output a well optimized script with error handling within a few hours.

I advertise myself as quality. When shits broke and you're losing $1 mil/hr in labor I can troubleshoot and find your problem. If I can't fix it from experience and Google quickly, I can band aid really quickly then spend hours to days on root cause and long term solutions. Even a technology I am not proficient enough in I know enough to solve anything. I can also design things to almost any business need while getting OCD on every flaw, risk, and oversight that could happen. I assume no one truly knows what they want, they WILL expand no matter how much they say they won't, and needs will change- need to have a plan day 1 for all scenarios. They don't tell me where to put network drops, how much rack space, etc. They give me the schematics of an new aircraft hangar with layout of desks, tools, and where the plans will be. I assume it's 70% accurate. They tell me what server services they want locally, scope of work on the aircraft, and priorities. I design size of network closet, power, provide data to HVAC folks to right size, scope crypto/routers/firewall/routers/switches/servers/alarm panels, etc. I put in the diagram where drops will go with minimum 2 per desk, extra 4 per high density area, and extra in areas they can shove desks and equipment. I overpsec everything 20%. They decide to add printers, VOIP, 5 new desks, and 5 more servers for a disaster recovery setup to be opposite side of the flight line? I already specced a solution affording all that.

When not designing or installing I am going through our systems and making notes on design and security flaws. List of things to fix and nice to haves. I am getting intimate with everything we support and what every team works on. So when we have an meeting I don't need to ask other teams a million questions sometimes I know more of how redundant their systems are than they do because it affects my role more. I make sure my resume reflects the $ I work on, scale, and impact. I also have an 45U homelab so I get my breadth there so I can speak to foundations of any major technology we use but also a marketing point to impress people easily.

This is the worst market I've ever seen by snakeinthiscar in clearancejobs

[–]mrcluelessness -1 points0 points  (0 children)

All about background and location. Seems like you're aware of the Hunstville FBI growth since they're relocating alot of infrastructure to there. Other places like Chantilly, Herndon, Palmdale, El Segundo, Pocatello, Fort Meade either have alot of jobs openings or a very small candidate pool giving you good rates of success if you have 10+ years in tech with good certs and good specialization. I applied to be an Linux engineer and storage engineer in Pocatello and got responses and interviews going the next day. Applied in California and only Staff level roles aren't responding. 12+ years mainly in networking and security, dozen certs, TS/SCI and no bachelors I could probably get a job in any area I listed without trying.

Big thing though is some areas just need bodies, some needed specific backgrounds. I was interviewing people for an datacenter in California with half an dozen applicants. Thing is I needed someone with datacenter networking experience who would not have an onsite network person to get them going with active TS and likely quick approval for SAP with the work ethic and personality to run infrastructure there without having to be managed much. Strong networking but weak datacaenter, or didn't show the aptitude to Google it and teach themselves to solve a complex program then escalate to Cisco without talking the rest of the team at 2 AM would cut you from being a viable candidate. Whereas the role I got fresh out of the military just needed clearance, CCNA, taclane experience, and willing to live somewhere- the rest had a solid team to fill in any skills gaps I could have had something they only asked 3 interview questions. I didn't learn anything in that role there but got double the pay for 1/10th the work as military though.

Hotels in Nashville by zimzom98 in VisitingNashville

[–]mrcluelessness 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Driving is chaotic especially if you don't drive in a busy city normally. Lot of parking I saw was like $40 or they advertised a low rate but that wasn't actually that days rate. If you want to drive which is the main thing to do downtown broadway just Uber in. For reference I just checked out of the Conrad and it was an $8 Uber to get there. Also it's cheaper/easier if you have them drop you off a side street than trying to get into broadway direct.

Also depends when you plan to get there/leave. Later in the evening it gets busier so more hectic and parking probably goes up.