What's a day in the life of your job like?

[berderder]

Hi everyone,

 

I'm a self employed computer consultant but I'm thinking of taking on full time work with a company. This question is geared towards systems administrators and network engineers. I'd like to buff up on any knowledge gaps by asking what a day in the life of your particular job is like.

 

What technologies does your company implement? What MaaS, IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS platforms do you use? How many servers do you manage? Do you employ a lot of virtualization? What ticketing systems do you use? Does your job expect you to be cross trained in programming, web development, and database management? 

 

Walking me through a day in your job would be cool. As I make money as a self employed contractor, I still do a lot of self study and it would be nice to bone up before possibly shooting for an interview. I also scan through job requirements on job listings but it would be nice to hear some word of mouth. 

 

Thanks. 

[NTDaws]

Well I wake up around 9 o'clock in my dumbste..I mean bed. And uh, after a couple of cockrabam bigettes, I usually put on my fresh old pants.

[HelplmChoking]

I'm up at 6:30 am, at my desk (self-employed contractor, design/IT) by about 8:30. I'll spend and hour or so sorting emails, doing any account stuff that's needed and generally planning out the day. From then, I'll get into whatever project is the highest priority at the time, usually being interrupted by emails/calls all day. Some days I'll spend several hours out meeting clients either at their offices or cafes, or I'll meet with clients further afield over Skype.

Towards the end of the day I'll clear out the emails by 4, then record hours and materials as needed and note anything upcoming for the following days.

[berderder]

1 minute ago, Rangaman42 said:

I'm up at 6:30 am, at my desk (self-employed contractor, design/IT) by about 8:30. I'll spend and hour or so sorting emails, doing any account stuff that's needed and generally planning out the day. From then, I'll get into whatever project is the highest priority at the time, usually being interrupted by emails/calls all day. Some days I'll spend several hours out meeting clients either at their offices or cafes, or I'll meet with clients further afield over Skype.

Towards the end of the day I'll clear out the emails by 4, then record hours and materials as needed and note anything upcoming for the following days.

What IT related projects do you do? When you say design, do you mean web design, graphic design, both?

[ARikozuM]

I'm a veterinarian for small and large animals. I wake up 5AM in bed and make sure that my tent is unpitched and that the morning wood has been chopped. I leave my wife to go to the hospital around 8AM. I make sure that all of the animals that I have under my care are doing alright and that they have responded well to their treatment (food and supplements mostly since I practice holistic and western in my practice). After that, I get my papers in order, make a few calls to the clients that their treatments plans are ready, and collect the day's files and what items I'll need in case something goes wrong. I head over to the farmers or housecalls around 11AM and meet with people at their homes rather than at the clinic since some animals spook easily which it may be my muscular physique (just kidding) but is most likely the unknown that bothers them which is why I encourage owners to walk around the clinic under supervision with their dog so that they, the dogs, can acclimate themselves before any exams take place.

 

My rounds end around 3PM when I head back to the clinic to start my in-house exams and lab work such as MICROSCOPY!, SNAP 4DXs, and INSERT DROP OF BLOOD INTO IDEXX MACHINE for CBC/chemisty or whatever it is that I need. I'm also rather fond of tending to my samples of fungi and bacteria which look like their going to kill us all, now that I think of it... Anyways, that's pretty much my day. 

 

TL:DR I do things that you would never want to see. Like how to castrate a bull! [shivers]

[berderder]

2 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

I'm a veterinarian for small and large animals. I wake up 5AM in bed and make sure that my tent is unpitched and that the morning wood has been chopped. I leave my wife to go to the hospital around 8AM. I make sure that all of the animals that I have under my care are doing alright and that they have responded well to their treatment (food and supplements mostly since I practice holistic and western in my practice). After that, I get my papers in order, make a few calls to the clients that their treatments plans are ready, and collect the day's files and what items I'll need in case something goes wrong. I head over to the farmers or housecalls around 11AM and meet with people at their homes rather than at the clinic since some animals spook easily which it may be my muscular physique (just kidding) but is most likely the unknown that bothers them which is why I encourage owners to walk around the clinic under supervision with their dog so that they, the dogs, can acclimate themselves before any exams take place.

 

My rounds end around 3PM when I head back to the clinic to start my in-house exams and lab work such as MICROSCOPY!, SNAP 4DXs, and INSERT DROP OF BLOOD INTO IDEXX MACHINE for CBC/chemisty or whatever it is that I need. I'm also rather fond of tending to my samples of fungi and bacteria which look like their going to kill us all, now that I think of it... Anyways, that's pretty much my day. 

 

TL:DR I do things that you would never want to see. Like how to castrate a bull! [shivers]

What kind of systems and software do you use in your practice?

[HelplmChoking]

10 minutes ago, berderder said:

What IT related projects do you do? When you say design, do you mean web design, graphic design, both?

I do basically whatever people ask for, for the design (my main work) I'll do graphic design, I've done some web work but that's less common these days, I do anything from a single brochure right up to a full brand identity + online presence. I'm in talks with a company atm to take over some of their social media stuff too. 

For IT work, I'll sometimes come out and help companies spec out PC's, organise their storage layout and basic stuff like that. It doesn't come up often, but they pay fairly well.

[ARikozuM]

3 minutes ago, berderder said:

What kind of systems and software do you use in your practice?

We use AviMark. We're currently testing out IDEXX's solutions for the veterinary practice, but they say the turnover time is 6-8 months until everyone is competent. I'm liking it since I can access the software from the server over my phone, laptop, or home computer. It also allows easy syncing of data to a hot-swap SSD that one of the receptionists prepare in the morning with all of the files I'll need for the mobile truck. 

 

I also build most of the PCs in the hospital as they are needed since I hate how those Dells (the new Inspiron 3647s) look, feel, and sound. 

[berderder]

3 minutes ago, ARikozuM said:

We use AviMark. We're currently testing out IDEXX's solutions for the veterinary practice, but they say the turnover time is 6-8 months until everyone is competent. I'm liking it since I can access the software from the server over my phone, laptop, or home computer. It also allows easy syncing of data to a hot-swap SSD that one of the receptionists prepare in the morning with all of the files I'll need for the mobile truck. 

I helped design a vet office's network. He has mobile trucks connected over VPN to a terminal server with something called Impromed (some sort of vet CRM). He also used Diagnostic Atlas I think it's called and something called E-Pet. I didn't mess much with the software since I turned over the job to another technician after the design was done. 

[berderder]

7 minutes ago, Rangaman42 said:

I do basically whatever people ask for, for the design (my main work) I'll do graphic design, I've done some web work but that's less common these days, I do anything from a single brochure right up to a full brand identity + online presence. I'm in talks with a company atm to take over some of their social media stuff too. 

For IT work, I'll sometimes come out and help companies spec out PC's, organise their storage layout and basic stuff like that. It doesn't come up often, but they pay fairly well.

What did the storage layout for you entail?

[waterjug]

I'm still in school, but i have my own small business similar to the geek squad and fix people's computers and stuff. 

[berderder]

1 minute ago, wii8cookies said:

I'm still in school, but i have my own small business similar to the geek squad and fix people's computers and stuff. 

Break/fix can be a good place to start but I find it a pain going from job to job often travelling to people's locations for jobs that may only take a couple of hours. You can charge a fair wage but sometimes it comes few and far between. My bread and butter is more being the IT professional that a small business relies on because they may call me up 10 hours a month. Get yourself a book of 10-20 clients and you may have yourself 30-40 hours of work a week. I recommend trying to get an in with small businesses

[Automobili3XF]

I work at the CPD (I.T. department) at the town hall, which is just 5 minutes walk away from my house.

I wake up at 7am, shower up, eat some shit (generally a big sandwich and a boiled egg), browse the web, dress some random clothes and go to work.

While at work, i pretty much live discussing audio stuff on Audiokarma or computer stuff over here and at Level1Forums as well, browse stuff to buy, read news from websites, get car drunk on Speedhunters and Petrolicious posts, until somebody calls me on the phone (some Drake stile hotline action right here, yo), then i get off my chair and go help them with whatever the issues they are having.

Pretty good job, pays very well (3x more than my last job, not counting the extras!), i have a very funny and very smart colleague (he'll be helping me with my pfSense box build!), very laid back stuff.

That said, i would prefer to be in the field, fixing tractors, plowing soil, anything that is rugged and defies me, this sort of job, man's stuff. 

[berderder]

9 minutes ago, Chevy_Monsenhor said:

I work at the CPD (I.T. department) at the town hall, which is just 5 minutes walk away from my house.

I wake up at 7am, shower up, eat some shit (generally a big sandwich and a boiled egg), browse the web, dress some random clothes and go to work.

While at work, i pretty much live discussing audio stuff on Audiokarma or computer stuff over here and at Level1Forums as well, browse stuff to buy, read news from websites, get car drunk on Speedhunters and Petrolicious posts, until somebody calls me on the phone (some Drake stile hotline action right here, yo), then i get off my chair and go help them with whatever the issues they are having.

Pretty good job, pays very well (3x more than my last job, not counting the extras!), i have a very funny and very smart colleague (he'll be helping me with my pfSense box build!), very laid back stuff.

That said, i would prefer to be in the field, fixing tractors, plowing soil, anything that is rugged and defies me, this sort of job, man's stuff. 

I do get the sense that some IT jobs are pretty laid back and quiet sometimes, haha. But hey, sounds good. What are some typical IT problems that come up?

[vetali]

edit nvm I see you are lookin for tech related stuff lol.

[Automobili3XF]

1 minute ago, berderder said:

I do get the sense that some IT jobs are pretty laid back and quiet sometimes, haha. But hey, sounds good. What are some typical IT problems that come up?

Don't get me wrong, it is really good! I really like it, but lets say that i don't feel challenged, but that's not really important.

The more commons problems that come up are generally RAM and PSU failure, general interface bugs with the filling software that they use (E-cidade by DbSeller) and some general user induced errors, pretty common stuff.

[berderder]

1 minute ago, Chevy_Monsenhor said:

Don't get me wrong, it is really good! I really like it, but lets say that i don't feel challenged, but that's not really important.

The more commons problems that come up are generally RAM and PSU failure, general interface bugs with the filling software that they use (E-cidade by DbSeller) and some general user induced errors, pretty common stuff.

Yeah, that's my problem right now too. I don't really feel challenged. I would take on a job if it taught me a lot and was kind of tough (and had an appropriate salary would be nice). 

[Automobili3XF]

1 hour ago, berderder said:

Yeah, that's my problem right now too. I don't really feel challenged. I would take on a job if it taught me a lot and was kind of tough (and had an appropriate salary would be nice). 

That's exactly how i feel! But like i said, i really cannot complain about my job, it is a great job and i'm learning a lot from it, mainly in the networking department. Add the fact that i was unemployed for almost a full year and nobody was hiring, this was the first upportunity and i went for it, anf i`m glad i did! Maybe in the future i'll work with something that will test me harder, something i could really show my skills.

[Psittac]

Well I work on the road with my dad and we both have the same sense of humor.  Let's just say I have a vinyl hose cut to length and call it my "fart sniffing tube".