After 29 years and 8 months in the IT world I am just about done. - Page 4

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - After 29 years and 8 months in the IT world I am just about done. (Page 4 of 4)

Posted: 11/13/2018 11:53:52 PM EDT

[#1]

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I have a copy of OS/2 Warp 3.0 in the basement.

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Soo... If you happen to run across a system with ISA slots that you want to use for a multi-line BBS.... Ray Gwinn's SIO.sys driver... Binkleyterm/2, Maximus etc... Lemme know... Still in the shrink wrap. Not so sure about that warranty though.

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Posted: 11/14/2018 12:10:07 AM EDT

[#2]

I'm retiring in three months, not in IT, but I did have one IT story from my past.

1990 the school district automated with dumb terminals. I got a call from one female clerical...
"It's not working" is the power switch on the left side on? "Yes"
is it plugged into the surge protector? "Yes"
is the light on the surge protector? "No"
flip the switch; is the light on now? "No"...
Is the surge protector plugged into the wall outlet. "No"
why not? "There isn't any wall outlet"

Fucking idiots.

Posted: 11/14/2018 12:22:21 AM EDT

[#3]

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RP06 Disk packs.
TECO editing.
The big [Blue, then Orange, then Gray] wall
It looks like an RJ-45, but the tab's offset
Thin-net
DECWriters

Time for more alcohol

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Gandalf communications gear. Welcome to the IBM comm world.

Posted: 11/14/2018 12:23:07 AM EDT

[#4]

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Quoted:
Soo... If you happen to run across a system with ISA slots that you want to use for a multi-line BBS.... Ray Gwinn's SIO.sys driver... Binkleyterm/2, Maximus etc... Lemme know... Still in the shrink wrap. Not so sure about that warranty though.

https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/278036/Dl0Kt-5U8AAa12U_jpg_large_jpg-738344.JPG

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Quoted:

I have a copy of OS/2 Warp 3.0 in the basement.

Soo... If you happen to run across a system with ISA slots that you want to use for a multi-line BBS.... Ray Gwinn's SIO.sys driver... Binkleyterm/2, Maximus etc... Lemme know... Still in the shrink wrap. Not so sure about that warranty though.

https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/278036/Dl0Kt-5U8AAa12U_jpg_large_jpg-738344.JPG

I was an RBBS man...

Posted: 11/14/2018 12:25:38 AM EDT

[#5]

Join the party...I will say, you need to get out of the support role, at least in a gig being on-call is seldom or do like me, go into management. Still sucks but being the damn gunslinger getting called at 3am to fix some fuckup gets old.

Posted: 11/14/2018 1:10:03 AM EDT

[#6]

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30 years goes back to 1988, which means you remember:

Coaxial Ethernet with vampire tap transceivers
Token Ring
FDDI
Connecting ribbon cables on Cisco AGS router cards
NetBeui
Banyan Vines
Novell Netware
5 1/4" floppy drives
tape backup
Sun Sparc stations
DECnet
VAX/VMS
ATM
3745 front end controllers
3270 terminals
MS/DOS

What else am I missing?

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Do you remember genning Netware to build a server?
IBM s3 s32 s34 s36 s38 as/400
5250 monitors
Text based internet browsers
Prime Computers
Dbase
WordPerfect
Visicalc
8 1/2 in floppies?

Posted: 11/14/2018 1:31:02 AM EDT

[#7]

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I was an RBBS man...

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Tinkered with that a bit and PC-Board... BASIC was my first language... Self taught using the old book "Basic BASIC" on CPM-80... Wargames was the inspiration. Wrote a simplistic war-dialer...
Anway, fast-forward, trying to run a board under Desqview wasn't great. Tried the OS/2 2.0 beta and was hooked. After I got a Diamond video card that would work...

Posted: 11/14/2018 1:49:02 AM EDT

[#8]

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I got your config.sys right here! Notice when the partition was created.

https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/16625/41230D07-1A65-4C45-9AE0-496CB961FCDD-737182.jpg

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MS-DOS 6 was the bomb.com.

I've been in IT for 21 years, consulting for 15 (datacenter- compute, storage, etc).

It's frustrating at times, but overall I really enjoy doing something different every day and working on different problems.

I make my own schedule for the most part, get compensated well, and get to work in some pretty cool places.

Dunno if I could do a 9-5 job...

Every time I get pissed off my wife looks at my like I'm crazy.

I will say, no where near the personal satisfaction or excitement of military service (Former Navy FC.. I'm an "engineer" now, but in reality I just help sell shit).

Posted: 11/14/2018 1:55:39 AM EDT

[#9]

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My job is to stump Cisco. I'm pretty good at it too.

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I understand the burn-out. It's a high stress job no doubt.

However, there's NEVER a shortage of challenges and new things to learn.

That's the one thing I find rewarding about IT; always having to figure out new problems.
Plus I enjoy being the guy in the office who everyone comes to when they're stumped.

My job is to stump Cisco. I'm pretty good at it too.

Based on my experiences with Cisco, that isnt a terribly high bar

Posted: 11/14/2018 4:05:00 PM EDT

[#10]

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Montgomery area?

If so, the Obama recession/depression killed the IT job market here. And, it still hasn't recovered. The state stopped hiring. Alfa stopped hiring and laid IT workers off. Colonial Bank folded and Regions moved their IT shop to Birmingham. And, thanks to sequestration, IT contractor jobs with the Air Force started disappearing. And, you would have to take big pay cuts to keep your job.

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I went to school for IT and when we moved I couldn't find a job since IT is nonexistent down here. I work for International Paper now and the pay is ridiculous. I am waiting for a background check to come back so I can work on standby gennys on military bases and Border patrol and the usual fire and police departments and hospitals.

Montgomery area?

If so, the Obama recession/depression killed the IT job market here. And, it still hasn't recovered. The state stopped hiring. Alfa stopped hiring and laid IT workers off. Colonial Bank folded and Regions moved their IT shop to Birmingham. And, thanks to sequestration, IT contractor jobs with the Air Force started disappearing. And, you would have to take big pay cuts to keep your job.

I don't know what your skill set is but in the DFW area the unemployment rate for IT workers is <1%. And ... we could use some more conservative folks to keep the state RED.

Posted: 11/14/2018 4:08:11 PM EDT

[#11]

26 years for me. I'm about done as well. I wish I lived near a Community College with a Gunsmithing program. :(

Posted: 11/14/2018 4:15:08 PM EDT

[#12]

30 YEARS??? That's like three lifetimes in the IT world!

Posted: 11/14/2018 4:22:54 PM EDT

[#13]

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I'm done with IT as of next week. Just took a software engineer position.

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I've been a software engineer for 23 years. I am burnt out terribly. Good luck.

Posted: 11/14/2018 6:50:01 PM EDT

[#14]

From the mid-80's:

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Posted: 11/14/2018 9:11:44 PM EDT

[#15]

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I don't know what your skill set is but in the DFW area the unemployment rate for IT workers is <1%. And ... we could use some more conservative folks to keep the state RED.

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I went to school for IT and when we moved I couldn't find a job since IT is nonexistent down here. I work for International Paper now and the pay is ridiculous. I am waiting for a background check to come back so I can work on standby gennys on military bases and Border patrol and the usual fire and police departments and hospitals.

Montgomery area?

If so, the Obama recession/depression killed the IT job market here. And, it still hasn't recovered. The state stopped hiring. Alfa stopped hiring and laid IT workers off. Colonial Bank folded and Regions moved their IT shop to Birmingham. And, thanks to sequestration, IT contractor jobs with the Air Force started disappearing. And, you would have to take big pay cuts to keep your job.

I don't know what your skill set is but in the DFW area the unemployment rate for IT workers is <1%. And ... we could use some more conservative folks to keep the state RED.

Last time I was in Dallas I had an enjoyable time. Fry electronics and Bone Daddy’s.

Posted: 11/14/2018 9:18:13 PM EDT

[#16]

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Based on my experiences with Cisco, that isnt a terribly high bar

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I understand the burn-out. It's a high stress job no doubt.

However, there's NEVER a shortage of challenges and new things to learn.

That's the one thing I find rewarding about IT; always having to figure out new problems.
Plus I enjoy being the guy in the office who everyone comes to when they're stumped.

My job is to stump Cisco. I'm pretty good at it too.

Based on my experiences with Cisco, that isnt a terribly high bar

LOL when you work with juniper it certainly is

Posted: 11/15/2018 4:39:29 PM EDT

[#17]

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Posted: 11/17/2018 9:02:20 PM EDT

[#18]

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Business sees IT as an expense. Management hates to spend money on expenses, so the IT admins have to scramble to find the right kind of baling wire and bubble gum to hold the pieces together because management doesn't care that they make life hard on the IT admins by not staying on supported hardware and operating systems. And since it's an expense, it's seen as something to outsource, so there's constant downward pressure on salaries, despite the fact that as you gain experience, you typically are more efficient and can do more complex work than the members of the Mumbai Mafia. So you wind up with a handful of long-time IT guys who can actually do real work, and they have to hand-hold for a bunch of guys saying "please do the needful".

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Lone Wolf I could not agree more the Mumbai Mafia sucks and would not know a computer if they were sitting on one.

Posted: 11/17/2018 10:25:31 PM EDT

[#19]

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Posted: 11/19/2018 9:54:19 AM EDT

[#20]

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https://www.AR15.Com/media/mediaFiles/40561/35th_jpeg-742608.JPG

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Lowest price, technically acceptable!

Posted: 11/19/2018 10:10:07 AM EDT

[#21]

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I’m just not giving a shit anymore.

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How do you know when you're done? I'm only about 12 years in but I can already tell I won't be able to do this all my life, been wondering what comes after.

I’m just not giving a shit anymore.

I’m 20 years in, and I’m right there. At least finding a technology that has become “old is now new” to focus on has helped.

Posted: 11/19/2018 7:21:19 PM EDT

[#22]

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Posted: 11/19/2018 8:32:01 PM EDT

[#23]

Almost 19 years in here... I despise waking up and heading in. 2008 was great times, but we are now in what I call the dark ages. Mass outsourcing 3 years ago to make our company lucrative. Followed up with spending the last 2 years engineering a huge M&A with our new owners which has totally burned me out.

All the wrong people chopped during outsourcing, then the smart ones bailed at the beginning of the M&A...

There's light with the new overlords, but man it's been a train wreck the past 3 years.

Wish I could find something else that can match the salary and freedom, but being a fishing guide just not enough to put 3 girls through college still...

FMWL