New Job as an IT Technician!

[Netwacky87]

Hiya guys, im very new to Edugeek and must admit seems like a great site!

 

Im currently 19 and for the past 1 1/2 years to 2 years been looking for an it technicians job, all with no luck due to no experience (i can do the job but with no experience nobody wants to know)!

 

Im now about to be employed in a school as an it technician finally! and i really cant wait to start!!

 

im really just posting to ask you guys for any advice/tips on how to go about things and just general advice!

 

They *seem* to be running win2k server's, but they dont seem to be running imaging, they seem to whenever a machine goes wrong the technicians go out and repair the machine locally, i'd love to implement workstation imaging if i can!.

 

Any tips/advice/tools would be greatly appreciated!

 

Thanks Mart!

[john]

RIS / WDS is the quickest and cheapest solution, but you need Server 2003 really as 2000 was a bit pants

[googlemad]

Well done! I'm in the same situation as you minus the 'getting a job' bit - Like you say I could do the job all day long but I have no experience so they offer the job to someone with more experience! Argh...

 

Where are you in the UK?

 

Norton Ghost etc are the usual suspects in my book for imaging, but it all depends on how many different configuration of computers are used around the school.

[Joedetic]

As a recommendation from someone who worked in ICT Services when i was 16 and 17 (urgh, yes I was mature for my age), dont let the staff take advantage of you cause you're younger than they are.

 

It always happens (not just during term time when i was a student...out of term time when my legs were only just visable from underneath the server cabinet etc etc). It's just something that you have to show the maturity you've no doubt gained and judge what is a favour and what you're actually getting paid to do (or werent getting paid to do in my case ).

[localzuk]

I will support Joedetic with his statement! I'm 22 and one of the youngest members of staff in our school. The initial impression I got when I joined was one of 'he's very young' - but I soon showed that I am not 'young' - as I know what I'm doing.

 

One of my old school friends became an IT Technician (and then the Network Manager) at a high school and he had that problem. He didn't stop it and it drove him out of the job in the end.

 

Assert yourself! Make enemies! That's the only way! (Not really!)

 

Oh, one of those things you have to remember is 'don't do things instantly when asked by someone in the corridor'. It raises the expectations from you straight away, so later on when your work load gets higher (which it will do) they think you are unreliable due to this sudden drop in response times. (NOTE: Don't push it though).

 

Finally, make sure you can prioritise things. Become friends with your boss and their boss and treat the head like royalty (and if you have a boss like mine, them too). Oh! And your site manager is your friend! Make friends with them too! They are invaluable for helping you out when you are holding a wall mounted cabinet above your head and don't have 8' long arms to tighten the bolts.

[gwendes]

Oh, one of those things you have to remember is 'don't do things instantly when asked by someone in the corridor'. It raises the expectations from you straight away, so later on when your work load gets higher (which it will do) they think you are unreliable due to this sudden drop in response times. (NOTE: Don't push it though).

 

I partially support this. It happens all the time, members of staff will come up to you at lunch, in the corridor, knocking on your door etc and you should do things that you can do easily there and then. If something is urgent try to make an assesment straight away - it makes keeping a track of things so much easier. Explain if something is going to be simple (replacing a monitor for example) and why it is being done quickly and explain why the FFR they need urgently has to be put on a back burner.

 

Communication is key.

 

Implement a helpdesk system if possible because paper tickets are horrible.

[crc-ict]

Implement a helpdesk system if possible because paper tickets are horrible.

 

Been there, done that! Can I get anybody to use it? Can I heck-as-like! They all still use the book! (which I'm not allowed to get rid of)

[Joedetic]

You could try getting the book "stolen."

 

When I implemented liberum where i was (cause OTRS fails at what it does), the Head of ICT wanted to keep it in testing stages. As in, only open it up to a very limited number of users. At first only the people within ICT.

 

When we opened it up to heads of department for them to log requests that way it just didnt happen. So you find yourself getting calls on the phone and logging them yourself! It just turns into a departmental management tool in the end for use soley within ICT Services if you cant get people to co-operate.

[GrumbleDook]

Allow them to call or email ... as long as you use the ticket system then that is fine ... if you also have accounts for them on there and they can track their call then you will find that they will get used to using it.

 

Don't give up hope.

[strawberry]

remember that teaching staff are slightly condesending at the best of times, but when they're faced with a person who provides them with a service and who could be considered student age they might well develop somewhat of an uneasy attitude. Best thing to do is remember who pays your wages, settle in, change their attitude slowly and surely by impressing them with your technical skills, your attitude and your work ethic.

 

the best advice given to me was stay proffessional untill you know better!.

[Gatt]

Ive got the exact same problem here at MHS - implemented the One||Zero waay back in september - so far only a handful of staff use it and i DO mean a handful!

[Joedetic]

One thing else that i'll say about it all is that the other technicians / non-teaching staff can get to be good friends quite quickly. Science techs are always willing to use the helpdesk system i found.

 

Another thing that was found was that technician-types always seem to stick together in the ongoing battle against unrealistic support requests from staff.

 

Something that was asked of (or rather told to) one of the techies at my school was that "You MUST put more RAM in the CMIS server before the end of the week 'cause i've got work to do." When he showed her the RAM usage on the server being very low indeed she still wouldnt believe that it was fine how it was! You've got to love admin staff.

[gwendes]

I'm quite lucky because my girlfriend worked at the school for about year before I applied so I had met some of the the staff before actually starting work. Look at how things are done and think about how you can improve the school but don't jump straight in and start changing things or you'll tred on peoples feet.

 

Communicate is the really important thing - let people know what you've done and are doing, keep records for appraisals and 'What Worked Well...' and 'Would Be Better If...' and try to learn as much as you can, there's always a learning curve in a new job - in IT it can be very steep.

 

Enjoy!

[Netwacky87]

Hiya guys, thanks for your kind words of advice, its very much appreciated!

 

Im in the west midlands, and i am buzzing ready to start the job, dont worry googlemad your time will come very soon, just be patient.

 

With regards to staff thinking im young i think this is gunna be a little bit of a problem but i can handle that, the headmaster when i had the interview said Do you think you would be underminded by "older" staff members.

 

Cant Wait!!!!

[sqdge]

I am 21 and landed the job as School Network Manager despite having no experience. My technician, however, has been at the school for over 6 years. She still tries to get me to trip up, so I have to be very careful about what I do. However, I found that completely overhauling the main ICT Suite within the first month of my arrival helped matters!

 

I guess I would advise that you try and make friends with everyone you can - especially the caretaker/site manager, headteacher, and office staff. Also, I've found that if you explain what you are doing without using jargon then many of the other staff will know how to fix problems without needing to call you out (this, however, does not always work).

[witch]

My technician, however, has been at the school for over 6 years. She still tries to get me to trip up, .

 

 

 

And why do you suppose that is? Um - something to do with getting a job with no experience?!!

I'm sure you are a very capable bloke, but it is sometimes very different in the real, school world so I hope you do make it clear that you respect her experience and listen to her occasionally!

[kylewilliamson]

I'll be 21 in June - our ICT Services structure is a bit out of the ordinary I guess - we have a Network Manager and we also have a IT Assistant. My role falls somewhere between that in that I do most of our planning/budgetary management etc, although I don't directly line manage anybody. Our IT Assistant is about 6 months younger than me and is on a student apprenticeship.

 

I think Line Managing somebody older is always going to be a problem, particulary somebody who might see you as 'being brought in over thier head'

 

Kyle

[ctbjs]

I think Line Managing somebody older is always going to be a problem, particulary somebody who might see you as 'being brought in over thier head'

 

@Kyle - I can understand where you might think this but with experience you will realise that being line managed by somebody younger is not a problem unless you both make it one.

 

 

I am 21 and landed the job as School Network Manager despite having no experience

 

@sqdge - I'm a little concerned that you say you were appointed despite having no experience, did you fabricate your cv have you really got the site managers job instead!!!

[wesleyw]

I have to admit it's a little concerning that you got appointed as the Network manager without any experience in the job. Kinda worries me how I got mine now lol. The ICT Technician has been there for 6 years? Didn't they apply for it? If they did and didn't get it I could understand why they are a little annoyed sounds like internal politics to me! But congrats nevertheless everyone needs to start somewhere Network Manager seems a little unusual for a first tech job though .

 

Back to the original topic:

 

Don't worry about being younger or changing things quickly if you have a strong personality and don't rub people the wrong way you can pretty much implement anything you want you need to back up your arguments with facts though.

 

 

Wes

[russdev]

Words of wisdom this thread my own advice there will be someone who attempts to order you about in public "do this now" and they are often quite high up this saying will do you well..

 

"I understand your issue but at the moment I am doing this I will get around to your job at insert time here"

 

If they rant, rave, shout just make excuses and leave and if they threaten or go to head explain the situation when get questioned.

 

You will be surprised the head knows who on the staff are demanding and will often support you.

 

Next treat everybody the same from head to the cleaner.

 

Last but not least before start job go and listen to manager tools members podcast on DISC this imho must be made mandatory listening..

 

Russ

[sqdge]

IN RESPONSE:

The technician may have been there for over 6 years, but it has been made clear that I know more about computers than she does (she was promoted to IT Technician from her original position as dinner-lady). I am also extremely familiar with the school having been there as a pupil and been involved in its workings since then - so the school politics are nothing new to me.

 

Surprisingly, I did not fabricate my CV - it shows quite clearly that I am a psychology graduate who trained as a printing services manager (with some quite random jobs in between). I think I got the job because of my knowledge of IT equipment, because there was no issue of me blending into the school (I was pretty well blended in to begin with), and my track record on purchasing.

 

The school openly acknowledged that they took a risk employing me - but my contract was renewed the other day, so I must be doing something right. As long as there's EduGeek how could I possibly go wrong?!

 

I hope that clears things up.

[Joedetic]

Ooooh it's creepy you say you're a psychology graduate.

 

The guy that incorrectly designed and built our old network was a psychology gradudate. I hope there's no correlation between the two!

 

I'm sure there isnt...he was a silly, silly man! (huzzah for polite insults)

[ctbjs]

I know more about computers than she does

 

I think I got the job because of my knowledge of IT equipment

 

I wish you all the best with it sqdge and congratulations on your contract renewal and while I might sound annoying and bitter, its not directed at you, its directed at the poor judgement and relates to the importance the teaching fraternity have on the support elements of a school. I know there have been rantings that schools are not businesses although I disagree in part, but I couldn not see any business worth its salt employing anyone as their network manager based upon the quotes above.

[techyphil]

Hey, im 21, landed the ICT Techy job as i turned 20. I feel that being the youngest they do try and support you more in a different way. Well atleast some staff do. I work with 3 other people, 1 of which I feel doesnt like it when im reading and trying to learn all the while.

 

My mission is to try and look at what we've got and make it as efficient as possible. At first they didnt agree with anything I suggested. They claimed they'ed already tried it. I said we can roll out applications from the server rather then every couple of days going around to each machine and making a change manually. Im still trying to get the system that way. They dont like ghosting or using RIS. They'd never even heard of things, shadow copies SAN, NAS etc.

 

I had a chance to create my own network in 1 class room. THey give me a PII server with 256MB RAM and 8GB HDD. Thats running a classroom of 16 machines slowly but it does the job. Everythings automated and set how i'd set it. So as a result ive never had to fix a problem other then hardware failure in the past year. I spent a month planning it out using my methods of unattended installs etc.

 

I suppose it depends on how clued up your team are. Mine are great at their own things, setups etc. But because im good at unattended and new or old existing technologies and its alien to them, its very very difficult to tell or explain what your doing.

 

SATA is somethings they have only just come across, yet I made a pc about 3-4years ago with it in. The importance of a good graphics card and without they decent video drivers the machines alot slower..

 

But thats what I see as common knowledge. Unfortunatily they do it for a job and enjoy it, they ent as sad as me who loves playing with IT as a hobbie. It helps if you enjoy it as much as we do.

 

Just learn what you can, its great experience. Im not allowed to use SIMS or anything like that but thats absolutly fine with me. Things can go wrong for any reason and being as I get the finger pointed at alot I certainitly dont want to be the reason for SIMS going down.

[sqdge]

I could not see any business worth its salt employing anyone as their network manager based upon the quotes above.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with you - and I never actually expected to get the job. But now I have it, I'm determined to do the job well.