ohiobrewtus

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I really, really like my job 99% of the time. I'm the IT manager at a small/medium (100mm/yr) company. I'm the network geek who got picked to also have to do all the paperwork. I still get to spend most of my time working on things that I like though.

Just 30 minutes ago I ordered a $25k server that I'm going to install VMWare Enterprise on and consolidate 6 servers to, and come next month I'll be putting an all Cisco IPT solution in. Good stuff if you're a geek like me.

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ShortSnoutBrewing

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Love it

I work for a wine maker at their main office as a Customer Service Specialist and general office bitch. We are a small, new company (though a spinoff of a much older winery) and there are only 4 of us in the office so I end up being everyone's assistant. The team is great and extremly laid back and relaxed. The pay could be better but to me the package as a whole is more important than money. I did the money thing and was miserable.

And we have a foosball table, a 120 bottle wine chiller 30ft from my desk, bar, great view of downtown Portland from the roof.

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kornkob

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Internal Quality Assurance at raven software (part of Activision Blizzard).

Breakroom with Free soda, foosball, Guitar hero. Monthly free pizza day. Flexible working schedule (really flex-- like-- be here between 11 and 4 but otherwise just get your 8 hours in). Parital days off don't count agaisnt vacation. Dress code: no speedos and you gotta wear enough to not get arrested. Game at lunch and after hours on company gear if you want but you gotta keep a copy of the game disc on site. really cheap games by Activsion, access to Nintendo's company discount and cheap prices via PCMall discount. Solid insurance coverage for 2 costs about $15 a month.

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Jason 'Kornkob' Robinson

I wanna move to Theory. Everything works in Theory.

FatDuc

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Thanks for making my existence here on earth that much more crappy, You officially suck.

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Quote:

A child-like man is not a man whose development has been arrested; on the contrary, he is a man who has given himself a chance of continuing to develop long after most adults have muffled themselves in the cocoon of middle-aged habit and convention. Aldous Huxley

Fat Duc Brewing
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Ryan_PA

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I have managed over 20 server virtulizations on VMware this year alone. That is some impressive stuff. I am currently working on a project where there are 6 slices on the host, 4 relate to a single production application, 3 on red hat one on windows. It is mind boggling what you can do now. Also, when you need to do a hardware refresh, the snapshot software on the market makes it annoyingly easy. Geek on ohiobrewtus.

Lil' Sparky

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I voted love my job, but I've got to qualify that.

I love my career. I'm a Communications Officer in the USAF. My last assignment was teaching computer science at the USAF Academy - GREAT JOB!!!

Which leads me to my current assignment - grad student at TX A&M. I'm not saying it's bad. I'm not paying for school, we're close to home, and I make as much as most of my professors, but I wouldn't say I love it. It's a means to an end, which is returning to teach again.

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ohiobrewtus

Recipes 

Sweet. I'm really looking forward to digging into this project. If it goes well I'll likely be doing the same across my server farm.

It's good to be a geek sometimes.

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blacklab

Recipes 

I said 'Pays the bills'. I work in finance for a big semiconductor manufacturer. It's basically doing computer stuff all day, but it pays pretty well. Basically I organize and manage some of the activites of all of the overseas people who do the real work. This means lots of earlly/late conference calls.

The company tends to hire and attract a certain type of personality(type A), which I am not, so it gets sort of overwhelming at times. I hold my own, but get sort of tired of the go getters and desk pounders.

But, it gives me flexibility in my schedule so I can spend time with the kids and wife. (and do a little brewing)

Kevin Dean

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"Free Software Systems Administrator"

I run the servers, both raw metal and virtual, for a small company in the Dulles Corridor that desigs and markets web pages for other small businesses.

I've never been one to like money. I like having money, but I hate the things associated with money, like bills, credit, debt and what I see all-too-often - people who feel enslaved to the dollar. The fact that I make less than average for someone in my comparable position doesn't matter much to me.

My entire job is done remotely (with the exception of rolling out a new server or whatever) so I can work from home as often as I want though I prefer making the commute in to work (it reminds them to print my paycheck, so I think). I have no schedule, I can come in at 5 am or 5 pm and stay for 12 hours or have lunch and go home (though I've only done that once).

I don't have a "boss" in the traditional sense, ther eare 5 people in the office and each has skills that are unique to our positions and each of us are the "expert" in that matter. The closest thing I need to "approval" to do something is to have the accountant actually enter the credit card number to have the computer stuff shipped out.

I'm valuable to my company and there aren't any asses working here, though I'm nto exactly "friends" with the people here, I can happily spend a night at a party with them and enjoy myself.

Not fond of VMWare as a non-free application but I love virtualization. There's soemthign that gives you this warm and fuzzy feeling to hold a "rack of servers" in one machine.

Virtualization is also a godsend when dealing with comprimised servers, something that becomes more likely when you have to support those so-called "legacy applications".

Snapshoting is nice, but I thought VMWare's product offerings hinged on guest management, does snapshot utilities not exist in part of their base offering?

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Free State Project liaison to the homebrew hobby!

"What's your name? Well my mom calls me Son, and my cat calls me Meow, either will do." -- Sam Dodson of the Obscured Truth Network

cubbies

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Not ideal, but OK

I also work in IT, but I am still in support. Technically my position is PC Administrator, but I am just a glorified help desk. My company is somewhat small with about 200 users on site. I don't run a normal help desk in the sense that I do the phone support and dispatch level 2 support if needed. I am level 1,2,3....etc. We have me (the PC Administrator) my boss who is the network administrator and a couple of software guys. Anything that is related to support and/or fixing/setting up computers I handle. Sometimes this can become quite cumbersome because even though 200 users isn't huge, it can be a lot for one person on some days.

However, that is not my gripe with my work. My gripe is that it is not a challenge anymore for me. I can pretty much fix any PC related problem, and most of the stuff I deal with is very rudimentary anyway. It is rare that I actually have to sit down and figure something out, and that was the allure of this field when I first got into it about 5 years ago. I am the type of person that likes to figure stuff out. On top of that, the money is below average. Far from terrible, I do plenty well enough, but the fact that I know there are people in the same position, that do less work, make more money, it bothers me...I know it shouldn't but it does.

Other than that though, my work is great. We are very laid back, if I don't have work to do, they don't really care what I do. The people I work with are totally cool, the benefits are good enough, I get a lot of vacation days etc. Also, just this week there has been talk going around that they might start getting me involved with the network administrators projects so that I can start moving my way up.

So, it doesn't just pay the bills, but I also would not say I love it. The way I have always looked at it is if I had 10 million dollars, I would stay at a job I loved. I would leave this job in a heartbeat if I had that kind of money.