Considering some future employment options, and I am wondering about whether there are still smaller businesses (too small to have an IT dept) that tend to hire someone to take care of their computer/network needs, or has that job gone the way of the dodo as systems have gotten easier to configure, and the populace has gotten more tech-savvy? Also, if jobs like these still exist, any idea on how to find them? Not even sure what the formal title would be. I'm kind of out of date on networking, but could get up to speed quickly. Mostly idle thinking right now, but there are a lot of times I think I'd like to leave the corporate world behind, and I'm not sure what I could actually do, aside from what I do now (software QA), without a massive step down in pay.
Yes, they're still a thing. Probably called "IT consultants" or something :)
I'm sure there is as long as you're willing to remove the last seven words from your post.
Smaller companies are just much, more likely to have worse benefits and lower pay.
EDIT: meant words
Yes, small companies still hire those sorts of people and they can do well at it. I used to work at a small (10 people) firm and we had a guy who serviced our computers and network, we were just one of his clients. He did pretty well, I remember he bought himself a brand new C6 Corvette when they came out.
I've worked at small companies and I've worked at large companies. In a small company, you can be you. In a large company, you cease to be.
My official title is "Systems Administrator"
Jack of all trades from Server Virtualization, Wide Area Networks, VPN connectivity, etc and....end user support.
But, yes. Company IT Geek.
Not sure what your definition of "small company" is. Mine was 125 persons when I started, now 700ish.
If you want to get in to IT for small companies, MSPs might offer the best employement option.
It's called small business owner. Those guys all have their own little business. Occasionally those guys will have a few employees but it's kind of rare.
We're a smallish (~100 employees) company and outsource our IT to a smaller outfit along the lines of what you're describing. They have maybe 5 or so younger Mennonite guys (yes, seriously) and IIRC the guy I usually deal with has mentioned he has 20ish accounts he manages. I'd imagine they do pretty well, and it's been a MUCH better arrangement for us than the previous setup of accounting managing IT internally in their "spare time."
Right now I’m with a company with around 1700 employees, I think I’d be more comfortable with somewhere around 50 or less.
Good point about being a consultant. I guess that makes sense for a lot of smaller places to contract out the work.
My initial thoughts had been to find some sort of industrial facility, as it might be a nice change of pace from a software company.
I suggest another industry. Since we sell hoses this periodical arrives monthly.
Do you think it would be smart to get into Computer Security for Industrial companies ?
Isolate the machines from outside threats etc ?
So many of those machines are running XP etc and are ripe for the bad guys to get into them.
californiamilleghia said:
Do you think it would be smart to get into Computer Security for Industrial companies ?
Isolate the machines from outside threats etc ?
So many of those machines are running XP etc and are ripe for the bad guys to get into them.
Depends if they are willing to put the money into security. Windows 7 support ends in January, so that’s another load of computers that will be out of date. Last time I worked with anything industrial, a lot of places ran obsolete OSes simply because control and monitoring software for some of their machines wouldn’t run on anything newer. Heck, I know of one system that only worked on a specific motherboard design.
I know my friend had an old CNC machine that had to use the older IDE hard drives ,
We have a electronics swap meet here so it was not hard to get along with a few other 30 year old plugs etc
Most companies will not pay to fix something that is not broken ! So updating machines is not in the budget until its a disaster when they die .
californiamilleghia said:
Do you think it would be smart to get into Computer Security for Industrial companies ?
Isolate the machines from outside threats etc ?
So many of those machines are running XP etc and are ripe for the bad guys to get into them.
I've thought about selling something like a RasPi with two network ports through which to run SSH tunnels to do just this. The security of industrial control devices is total crap across the board and they should never be directly accessible through the Internet or a dial-up connection, yet they usually are.
As to the topic at hand, this sounds a bit like the job I left in September and one I applied for a couple weeks ago. They're still around but they're not that common, and you'll need way more skills than people got away with back in the day.
In reply to eastsideTim :
I used to have a part-time business doing random PC/tech jobs on evenings & weekends. The work was steady & the money could be good, though I probably undercharged too often. I did a fair amount of small business work, but where I found most of my customers was a combination of farmers and or “non-native” PC users.
The combination of not having much free time outside of my day-job, having a day-job with a great company than I actually really like, dealing with people who aren’t qualified to breathe(let alone own a computer), and wanting to move south, all lead to closing the business about 3-years ago.
I’d suggest figuring out what the minimum income(after taxes & business expenses) that you need to earn per-year is, then compare that to what you can charge vs. the amount of hours you’re willing to work, and see if the numbers work out.
In my case I generally charged between $20-$30/hour. It varied with both the difficult of the job and client, though if I was on-site longer than I anticipated - especially if I felt like it was a problem I should have figured out sooner - I felt guilty charging the full rate & would usually bill for less. Of course it was really just extra $$ for us, so I had the luxury to make those choices.
eastsideTim said:
Right now I’m with a company with around 1700 employees, I think I’d be more comfortable with somewhere around 50 or less.
Good point about being a consultant. I guess that makes sense for a lot of smaller places to contract out the work.
My initial thoughts had been to find some sort of industrial facility, as it might be a nice change of pace from a software company.
Any industrial/manufacturing type environment is highly likely to pay noticeably less, with worse benefits, with more strict rules on work hours, dress attire, etc.
Tech Writer, not a Dev/QA, did manufacturing/defense/aerospace for 9 years. I now work for a company owned by the tech company famous for sponsoring yacht racing,
In the last 3 years, strictly on salary ignoring the perks and insurance, I've made what would have taken 5 years at the previous job.
I get wanting different scenery and new challenges, but I don't want them that bad :)
Sounds like this is not a direction I want to be going in. I think the big thing that is bugging me is I'm in one of those "hard-charging, high achieving" companies, and the stress from that (and some recent layoffs and their reason) is getting to me. I'm hoping to find a more relaxed environment, and would likely be willing to take a pay cut to get it. Just can't move for a job right now, as my wife has a good job where we are, and her family is here.
In reply to eastsideTim :
I'd probably try to just find a different gig.
The lack of stress from, "OMG WE HAVE TO SHIP THAT NOW!" is one of my favorite things about my current job.
z31maniac said:
In reply to eastsideTim :
I'd probably try to just find a different gig.
The lack of stress from, "OMG WE HAVE TO SHIP THAT NOW!" is one of my favorite things about my current job.
Yeah, we’re on a five week release schedule, and the inability to slow down and think is killing me.
