what the heck can I do with this skill set?

[nageov3t]

so, lately I've been hating my job. I've been looking into transfering to a different department within my company and have a couple irons in the fire, but in the meantime, I've also been browsing the internets and it seems like I'd be totally screwed if I were to get fired.

my college degree is in english lit... I spent a year working in various administrative capacities (file clerk, receptionist, secretary, etc), four years working in customer service, another year working in marketing, and the past five+ years working in a data center with about four thousand servers.

but I feel like my company's hyper specialization might be screwing me. pretty much every aspect of my job is hardware or facilities related. I can fix a broken server like no one's business, but beyond running installs on servers and running simple network troubleshooting (checking/changing IP's, making and testing cables, etc) I've got basically no skills when it comes to unix operating systems or in-depth knowledge of cisco equipment beyond the physical hardware stuff (adding nics to fw's, replacing cards in 6500's, etc)... I'm not completely illiterate, but when every data center job opening requires 2+ years experience with unix or sun systems, it seems like there's no way I could fake it.

 

[xSauronx]

go teach english in japan? that should round out your resume nicely 😉

 

[meltdown75]

looking for something to coincide with that demanding WoW schedule eh?

sick of the receptionist "gossiping" about you?

😉

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
looking for something to coincide with that demanding WoW schedule eh?

sick of the receptionist "gossiping" about you?

😉

at this point, I think I'd take anything but overnights to get away from my boss as long as it pays enough to pay my rent/bills 😛

he's like Mussolini except he at least made the trains run on time.

 

[imported_Imp]

Wow, they actually want male 20 year old receptionists and secretaries:Q?

Honestly, someone said go teach English in Japan as a joke, but that's a damn good idea. You have an English degree, and the 'better' schools in Japan and China require you to have one in order to teach secondary school/adults. Pay seems good too. Saw an ad for a government sponsored school or whatever, and pay as over $50k CAN.

 

[Fritzo]

whore. Only choice.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: Imp
Wow, they actually want male 20 year old receptionists and secretaries:Q

I was like 17-18 at the time... just various temp jobs during the summer after senior year of high school and throughout freshman year of college.

I was pretty good at it (although there were definite aspects of it that I hated and returning to it would be an option of last resort as a career) and most of the females who worked in the different companies I temped at said it was nice to hear a male voice over the intercom 😛

 

[imported_Imp]

Originally posted by: loki8481

Originally posted by: Imp
Wow, they actually want male 20 year old receptionists and secretaries:Q

I was like 17-18 at the time... just various temp jobs during the summer after senior year of high school and throughout freshman year of college.

I was pretty good at it (although there were definite aspects of it that I hated and returning to it would be an option of last resort as a career) and most of the females who worked in the different companies I temped at said it was nice to hear a male voice over the intercom 😛

Ok, that's more reasonable. I worked reception from age 17-20 part-time. Wasn't bad, met a lot of people, was ok at it, except for the language barrier; English wasn't the primary and my secondary sucks cause I'm 2nd gen.

I'm temping now, and specifically said that I won't do reception anymore. I will shovel shit, clean toilets, file mounds of paper, but I will not answer the phone or fake-smile at people.

 

[Platypus]

I can teach you unix loki

 

[Zolty]

I had a few friends who taught english in south korea, made about 24k-35k tax free depending on experience and college major.

 

[Mr Pickles]

Make a blog and put up google ads.

 

[takeru]

UFC contestant?

 

[rudeguy]

Originally posted by: meltdown75
looking for something to coincide with that demanding WoW schedule eh?

sick of the receptionist "gossiping" about you?

😉

This.

I am not going to flame the OP but it does sound like the problem is with him and not his employer.

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: NSFW

Originally posted by: meltdown75
looking for something to coincide with that demanding WoW schedule eh?

sick of the receptionist "gossiping" about you?

😉

This.

I am not going to flame the OP but it does sound like the problem is with him and not his employer.

the whole warcraft thing was overblown. I didn't really care about omgmissingaraid as much as the fact that my boss wasn't willing to give my 15 minutes of flex time in my schedule 2 days/month when I stay late every other night of the week and am always the first one to step up to the plate when my boss needs someone to cover a (non-overnight) shift or work a holiday...

at the core of it, new management has come into my department, and along with the new management, I've gone from being second in command and highly valued by my boss to being a reboot monkey under a new boss that wouldn't know the meaning of the word morale if it punched him in the face and that pretty much the entire department (except one person) hates.