How to get further in job?

[brainhulk]

my little brother is in the same position as you. To impress his bosses he said he's trying to implement a "disaster recovery plan". whatever that means, lol

 

[zanejohnson]

would ya look at that, tridents comin up in the world

 

[chelhxi]

Excellence and efficiency speak for themselves. Then during the review process speak to each point and show via metrics or documentation example of said excellence.

This and volunteer to do other work. Anything that other people complain about doing or that your supervisor doesn't like to do. Or that nobody in the company is doing well. Be a TEAM PLAYER! Ha ha. Seriously, there's a way to look like a team player while secretly dreaming of the day when you stomp all over them on your way to the top.

 

[dwell]

It's not who you know it's who you blow.

 

[ultimatebob]

Honestly, it's people skills and networking skills on the job.

Which is a nice way of saying "ass kissing and sucking up".

Seriously... Working hard and Doing your help desk job well will only insure that you keep your existing job. Do it TOO well, and you'll get type cast as the "worker bee" and never get promoted.

To get promoted, you gotta volunteer for those "special" projects and bust your ass to make sure that they get done. You make your boss look good, and you'll get promoted when he does.

 

[ultimatebob]

my little brother is in the same position as you. To impress his bosses he said he's trying to implement a "disaster recovery plan". whatever that means, lol

Ooh, bad idea. If the disaster recovery plan fails and data is lost, he'll get the blame for it and possibly get canned. It doesn't matter if it was a fault of the plan or not... Perception is reality.

Documentation projects don't work either. If you write well, you just end becoming the "documentation guy" on top of your existing work. It's a "promotion" with more work to do, but no extra pay unless you're an hourly contractor.

It would be better to volunteer for something like a server consolidation or virtualization project. Those save the company money... And bosses love that.

Volunteering for a new systems project is a good idea as well... But only if you think that the new system is better than the old one and has a chance of working. Otherwise, you get the blame for it Again when it doesn't, even if it isn't your fault.

 

[ultimatebob]

Oh, did I mention that working 15 years in IT has made me an angry and bitter man?

 

[El Guaraguao]

In your case...the only thing that will help is........

 

[Leros]

I don't know if I've ever seen a CS internship that pays $25-$30... Maybe for really amazing and large companies that is more common? (Still, I don't know if I see MS or Amazon pay that up here...)

Most of the ones that I see are $14-$20/hr (The $20/hr being very infrequent).

I can speak for MS and Amazon internships.

I interned at Microsoft in Redmond a few years ago. All interns were paid the same: $5500/mo (and about $1000/mo for living costs). The $5500/mo is about $34.50/hr. If you factor in the living costs its about $40.50.

The following year I got an internship offer from Amazon. Their offer was slightly higher. I turned it down, so I can't speak for living expenses since we never got that far in the process.

I interned for 3 summer, interviewing at 10-20 companies each time. Most offers I got were $20-25 (most of these were in the Austin area, the equivalent in Seattle would be $25-30).

 

[TridenT]

I can speak for MS and Amazon internships.

I interned at Microsoft in Redmond a few years ago. All interns were paid the same: $5500/mo (and about $1000/mo for living costs). The $5500/mo is about $34.50/hr. If you factor in the living costs its about $40.50.

The following year I got an internship offer from Amazon. Their offer was slightly higher. I turned it down, so I can't speak for living expenses since we never got that far in the process.

I interned for 3 summer, interviewing at 10-20 companies each time. Most offers I got were $20-25 (most of these were in the Austin area, the equivalent in Seattle would be $25-30).

Did you already have a degree or something? I don't hear of them ever doing that kind of pay for sophomores/juniors in college.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Cocaine, all bosses love cocaine.

 

[Leros]

Did you already have a degree or something? I don't hear of them ever doing that kind of pay for sophomores/juniors in college.

Nope, I was a junior with a EE degree (not even CS). Talking around, I'm pretty sure all of the interns got paid the same.

 

[TridenT]

Nope, I was a junior with a EE degree (not even CS). Talking around, I'm pretty sure all of the interns got paid the same.

Dang.

I wish got access to things like that. (I don't know enough to get there though)

 

[CountZero]

Dang.

I wish got access to things like that. (I don't know enough to get there though)

What school/major are you? What do you want to do when you graduate?

If you are UW CS major and you don't want to do IT then you should be attending info sessions and talking with companies. Five years ago they had that Husky Jobs site and it let you look up all the info sessions, what majors there were looking for and whether they were doing full-time/intern. It was invaluable for talking with companies and seeing what they were doing. I don't know if it still exists but I'm sure the career center can help you. You really really want to do internships/coops in the field you want to work in, many will turn into job offers themselves and even if they don't having actual experience on your resume is invaluable.

Those rates Leros quotes are high but not outrageously so for the average internship, most large companies have a fixed internship pay scale based on school progress and maybe GPA.

If IT is your ultimate goal I have no advice to give

 

[rasczak]

Time is really the only thing you have at this point. With time comes experience. With experience comes the ability to take on more tasks. Then more responsibility. If you are in school, just use the help desk job as square one for your experience. Just try to absorb as much as you can from everyone around you.

 

[Gibson486]

My last internship paid $21/hr.....It was at Bose. The highest I ever heard was around $27. The way it usually worked was that the first year was 40% of full time pay, 2nd was 60%, third was 75%. Those were the baselines at my school.

 

[ringtail]

``

 

[Sonikku]

Vote for Romney. Because of the depression Obama started, jobs are dwindling, opportunities are few and employees are holding on to their jobs tight = few openings higher up in the food chain.

 

[CountZero]

Vote for Romney. Because of the depression Obama started, jobs are dwindling, opportunities are few and employees are holding on to their jobs tight = few openings higher up in the food chain.

You must be lost, this isn't P&N but judging from your post you live in a fantasy land anyways.

 

[Howard]

Write a better resume, perhaps?

 

[Born2bwire]

Blowjobs, lots and lots of blowjobs.