Careers in Computers

[xRyokenx]

Considering that I'm about to go to college in a couple months, the fact I have almost no experience doing much of anything thanks to my sucky high school, and also the fact that there are many people my age or younger on these forums:

I was wondering if our senior members (older than me, not in the "senior citizen" aspect) could post some info about their jobs to help myself and others that are interested in a computer related career. Stuff such as:

General description of what you do.
How widespread it is aka job availability.
Starting pay (if you know it/wish to post it)
Classes you needed in college (to compare to what's needed today, etc.)
How well you like it.
Anything else I've forgotten to add.

I'd greatly appreciate it for all in computer related fields to post what they have so maybe I can see what I'd like to do. Like I said earlier, I have very minimal experience doing anything, mainly related to my own PC and the other PCs in the house too, stuff like installing hardware and software, troubleshooting minor problems, etc.

Thanks,
Anthony

P.S. A round of reps to those that do post, lol. I have a little while before I need to make a choice, so take your time, quality over quickness, preferably both, but you get what I mean.

[AJ@PR]

Wow... I have to run, but I'll post soon.
In any event, this is going to be a GREAT thread!

[XcOM]

i did have a job as Assistant IT Administrator until the school downsized!

But regardless,
1)I was incharge of maintaining an entire building filled with 6 rooms, each housing 35 PC's for students and staff to use. I had to maintain these, Clean the keyboards, mice, Monitors, base units ECT ECT once a week. Then once a month do a system check and update the software. IE Antivirus scans after def updates, do a security check on systems, DEL any rubbish the students downloaded in that month. And fix faults on call.

2) The job is all over the country (UK) but the school jobs are very far and few.

3)14k PA rising to 16K PA after 6months.

4) REquirements needed was GNVQ in ICT, BTEC ND in ICT, Networking, 10yr Police check, 10yr job check or back to school.

5) I loved it, it was soooo much fun. Loads of PC's to play with, even had my own office and PC to do with as i please, so i install the classics, Doom, Quake, Ect.

When you do your course, don't mess about, get the best grades possable, then do the next level, HND? or even MSCE/MSDST.

Hope this helps.

[lominono]

I can't speak for myself, as I am not in the computer field, but my dad hated being a network engineer(mainly repairing broken networks).

He would work for small companies which would be called to fix networks. He did work for at&t at one point but got laid off when the .com boom thing happened.

He didn't like it. he said LONG hours, Lots of traveling(he would go out to states that surrounded my state), lots of head aches, and lots of idiots bugging him on an ETA, and not enough pay.

So maybe stay away from network engineering?

[Scorchio]

Hi there..

I used to work in the computer games industry. I worked for a company called Mythos Games and funnily enough we used to make the X-COM series of games (noticed XcOM's post).

My job title was "mapper" which is a little vague, so I will elaborate. I Worked in the art department but wasn't strictly an artist. I used to take the graphics created by the artists and put them in to the levels of the game. I also designed the structure of the levels, set the physics data on the objects ingame so that they acted correctly, helped design some of the interfaces, bug testing and so on. It was a pretty mixed bag.

If you like the idea of working for a games company and are artistic you could try to get into a course that focuses on modelling, texturing and animation. That way you get a good all round education on the fundamentals of the art side. They also deal with a lot of theory as 3d packages are extemely complex and a good grounding in this is always a good thing. Then you can usually specialise in one or the other. A lot of games companies have modellers and texturers, then there are the animators, as was the case at Mythos. In others the artists do a more generic role encompassing all three. The direction you choose would depend on your strengths and weaknesses.

You wouldn't have to work for a games company if you went this route as the skills can be transfered to any CGI field, be it film or tv etc.

The programming side I am not to knowledgeable about. A course that includes C++ is a good bet. I won't go in to too much detail as I am sure there are some programmers here who would be able to point you in the right direction on this one.

There is also sound deisgn. There are courses that deal specifically with this aspect and again are transferable to film and tv too. The courses deal with music creation, sound design, a lot of theory, recording etc.

In regard to the Art and Sound side, it is always good to have a qualification behind you, but that isn't the only route. I have worked with people who have had no relevant qualifications but have had a killer show reel and good experience in the tools that are used in the industry. For art they would be Maya and 3ds Max to name a couple. For sound it would be Pro Tools, Cubase or Cakewalk, Soundforge, Vegas etc.

The pay for the games industry isn't amazing in general, but it depends on the country and the company. The hours can be long, especially when it is coming up to milestones to keep the publishers happy or the beta is due. But, inspite of all that it is very satisfying. Especially when the royalty cheques come through :)

Hope that helps a little.

Scorch

[Spacehonkey]

Well all I can tell you is what mistakes I made in my younger days maybe you can learn something from it.

Well back in '96 I went to college like most kids do taking a few computer course trying to get my feet wet and I soon learned that even though I wanted to major in some kind of computer field I still had to take the basic classes that had nothing to do at all with computers. Well I felt I didn't want to waste my time with that so I finished my first semester and then decide to go to one of those art schools in hopes of getting a job doing some 3D work for movies and commercials like Toy Story and such.

Well fast forward to 2 years later, I became very familiar with computers PC and Mac alike. I learned the ins and outs of Adobe Photoshop, After Affects, AutoCAD, a couple computer languages, one of the 3D programs Alias, I think they call it Maya now and the list goes on. I did pretty well too the instructors were impressed with my work and was even giving a TA job. I thought I would have the world eating out of my hands when I graduated or at least not have a problem finding a job but what I didn't know was that at that time the small companies in that area that would hire a fresh graduate didn't use the Alias program and the larger companies that did would only hire seasoned professionals.

Well I was screwed I had all this built up energy to explode onto the 3D modeling community and no outlet for it. I guess you could say I was over qualified for the small companies and under experienced for the larger ones. Well needless to say days turned into weeks, weeks into months with no promise of getting a job in my dream field. Well after the tuition bills started to roll in I had to take some drastic measures to pay off my bills that didn't involve asking my parents for a handout. I joined the Marine Corps and now I'm in a job that has nothing to do with what I went to school for. Don't get me wrong I enjoy what I do now but it has nothing to with what I set out to do.

What I would say to you is that you're doing the right thing by asking questions like this. I wish I did something similar back then. The one thing you should take from my mistake is that you need to know what type of job you can get when you first start out and than what it'll take to advance you in that field.

[SgtM]

While I could draw this out and make it extremely long, I'll condense a little. Got out of the Marine Corps in March 2000. My last 2 years I acted as the network/user admin. Active duty staff of only 10 people, HQ in New Orleans did most of the work for me. After I got out, I was working for Qwest Communications where my real networking exposure started. During that same time, I built my first computer. I'm mainly self-taught. Since then, I've studied and passed the CompTIA Network+ (http://certification.comptia.org/network/) exam, and the Microsoft 70-270 (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-270.mspx) exam, which earned me my MCP (http://www.microsoft.com/learning/mcp/mcp/default.mspx). I'm also working on becoming CCNA (http://www.cisco.com/web/learning/le3/le2/le0/le9/learning_certification_type_home.html) certified also. Since Qwest let me go in 2002, I've been a cable installer (http://www.acidirect.com/), customer service rep/telephone repair tech for MCI, and a computer tech for Microdoctor, Inc (http://www.microdoctor.com).

Currently, I work for First Energy (http://www.firstenergycorp.com/index.html) as a Network Analyst. I landed this job through a recruiter. I don't have the exact job description with me, but we're staffed 24/7/365 here in 12 hour shifts. We work 3 days on, 2 days off, 2 days on, 3 days off. I work the 7pm - 7am shift. Put simply, we are responsible maintaining all servers and networks that keeps the power on for for Ohio, PA, and NJ. I started here as a contractor in March 2007. I'm officially hired on effective July 2nd. Pay rate is high 30's/yr.

I hope this helped with what you're looking for. If you have any other questions, let me know.

[nil8]

I've been working in professional small to medium IT enviroments for about 3 years.
I wouldn't recommend IT to anyone who isn't REAL serious about computers, because spending your professional life and personal life working on them can make you very sick of them.

I can trace down and deal with simple network problems, printer issues, phone issues, run cable, terminate & certify cable, work with Active Directory, fix simple domain issues, and handle project implementation from new keyboards to new domain controllers.

My forte is still the PC and it's the area where I have over a decade of time and experience under my belt.

Alright, enough of my resume. Many people don't understand what IT grunts do. They see them and deal with them in limited spans of time, without knowing the stresses of IT. When we sit at our desks, we're working.
A small problem can snowball and take up days of time.
Priorities shift constantly. If I'm helping you with your email and an important printer jams, guess which will take precedence?

As a grunt, when something breaks, you're the face of your department. Customer service is VASTLY more important than knowing every facet of technology. You can always learn and get certs, it's way more difficult to learn good customer service.

I'm currently working for a company of around 250 employees here in the US.
It's a small manufacturing company and I'm happier here than I ever was at my last 2 jobs. Jeans, no on-call schedule, weekends off, good pay. I landed a rare job in the IT world these days.

Most places you work will require formal dress to some degree. Not many places still allow the idea of the greasy, unshaven IT nerd. Expect dress shirt and khakis. It's pretty much the norm at this point.

My last 2 jobs were in hospitals, and unless you have a real dedication to work, I would not suggest going this route. Being called in at 3am and working until 11pm that night makes for some bad moods and missed friends.
There is always high levels of stress and tension out of many of the people you're working for, and when their equipment breaks, they dump on you.

Oh, and get really, really knowledgeable about Microsoft Office, specifically Outlook. If you work in an office environment, you will get asked questions and have problems out of left field.

I make around 30k a year because of my experience with networking and MS Server 2k3. Most PC grunts make ~10/hr here.
I'm A+ certified. I've studied for net+, ccna, ethical hacker, and MCDST.

A lot of what I've mentioned is negative, because no one explained to me the pratfalls of working in IT. There are good things that come out of it, including an increased understanding of just how little people understand technology and the feeling of being able to help them with real problems they face. It is a service industry, like it or not.

I will end this post with something a contractor told me on my first day at my first real job. "Anyone can be trained to swap out memory, it's how you deal with the customer and how they feel about your visit after the fact that determines how happy that employee is with the entire IT department."

[$loth]

Sounds very cool Scorchio, i'm a bit of a newb at mapping, though i've done a little for CS and some CS:S mapping, though probably not in the leagues of you.

[Airbozo]

OK, First off, stop blaming your High School for not preparing you for a career. That is not what they are about. You want to lay blame for your High School not providing you with a "diverse" education, blame the "No Child Left Behind Act", which is THE #1 cause for extra curricular activities being dropped from the High School level due to Schools being required to teach certain things and make sure you pass with a certain grade level. (enough about that).


One of the best things you can do to see what field you are interested in is to apply for internships. Some pay, some do not. You will be doing the basic grunt work, but you will get a feel for what the _real_ job has to offer.

Here is what I know (based on local (Silicon Valley) companies);

An average starting pay for a JR sysadmin with a college degree is; ~$45k/year.
Last sysadmin job I held was a SR position and I was making ~$105k/year.

Those are salaried positions, requiring more than 40 hrs/week. On call is not uncommon either and some companies pay extra for on cal duty, some do not. I personally will not be responsible for on call duties unless I am paid extra (and more than just a few bucks).

For sysadmin salary surveys, go here; http://www.sage.org/salsurv/. The most recent survey is password protected (no I am not sharing, don't ask), but the older ones are free for everyone and are not that much different.

If the company requires travel, they must indicate this and also how the pay will be structured and who pays for all travel related expenses.

Experienced IT consultants get paid anywhere from ~$40/hr to ~$300/hr+ depending on the job. You must be good and have good references to make that kind of pay.

I will ask the Wife about where to find the salary info for a couple different fields. She runs her own recruiting business and knows where to find this info easy shmeasy... (she recruits mainly executives and high level design engineers for high tech companies).

If I was better organized and had better cold calling skills I would be a recruiter full time. The _good_ recruiters that work for themselves can make my yearly salary in a week. The pay scale for an independent recruiter can go from 10% to 35% of the candidates first year pay. The highest paid person the SO has recruited was making ~$265k/year! She _only_ made 25% off that one... She did have expenses, including the cost of posting on the job boards and travel. She also paid for the candidate to house shop (plane ticket, rental car, hotel, food for a long weekend. Also paid for the candidates wife...).

Hope this helps and let me know if you are interested in the salary info.

[xRyokenx]

I'm interested in more info, I'd like to know as many of my options as possible and then take courses and all based on what I'm interested in. The High School I went to was awful, all about numbers and that dumb "No Child Gets Ahead" rule that actually caused me to fail a course and do awful on another. I'll think about internship and I'm going to talk to some of the professors at the community college here in a little while just to discuss some stuff. They have a good pathway for me to follow when it comes to classes that covers almost everything and gets me a transferable Associates Degree so I can go to a four year university a little further down the road.

Thanks to all who have posted so far, still plenty time left, so post away guys (and ladies, the few that visit here, lol)!

[nil8]

The school system, no matter how flawed, can't and shouldn't take all the blame. Bad laws and seemingly insane administration doesn't help, but it's not all the schools fault. If you want to succeed in their system, you will sacrifice what's necessary to do so.

Most of us went to high schools that were awful. Get over it.
Mark Twain said,"Don't let school get in the way of your education."
If you want to learn something, learn it. Don't let school or anyone stop you from it.

Community college for IT is a mistake, go for a bachelors. Your job prospects and requirements to even be seen are much greater if you have a BS vs. Associates or Technical degree. Besides that 'transferable' degree isn't in a lot of cases.

Yea, Bozo is definitely a professional sysadmin. Sounds like you should retire and become your wife's assisstant. ;)

[Airbozo]

Yea, Bozo is definitely a professional sysadmin. Sounds like you should retire and become your wife's assisstant. ;)

Not anymore, really. My title at this company is; SR, SGI Systems Engineer and Product Development (that last part is my promotion and basically means I spec out hardware for new systems). They have asked me to do system administration here, but I refused unless they gave me a 50% pay increase. They do not pay me enough here to take on the stress and responsibility of all the internal systems _plus_ my regular job.

I do consult for another company, but I have to keep it minimal or it could become a conflict of interest. I charge the other company $120/hr and at first they balked at it, now they are happy to pay me that because I fix things and am personable (basically I make their systems work and don't piss off anybody while I am at it).

I am also a personal chef for 3 different clients. The personal chef gig would pay more, but right now 2 of the 3 clients are family. Once I build that job I may drop this current position so I can travel more. Being a personal chef is the only way for me to make a living in the food industry right now, since I do not want to start from the bottom.

I have proposed to the Wife that I become her sexratary, but she is only doing her recruiting part time at the moment, and she makes less than me as a teacher (even though she has 10 times the education). In the next couple of years that may change (the part time recruiting). She would make a horrible boss though, since she is a slave driver and Task Master... (hehehe)(Hi Sweetie!)

SO all in all, the best advice I can give is the same advice my adopted father gave me;

The best work? Play.

If you are not going to be the very best at your job (top 5 in the world), learn a second or even third career. You will need it. (I have)

Remember not to burn your bridges.

Pay yourself first.



Good luck!

[Drum Thumper]

<begin off topic>
Personal Chef eh?

I'm curious, do you have some professional culinary training? Or are you just a natural when it comes to the kitchen?

<end off topic>

[$loth]

LOL Minty!

What's an average chefs way over in the US? It's p*** poor in the UK.

[stewart123]

I work for a great insurance broker. We have around 700 people here and have our own software and hardware department. I work on the help desk for the hardware department. I came into this job with only self knowledge and an Information Systems and E-Business degree. (Which is not very much as I have a more hands on job now) I have learned quite a bit about networking and servers. We run Terminal Server here - yes I know it sucks. I have been here almost a year now. I started off making 27k and they boosted me up to 30k at my 6 month review. I get potentially a 10% bonus at the end of year. Base on performance and overall company performance.

What is pretty neat about my job is that I can work with both departments within the IT department and each division. I get my hands dirty with quite a few new projects. This always makes me feel good as I feel like I am continuously growing. They will pay for certs which I will work being working on going into next year and give me a bonus/pay increase. I really like my job. Also, it is a privately owned company which allows us to do neat things. One thing we do is have an award ceremony every 3 months where people get a "best at what we do" award. People nominate other people for doing a good job. Normally we have about 5-6 in each office. You get an award and a nice crisp $100 bill. Everyone else gets to have a beer or two and cheer you on. It really is a neat thing.

The downside to my job? Well no sales person respects IT people. Sales people are always stressed so they like to take it out on people they have little respect for. I have only ever had a couple of issues with people here. Everyone knows who the people are though who can sit there and shake the stick. I just have to learn to ignore the money makers! Anyways, time for me to go home!

[Airbozo]

I have a Culinary degree from a community college. The CC i went to (Cabrillo College in Santa Cruz,CA has a damn fine culinary program. That said It is NOT as rigorous as say CIA, but all the instructors are Cordon Bleu Graduates with some specialty field. My "degree" (really a certificate) is for "Pastry Chef". I took a sabbatical a couple of years ago and got bored, so I started my own consulting business and also went to culinary school (I have this thing about being busy...). I ended up screwing up their grading curve so I went pass/no-pass (I can take a test and pass it without studying so long as I attend classes. If I study I usually ace it). This ended up being a benefit to me, and I got asked to do all the extra tasks. The CC i went to runs it's own restaurant (The Sesnon House) and also caters weddings and other events. I got asked all the time to do the weekend services and front house manager.

I also just have a knack for what tastes good.

Unless you are really good or know someone, being a chef is tough work with low pay. I would never survive in a real restaurant for very long, although I do thrive on the stress. I could not take working nights all the time or weekends or holiday's. That's just me though. A good pastry chef or baker is worth their weight in salt. Also in the US, _anybody can go into the culinary field without belonging to some guild (or whatever they are called in Europe). No training necessary. If I remember right you have to get into some kind of sponsorship in the UK, (not really positive about that)


Stewart; Want the sales people to respect you more? You have to make them realize what you do to keep them able to sell. Let the computers crash for several hours and when you save the day, they have a little more respect.

[slytherock]

Are you looking for a Hardware related, or software related job?
For software, I can explain some jobs if you'"re interested

[xRyokenx]

Explain whatever you can Sly, I'm not sure what I want to do yet, hence this thread. :D

[slytherock]

General description of what you do.
Movie Editing:
Can go from short movies, Advertising, TV, Sports, Movies..

How widespread it is aka job availability.
Depend on witch side you stand, The hard part is to have a name. Once it's done, you dont stop working...

Starting pay (if you know it/wish to post it)
Nah, sorry. Anyway it would be in Canadian money... ;)

Classes you needed in college (to compare to what's needed today, etc.)
Depend. I had a degree in audio/visual electronic. At the last year we we're working both inside and outside the broadcast stuff. I liked the outside most ;)
Some I know had a degree in cinema.
Finally it depend more on your habilities to meet people and suck them of ;)

How well you like it.
Best job ever

Anything else I've forgotten to add.
Have to like movies, music and have multiples interests

There's many jobs like that one, graphism, animation. People think it's only for certain peoples, but they always need good workers

[nil8]

I think Bozo just became my hero.

IT covers a broad range. From database work to programming to network admin to system admin to pc admin work. This doesn't include any phone work or the physical stuff, like installing cables or working for ISPs.

[Airbozo]

I think Bozo just became my hero.

Hehe. Why? Because I am close to a type a personality who has a hard time sitting still? I do tend to over do it. I wanted to learn how to make more nutritional vegetarian meals for my wife that actually taste good, so I went for a pastry chef cert... Hehe go figure...

IT covers a broad range. From database work to programming to network admin to system admin to pc admin work. This doesn't include any phone work or the physical stuff, like installing cables or working for ISPs.

This is the correct motorcycle nil8.

IT covers hardware, software, phone work (answering them not fixing them), cable pulling and tape/media loading. Deciding whether you like to code or do physical work will help a lot. I know the hardware _really_ well no matter what it is, but can't script well enough to save my arse and have lost out on many jobs because of it. Yes I have taken classes, just no real practice and in coding that is where you learn.

[Drum Thumper]

Bozo, thanks for the information regarding your background. I gotta agree with you, being a chef is hard work with low pay--I have been told by numerous people that I should either start my own restaurant or go to Culinary School.

I tell them that there's a helluva lot more money in computers.

Who knows, perhaps I'll start a restaurant someday. Maybe in 30 years when I'm close to retirement.

I'll end the thread hijack now.

[Luke122]

I spent the whole day today pulling wire in a firehall. Replacing coaxial cable with Cat5 is a pretty dull job... but someone (me) has to do it.

I'm an IT Coordinator working in municipal government. Pay isnt that great (could go 45 mins away and make triple my wage!), but the benefits are good, and the small town lifestyle is much better than the city.

I'm essentially sys-admin for 60 desktops and 15 laptops, 3 servers, and 5 wireless wan links. I handle all the IT related stuff (including purchasing, project planning, proposals, etc), I AM the helpdesk and will be taking on the budget responbilities soon also.

Oh yeah, I'm 27 yrs old as of 2 weeks ago. :D

I also run a consulting business on the side, covering mostly local businesses. On site support, data recovery, planning and installation of networks, etc. Less frequently I repair PSP's, Xbox's, and other game systems. I'm currently scraping up some extra cash for some more courses that will take me into home automation.. that's getting to be big business out here. :)

College? Nope.. started straight out of highschool.. I did a couple of night classes in grade 10 and 11, basic PC building and troubleshooting stuff. Nothing serious, but I did end up acing the A+ exams, and pretty much breezing through MCSE (nt 4 track..ugh). Having those certs got me a work placement in Moscow (Moscow State University, ftw) for 6 months, then Telus headhunted me on my return.

After 2 years of Telus hell, I quit and went to a movie rental chain, where I was Assistant IT Manager. 62 stores, 500 pc's, 2 IT staff. 2500km a week in a service truck gets old fast..

2 years of that, and I got my current job. Been here 2 years so far, and planning on staying a lot longer. :)

[nil8]

"Hehe. Why? Because I am close to a type a personality who has a hard time sitting still? I do tend to over do it. I wanted to learn how to make more nutritional vegetarian meals for my wife that actually taste good, so I went for a pastry chef cert... Hehe go figure..."

You got it champ. I can't stand sitting around doing nothing. I'm always learning, trying, working on something. Even if those things are slow and relaxing, like yoga. Stagnation is the equivalent of death for me.

I hope she likes cake. ;)

There are also jobs that exist on the fringes of IT. Like server room installers & cleaners, manufacturing & sales of equipment, reuse & recyclers, etc.

[Airbozo]

I hope she likes cake. ;)



She likes the fruit tarts better... ;) (but now I am officially the birthday cake maker in the family. One lady bug cake coming up for the weekend!)

FWIW: Most of my "official" electronics training was done through the military. The U.S. Navy to be exact. They had several different approaches to training and one of them was "self paced, don't bug me, hand in the tests when I am done" sort of course work. I aced 95% of the tests and the other 5% I missed maybe one or two questions. Mainly due to the fact, my adopted father taught me basic electronics when I was 12 and I had the benefit of having electronic coursework in Jr. High then electrical classes in HS.

I mentioned this thread to the SO and one of the first things she brought up was "Mask Designer". When she was recruiting for SUN Microsystems, Mask Designers were few and far between, most were from Asia and they got paid BIG bucks! There is about one and a half years of intensive training on the techniques, tools and troubleshooting, then right into work. The job is half art, half electronics and you get to be creative with designs and stuff (anyone see the microscopic artwork on the chip designs?).

[nil8]

I, like most young IT pros, have little to no real electronics training. You change out parts, not fix them. My electronics theory is extremely weak and I'm finding that to be a hindrance on some things I want to do.

Fruit tart? Sounds good. Shoot me a recipe. I need practice at baking sweets. The only baking I'm good at is breads. I also need to find out how to make Turducken. Thanksgiving is coming and I'm preparing the bird this year. Well, 3 birds.

WTF is a MASK Designer? What do they actually do?

[Luke122]

They mask the designs on PCB's. THAT is some hardcore work. I'd like to get into that though.. I'm always on the lookout for something new to try.

[Airbozo]

I, like most young IT pros, have little to no real electronics training. You change out parts, not fix them. My electronics theory is extremely weak and I'm finding that to be a hindrance on some things I want to do.

Fruit tart? Sounds good. Shoot me a recipe. I need practice at baking sweets. The only baking I'm good at is breads. I also need to find out how to make Turducken. Thanksgiving is coming and I'm preparing the bird this year. Well, 3 birds.

WTF is a MASK Designer? What do they actually do?

Yes, most if not all IT people have no use for electronics theory now days. I used to do extensive board level repair (fear my soldering skills!), but have not repaired anything to the board level in years, except for my own AMP's (not paying anyone to do that...). I also used to do circuit design, but I am not very good at it. It is an art, just like mask design. Mask designers have varied backgrounds in electronics and Photoshop skills. You have to understand the operation of electronic signals and be able to use tools (similar to photoshop) to create the masks for the pcb design. Check out this page for more info on the requirements (HS diploma) and the skills taught;
http://www.itu.edu/icmask.html

For a Tart, there are 3 key parts;

Crust (without a good crust nothing else matters) (I am still perfecting mine)
Pastry Cream (real pastry cream is not that hard to make and REALLY makes a difference)
Fruit (OK this is a no brainer, but fresh fruit is a must!)
Know how they get it to last and be so shiny? Apricot preserves.
nil8, When I get home I will copy my recipe and pass it along. I got it out of a cordon bleu textbook on baking (Baking is similar to science class. In regular cooking a recipe is just a guideline, in Baking it is a formula). You want my Souffle recipe too?

[nil8]

Yea. I've learned that about baking the hard way. Hockey puck hard if you get me. Still ate it though. I'm not afraid of hardtack. Which reminds me, I can't find saltpork anymore. I know Hormel still makes it, but no local store has it. Argh.

Sure. I've been wanting to explore in the kitchen more.
Who in their right mind doesn't use fresh fruit anywhere they can?
I have no clue how to make cream, I will look it up later.
Sure, I've never had a Souffle, much less made one.
Cordon bleu schools make their own textbooks? Buh? I must find some!

Where can I find non-comfort food recipes that are related to game? Deer stew is great, but come on, there must be something I can do with deer that will actually dress it up for company.

I have a cooking show that I really enjoy. It's Jamie at Home. He takes stuff from 'his' garden, and shows you how to make some really fantastic stuff with it.

As for the MASK work, f-ing crazy. No way. That screams EE mixed with Computer Engineer.

[stewart123]

Stewart; Want the sales people to respect you more? You have to make them realize what you do to keep them able to sell. Let the computers crash for several hours and when you save the day, they have a little more respect.


Its not just me, its my whole department. We get quite a bit of respect from people who work under the account executives, but the majority of the sellers look at IT people as people who have no people skill. I would love to show them my value in that way, but I am pretty sure I would lose my job.

[Airbozo]

Stewart; I was not implying that YOU crash the servers, just next time it happens, make sure they know your dept. is fixing it. It probably won't matter anyway as most sales people I have met tend to think of everyone as being below them.

I have been in the argument about who keeps a company alive and it is the chicken and the egg tale all over again (if it weren't for sales people you would have no company, No no, if it weren't for engineers you would have no product to sell, no no, if the computers were not running you would not be able to design products or sell them...). Sales people for the most part are tough to even reason with. In my experience sales people are like politicians; They promise you a bright new world and deliver a dirty cat box.

nil8, I will send along my pastry cream recipe too... Easy stuff. You just can not walk away from it or it WILL burn.

BTW I know the soufflé recipe by heart and can make one blindfolded with one arm tied behind my back (had to make one on short notice for one of my classes. When you get to class they hand you a box of food and you have to make 3, 4 course meals out of what is in the box (plus you can use the regular kitchen stuff), but the meal HAS to be made from the contents of the box.) Kind of like the Iron Chef concept. The instructors were shocked when I brought out perfect cheese soufflés...

[Drum Thumper]

Yes, most if not all IT people have no use for electronics theory now days.

Sadly, this is very true. We modders seem to be a dying breed in that respect, what with our love of LEDs and CCFLs, not to mention other cool things like the blast door!

Thankfully, it is our art (if you will) that is bringing in the new blood, so to speak. Things like the Doom 3 mod and Pedrofilo's crazy assed Alien mod, among others, inspire the rest of us to better ourselves. The sky truly is the limit, and yet there are footprints on the moon.


Its not just me, its my whole department. We get quite a bit of respect from people who work under the account executives, but the majority of the sellers look at IT people as people who have no people skill. I would love to show them my value in that way, but I am pretty sure I would lose my job.


Sales people for the most part are tough to even reason with. In my experience sales people are like politicians; They promise you a bright new world and deliver a dirty cat box.


Oh, the horror stories I can tell regarding sales people. A bunch of uneducated overweight assholes who think the world revolves around them for the most part. Every now and then you'll find a diamond in the rough, and if I have offended you, let me make ammends by stating that you, dear salesperson who mods computers in your spare time, ARE that proverbial Diamond! +Rep to you, whoever you are!

It's these same jerks that force me to say screw the local economy and buy online.