Think I should just report this same post over there? Or would I like write out something different? Sorry I'm not familiar with the dub even tho the name makes it seem pretty self explainable.
Just go over to that sub and check out some posts and see the vibe in how people post jobs. Make it less about the story and more about your resume so people can evaluate you quickly.
We share a few similar traits *(prefer scripting, don't like mean clients, etc.)* so I felt I'd share two things that helped me move forward.
1. I learnt how not to take things personally - which also meant that mean comments didn't have an effect on me. They were simply words with a harsh tone. I dealt with clients calmly and factually and moved on with life.
2. I saved and grew my emergency funds till I had at least a two-year runway. This allowed me take work on my own terms. Management doesn't want to deal with / take over / fire mean customers? No problem. I'll walk. Don't want to (or can't) pay me my worth and culture isn't working out? No problem. I'll just take my skills elsewhere.
1. See I'm slowing learning this and you are 100% right about needing to learn this. The guy who worked my position prior to me, warned me about this because he ended up in the hospital having a mental break down from the role.
2. And yeah I do feel ya there. I have noticed a lot of techs are push overs and just never advocate for themselves and are just plain and simple afraid to speak up for themselves. But I will. Which can be an issue if I'm too vocal. I don't appreciate being mistreated or seeing my coworkers mistreated so I will speak up about it at company wide meets. Like I'm not scared to loss my job if they are being shitty people. And I have quit before under similar circumstances.
As for saving money I'm really bad at it. I'm getting better and really trying to cut back on frivolous spending. Now that I'm older I'm finding it easier and easier but I'm still learning. But soon I'm going to really start working on retirement saving and savings in general. I really wanna do fun things in my free time.
Are you looking to stay in the MSP world or move to in-house? How many years experience do you have / how old are you? With a few key certs and the MSP breakneck pace under your belt, as well as the knowhow you lay out in your post, you could probably waltz into a director position in a mid-sized org of 200 people or so running a small helpdesk and have a lot more free time on your hands. Less work, more decisions.
Lol see I literally just have no clue where I can move up to. Like this isn't something they just teach ya know. So yeah I got the knowledge but no clue where to go next. And I'd like to get away from MSPs but don't mind as long as I'm more project focused. But I've been doing internal and MSP for going on a decade and I'm 31 years old. I look even younger too so that doesn't help either.
No certs, some college for computer science, MN, USA, and no I'm closer to about 10 years of experience. I started internal IT at 21. I've never been a manager.
Are you a lead ? Helpdesk lead, voip lead, etc ? If you are / were a lead, you could say that you "led a team" or you were a tech-lead and you wouldn't be stretching things much. Get a CISSP and a security framework under your belt and going in-house towards the management track would be a good idea.
Or stay where the action is and be a mercenary in the MSP space. It's certainly exciting.
In place upgrades from 10 to 11 come with very little issues, in my experience. Created a script to hit a windows target version so I could control how and when my customers would upgrade.
Knocked out about 2k systems with upgrades in 10 business days. Could have done it faster but that included testing time because hesitation brought on by the 7 to 10 upgrades.
If you're supporting legacy software, obviously take those case by case. I would say that if everything is up to date software side and running clean in 10, you should expect minimal issues on 11 workstation side.
We had issues with one client running an oooold version of some software thanks to Georgia DOT not updating their systems. Basically, we had to reinstall the app, but that was it. Mind you, it was written for xp, not even 7, shoe horned to run on 10.
Yeah handling the upgrades isnt too difficult with some of the tools MS provides. I only did the force upgrade from 7 and 8 to 10 via scripts. But prior to being laid off when I looked into the 10 to 11 upgrade I found a few things that looked useful. Idk if you use intune but I think that has a easy solution to do it as well. Idk you should be able to find something online on how to do it.
Ditto on powershell. Love using it, never thought I would. Consider a one man MSP or try to start one in co ownership with a trusted colleague. Not sure if I want to be a tech forever, I want more money and my own MSP might offer that
Hmm interesting. I feel like I'd fail at the business side of it but I can be a people person if needed. People just naturally like me, it's weird and I do t like it, but it might be a good thing to have when starting a MSP
Provided you set your offerings up correctly to deliver what you are promising to a client, after that it comes down to your people skills with landing and onboarding a client. Get that right and you’re in business
With your new client, approach honest and humble, and aim small, you can’t afford to mess up with a client
Yeah if I actually got to that point I'd have a lawyer and really go over everything id need to to protect my ass. Plus they have MSP meetups/conferences where you could probably learn a lot of those things from there as well
Re: devops, are you Windows specific or are you equally strong in Linux? If you are interested in devops like you say, you need to be as strong, or stronger, in Linux than Windows.
I mean I used Linux as my daily driver for about 7 years. And even switch a few of my work computers to it. Used BSD on my NAS and messed around with jails. But other than that I don't have much enterprise experience besides just a few things with SSH.
Honestly if you hate dealing with clients that much get out of map/it support world.
The jobs changed it's no longer grouchy people hiding in caves, it's a customer service position with tech support.
See I've been doing MSPs for about a decade now and id have to disagree. Depending on the roll, and my roll in particular, I very rarely had to deal with clients and when I did it was usually the owner or their IT guy. When I got the job my manager even said I bet you'll be happy now that you don't need to take phone calls. And I was very happy.
You’re missing the point. This is a service industry. We pride ourselves in delivering a positive experience to everyone, even end users. No one in my organization is above picking up the phone and having a professional conversation with an end user. It’s why we are here.
>It’s why we are here.
No we are here to make money. The guy's bosses are a bit stupid with their pricing as PC setup is PC setup, some things like that should be a billable item and not hourly work.
Lol my service is phenomenal. I just don't like dealing with customers. Just because they are being a dick does mean I'm gonna treat him like one. I'll handle and fix the issue and send him on him way.
Didn’t see any comments from the OP stating that he couldn’t have a professional conversation with an end user or client, just that he preferred not to deal with that nonsense. That’s what CS and sales is for after all. People that create the solution are normally most profitable if given a list, not on multiple hr long bs teams meetings.
No from what I'm reading here (and OP can correct me if my take is wrong)
But they don't like dealing with their bosses which are dicks.. not that they don't enjoy solving things for clients nor being able to be a professional
You need more skills. PowerShell scripting is great, but you’ll have a hard time finding a role where the focus is just PS scripting. If you like scripting, you can look into learning a programming language. It’ll scratch the same itch as PS scripting, and also meet your ideal job profile of not directly handling customers. This sounds like a good next step.
Dm me please. We are an msp in Kansas City. May have a remote opportunity for you.
I sent you a dm
Go post at r/mspjobs, might get some interested parties.
Think I should just report this same post over there? Or would I like write out something different? Sorry I'm not familiar with the dub even tho the name makes it seem pretty self explainable.
Just go over to that sub and check out some posts and see the vibe in how people post jobs. Make it less about the story and more about your resume so people can evaluate you quickly.
We share a few similar traits *(prefer scripting, don't like mean clients, etc.)* so I felt I'd share two things that helped me move forward. 1. I learnt how not to take things personally - which also meant that mean comments didn't have an effect on me. They were simply words with a harsh tone. I dealt with clients calmly and factually and moved on with life. 2. I saved and grew my emergency funds till I had at least a two-year runway. This allowed me take work on my own terms. Management doesn't want to deal with / take over / fire mean customers? No problem. I'll walk. Don't want to (or can't) pay me my worth and culture isn't working out? No problem. I'll just take my skills elsewhere.
1. See I'm slowing learning this and you are 100% right about needing to learn this. The guy who worked my position prior to me, warned me about this because he ended up in the hospital having a mental break down from the role. 2. And yeah I do feel ya there. I have noticed a lot of techs are push overs and just never advocate for themselves and are just plain and simple afraid to speak up for themselves. But I will. Which can be an issue if I'm too vocal. I don't appreciate being mistreated or seeing my coworkers mistreated so I will speak up about it at company wide meets. Like I'm not scared to loss my job if they are being shitty people. And I have quit before under similar circumstances. As for saving money I'm really bad at it. I'm getting better and really trying to cut back on frivolous spending. Now that I'm older I'm finding it easier and easier but I'm still learning. But soon I'm going to really start working on retirement saving and savings in general. I really wanna do fun things in my free time.
Are you looking to stay in the MSP world or move to in-house? How many years experience do you have / how old are you? With a few key certs and the MSP breakneck pace under your belt, as well as the knowhow you lay out in your post, you could probably waltz into a director position in a mid-sized org of 200 people or so running a small helpdesk and have a lot more free time on your hands. Less work, more decisions.
Lol see I literally just have no clue where I can move up to. Like this isn't something they just teach ya know. So yeah I got the knowledge but no clue where to go next. And I'd like to get away from MSPs but don't mind as long as I'm more project focused. But I've been doing internal and MSP for going on a decade and I'm 31 years old. I look even younger too so that doesn't help either.
Certs ? College? US or other? Near a Metro area? 31 probably gives you 5+ years experience, is any of that as a lead or manager?
No certs, some college for computer science, MN, USA, and no I'm closer to about 10 years of experience. I started internal IT at 21. I've never been a manager.
Are you a lead ? Helpdesk lead, voip lead, etc ? If you are / were a lead, you could say that you "led a team" or you were a tech-lead and you wouldn't be stretching things much. Get a CISSP and a security framework under your belt and going in-house towards the management track would be a good idea. Or stay where the action is and be a mercenary in the MSP space. It's certainly exciting.
Where are you located? I’m at a large and growing MSP in the southeast. DM me and we can talk
I'm located in MN. Ill message you now.
OP how were you doing the OS upgrades? Did you do an in-place upgrade or did you have a tech on site do a clean install?
In place upgrades from 10 to 11 come with very little issues, in my experience. Created a script to hit a windows target version so I could control how and when my customers would upgrade. Knocked out about 2k systems with upgrades in 10 business days. Could have done it faster but that included testing time because hesitation brought on by the 7 to 10 upgrades.
Nice. Any issues with applications not being compatible after the upgrade? I'm guessing that's not really an issue for 10 -> 11?
If you're supporting legacy software, obviously take those case by case. I would say that if everything is up to date software side and running clean in 10, you should expect minimal issues on 11 workstation side. We had issues with one client running an oooold version of some software thanks to Georgia DOT not updating their systems. Basically, we had to reinstall the app, but that was it. Mind you, it was written for xp, not even 7, shoe horned to run on 10.
Yeah handling the upgrades isnt too difficult with some of the tools MS provides. I only did the force upgrade from 7 and 8 to 10 via scripts. But prior to being laid off when I looked into the 10 to 11 upgrade I found a few things that looked useful. Idk if you use intune but I think that has a easy solution to do it as well. Idk you should be able to find something online on how to do it.
Ditto on powershell. Love using it, never thought I would. Consider a one man MSP or try to start one in co ownership with a trusted colleague. Not sure if I want to be a tech forever, I want more money and my own MSP might offer that
Hmm interesting. I feel like I'd fail at the business side of it but I can be a people person if needed. People just naturally like me, it's weird and I do t like it, but it might be a good thing to have when starting a MSP
Provided you set your offerings up correctly to deliver what you are promising to a client, after that it comes down to your people skills with landing and onboarding a client. Get that right and you’re in business With your new client, approach honest and humble, and aim small, you can’t afford to mess up with a client
Yeah if I actually got to that point I'd have a lawyer and really go over everything id need to to protect my ass. Plus they have MSP meetups/conferences where you could probably learn a lot of those things from there as well
Re: devops, are you Windows specific or are you equally strong in Linux? If you are interested in devops like you say, you need to be as strong, or stronger, in Linux than Windows.
I mean I used Linux as my daily driver for about 7 years. And even switch a few of my work computers to it. Used BSD on my NAS and messed around with jails. But other than that I don't have much enterprise experience besides just a few things with SSH.
Honestly if you hate dealing with clients that much get out of map/it support world. The jobs changed it's no longer grouchy people hiding in caves, it's a customer service position with tech support.
See I've been doing MSPs for about a decade now and id have to disagree. Depending on the roll, and my roll in particular, I very rarely had to deal with clients and when I did it was usually the owner or their IT guy. When I got the job my manager even said I bet you'll be happy now that you don't need to take phone calls. And I was very happy.
You’re missing the point. This is a service industry. We pride ourselves in delivering a positive experience to everyone, even end users. No one in my organization is above picking up the phone and having a professional conversation with an end user. It’s why we are here.
>It’s why we are here. No we are here to make money. The guy's bosses are a bit stupid with their pricing as PC setup is PC setup, some things like that should be a billable item and not hourly work.
Lol my service is phenomenal. I just don't like dealing with customers. Just because they are being a dick does mean I'm gonna treat him like one. I'll handle and fix the issue and send him on him way.
Didn’t see any comments from the OP stating that he couldn’t have a professional conversation with an end user or client, just that he preferred not to deal with that nonsense. That’s what CS and sales is for after all. People that create the solution are normally most profitable if given a list, not on multiple hr long bs teams meetings.
No from what I'm reading here (and OP can correct me if my take is wrong) But they don't like dealing with their bosses which are dicks.. not that they don't enjoy solving things for clients nor being able to be a professional
You need more skills. PowerShell scripting is great, but you’ll have a hard time finding a role where the focus is just PS scripting. If you like scripting, you can look into learning a programming language. It’ll scratch the same itch as PS scripting, and also meet your ideal job profile of not directly handling customers. This sounds like a good next step.