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(C) Sat Feb 15 10:15:20 EST 1997 Explorer Post 369

Explorer Post 369

Table of Contents

Our E-Mail Addresses

ExpNews
Calendar of Events:
An Overview
The Career
The Life Story
My Summer Jobs
What can I do today?
How much can I make?
Post Finances
Quote of the Month
Our Principals:
Our Creed:
Up-an-Coming Post Expenses
Up-an-Coming Member Expenses
Explorer Post 369:

Calendar of Events:

June 30, July 6 Summer Camp

January 3-12, 97 10MegaVenture

July 28-Aug5 1997 BSA Jamboree

An Overview

Recently I created three Intern Positions. I contacted The Ohio State University Department of Engineering and asked them to post my openings. Within a week I had over 150 student resumes. I quickly scanned them and turned it into a pile of under 20. Then asked two members of my staff to select those they wished to interview. They successfully narrowed it down to six candidates.

In short, in my opinion there where 130 students that I was not interested in. Therefore, this issue of the ExpNews will be dedicated to developing your careers in the Engineering Computer Information and Since Fields. OK, I will have a slant on the UNIX System Administration market.

I hope my youth members of Explorer Post 369 do not mind me taking the entire news letter.

The Career

Since I will slant my articles onto the UNIX System Administration careers I will assume that you have a strong desire to find a "JOB" in this field of work.

ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Nothing is work unless you would rather be doing something else!

To bring the point home, this past week I was offered a promotion from the Unit Manger of System Administration to the Lead Senior System Administrator. Along with this comes a LARGE pay raise. I am still in the thinking process to decide if I want the position or not. You see, I truly love what I am doing. I make very good money, the day flies by, I have 17 of the best UNIX dudes on my staff. I get to purchase the UNIX hardware for the company I work for. Hay that alone is a budget of over a $1,000,000.00 a month.

What I am trying to get to, I look forward to the next day. I look forward towards going into work.

The part of my job that I enjoy the most is to simply support the 17 System Administrators. It is such an immense joy to see them developing not only their computer skills but more importantly seeing them develop into an efficient team:-) In short, I love the group of people that I am working with and am having an emotional dilemma if I want to leave them or not.

Nice place to be. Again, it isn't work unless you would rather be doing something else. Therefore, find someone that is willing to pay you to do the things you enjoy. Turn your hobbies into a paying position. Don't let the ideas of 95% of the world poison your dreams.

Getting into a "Good" Career.

Ok, no one ever said it would be easy to achieve your goals. You will have to put a strong effort into achieving them. Notice I didn't say work. If you truly love what you are doing it is not work:-)

Therefore, first thing is first: What do you love doing? Second find a position that will pay you to do what it is you love or that will utilize the same skill sets. It is that simple.

An Example of the Job Hunt: If the only think you love is Scouting and being a Professional Scouter doesn't pay enough for you, then write down those things about Scouting that gives you the most enjoyment and those things that you do not like. Is it being a Patrol Leader or Teaching someone a Skill. For me, I enjoyed teaching someone a new skill, I enjoyed leading groups, and I enjoyed UNIX. Hmm. UNIX System Administration!

The Life Story

Understand that there are only two things that you are building in your life time: Your resume and your epitaph.

Both documents are defining you and your success. In my opinion, both are a extremely important: For one is a resume for a Job and the other is a resume for entering heaven. Oh, by the way, the first is included in the second.

My Summer Jobs

I always found it insane when the Interviewer asked what experience do you have when they know darn well that this is your first "Real JOB." Oh, by the way "Real JOB" is an oxymoron because anyone that thinks a Job is real is a real moron. But I digress and we will save that discussion for another ExpNews.

As I read through those 150 resumes I did not look at GPA, or courses you took, or how you paid for you education, or what grade you where in... I looked at what jobs you held. Ok, I must admit that once I narrowed them down to the 20 those factors did come into consideration. However, two of the interns that I hired where not from the college of Engineering. In fact one was a Russian Major and the other was in Medieval Renascence Study. But they had the superior computer skills. Yes, even over the 147 Engineering Computer Information & Science Students.

If these candidates sent their resume through our Human Resource Department, they would not have ever made it to my desk. The HR group would have ruled them out since CIS was not their major. Ok, they did the work necessary to get their resume on the desk of the Manager that was doing the hiring. Smart dudes!

Understand that the hiring manager has one thing in mind: What will this person do for me? What has s/he done in the past that I can utilize in my department?

It is my opinion that if you are truly interested in Engineering Computer Information and Science you will have had several jobs throughout your college years within that filed. It was sad for me to see how many Juniors and Seniors at The Ohio State University did not have any experience within their chosen field. Most of the jobs that they held was McDonald's, Burger King, or working at the local Swimming pool. What this tells me is they went to College because mommy made them not because they have a burning desire within them to design and run large computer systems.

You see, when I am building a system with 15GB of RAM and 2TB of Disk that can shove 2Gb through its back plane I do not want a burger flipper touching it.

True, I do not expect to find $100,000.00 a year System Administrators fresh out of college. But I would like to see some System Administration experience under their belts.

Example: Do you have a RISC chip set computer at home or a Mettle Inside system. If you are forced to work on toy computers do you at least run Linux on them? Do you have one computer or a local area network of systems? Where you a burger flipper or a tape flopper. I would rather have someone that filed computer tapes for a year than someone that said "Do you want fries with that" for 3 years.

All three of the Interns that I just hired had some sort of System Administration skills behind them. One worked for Sun Microsystems, One was the Admin for over 1,900 computers for The Ohio State University, and the other had HTML skills and even knew what the word JAVA was. Oh yea, it is not coffee. In short, are you working in your chosen filed or are you filling a position just to get money?

Looking for that

Perfect Job!

What can I do today?

Sometimes the good Lord gives each and everyone of us so many opportunities and unfortunately we do not view them as such. Exploring is one of those unsung opportunities!!!

As a young lad still in High School I had the extreme pleasure of being a member of the AT&T Exploring Program. In the beginning I did not realize what a great opportunities I had a hold of. I truly thought that each and every member of my school was in such a program. Ok, some of them may have been in a Law Enforcement group while others in Emergency Medical... I was in Explorer Post 891 an Engineering Computer Information and Science group.

While a lad I got to play with "cbunix" a predecessor to SYSV. Unbeknownst to me, the operating system that would change the face of the world! In a jovial attitude I proclaimed that some day I would change the face of the AT&T Global Network. Everyone laughed at me, later I did.

If you are a Scout in American and are reading the ExpNews there is a strong change that you are in an Exploring Program. Therefore, take advantage of it!!!

When I was a youth in Post 891 I was call all sorts of names by my fellow Explorers! You see, I hung around many of the Engineers at AT&T. I got to play with their global network. I got to skate the InterNet in the late seventies and early eighties. Long before it became popular. I was learning how not only to program Amdahls I also was learning how to reorganize international computer networks.

These opportunities where placed before each and every Explorer in Post 891. In my 15 years there I can count on one hand the number of youth that took advantage of this grand learning experience. I recall a time that I crashed a large DEC 11/780 system and no one cared. The System Administrators came running into the lab. They began to question all of the youth members. As I informed them what I had done, they did not attempt to punish me, instead they where extremely interested in learning how I accomplished my endeavor.

It was my time in Exploring that I utilized as my "Job Experience" to obtain my first professional UNIX Training position. Which led me into my Training Position for the Depart of Defense.

Almost two years ago, I left AT&T Post 891 and started my own Explorer Post, 369!!!

It was an uphill struggle to build a foundation for Explorer Post 369. Without a financial or corporate sponsor it would be hard to find the UNIX computer equipment necessary to implement our program. You see I did not want Mettle chips in my program, nor MicroCurd. However, today, we have several Sun Microsystems computers, NCR, AT&T 3B2, Altos,... We have made it:-)

Now with a personal change of interest within the Exploring Program I truly hope that the members of Explorer Post 396 views their stint within the Post as a Learning opportunity, a career development plan, and not just a social club!

How are you utilizing your position within your Post's Program? Are you there just because you have nothing better to do on a Wednesday evening, or because you like wearing that Police Uniform, or are you truly learning to be a better person while simultaneously developing a career skill and/or goal.

What I found so powerful about the Exploring Program is that you get a chance to try out a career without wasting all that money on college an finding out later that you hate scooping doggie doo out of the bottom of a cage. Face it, if you want to be a Veterinarian you will have to clean the cages.

Are you utilizing your Exploring Opportunity to its fullest possibilities?

How much can I make?

The answer to the question is a questions: How good are you?

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5 10 15 25 50 100 Difficulty Criticality

Solid line = UNIX System Administration Pay Dashed NOVEL

In short, the amount a system administrator makes is in direct proportion with the number of systems s/he manages. A NOVELL administrator peaks around $45,000.00 a year while a UNIX System Administrator peaks around $250,000.00. Understand that a once the UNIX SA reaches around $70,000.00 it is extremely difficult to go above. The pay bands above 70 is based more on difficulty and criticality of need by the company that is offering the position. Moreover, the number of systems is calculated by Administrator not by department. Example: my department has over 3,000 systems. We will go to over 6,000 when the departmental migration is over. However, 3,000/17 = ~175 or the 195 servers /17 = ~11 systems per administrator. Therefore, the pay range would be based on about 25 to 50 systems per admins because I have JrSAs and Interns to handle the desk tops.