Book suggestions for Windows Administrator commands, etc.

[Opti]

Applied on line for a job today and discovered after doing the resume and attaching files
 that I had to take an on line test. Turned out to be oriented to Windows so I actually did google searches to answer the questions that weren't about things like DNS, VPN, and easy Windows stuff. I'd still like to interview for that job and another that sounded closer to the actual tech versus managing processes, incidents, expectations.
(While I love reading high level job descriptions based on tasks and priorities it can be annoying to apply for something your tech experience doesn't translate well to.)

So, any suggestions on books to look for? Are there older titles that Freecyclers might want to get rid off that will have Outlook commands and still be somewhat useful?
Both jobs are temporary and close by, so I'd like to be prepared if they interview me, etc.




And if there are any Windows admins out there please PM me. I have a question you might
be able to help me with. You can even grade my test and tell me if and where I screwed up.

[Virgil Showlion]

Windows... servers?

It's kind of hard to believe that some people still haven't heard about Linux, but I guess it happens.

My advice is to touch up on your math. You might be sitting in the middle of an interview and then...

POP QUIZ!

Your server has to be able to service 600 tiny, negligible requests a second, but because you're running windows, each request demands 75 megs on the heap. How many RAM extensions do you need to limit lock-ups to one per sixteen hours--the Windows gold standard?

HOW MANY?

[Opti]

I'm not going to discuss Windows servers, supporting desktop users and their mobile phones
with you. As a longtime UNIX person I obviously prefer UNIX as I don't have to do Start->Run->CMD to even get at a command prompt.

I will spare you my thoughts on Toys R Us window server farm for its website except for the obvious. The entire UNIX team looked at the large off-site third party cage and mused about how few servers we could use to do a better job. ( I can divide that number by 10, 20 or 50. )


The questions concerned things like Outlook issues with or without an Iphone, etc.
Not sure what relevance it had to managing a big project, but it was probably the canned test that was closest to the job position. The heading was something like Service Desk Analyst and I applied one Coordinator position and plan to apply to other one maybe tomorrow instead of today like I planned. The second one seemed to involve coordinating
actual trouble tickets as it mentioned Remedy, sw I've only used for trouble tickets. The other one mentioned managing upgrades and interacting with internal groups and vendors, something I've done enough of - so I applied.


(Linux employers all want certs. Cue South Park. Bastards.)

[Deleted]

Good for you!!  Wish you the best for landing one of those jobs!!

[Opti]

Thanks Rockit. FWIW I've been applying for jobs all the time. I have been highly unsuccessful
at getting tech interviews in general and obviously did not land any of them. I am working on a custom resume approach I just learned, but the startup time is tremendous. I will
just complete my three required job applications for last week today because of the callouts
I worked last week plus my loss of purpose on Sunday.


Because we are comfortably into October, I know there are several jobs I will not get including a decent paid one for 30hrs/wk for several months. You probably can't relate to the enormous stress I'm under. FT Crap jobs won't pay for living & fixing my car including
replacing brake pads which given my 2009 invoice might be well over $1200 for all 4. I'll try to negotiate doing the worst of the front or back, but I only have $100 available for the cause and the warning light has been on the dash for at least a week.

Really, any given week you could congratulate me for applying, but until I land a decent FT job or land one PT job with potential and add another PT one to it, in my mind there's not a whole lot to celebrate.

[973beachbum]

Opt have you had any meetings with job search type people?  I used to know a woman who worked in a dept was literally called "talent search".  I say this because when I read your posts I understand about ten percent of what you write about what you do or want to do in a job. 

Clearly you are a highly inteligent and well educated woman.  I truly believe your education and skills are transferable to other jobs but I don't think the people reading the resume/applications actually know or have the time to read that in your applications.  Maybe there is a way to write a resume that explains the skills and accomplishments rather than just the duties of what seems like a totally unrelated jobs you held.

I doubt any of that actually helps but I hope you have better luck soon!

[Opti]

Beach, that's why this new approach of writing resumes is great. However I need to come up with a minimum of 15 CAR(challenge,action,result) stories and work on writing things more as accomplishment statements to address the concerns of each job posting.

The goal is to have files containing things like:
In spite of a delivery snafu, managed to deploy new IBM server on time with sw installed
as scheduled by third party.
To address Indian partners claiming to not be trained on various invoice types, wrote documents and sent via email with read receipt on and eventually dropped training phone calls thus saving the company more money.


That last one is too wordy, but hopefully you get the idea. The goal is to have CAR stories
that address various types of problems and challenges and fling the appropriate ones into
to a resume for that specific job. Then there's going through all your verbiage and making sure you replace and adjust your wording so you have enough key words to even make it through the scanner. I know my issue is a sales one(custom resume). While my hit rate is way down in this economy from people reading my resumes first versus scanned first, I still do get interviews. The bad thing is the better jobs aren't on Craigslist in some sense even the tech ones posted there. Often recruiters or the company posts the ad and then flings them at the company resume scanner so the results are identical to applying on the online website.

Doing all this is akin to going to the dentist 5 days/wk for me. But I will keep on plodding at it. (Strike that, the dentist would be easier. My visit couldn't be interrupted.)

[Deleted]

Opti-Pumpkinist, your situation is no less than catastrophic,and I do have empathy for where you are.  A couple of months back you really seemed to be putting your ducks in a row and moving forward despite the extreme hardship you were under.  

I'm assuming that you have qualified for medical coverage and was trying to understand how much you could earn before you compromise that benefit.  That would be the target amount of hours to work in the crap job, but not more, so you don't compromise the medical coverage.  So you work those hours in the lousy job and the balance of the hours are for the job search.

The system you are talking about goes by a few names CAR/STAR scenarios should be developed, but start with 3-4 where you were a rock star.  Setting a goal of 15 is lofty, but you need to complete the minimums first so you get rolling.  The full CAR shouldn't go into the resume, just the bullet pointed results.  Those bullet points are the teasers to get the resume reader wanting to meet with you to hear the full story.

Do you have any strong advocates and references in the area where you are looking for jobs?  I would say that over the last 10 years, getting in the door for an in person interview is very driven by internal references.  

A lot of the job coach experts are saying that reinvention of your career may not be the traditional 8-5 job that people have been used to.  They pointed this out as particularly applicable to people 50+.  Not sure where you are on the age spectrum.  I thought it was very interesting insight as I hadn't thought about the 'new employment' in that way before.  It is more like designing your own job with PT and consulting or freelance work all bundled together to make a full time income.  It made me feel a lot better about how to approach job search when there just were not many openings.

I think your background was UNIX which is still out there in a lot of companies, but if you were a SQL programmer then you also have options at a lot of small companies.  I had to drag 20+ year old programming skills out for my last job -- tiny companies usually have older systems and a need for people that are flexible with skills (technically I think I had 4 jobs, but so did everyone else!).  I was underpaid for my skills, but it was a temporary price since I had been out of work for a while.  Once you have been back in for a couple of years, then you can look for other opportunities to get back to market pay.  I also have to say that a big plus to the smaller company is that a human being reads your resume, you're not just a bunch of search terms.  My opinion of general Recruiters is not good, if they don't have an exclusive with a company, then they don't really help because not too many places want to pay their fee.  You could get opted out of a job just because you present with a recruiter fee.

If you do ever want a resume review, just strip your personal info and company names off & PM it over.  I can give you a view from HR and hiring manager perspectives.  I didn't hire System Administrators so don't know all the buzz words for that arena, but I do know how to structure a resume with the eye catching statements.  If you are sending in to very large companies, there is no avoiding the key search term game, but that is a very custom resume for each job.  I didn't spend too much time on big co. applications because they are also the ones that will screen you out if you have been out of work for more than 6 months.  Unless you've got a good advocate on the inside, use big companies for the 3 mandatory apps a week and spend your quality search time on smaller companies.  

[Opti]

I'm assuming that you have qualified for medical coverage and was trying to understand how much you could earn before you compromise that benefit.

No. I've never applied for Medicaid. Not sure if I'd even qualify as it wasn't brought
up at my Food stamp intake. The reviewer suggested perhaps within two months those
documents would be used also to get me some heating assistance. So far not, so I'll
dig them up again and go to one of the places that handles the utility applications next week. I did find a clinic to go to and made my attempt Wednesday night to be seen, but
arriving when the doctor's hours started, they wouldn't put me on the waiting list as they had too many people. Luckily I was able to go Thursday morning and apparently I have an ear infection along with my usual sinus infection.

I have an appointment on Tuesday with the guy who teaches the custom resume approach so hopefully that will help me. Interestingly, the position I applied for is the
most cutomized resume I have created under this system. I scored 85% on their test and
I got an email and phone call today requesting me to do a timed online test. A bit afraid of
it for many reasons including I am on DSL at the lowest speed Verizon offers. A retailer
just sent me an email displaying two items I clicked on to check prices, colors & sizes, so if they designed the test well they should catch my Googling unless I use two computers
at the library for example.

Most software is coded on similar principles so if the position is mostly herding and managing the information I think I can do a good job without being a knowledgeable
Windows admin. If I'm wrong I'd prefer not to waste their time and mine. I am going to reach out to two former Windows people and see if they can help.

And yes Rockit, all my job contacts are here in NJ unless they've moved out of state.
I got my Telecom job in 2006 because of one of the Windows people I had worked with at a different job.

[973beachbum]

Opti do you have an unemployment office with a good broadband and fast computers?  I would think if they did they would let you use them to take the test for the job.  If they don't maybe a local college or library might have the computer that you could use to take the test on instead of trying to power through on your slow DSL.

As far as googling you might try actually googling the test before you even take it.  I don't know if you will find anything but there might be a blog or message board with people talking about the test. 

[Deleted]

$957 per month would be the current federal poverty guideline for one.  NJ is one of the states that will expand Medicaid access under ACA, so if your monthly income is $1243 or less you will qualify.

[Opti]

Beach, Yes the local unemployment office does have computers as well as my library.
I'll reread the requirements again in the email. It might require Java and pop ups enabled which might screen both of those possibilities out. Both sets of computers being public are pretty much locked down especially the unemployment ones. Its a third party administering
the test so until I use the URL I won't know what it is.

Funny thing, when I googled the initial screening Qs I didn't know, one person had asked for answers to one of the questions but it was never answered by anyone. It was a DNS question and they shouldn't have entered at least two of the "answers" as they were obviously wrong. One was a fake IP address whose numbers weren't in range, say 957.45.1035.12 and the other was a pure
open submask, 0.0.0.0 . I'm sure the poster must have failed the test if they took it.


Anne81, short answer something that pays me $50K or better. Longer answer - UNIX admin even though I really don't like on calls for various reasons including health. I've somewhat given up on Telecom business analyst and Invoice processor as the only two
companies nearby haven't been hiring locally for over two years. I'm also targeting things like Auto service advisor.

RockIt, according to your info I qualify with my recent drop in unemployment income.

[973beachbum]

Opt I would ask Unemployment about needing to take the test and being required to have pop ups allowed as the employer requirement.  I'm sure they have had this type of thing happen before.  Who knows maybe they will have a computer you can use that will work.