4 Months until the Real World

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nick496

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#86215 3-Jul-2011 21:33

Hey guys,

I've just got my last semester of uni left to go, and starting to get really worried about the great beyond. Is anyone able to offer me some intern work or similar over these next 4 months? (Hamilton) I'm wanting to head into networks, I'm better with my hands doing things so something like a Field Engineer sounds like a good place to start. Any good advice to get my foot in the door? I'm thinking that in about 2 months I should start applying for jobs, as I don't really want to spend the summer doing something else. Cheers

b0untypure1

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#489420 4-Jul-2011 22:40

(im also at uni) good luck with your last semester man, hope it goes well

gzt

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#489446 4-Jul-2011 23:15

What are your skills and interests? Sounds like some doorknocking around people you want to work with would be a good idea. After talking to a few people it is easy to get an idea of where you might fit in.

timmmay

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#489529 5-Jul-2011 09:41

You should probably list your skills and qualifications.

networkn

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#489534 5-Jul-2011 09:52

You are unlikely to get a position as a field engineer with little or no experience I would imagine, I'd be looking at a junior position somewhere to build experience.

nick496

52 posts

Master Geek

#489585 5-Jul-2011 11:08

I'll be graduating with a Bachelor of Science, majoring in computer science, and that will be my only qualification.

Its a university course, so I have little to none real world skills. I've had a play around myself with virtual machines, routers, remote desktoping from uni back to home. I've got 2 routers running different implementations of WRT, and done some pretty neat things on them. But nothing at an enterprise level. I'm very eager to learn new things, and I pick them up pretty quickly

I'm quite interested in large scale deployment, that is pretty interesting to me. The setup and configuration of it.

I'm starting with my door-knocking on geekzone, but there's a company I've been too before which I'll get in contact with again soon.

Obviously it would have to be a junior position, but hopefully with tailing someone around for free for a few months would be a great advantage, and just trying to find someone who would be willing to do that.

networkn

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#489592 5-Jul-2011 11:21

Hi Nick.

I am pretty sure it's not legal to have someone working for free, but you can say you are happy to work minimum wage (someone may be able to confirm this).

Good for you on your attitude though and best of luck.

xpd

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#489598 5-Jul-2011 11:32

networkn: Hi Nick.

I am pretty sure it's not legal to have someone working for free, but you can say you are happy to work minimum wage (someone may be able to confirm this).

Good for you on your attitude though and best of luck.

Its fine long as its noted down as "work experience" - we have students through here quite a bit and they are not paid.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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networkn

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#489600 5-Jul-2011 11:34

/me changes all his existing staffs contracts to "work experience" and buys himself a new Audi RS6

So easy!

nick496

52 posts

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#489608 5-Jul-2011 11:53

Brilliant idea netowrkn :P
My current head boss doesn't pay me for public holidays that I would normally work due to a loophole in all his staff's contracts. He payed both my collegues though, I'm pretty sure they were the only 2 people to get paid last holiday :P But meh, it's only minimum wage.

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#490124 6-Jul-2011 16:02

nick496: [...] My current head boss doesn't pay me for public holidays that I would normally work due to a loophole in all his staff's contracts. [...]

I do not know what the loophole could be be. The holidays act 2010 specifies minimum standards. These cannot be reduced using contract provisions. It is possible your current employer is acting illegally. If you need advice on that beyond geekzone, together.org.nz offers expert employment advice for a subscription of $1 per week.

back on topic..

nick496: [...] Obviously it would have to be a junior position, but hopefully with tailing someone around for free for a few months would be a great advantage, and just trying to find someone who would be willing to do that.

Instead of a foot in the door I would look at this as an exercise to gain insight into how things work in the real world, what skills are used in roles you are interested in and how those skills are used. This will help you target skill areas for further enhancement, or lead you to value and highlight skills you already have.

Be specific about what you want to do and when you are available to do it; ie; work with a WAN network support engineer for 2 days a week from x date to y date.

Someone asking to work for free can be difficult to organise. The employer has to find something useful for you to do, supervision, sort out hours, worry about conflict with other priorities, etc, all of which is time consuming.

If you are asking to follow a specific role (for work experience) that you have already researched and clearly identified within the organisation and named your availability it is a simple process to check with the role concerned and agree. Make it easy for them.

jaymz

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#490140 6-Jul-2011 16:27

nick496:
Obviously it would have to be a junior position, but hopefully with tailing someone around for free for a few months would be a great advantage, and just trying to find someone who would be willing to do that.

This is exactly how i started out (in Hamilton too!)

When i was nearing finishing my DIP-ICT Level 6 at Wintec i applied for work experience at two Hamilton IT firms, Elite and Houston Technology Group (HTG).

HTG agreed to take me on in a 1 day a week unpaid roster. there was no required hours, just stay as long during that day as took my fancy (I always stayed till 5pm since there was lots of things to learn).

They were really good to me as well, taking me along to site visits and project installs. I was able to help a little bit which made a difference.

At the start of the next year (Jan) I was approached and offered a full time position as a junior bench engineer/helpdesk support (basically work on single user PC's that come in with issues). I of course said yes.

From there i just continued to work hard and offered to take on more responsiblity and 5 years later i am now a senior network engineer.

Nothing is impossible, and by the sounds of things you have the right attitude!

The only issue, as mentioned above, is employers having enough resources availble to allow work experience people into the company. But you will never know unless you ask the company!

Good luck with your search!