Re: Whick qualifications
One was late 20s when I started (at 19) and the other late 50s. The guy who was in his late 20s was a degree educated guy. Very bright, but very lazy. Could of taken the manager's job, but didnt. Then got arsey with the manager for not doing things way (although he was responsible for the awfully built Asus P4 barebone machines he ordered before my manager appeared that were dirty cheap and horrible maintain - we replaced them very quickly!). This guy went on to become an IT Manager at a local law firm on a bucket full of money and then moved to the states with his new girlfriend.
The guy who was in his late 50s had a very interesting story. Basically worked for the school for 15+ years. Was the only tech there being managed by the head of science at the time. Did what he wanted and that's probably why the IT suffered. Not discounting his work though as he was very clever and could script VB until the cows came home! Made some very clever stuff. But his efforts were distorted by his horrid personal life and didn't move up the chain as a manager that should of been his. I suspected he was autistic (from his extreme values and literal understanding on things). Weeding out was the wrong word looking back what I said, but these guys werent being productive. I was a shy guy coming in, but luckily my manager put the time into making me grow as a competitent sysadmin who took decisions proactively. Having come from another public school, my manager wanted to set the bar high for good customer service/reliability and we both pushed for that.
The finance server (that also did the whole school e-mail too) stuck in a bottom cupboard near the door with easy access and one of the finance administrators having an admin password to the whole system sums up the attitude of the previous gen technicians there. And they were even nice enough to punch a whole in the wall in the cupboard for ventilation. Charming security.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
