But not everyone needs to have a work phone, some just need to authenticate

I work for a global company and help manage MFA for everyone…I use Google’s authenticator on my personal phone as they didn’t give me a work phone.

I still don’t understand why a hardware token isn’t being used. It’s such a low cost option when compared to buying a phone and plan for a user.

So I’m an American working for an Irish company in the IT field, and everything you’re telling us is shite. The senior role at 15.50 an hour is garbage, my local grocery store pays better than that starting.

I’m not talking shit about/to you, but the job You’re doing sounds like glorified data entry. I’d take stick if what real works skills you have and start looking for work…

Also, anything to stop you from running that tracker software in a virtual machine? That would allow you to work in one monitor that they can track, but also allow you to job hunt in a second monitor. Just saying, installing anything on my personal computer is a huge no from me.

Actually, I thought dells were shit computers, then I started working at a place that only deals in Dell. I’m actually pretty impressed after having used a 5300. It’s been a pretty solid choice except for the battery.

I work help desk, and I’m actually surprised we don’t get more issue tickets considering it’s a global company.

I’m still rocking a xiomi watch that shows me notifications. I charge it once a week and it’s like 8 years old.

I had a Samsung Smart watch before, but the battery life was the same you’re experiencing.

Actually, I work in it and had to install a xerox printer for someone’s home office yesterday. Grab the driver’s, go to install and it completely failed. I told the guy to restart and we’ll try again tomorrow since it was the end of my shift. Guy messages me back, the printer and PC restarted and when he walked back to it, there was a page printed that said congrats on your new printer.

Fucking thing failed successfully.

Damn, I’m hybrid and I make 23 an hour entry level help desk. They’re out there man

Mines not so interesting, but I do have an original N64 from launch. I wish I had picked up the gold plated Zelda console, but I instead grabbed the regular grey one that came with Mario…I had never played a Zelda game before and regret the decision today.

If I’m going even older, it would probably be the planer that my father made about 50 years ago. Still works amazingly for being all cherry.

So much this. Go to eBay or if your country has an equivalent and search for business class laptops. Dell, HP, Lenovo, whatever you like. Business class laptops are way easier to work on and can usually be upgraded a bit easier. And like this post said, you can usually find 3-4 year old laptops in good condition and with decent specs.

I just got one for my daughter so we can play Valheim together.

I also want to push Microsoft learn. I’m a 30 something year old who is 2 years into an IT career. It’s been awesome so far. I think the Microsoft route is best bang for your buck. Basically self guided learning and you pay for the test. At my job specifically, certs are what’s really going to make you stand out.

Test 17

Actually, I’m still rocking my Mi Band 2, great purchase

Agreed! I was trying to figure out how to remind the default screen shot button in flame shot, but it wouldn’t let me. I just used power toys to remap a different key melted to the print screen button. Works flawlessly.

Not trying to poopoo on anyone here, but it seems neat… But at double your budget it’s just a neat toy. Can you afford that? If so, hell yes.

Otherwise you can find second hand laptops with great specs and upgrade that your self for cheaper.

I wish I could pull the trigger on one of these, but here I am just surfing eBay lol

I felt the same, so I built one for around 5-600usd. If you have a bike, you can turn it into an e bike.

36 & US Midwest based, have only bought stick shifts my whole life. My wife also had only ever driven stick.

I have no paper credentials, but I was a licensed educator, so at least it shows I can get credentials if I worked at it.

I started at a local community college party time, then transferred to my current role. Both bosses are the type like, “I can teach anyone IT, but it’s hard to teach soft skills.” Turns out they can’t really teach IT either and I’m left to getting knowledge from my team and outside sources.

I am taking some azure fundamentals courses right now though, so I’m going that legit certs will make me more hireable

To speak to your points, I started with about 1 year ago in a new career in IT. We initially were coming in one day a week and this has moved to two days.

First, when we moved to two days, I have it about 6 weeks, then started crunching numbers. By the sole metric of closing tickets… My team as a whole is more productive in the office. I didn’t break down exactly who was more of less productive, but I have my ideas. I’m willing to bet that I work better at home, but it’s a moot point as the team is better on site.

As far as learning new skills, even at one day a week, I’ve caught up to the rest of my team and have surpassed them technically. Again, it’s IT and I’ve always had a strong interest, whereas I see some of the team probably view it as “just work” I’m actually enjoying the work. Again, it’s a second career so maybe maturity is in play here too, but even the younger guys who were hired after me are growing very quickly.

You’re absolutely right about networking. I felt so isolated when I started. It wasn’t until I learned a few people a few steps above where I was that I learned who is a good resource, and who I can trust. Once I got my head around that, I think people actually see the work in doing and redirect me for it. If I were 100% wfh I don’t think I would be having as good a time.

Just my experience

I’ve used ai in general a few years ago as a companion till for writing seo optimized articles. It was ok at that time, and would do maybe 30% of the work I needed, but I would still have to go back in and make major edits or it would only pop out a sentence at a time so I would be contently prompting it.

My wife is a full time writer for a company and she uses it all the time to create emails and speeches. She says the leaks and bounds in actual usability is pretty insane. Like, one prompt can give her an entire speech.