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Joined 11 months ago
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Cake day: August 14th, 2023

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  • Not the person you asked, but another forever dm who likes it.

    I fell into it because I wanted to play and the best way to control scheduling was to run the game.

    If you like to write stories that’s wonderful - take a look at some of the pre generated adventures in any system to understand how the different components work in pen and paper games. Just remember that no plot can survive contact with the players unscathed (after all it’s group story telling)- and some level of improve skill will help the overall experience. After that just have fun.






  • First off, aiming to start in security is a fools errand. Security is one of the many paths that your career might take after you gain some knowledge.

    Some more random thoughts before real advice. The two hardest things in IT are getting into help desk, and getting out of it. The reason is two fold: 1) help desk is the great entry point for the greater IT industry, and 2) one person in a help desk role is fairly similar to another when it’s time to move out of help desk.

    Now: If you have the time, go to your local community college and take their it/networking/security program. The degree will help - you won’t skip help desk (unless your lucky), but you are better equipped for getting out of it. You will also learn a bunch of stuff, get some projects to stick on a resume, etc.

    If you don’t have that time you can go the cert route. Be warned however - certs do not substitute for real experience. Do not fall for the trap of thinking that getting X cert is your ticket to Y job. You will be in for a ride awakening when your sitting across from someone like me that only asks situational, hypotheticall questions with no correct answer ( I care about how you think and approach problems over book smarts).

    Ok. Last bit of advice: the 10 things I look for (in order) when interviewing entry level help desk.

    1. customer service skills,
    2. ability to learn,
    3. customer service.
    4. some mild interest in tech.
    5. customer service.
    6. the ability to learn troubleshooting.
    7. customer service.
    8. the ability to admit you don’t know…
    9. customer service.
    10. not being an asshole.

    I can teach you how to fix a printer, design a network, or spin up infrastructure in the cloud. I can’t teach you how to act around people.






  • Telecos make minimal amounts on the hardware - its all in the batshit insane service costs. To give an (out of date ) example, back when ATT was getting rid of contracts I talked with some people who knew the ins and outs. On the contract model, the first 6 months paid for the device subsidy and the network, the last 18 months was pure profit. They where all super excited about the financial gains of no longer needing to do phone subsidies, but still have the customer locked in for 2+ years.