old tech

[Dave Galbraith]

Hi Everyone,

I've been around the group for awhile, attended a few tlug meetings and am
now looking around for another job. I've been with my present employer an
Internet Service provider for about 8 years, working in every area of the
company from res tech to corp tech to network integration to IP support.

I've been submitting my resume to various companys and educational
institutions such as UofT looking primarily for positions as a System
Administrator and not even a nibble, I suspect it has to do with the fact
that I don't have any certificates or degrees.

This annoys me to no end. In my position I'm the guy who is assigned the
problems that no one else can solve. I deal with a lot of "network admins",
I use that term loosely. The ones I deal with are the ones who have no idea
what they're doing and then calling me for help when they've discovered that
ORDB has listed them. Most recently I was dealing with Air Canada's
postmaster who blocked all mail from us and claimed that we sent 16,000 spam
mails. Actually we were being spammed and the "spam" he was recieving was
NDR messages. He had blocked the entire class c that our mail server was
in!!!! The postmaster responded once that we were a spammer and then ignored
any further emails until I took a guess at an email and sent one to
robert.milton-LH3SvzYeloVXv2ZoxMgBTQ at public.gmane.org The network admins arranged a conference call
after that. We suggested they just block the server that sends the NDR's.

It hard to explain but I've always had a sixth sense when it comes to
computers, maybe it's my analytical mind. I've used many flavours of linux
and have pretty much settled on Slackware. Although I'm writing this on a
win machine.

Any how should I just bite the bullet and go for a certificate just for the
sake of appeasing prospective employers?

Signed,
A frustrated tech (or maybe I'm just getting old)
Dave Galbraith

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