What might that be you ask.
I got a new job. Not just any new job, but a network support job at DELL ! I can hardly believe it. It is almost surreal. But maybe I should back up…
When we last left our hero, we were on the 0 to CCNA track.
Sorry to say, the CCNA is not a reality yet, but it will be, very soon. Several weeks ago I was laying in bed and got an email from a friend of mine (the same one who set me up with my current Datacenter gig). He forwarded an open position at Dell (his employer) and encouraged me to apply. It was around noon, which is the middle of the “night” for a 3rd shifter, but I couldn’t sleep at that point, so I applied. It was the 24th of January. I figured that was that, and I would likely never hear anything – was I ever wrong!
I received an email on the 28th requesting an interview! Holy Crap, I might have a shot at this!
Interlude:
I must apologize for all of the exclamation points, but most of this blew my mind. Here I am an old worn out mechanic, less than a year seperating me from the wrench, and I have a possible interview with one of the largest computer companies in the US. My friend assured me that I was ready/capable of this, but in the back of my mind I always thought he was a little nuts.
My interview was set for Tuesday the 29th at 4PM. I spent the previous evening reviewing with my friend and another guy until after midnight, I believe. No feat for a nightshifter, but an outstanding one for him.
I cannot express how completely indebted I am to him more that anything – sure I did the studying and the interview, but without his guidance and teaching, I would never be in this spot.
The interview came the next afternoon, and it went ok (it was a phone interview, by the way). I was able to feel pretty comfortable and the interviewers (3) were very nice. I successfully answered most of their questions, but they stumped me on a few. Fortunately, one of the guys was former military communications, so we connected a bit on morse code and radio. I have my amateur radio license on my resume – this one instance is enough to say that putting it on there was a good idea. Another of the gentlemen was an old school linux guy, so we joked about compiling Gentoo and I reminisced about my slackware roots. I actually enjoyed the interview, and I thought I did ok. I was uneasy about getting stumped on a few questions, but nobody’s perfect, right?
On Thursday the 31st, I got a call from Dell HR Offering me a position!
I start very soon.
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