I.T Job - abbreviations

Jackaby

Jackaby

Jackaby

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9 Jan 2010
Posts
339
Location
Brighton, England.
So I'm looking for work in the I.T sector. Nothing super advanced, more like basic maintenance and assembly + all round SOLID knowledge of all office programs. (Job is at a school, should be simple)

A friend put me in contact with an employer that is looking for an "experienced" I.T guy. He has emailed me with the details and it says " must have XP in bla bla" ...but all are abbreviations I have NEVER seen in regards to any form of computing.

Direct quote is: " This role requires a highly skilled IT technician experienced in AD, GPO’s , SCCM etc " ..

I'm pretty good around PC's and software, but without knowing the abbreviation I don't know if I can even apply. If you guys could help me out that would be grand!



+ Waiting to be called a **** + if you don't know than you have no hope posts.
 
Sorry mate if you don't know what AD, GPO, SCCM is, let alone have any experience with them, you are not at all qualified for the job.

Sorry to say but these things are literally the completely basic "ABC-123" knowledge of any systems admin. This is not "basic maintenance / assembly / MS office" role. This is a server administration role.

Managing a domain infrastructure (such as in a school) is a very different concept from your home computer, and knowledge of MS Office won't help you.

The good thing is, the concepts are very easy to pick up. All this stuff can be easily self-taught. Get yourself a copy of Server 2008 and an old PC and get practising.


By the way:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Active_Directory
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Group_Policy
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/System_Center_Configuration_Manager

Which are the #1 search results for AD, GPO and SCCM. Therefore you would make a very bad IT professional if you couldn't even Google-fu that. Part of being an IT pro is being able to quickly find fixes to unfamiliar things using Google.
 
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Wouldn't hire someone who didn't have the common sense to use a search engine to find something out that they should really know.

SCCM/AD aren't rocket science but if you don't understand them you can really mess things up, heck even experienced staff can still muck it up causing a lot of problems for larger organisations.
 
Active Directory.
Group policy
Pretty sure sccm is an abbreviation for some server management software? Either way i've never really bothered with the acronyms, but as above, they're not difficult things to learn about.
But you can mess things up if you're careless, the same as if someone inexperienced with pcs in general was following a dodgy guide in regedit.

I had not much experience with them when i got my job, i was lucky because they were happy to show me what i needed to know, but for basic stuff like creating users, managing permissions, pushing out group policy updates, it's not hard to pick up, let them know you don't have massive experience but are happy to learn, and you might get somewhere, i wouldn't lie about it though.
 
When I saw SOLID in caps I thought you were referencing the acronym used in software design :)

Just to add … There is no harm in applying for the job as long as you read up on this stuff first. You may get lucky and they may be willing to take someone on in a trainee role.
 
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If you don't know, at least google up on it so have some basic knowledge and don't sound completely clueless

MW
 
platypus said:
AD, GP and SCCM in particular take about 15 minutes to learn. However, experience is another matter.
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Just lol at SCCM taking 15 minutes to learn.

It's far more complex a beast than anyone here is making it out to be. Heck you can specialise in SCCM and earn a fortune. Sure, you could probably set up a device collection using AD boundaries in about 15 minutes (assuming SQL and all the relevant prerequisites are installed already), but getting into the nitty gritty of it? get out.

Would you say "sharepoint" or "dynamics" are simple and can be "learnt" in 15 minutes?

I wouldn't let anyone with 15 minutes of experience anywhere near our System Center (2013) suite.
 
15 mins to learn SCCM - Are you having a laugh?

I would expect people applying for a 1st line helpdesk role to know what AD stood for and what it actually does.

OP - If you don't get the job (*sigh*), can you let me know the details, I have an old pal in Brighton looking to get out of his current role, and he looks after the infrastructure at the moment so would be well suited to the role.
 
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Came in here expecting some abbreviations I'd never heard of, that you'd only here in highly skilled roles, left laughing because you had to ask what AD and GPO's were because you aren't able to use google.
 
paradigm said:
Just lol at SCCM taking 15 minutes to learn.

It's far more complex a beast than anyone here is making it out to be. Heck you can specialise in SCCM and earn a fortune. Sure, you could probably set up a device collection using AD boundaries in about 15 minutes (assuming SQL and all the relevant prerequisites are installed already), but getting into the nitty gritty of it? get out.

Would you say "sharepoint" or "dynamics" are simple and can be "learnt" in 15 minutes?

I wouldn't let anyone with 15 minutes of experience anywhere near our System Center (2013) suite.
Click to expand...

+1 and most people who are experienced don't actually know half of what SCCM can do, things are even more insane with the newer versions of the combined suite.

I don't think GP / AD are 15 minute tasks to learn either, the absolute basics yes, but actually managing/configuring ? That'd take a lot longer.
 
Jackaby said:
I'm pretty good around PC's and software, but without knowing the abbreviation I don't know if I can even apply. If you guys could help me out that would be grand!
Click to expand...

Firstly, what makes you think you can apply for a job the requirements for which you don't even understand? Are you under the impression that when the acronyms are explained, you'll suddenly understand what they're referring to?

Oh, and: http://www.google.com/ ???

+ Waiting to be called a **** + if you don't know than you have no hope posts.
Click to expand...

What else would you expect? You just posted "I want to apply for a job but I don't even understand the job description. Am I qualified?"
 
paradigm said:
I wholeheartedly disagree. You can't even install the thing in 15 minutes, let alone learn "the basics". Not that I'm sure where the boundary between basics and "the rest of SCCM" lie.
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In terms of learning in an already setup and working environment.

Learning how devices, collections, ts, deploy software work etc - yes.

Certainly not things like boundaries, packaging (which is debatably part of the sccm experience) and everything else.
 
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ChocolateStarfishRammer said:
In terms of learning in an already setup and working environment.

Learning how devices, collections, ts, deploy software work etc - yes.

Certainly not things like boundaries, packaging (which is debatably part of the sccm experience) and everything else.
Click to expand...

That's not "learning" SCCM, that's learning how to point and click some pre-defined actions that were set up by someone with a clue.

Would you say that someone who knows how to open a document template "knows" how to format documents? no.
 
SCCM isn't massively hard to pick up, but then its made easier if you have a strong understanding in other areas. I think I worked through a full SCCM 2012 build capture and deploy in a few hours of dedicated time, but using it to the full is not 15 minutes. The full suite is massive with Orchestrator, etc. That's more like 15000 minutes :)

To the OP. This probably isn't the job for you. AD, GPO and SCCM are core components especially for a smallish organisation like this one. You need to know these skills before applying for this job.....
 
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paradigm said:
I wouldn't let anyone with 15 minutes of experience anywhere near our System Center (2013) suite.
Click to expand...

Neither would I, the core concepts are not hard to grasp though. 15 minutes was obviously a facetious figure plucked out of the air, or do I really need to use smileys to indicate such things..
 
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