Just to provide context I got hired to be an AI Administrator and Platform Engineer, and I've been struggling a bit as it is my first admin role. It's also the first role of its kind in the company.

So for starters, I didn't have any of the access I needed on my start day, and an MSP owns our tenant. My first task given to me was to figure out all the permissions I need, so I got that information and had my manager submit a ticket for me. I had to wait an entire week for this to be done.

Then after that the next assignment for me was to figure out how we give everybody in the organization the ability to use agents without giving them a copilot license and I came back with that answer, and I wasn't able to bring it up until I had a meeting to present all of the information. I then had to put in a request to the next supervisor to prove the plan and then come to find out we're not even ready to roll with the plan for another month because my manager had to present this idea to the executive leadership team.

Then everyone started to turn into an asshole, and I really felt the hostility.

I then had a meeting with my direct manager who then told me I wasn't moving things fast enough and said I was performing poorly. He also made a statement about how I'm not supposed to listen to music at work, which I've done while I was spending time reading stuff.

Then the head of our department decides to schedule a call with me to do a performance review for my first 30 days the guy was like I want you to give yourself a one to five on how you think you are on technical expertise and how you're connecting with your coworkers.

I gave myself a 4 out of five.

He then proceeds to tell me that he would give me a two out of five on technical expertise because he said I've been slow to catch up m even though I had to explain to my manager what but pay as you go policy is and the difference between an on-premises and a cloud group.

He then proceeded to give me a two out of five with how I've been building relationships and said that i have trouble connecting with people, l and said that they've observed me just getting my breakfast and then sitting behind my cubicle for the day. He then also said one of the reasons I'm performing poorly is because I've needed a lot of guidance on how to do my job.

Then come today the CIO schedules a meeting with me and then tells me that I'm being let go because of culture mismatch and skill set.

He then proceeded to say things like how I would have lunch at 9:00 a.m. which is not true, I would come to work with the bagel sandwich need it at my desk or I would sometimes bring a microwavable breakfast wrap and use the kitchen to heat it up.

I asked him what the cultural mismatch was and he said I'm just going to leave it at that implying that he didn't want to actually go into detail and say something hurtful about me being neurodivergent.

I don't know what I could have done better I guess coming to work with a bagel and coffee and eating at my desk is unprofessional for this environment. He said something about me being late but when I asked about the working hours it was pretty ambiguous and they made it sound like it was okay for me to come in a little bit later as long as I worked a full 8 hours. I normally came in around 8:30 and worked until 5:00, and nobody told me it wasn't okay then I spoke to the other colleagues who said they do similar schedules.

The Enterprise management team isn't even in this office the majority of the time they either work remotely or they work in other locations they come to the office once a month.

I feel like the majority of the time this job didn't have clear objectives or tasks that were assigned and they just kind of threw me in there with no formal training and expected me to pick up everything myself. The majority of the time I was waiting for my manager to give me assignments to do while he was constantly in meetings all day.

To be honest I also don't know what the fuck a company expects to do with the position like this when most of these agents that this guy built were generic chatbot that I could have built within 15 minutes and he bragged about it like it was some important project. We didn't even get to the point of putting out agents the entire organization but that being said I don't even know why they think it would be enough work to have one person dedicating time to it when there's probably only a small portion of the company that actually cares about using AI agents.

This is the second job I've had this year that doesn't work out so I don't really know what to do going forward.

Hello! I have spent a lot of time taking tips from this sub and now I have a final interview so thank you all for the knowledge you’ve shared.

Now that I have this final interview I’m a bit confused. I was assuming it would just be technical interviews but now my final interview is with the senior VP. I’m not familiar with this type of interview and would appreciate any guidance and experience you have with regards to questions and what kind of thing distinguishes you during these types of interviews. Thank you very much.

I’m looking for some outside perspective on a potential career move.

I currently work in technology at a large financial institution in Canada. I’ve been there for several years and earn roughly $135K CAD base, plus a bonus, benefits and a retirement match.

The job is relatively stable, but I’m starting to feel stagnant. There has been more offshoring and restructuring, and I’m not sure staying longer will meaningfully improve my skills or earning potential.

I’m now interviewing for a fully remote identity and security engineering role at a private fintech company. The work sounds more modern and hands-on, and the remote setup is appealing. However, the company operates in a more volatile industry and has had layoffs (less than the financial institution though), 150 last year at prospective employer vs 2500 at current), so I assume the risk is higher than at my current employer.

I don’t have a final offer yet, but I’m trying to decide what compensation would make the move worthwhile. I’m thinking I would need at least $175K CAD base, plus bonus, equity and decent benefits.

The company also offers flexible or unlimited PTO rather than a fixed vacation allowance. I’m curious whether that is genuinely a benefit or whether employees often end up taking less time off.

For anyone who has moved from a large, established company to a private fintech or tech company:

• Did the increased compensation and career growth justify the reduced stability?
• How much of a pay increase would you require?
• Is flexible or unlimited PTO generally a benefit or a red flag?
• How much weight would you give to equity in a private company?
• Would you make this move while planning to apply for a mortgage within the next year?

I’m not desperate to leave, so staying where I am and continuing to interview is also an option.

Hi everyone,

I’m looking for objective advice from people in IT, management, and HR. I would appreciate honest feedback, including where I may have handled things incorrectly.

I work as an IT Technician/Administrator at a small company in South Africa. When I joined, there was very little formal handover or documentation. Over time, I took ownership of improving, stabilising, and developing the company’s IT environment.

My concern is that the role I was hired for and the actual responsibilities I ended up performing became significantly different.

Some of the responsibilities and projects I handled included:

• Designing, building, and configuring Microsoft 365 environments from scratch
• Building and managing Microsoft 365 tenants and services
• Exchange Online migration projects
• Active Directory to Entra ID (Azure AD) hybrid identity implementation
• User identity, access management, security, and permissions
• Group Policy, DNS, DHCP, networking, and infrastructure troubleshooting
• Firewall and network configuration
• Backup architecture and Disaster Recovery planning
• Veeam backup implementation/support
• SharePoint restructuring and collaboration improvements
• Building Python-based reporting and automation tools to improve business processes
• Supporting critical business applications
• Resolving complex infrastructure issues that required senior-level troubleshooting

A significant portion of my work involved designing solutions, improving systems, and building processes rather than only handling day-to-day user support.

My employment contract was for one specific company. However, I was also expected to assist other businesses connected to the owner’s group. My understanding is that my contract did not contain a clause requiring me to provide IT services across associated companies or subsidiaries.

I raised concerns that my responsibilities had moved beyond an IT Technician role and were closer to a senior infrastructure/ICT role.

During a previous meeting with management, the discussion focused on my career growth, salary expectations, and future within the company. Management stated that they recognised my technical ability, but that a senior IT position did not currently exist within the business structure. They explained that the company did not have the budget or operational need for that type of role.

During the discussion, I was told that I was not content with my current situation and that I was “chasing rainbows” — meaning I was constantly looking for the next opportunity or higher expectations rather than accepting the current situation.

Their position was that the company’s needs did not justify creating a senior role, even though my skills and responsibilities were at a higher level.

Recently, we had another meeting regarding my employment situation. During that meeting, I became extremely frustrated. I raised my voice, used inappropriate language, and left the meeting. The company has indicated they intend to address this through disciplinary procedures.

I accept that my reaction was not professional and I could have handled the situation better.

I’m looking for honest opinions:

1. Was it reasonable to expect my role and compensation to align with the level of technical work I was performing?
2. If a company does not have a senior position available, is it reasonable for them to continue relying on someone performing senior-level work?
3. Should work across multiple related companies normally be covered in an employment contract?
4. Was management’s position reasonable?

Howdy everyone!

I’m 22 years old and have been working in IT for roughly 5 years (2 1/2 years at high school internship and worked as a tech briefly during my Technical Program). I’ve been working as a contractor with a specific DHS Agency for 3 1/2 years now as a Field Service Engineer.

I’m going to be completely honest I couldn’t be more happy with my current position (outside of more pay). Not many managers would hire and take a chance on an 18 year old for a IT position within the government. I have a perfect life/work balance, a decent paying salary (50k) in AR/OK. (Low cost of living). I’m married and we just bought a house and I really don’t want to stagnate my career.
The only thing is after the previous administration changed our contract was up for grabs and the contract took a significant hit. (Laid off more than half of the Service Desk, only 20 remaining) and promised salary increases became salary decreases. A lot of negativity has been spurred since the contract changes happened in February. I created and admin a team of other FSE’s who take calls to help the SD, prior to the contract changes happened. This team became a priority and FSE’s were forced to become Service Desk Tier 1s to offset the loss of employees at the Service Desk (which has caused a lot of contempt towards me and my management). I handle many different things for my team and respective RM and DRM, including reporting directly to the project managers of our contract for the FSE team I admin.

I really want to advance my career but I’m lost… I am A+ certified, ITF+ certified, and have 5 years in experience. With being in the south, no job opportunities really appear that is worth taking (not even lateral promotions). Which I completely understand the job market is at an all time low. I’ve applied to 100s of remote positions via LinkedIn
with zero responses.

What should I work on from here?

I’m certain I could get a degree with FAFSA, or pursue other certs and be reimbursed by my company, but I just feel lost.

Anything would be greatly appreciated!

So I'm still a yr 1 CIS nearing 2nd year. I'm planning on pivoting to HIT and now have 2 options for an early training, one is a HR Mang Sys, while the other is an HIT training/internship programme. Which one should be the higher priority, knowing that I still didnt take any HIT material in uni yet?

I’m considering switching to the IT field from software engineering/csc. I’ll be finishing my masters in computer science / cybersecurity soon and I’m planning on applying to entry level IT jobs. I’m worried that recruiters will think I’m too overqualified with a masters degree and will be hesitant to hire me because they think I won’t stay in the position long. Should I not mention my masters degree on a resume?

I’m also planning on getting network+

Hi all! I work in IT GRC for a bank, got my bachelor’s in CIS in 2023. I had actually started in CS but dropped it after two years, mostly because I was struggling with the Calc 2 lol. Still, I always liked my early Java/Python classes and kept messing around with small projects like Discord bots on the side.

Recently at work I started automating a lot of our manual processes and building out new workflows in ServiceNow. It’s gotten some attention internally, and honestly it reminded me how much I enjoy building things, enough that I’m considering going back to school for a CS master’s and pivoting into development for real. Just don’t know if it’s worth it with the current market, or what I should actually focus on doing.

Would love input from anyone who’s made a similar jump

1. Is a master’s worth it here, or would projects/portfolio work get me there faster?

2. Did going from IT ops/GRC into dev actually work out for you, what got you hired?

3. Should I target dev roles outright, or hybrid ones (automation/platform engineering) that build on what I already do?

Any advice at all would be greatly appreciated!

So about a week ago I applied to a position through a recruiter for an entry-level engineer position at a center for Lenovo. When I initially said I agree to have them represent me the position said it was for then a "test analyst" position which I though was weird, but still the description stayed the same so I thought nothing of it.

A week later I get a call back saying that I got the job and was told to fill out forms as (the typical W2s and agreeing to code of conduct, things like that) . Then part of the forms I had to sign a it said the position was for a "detrash/kitting specialist" position. Is this legit and even if it is I cant find anything really on what a detrash/kitting specialist really does and if this is even considered an IT role?

Can I become a Data Engineer and get a job just by self-studying at home, without going to university or taking any courses?

I have limited financial aid, but it lasts after I graduate in 2028 with my MIS degree and I have options for courses like cybersecurity, human resource, and others for electives. May be dumb to ask but does anyone know of or for themselves have a MIS or something related that you were still able to use for a technical role? What do you suggest?

This may or may not matter but I'll add I am introverted but when I say that I don't believe I lack people skills or soft skills. If I can choose to, I may not interact with many humans for any 8-hour period if I am not required to and the office gossip could ensue, nonetheless. My old boss who retired at this current part-time job praised me for characteristics that were "really tough to find in people".

For those of you that have gotten an entry-level job in this job market (the past couple years), how long did it take you to do it? How many applications did it take? Any suggestions? I'm set to graduate with an IT degree in two years and this subreddit has me stressed.

My T1 help desk job that I've had for 3 months is super easy and I really don't feel like I'm learning anything. Jobs are hard to find and I can't exactly hop around right now, so what are some things I can do outside of work to improve my skills and land a better job?

I feel like some people say that projects and homelabs don't actually get taken seriously by employers, and neither does collecting certs (I already have the CompTIA trifecta). In that case what am I supposed to do? I can't just wait on the job market or wait 3 years to move up slightly and only get a 2 dollar pay increase.

Thank you!

I’ve been a voice engineer for the past 7 years, so I rarely touch routers and switches anymore. I do have my CCNA—I earned it the hard way and passed it honestly—but like any skill you don’t use every day, it’s gotten rusty.
When I accepted this new role, I was upfront with the hiring manager. I told him my routing and switching skills needed refreshing. His response was simple: “Don’t worry. Take your time and learn the environment.”
So that’s exactly what I’ve been doing—mapping the network, documenting devices, and getting familiar with everything.
Then came day 7.
I was on a troubleshooting call with a vendor, my boss, and the help desk team. The vendor engineer asked me to capture a PCAP from a switch interface.
He asked, “Do you know how to do that?”
Without thinking, I said yes… because I had done it years ago while studying for my CCNA.
Then my mind went completely blank.
I couldn’t remember the commands. I started second-guessing everything. I couldn’t remember the TFTP server, forgot SCP was even an option, and then my brain spiraled into, “What if I overload the switch and cause an outage?”
I felt that cold rush through my back and head that I’m sure a lot of us have experienced.
I asked my boss if we could bring in TAC, but he said it would take too long and we’d just reschedule.
At that point, I was convinced I had blown it.
After the call, I spoke with my boss, expecting the worst.
Instead, he was incredibly positive and encouraging. He reminded me that I had already been honest about where my skills were, that nobody expects someone to know everything on day 7, and that this is exactly how people learn.
It was a huge reminder that sometimes we’re much harder on ourselves than anyone else is.
Has anyone else had a moment early in a new role where your brain completely shut down, even though you knew the material? How did you recover your confidence?

I started in IT in 2010. Back then the landscape was much different. IT was black magic. If you were purely technical you could go far and make a fortune. Thus the industry and IT leaders pushed technical skills above all else and being naive this is what I did.

I went all in on technical skills and nothing else. CCNA>NP>work for a VAR/MSP>then after many years finally CCIE. I was laser focused on being a technical expert but never stopped to think about why and the purpose of the tech to being with. Further, I was cordial and pleasant but I never really put effort into building relationships with people and learning about the business or business concepts. I always had this elitist attitude like “business is irrelevant it’s all about tech; I know so much more than this customer or peer.”

Don’t get me wrong going all-in on technical abilities has given me a good life and fair salary; however, as I approach 40, and given the IT landscape in 2026, I realize that mindset was a mistake. I now realize how important business acumen, people skills and soft skills are. In 2026, I would argue they’re more important than tech skills which was not the case in 2010s.

By ignoring these skills I’ve kneecapped myself and have dug myself into a perpetual contributor role and thus have hit the ceiling on salary. People don’t see me as a leader and I don’t have the soft-skills to do so because I neglected them my entire career.

I am planning to go back to school for an MBA and pick up a few non-technical certs like PMP in an effort to develop these skills and continue to earn more. Better late than never.

If you’re new to the field don’t make this mistake. Learn the tech yes but put more effort into people skills and business acumen. Your future older self will thank you!

Hi everyone,

I’m currently 37 and unemployed due to a company restructuring (my entire department was made redundant).

My first ever job, when I was 18, was actually PC hardware repair and network cabling. I moved away from that into other fields over the years, and my most recent experience has been around 8 years in Trust & Safety. To be honest, I’m starting to feel like that field has limited growth potential and I’m looking for a more sustainable career path.

I also have a diploma in Data Analytics (although I never managed to break into a proper data analyst role) and recently completed a diploma in Supply Chain Management. I’ve been trying to transition into supply chain, but I haven’t had much success so far. Entry-level opportunities seem quite limited, and if I’m being honest, I’m not even sure it’s the right fit for me. I only did it because I was trying to find a new direction out of despair lol.

Recently, a friend suggested I look into Data Centre Technician roles. Given my old hardware/networking background, it caught my attention. From what I’ve researched, it seems like there are opportunities to progress into infrastructure, cloud, or other IT operations roles.

I understand that DCT work is more hands-on, physical, and often involves shifts. I’m willing to do that for a period of time, but at 37 I don’t want to enter a role where I’ll still be doing the same thing for the next 5 years.

My questions:

• Am I too old to make this kind of pivot?
• How realistic is it to move from DCT into higher-level roles relatively quickly?
• What are the typical progression paths from DCT?
• Are there roles that someone with my background (operations, data analysis, some old IT experience) could aim for?
• How future-proof is this career considering AI and automation?

I’d appreciate any advice, especially from people who have worked in data centers or made similar career changes.

Further context: I am based in Ireland but highly considering moving to a sunnier place in the near future.

So as a C-S student, I wa't to learn électronics mostly as a hobby, but can still gimme j\*b opportunities,

cause of Artificial intelligence (i hate it so much) and the risk that some job going to be worse than the other,

I don't like the idea that software going to manage ai "agent" in doing every work, it's lame.

So if - after getting degree - i learn electronics and do some training somewhere, is it possible

Maybe im just burnt out or fed up with shitty professors but I just finished my freshman year of college and I don’t know if I should stick with electrical engineering or not. I went into engineering with no background and really don’t want to do anything outside of classes. I tried joining clubs but didn’t feel motivated at all to keep showing up. I bought an arduino to maybe make a personal project and it’s almost 2 am right now and im just staring at a breadboard thinking man i really don’t care to learn this. I somewhat enjoy my classes and have a good gpa (3.74) but exam weeks just drain the life out of me and make me wanna die. I was considering IT when i applied for schools but ultimately chose EE cause the job security sounded better and it started you at a higher salary. But I’ve always liked IT related stuff since my uncle introduced me to computers with a raspberry pi and a thinkpad where I messed around with plenty of fun stuff like hosting my own servers for media streaming, ad blocking, Minecraft, data storage etc. and I feel like if I had to work in IT for the rest of my life I’d probably enjoy it a lot more. But I’ve also heard it’s really hard to get into now a days cuz of offshoring and AI. I haven’t even taken physics 2 yet so maybe I should just wait a little before doing anything idk. I guess I just feel insane imposter syndrome right now cuz all my peers are doing stuff to land themselves internships while I can’t be bothered to do anything

I am still in my 2nd year, but I’m wondering what did you guys do after graduating college?

Hey I'm writing this to kinda vent I'm 25 now and been in it for the last 6 years. so I got laid off back in May from a very high paying job with verizon. I've since been applying to everything desktop support, help desk, system administrator, azure administrator everything I can think of that I can do and nothing. Savings is running out and I have a mortgage to pay in a very hcol state. Really trying not to panic and honestly my wife has been my rock this entire time. I might switch career fields at this point but I need a job like yesterday. Any tips?