I’m happy I could help, I hate to see current industry workers forget what it was like to wonder and be uncertain before taking the plunge. Gatekeeping is an unfortunately common part of IT.

It sounds like you have a solid start in terms of homelab work, I’d definitely talk to your local library and get some real workplace experience. Homelab experience is easy to disregard when hiring unless you can show your work too, so network diagram charts or a splashy data visualization page on a server you can access remotely will help in interviews. The library experience is actual workplace application of knowledge so that’s much harder to ignore and should be a priority.

I wish you all the best, I’m sorry your first encounter with the community was a territorial greybeard. As ever, I remain happy to help if you think of more questions.

Don’t mind my jaded fellow IT pro. The job eats at you if you’re in a bad position, which I’m guessing he/she/they/drag is.

In a small way I can see they’re trying to help (even if the delivery stinks), as IT isn’t just something you can dabble in and then pivot into it at this point in time. If you want to work in IT you really have to want it and make it a priority simply because the competition is fierce and getting start is grueling and will potentially burn less dedicated people out.

To support that point it’s worth pointing out that the entry level of the industry is both very saturated and generally very unsatisfying help desk work. Without dedicated experience in system administration and/or formal education in IT you’re most likely only going to get a help desk position, and that’s if you’re lucky.

That’s not the end of the road though, at that point you’ll need to absorb as much knowledge as you can, get some certifications to show you know what you’re doing (which certs will definitely change by the time you get there.). Once you have them you can leverage those certifications into a better position. That position might be a junior sysadmin if you’re lucky, but in my experience those positions want years of experience in sysadmin tasks.

As the saying goes: The hardest part of getting into IT is getting a helpdesk position, the second hardest part is getting the hell out of helpdesk.

That’s the general roadmap. If you have more specific questions feel free to ask away.

You don’t have to, but it sure helps

Kissed a dude. I’m a dude. He tried to use tongue, I’m a straight guy so that was a nope

I’d like to propose a micro-genre: Bromance films

Definition: Two or three characters (who need not actually be men) just getting up to mad shit and being great friends either before or as a result of the journey. Not entirely unlike a buddy cop movie but no need for cops.

Examples: Princess Bride, Road to El Dorado, Emperor’s New Groove, Three Musketeers

This micro-genre is absolutely predicated on the quality of it’s dialogue but it’s some of the best out there.

Nah, but man that was an abrupt “We weren’t close enough to share that experience yet” moment

The movie straight up ended a relationship I had just because we weren’t that far into dating when we watched it and that shit was bleak as hell

Still a very generous post, no faulting you there

Excellent recommendations, but I have to say those artUK links are absolutely infuriating on mobile, you can’t actually zoom in on the (quite small) painting for some reason.

I’d recommend just making a new Microsoft account for them, then leaving the username/password with the staff, ideally someone in their IT crew.

Do or do not, there is no try you piece of shit

Welcome back old timer! Here’s a link to pretty much exactly the apps you’re looking for: https://wiki.servarr.com/ Happy sailing!

Google anti-Scribd downloader. I use this one: https://scribd.vpdfs.com/dokument/ Just slap the url of document you want in here and it’ll get it for you

I’m afraid not, I’ve never been to France much less be familiar enough to claim to be one of them.

Reminds me of another: societies grow great when old men plant seeds for trees whose shade they know they’ll never enjoy.

…link?

This comment actually made that choice click in my head, I’d never asked why that was before and kinda assumed it was to help protect the internals of a machine you couldn’t fix from the environment but really it’s more likely to be so you always have some bandages on hand (however sanitary)

I appreciate that the conversion rate from USD to CAD is accurate. Source: Canadian :c

There’s a difference between providing social welfare and not actively worsening the experience for paying customers to spite the vulnerable.

So because the zoo fucked up I shouldn’t be upset with the lion for mauling people? You can be upset at two things simultaneously, and you sure as shit don’t need to support making life harder for the people already being mauled. That’s some “Boys will be boys” defense right there.