Spy came in from the cold, it feels so odd to see his face after so many years of maining him. He was my first Merc. Damn I’m a bit sentimental now…

#dontputyourdickinthat

As a lover of video game music, thank you for sharing

I love this for you :)

Longer short answer: yeeeeeeeeeessssssssssss

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 started 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.

Shame the instance mods can be jerks

Eh, I try to own my own insecurities. I haven’t seen the movie in ages so I was mostly going off of hairstyle and gang leader status over his face anyhow.

I mean, if you mistake a person of a different race from you as someone else of that race, there’s always going to be some eye narrowing.

Same, but I was afraid to voice it in case I was wrong and opening myself up to some accusations 😅

Usually it’s a bit of a discount

Fascism must always have an outgroup, as soon as one stops mobilising the base they introduce another.

For legal reasons I cannot have any opinion on the following: Gestures broadly at everything in the Middle East

A metal red uno reverse card sits in my wallet. It was a gift from my girlfriend and an acknowledgement of our in joke of replying no u to compliments and I love yous.

Don’t worry, we’re in the worst one

No ridicule here, only empathy. It’s a rough hand you’ve been dealt. I wish I had some magic advice to give you but I don’t have any relevant knowledge of Cambodia or how to better secure a life for yourself. What I can say is that being in your 20’s you still have plenty of time to figure your life out.

You’re educated and in tech so it’s possible some remote work could come your way, or that you could try your hand at creating something of your own to try and market. Contributing to GitHub projects might help you make some connections and networking for jobs. If all else fails, there’s no shame in doing some retail, sales, or labour work while you wait for the tech market to improve (I’m in IT myself, it’s rough out there right now with all these layoffs.).

Either way, please don’t make any rash choices you can’t take back. It may seem pretty hopeless right now but time has a way of changing that perspective. The world is better with you in it.

Much love from your Canadian brother :)

Might I recommend Journey and Abzu? They’re both wonderful experiences with a healthy dose of zen if you decide you want to just pause and appreciate the environments.

Thanks, I’m pleased to say it was well worth the wait. Here’s hoping your patience is just as rewarded.

I sympathize, I recently ended nine months of job hunting. I found the internet a great source of free content to enjoy which much improved my penny pinching months. Libraries are also a wonderful asset to the budget conscious