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What's it like working in a data centre?
Looking for a new job at the moment, and have an interview for a data centre engineer next week. Just wondering what to expect. Is it boring or stressful or does it just suck? Curious as I already have a job offer for a desktop technician role, and have a second interview coming up as a front end developer.
Also I have experience in desktop support roles, Linux and using servers or course, but no experience working in a data centre. Is that gonna be a problem or is it easy to learn things like setting up servers and cabling.
Comments
It's cold and the pay sucks.
Try to stay as far away from support and technician jobs as you can. They're comfortable, but all you'd do after 2 years is launch a hosting business.
I'd focus on the front end developer job if I am you. Can be a pain when you have to debug, but you'd do something different every day with an ever-growing salary.
Live the dream...
Really depends on what your tasks will be, but overall it's an exciting place
If you got a decent package, its a great learning atmosphere.
If you are comfortable with all of the jobs and thinking you can handle things, then, chose the job than offers you more opportunity to evolve in the working environment, build a good working fame, is more secure on terms of long-living, pays better, the company that offers it is more reliable, toe key people seem more comfortable to deal with and suit you more than the others.
Besides, it is good that you have more than one job offers. Kudos.
Boring AF. Hardly any chicks around, either.
From my experience, most of the hot chicks are project managers.
Working in a datacenter can be tough, but you will likely learn more working there than any other place. Depending on where you work, you can often be thrown into situations that are quite confusing. As a technician, the sales team is your #1 enemy, promising customers things that don't actually happen and setting false expectations all the time.
My experience with the job is a love/hate relationship. When the tickets aren't flooding in it's amazing, just sit around and do nothing, or work on hobby stuff. When a lot of tickets come in it can be very stressful. There are a lot of the people in the field that end up with heart related health issues. High blood pressure, heart disease, etc.
In my opinion, it should only be done for a short time. Don't make this your life's career.
If you mean a rack bunny there's a fair amount of physical labor carrying servers around and racking them, it's not all that interesting or educational, but it's not all that stressful if the dc is staffed 24/7 (i.e. you don't get paged in the middle of the night to go there). Machine rooms are noisy so use hearing protection. Hopefully a lot of your time will be in a quieter office that is still in the DC building.
Back in my day I remember noticing that a lot of sysadmins were into motorcycles and rode them to work instead of driving or taking the bus. Eventually I realized it was because they sometimes had to go to the DC and fix something on a moment's notice, and the motorcycle let them zip thru traffic, unlike a car.
I think the DC job will not be that educational and not have much of a growth path. You're better off with a dev job if you can get one and if you like to code. Frontend is too hip and faddish for my tastes (I'm a backend dev) but take what you can get. You have more of a migration path either way.
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