I've been working in IT for a bit over a decade now, pretty much since getting myself thrown out of University. This is in environments large and small, everything from a small ISP where I was *the* IT guy through to multinational corporations and large universities. I have partial sight, so I'm lucky enough to not need to use much AT to get my work done. But I'm also lucky to have specialised in UNIX systems where all I really need to do is set my terminal emulator to use a really big font and all's well. I can't recommend UNIX systems enough as a specialization for VI people: you can easily get away with rarely needing to touch the actual hardware -- often it's hosted on the other side of the planet -- and most of your interactions with the system are text-only. There's starting to be more web-based stuff in some environments but a lot of that works OK with font-zooming tools in browsers. Some of it (e.g., Splunk, which is terribly useful) unfortunately doesn't play nice with font-zooming, so I'm having to start using screen-zoom tools. Luckily for me my current workplace has the UNIX guys using Macs so the zoom comes for free. Matt On 03/06/2008, at 2:28 AM, Bobo, Greg wrote:
Hello everyone,
I have worked in the computer industry ever since I graduated with a degree in computer science. I have only been blind for 7 years. I was pushed out of my job working as an administrator and it took me some time to find another job. I do both development and systems administration. I have found that instead of IT staffs of 50 people, I enjoy working more in smaller IT departments. My last job I worked remotely and supported a government client who never found out I was blind because I did good work for him. My current job is with a slightly bigger company, of 80 people as opposed to 20 people. As far as specialization, I prefer to specialize with database systems such as SQL Server & Oracle. As far as diagrams, I did not think they where that great even when I could see. So I find that I work a little harder than most of the people I work with so that I can learn more and understand more of any system.
Greg L. Bobo Customer Service Matrix Systems, Inc. 7550 Paragon Rd. Dayton, OH 45459 937.438.9033 x2228 office 937.438.0900 fax www.matrixsys.com
-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org ] On Behalf Of Andrew Hodgson Sent: Monday, June 02, 2008 12:07 PM To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: Re: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds
Hi,
Good message. Having a bit of sight, I am able to hop round a bit from one piece to another, but I would recommend the specialisation bit if you can go down that road. On the other side, however, smaller companies may be more interested in employing you - the company that eventually employed me only had around 5 IT staff to start with, and we had to do everything from helpdesk, to server management.
Personally I enjoy working with the front-end public facing servers, mainly web servers, but also some of the database servers, and backend servers which runs utility programs etc. This way I have managed to get exposure to a lot of applications, best practices, security requirements etc. I also enjoy seeing how the applications are fitting together, and in some cases helping to put the design together for the apps.
Moving on, I am involved now in running the project upgrading our Active Directory to 2008 (I may write more on this in the next few weeks), and a possible Exchange migration.
Security is very dry, it is good imho when you are on the firewall etc, but there is a lot of procedural stuff and going through logs you have to do, it isn't always easy to spot what is going on, especially when there is a lot of repetition.
One of the things I do is to try and delegate work wherever possible. So for example, I don't do any of the cabling, or cabinet work. This may be just workable in my situation, but there are people who are very good at that sort of thing, and are quite happy to do it. When I first started out, I tried to get into as much as I could, to make people realise I was able to do the relevant jobs. Now, I am throwing the jobs to other people, as I have a full plate!
Andrew.
-----Original Message----- From: blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org [mailto:blind-sysadmins-bounces@lists.hodgsonfamily.org ] On Behalf Of Toner, Barry (LIT) Sent: 02 June 2008 15:10 To: Blind sysadmins list Subject: [Blind-sysadmins] Backgrounds
Hi all,
In the CISCO Networking thread Darren had asked for peoples experiences in the industry.
I've included a short snapshot of mine from Degree and placement below.
Hi Darren et al,
I'm out on placement as a System Engineer with Liberty information Technology at the moment.
I've completed an Associate Bachelors in Computing Science and am heading this September towards final year of my BSC HONS Computer Science Degree.
Diagrams are the Bain of my life!
From DFD's, UML, Relational Models in Databases they drive me up the wall. Well to be honest it's not so much the diagrams BUT THE LECTURERS UNWILLINGNESS, (laziness), to provide me with reasonable alternative assessments.
I've been fortunate that I've had very technically capable PA's who have been able to use the CAD software under my instructions. This sometimes falls down when the same lazy lecturers have Graduates marking their papers and therefore I'm just a number.
I had one lecturer stumble all over the place to try and explain my mark to me. It became evident he hadn't' marked it when he couldn't' even read the hand-writing on the marks given!
Another area I struggled with as a non-Braille user is debugging large amounts of code in the software engineering modules. I got round this by having a very helpful lecturer who recognised the hours I was putting in in actually going to his classes and labs, plus the efforts I went to to understand the concepts of the data structures and algorithms he was teaching.
He met with me on a one-to-one each week to cover materiel that had been done in that weeks class and give me a brief overview of what was coming up in the next weeks class.
I found these sessions invaluable and would encourage any student to request this level of support if you find you are struggling. In my mind a good teacher will make every effort to accommodate a student, because it's important to them and they're passionate about their subject.
It might not always be practical granted so you cant' say it's a bad or lazy lecturer if they genuinely don't have the time.
Back to work.
Sys Eng in the company I currently work for is very challenging if you can't see at all. There's only 8 in total in the Systems dept and that includes the manager.
Larger IT Depts will have a team dedicated to Exchange, a team for VMWARE, a team for Licensing, a Networking team, a Helpdesk team etc etc.
All our work has to be shared amongst the Sys Engs, Senior Sys Engs, and Principal Sys Eng.
With so many proprietary environments it's difficult to get away from the desk and away from the Helpdesk and Sys Admin side of things if you cant' see.
System Access To Go, Window Eyes/Jaws on pen drives even NVDA sound great but in the case of WEYE and JAWS they modify Video Drivers. If that's incompatible in any shape or form you have egg all over your face. EG. Some old Dell machines will flip the monitors image upside down (if the drivers haven't been kept up-to-date).
If you think an ordinary users desktop environment can be iffy multiply that by ten and you might be close to a developers environment, which is what we deal with in here.
Maybe I'm telling my granmother to suck eggs but I would advise anyone who's totally blind, doesn't' read Braille and thinking of going into the IT industry at a corporate level to specialise, specialise, specialise!
It's quite difficult to turn your hand to tasks as quickly and on- demand as your sighted peers would.
I'm not sure what I want to specialise in, possibly security. Sys Admin sounds OK but I'm not sure if I could sit and fiddle with Active Directory all day. Maybe Exchange but I'd be afraid it might get quite boring after 6 months.
Barry.
"Tell me and I will hear, show me and I will see, involve me and I will understand.
Chinese Proverb"
Barry Toner Placement Systems Engineer Liberty Information Technology Direct Line: 02890 167000 Adelaide Exchange Fax: 02890 445511 24-26 Adelaide Street Switchboard: 02890 445500 Belfast BT2 8GD Email: b.toner@liberty-it.co.uk
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* Matt McLeod | mail: matt@boggle.org | blog: http:// abortrephrase.com/ * --- People can do the work, so machines have time to think ---