[ale] Looking for some leads/networking

[Jerald Sheets]

Howdy fellow ALEers.

Sorry I haven't written in awhile, but I've been busy as you'll soon see.

I've been sticking it out at McKesson for the last 4 months or so, picked me
up a Powerbook G4, and been busy back into my favorite hobby.  (Drum and
Bugle Corps -->  http://www.nikknakks.net/Drumcorps/corps.html)

**********

First the cool geeky stuff -- the Powerbook.

I've had quite a few computers since I've started doing this, many of them
laptops.  I've had several Dells, a ThinkPad or two, the HP many of you saw
at LISA '04, and now the Powerbook G4.  By far, the Powerbook outclasses and
outperforms every machine I've ever worked with.  I can get a lot of work
done on my Mac and can pop open a terminal and get right down into it.  Good
times, good times. 

Just picked up Tiger, and am still getting used to Dashboard, but as I learn
more about what I've got here, the more pleased I am day to day.

**********

As I said above, I've been toughing it out at McKesson.  As many of you
recall, I was very unhappy with the environment from the start, but on the
urging of many of you (and other close friends) I thought I'd try to give it
as much time as possible.

Well...the bad has escalated to worse.

I was moved to third shift in late January, and now find myself toughing
through that shift doing not much more than routing calls (worse yet, my
subdivision is under heavy development, and the next house to be built is
roughly 50 ft from my head...no sleep to be had there).

On the occasional opportunity where there's a serious issue on our shift, I
call out IBM, HP, DG, etc. to replace the defective part.  I have inquired
about training and stepping up to some certs I've not obtained in the past,
but have been discouraged in doing anything that would take me from the
night shift.

In fact, I mentioned to my supervisor that I was interested in moving from
night shift to fdays in some capacity, and was informed that I "knew what I
was getting into" when I took the job.  Now, I'm a nice guy, and really love
people.  I'll bend over backward for you, and am really loyal to my
company...usually the last one to think about leaving a position that I
love.  This kind of set off my entire line of thinking that I really was
right about this place in the first place, and should be looking around for
new opportunities.

I originally took the gig since it looked as though I'd have a lot of
exposure at the administration level to quite a few more platforms than I
currently specialize in (AIX & Linux) and broaden my scope somewhat.
Unfortunately, the position (billed as a third-level Sysadmin--what my name
plate, job description, and salary level all reflect) still is not much more
than a simple phone support guy.  In fact, our overnights are frequently
spent babysitting AT&T conference calls regarding router reconnects, DMARC
troubleshooting, etc.

***********

Translation:  Now that I've given it the old college try, and really applied
myself in the position, I find that it really isn't for me and I should
start looking again.  I feel my skills are slipping away a brain cell at a
time (I'm not getting any younger :P) and many things that I used to do
every day I haven't done since I was laid off on November 30th.

Having said all that, many of you know me, but if any of you know of, are
representing, or are in need of a UNIX Admin, 9 years exp.  Specializing in
AIX & Linux, basic scripting in ksh & Perl, exposure to Solaris, BSD, OSX,
windows environments, major ERP software (Lawson) over AIX with an
Apache+Tomcat appserver, capacity planning, network infrastructure and
server farm planning, etc. etc.  (primary responsible admin in large
hospital environment type experience) than I'd appreciate it if you could
send my info around.

My resume can still be found at http://www.jeraldsheets.com/resume.  I've
had it looked over by 3 separate recruiter friennds that I know, and each
had positive things to say about what I've got there.  It's worked very well
for me.  However, I am not beyond rewriting the thing from top to bottom if
it will help me procure the right spot.

I'm interested in a medium-sized (100+) little site with a group of machines
I can be responsible for, but given the right management find it easy to get
my mind around a large operation, and can excel there as well.  Do
monitoring, app installation, user management, etc.  I love to do research
into FOSS products and solve problems in new ways the management may not
have thought of before (the main subject of my work at Linux.com--Enterprise
Linux Deployments).  I enjoy working with things like Big Brother, Nagios,
etc. and have a propensity to excel in web hosting and hospital
environments.

If any of you can point me in the direction of a position that you may be
aware of that sounds something like the above, I'd be most grateful.  I'm on
a weird shift, missing time with my family, and church attendannce is
suffering too.  This position has not only been a challenge to our family
life, I'm starting to reach a situation where I just don't feel as well as I
have in the past due to loss of sleep.

I'd appreciate any information, contacts, or networking information you guys
might be able to send my way, and first round's on me if I can actually land
something from one of your recommendations.

Thank you all in advance for any help you can put together for me.

-- 
Jerald M. Sheets jr.
Sr. UNIX Systems Administrator
McKesson, Inc.
(404) 293-8762
**********
>su -
Password:
# cat /dev/flood > /dev/earth
# rdev noah+beasts
# dd if=noah+beasts of=/dev/earth

PGP Key: 0x6267F183
BLOG:  http://www.jeraldsheets.com

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