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PaperclipPerfector  4d ago (text post)   1547 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 5, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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@pigeonburger @YoungAchamian @The_Nybbler @bolido_sentimental

So i made post a while back about the job search. I've got some good news! I got callbacks recently, And Im coming up on 5 opportunities.

2 - Sys Admin positions: One that pays about 65k, for an engineering firm, another that pays 75k, but its a financial institution.

Internship (Network Engineer) - Traveling internship that pays 17 an hour, Im kinda hoping that I can work my way up and score a full time job there.

IT Support full time at a school institution - 45k a year, not too much different from what Im doing right now.

IT Support Assistant - Another support job for a building maintance/blue collar company, about 25 an hour.

Im not 100% done with the interview process for all of them. But im done with the engineering firm, the Internship, and i have a 3rd final round interview with the school institution. Im doing a phone screening for the building maintnce company and a 2nd round interview with the financial.

Im excited, but I dont know:

How to keep each opportunity in arms reach... (Obviously i wan the best paying one, but I kinda dont want to be in a situation where i get a call back from one of these places 1st, say yes, and then bail once another opportunity comes in, id like to be sure i can fall back on something if i dont get an offer for whatever reason)

And Im honestly kind scared, a little bit. I dont know how much good ill be at these jobs, imposter syndrome is real. Ive never maintained real live enterprise equipment before, so this will be a first.

Ideally I get call backs for all 5 and can choose, but honestly, Im grateful if i get at least one (regardless of the pay, its better than where Im at now!)

I think I responded to your original post, great to hear you're getting calls back in this market.

If it helps your decision-making at all, I'm making $50k in a small-med business tech support call center for a major ISP in a mid-large city after working there ~1.5 years, and I started at $41k. My qualifications were a tech-adjacent business bachelor's and a minor in IT heavy on network classes (which I should have majored in from the beginning). To be honest I don't think they looked at my academic creds much, they mostly asked about my phone experience taking pizza orders during the interviews and saw my network knowledge as a bonus.

I will caveat this by saying I am generally an unserious retard and I do not recommend following this path (I like my job now but I got extremely lucky with my current chain of command, which consists of a person that has worked in other coaxial cable industry tech support positions for 8 years immediately above me and another guy that was originally a cable TV field technician that's been with the company over 30 years immediately above them; he may have fixed your parents' cable in the 1990s or 00s if you lived in the carolinas)

Why'd you choose the ISP? Or was it just not your first choice, you just got a job? Honestly, I am actually thinking about taking bluecollar company job (Sadly, the financial firm fell through, and i suspect the engineering firm job has as well, leaving me with the 3 others remaining.) Its a combination of IT Support and some minor office administration work. I'm highly curious about it.

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