CNN HD on BHN vs. DirecTV

[skottey]

haha.. You are right about stevenl being a devoted company employee, but I like him. He knows a lot, and he has taken BHN to task a few times (very few <G>), but is always honest in that he never says anything false. He does tend to emphasize the elements of the issues that favor BHN though. Nothing wrong with that as I see it. There are enough contributors on here that you usually can get both sides of the story by reading the whole of discussions.

steven, here's to you! Too few people care about their employer at all, and their work quality and level of effort shows it.

I like him and his input too.... just stating the obvious about his company man point of view on here. He is all right. As the New Yorkers say, "He is good people."

[skottey]

A guy who works out of my office, we have worked at that office for 2 years together and have a good relationship. He has decided to join the military, for a few different reasons. BHN is holding his job for him, for the 3 years he will be gone, they are keeping his benefits going, and carrying them over, they are also paying him the differnce of his Army Salary vs BHN Salary. So the money he loses by getting Army pay, BHN is going to pay him the difference . So he will be in the army still getting a check from BHN!

That is fantastic of them.

[skottey]

I'll keep you in mind if I am ever in Tampa and in need of a job

I probably couldn't afford you . Do you do PC support too or just cable technologies?

[Chucky Cheese]

When the hurricanes came through here a couple of years ago, cable was out for weeks.

With satellite, it may have been out a couple of minutes.

Don't have to worry about hurricanes much in the North East.

[Chucky Cheese]

Well that is relative. Some people never lost cable. Some people had there dish blown off the house! So it really depended on where you were and how the cookie crumbled.

[stevenl]

I probably couldn't afford you . Do you do PC support too or just cable technologies?

I started out in the industry working fora company called GI Broadband, Doing Business networking, RoadRunner Installs, and PC trouble calls. I got into the industry because I love working with computers etc. I found out it was about 50/50 cable work and computer related work. I really enjoyed the work, I was a contractor so I got paid per job, well Long story short business got real slow, and I couldn't afford to work anymore and I needed benefits So I decided to go inhouse at BHN. I would never go back to contractor, I took a big pay cut at first, (if we remained busy) in order to have a "stable" income with benefits. Over the years I have been at BHN I have moved up through the ranks (been in-house now over 7 years) and now I make more then I did as a contractor, and get the benefits! So I think it was a good move.

I am still currently a field employee I am the highest level tech you can become before getting out of the field and working in the hubs directly. I do not goto customers homes any more (very rarely as I am the "last line of defense" in a escalation type issue.) I handle a lot of the IT work in our little group at the office, however its not an official title. So while dealing with computers is my passion (I have ran a hosting company online for some time, running Linux and FreeBSD based servers and even windows 2003 yuck) Cable and Broadband networks is my career. I enjoy it enough I have always told myself If I wake up and say "I don't want to goto work" (because I hate my job) Thats the day I quit. But so far so good.

Every now and again I will do side work, for friends family and there friends. Doing home networking and such. I am always the person who gets called in my family/friend circle when someones computer is broke...... It is as annoying as it sounds

[skottey]

I started out in the industry working fora company called GI Broadband, Doing Business networking, RoadRunner Installs, and PC trouble calls. I got into the industry because I love working with computers etc. I found out it was about 50/50 cable work and computer related work. I really enjoyed the work, I was a contractor so I got paid per job, well Long story short business got real slow, and I couldn't afford to work anymore and I needed benefits So I decided to go inhouse at BHN. I would never go back to contractor, I took a big pay cut at first, (if we remained busy) in order to have a "stable" income with benefits. Over the years I have been at BHN I have moved up through the ranks (been in-house now over 7 years) and now I make more then I did as a contractor, and get the benefits! So I think it was a good move.

I am still currently a field employee I am the highest level tech you can become before getting out of the field and working in the hubs directly. I do not goto customers homes any more (very rarely as I am the "last line of defense" in a escalation type issue.) I handle a lot of the IT work in our little group at the office, however its not an official title. So while dealing with computers is my passion (I have ran a hosting company online for some time, running Linux and FreeBSD based servers and even windows 2003 yuck) Cable and Broadband networks is my career. I enjoy it enough I have always told myself If I wake up and say "I don't want to goto work" (because I hate my job) Thats the day I quit. But so far so good.

Every now and again I will do side work, for friends family and there friends. Doing home networking and such. I am always the person who gets called in my family/friend circle when someones computer is broke...... It is as annoying as it sounds

That is all cool, except the yuck part about Windows 2003. haha. Server 2003 may have a ton of security holes, dumbed down wizards, etc, but it has come a long way since Windows for Workgroups and NT4. I started out with Novell, as far as my first paid LAN admin job, and like most of the industry got pushed into the Microsoft world. But I can't complain, it has paid me better over the years than I would probably have otherwise earned. So now I play along and keep my certifications up and just shake my head at MS and keep plowing forward. I love what I do though, even though a lot of things about MS don't make sense.

The biggest problem with Linux is that pretty much only geeks like us use it. I don't have a lot of time to play with it (learn it well) but some of my techs swear by it. I just tell them if I ever get a service call for Linux support, they can have it. The good thing about Windows is that it allows users to remain dumb enough to where they don't have to actually learn it, and then they call a company like mine to fix the problems. Linux users fix their own problems. haha.

Loving what you do is very important, considering you spend 1/4-1/3 of your life working. I know so many people that hate their jobs. I know a lot of people that make great money and hate their jobs. Reminds me of the movie Office Space. That main guy hated his job. In the end he had that low paid construction job like his neighbor and loved it. Balance between money and liking your job is key. In my case, I probably wouldn't make more money doing something else, but I know a lot of people that earn less than they could for a job they love.

I feel your pain with family calling for computer support. There was a stretch of a few years where my Grandmother couldn't call me without a computer question. She'd always lead up to it by telling me about something totally different like what was going on with family. But it would always turn to asking me something about her computer. She has since gotten better. Thankfully!