Sucker.

My college IT job had an automatic "once you graduate, you're no longer our employee" policy, though they were allowed to pluck one kid each year to offer a full time job. As for advice? Make sure to bring class work for the downtime. More multitasking!

Welcome! Prepare for the onslaught of confused users!

Get yourself a nice suit (btw - Chinese collars and Zoot Suits are out ), shave, and get a haircut; when you look good, you feel good and it shows.

FYI - Burlington Coat Factory has matching suits, shirts and ties (w/ matching silk pocket hankerchiefs, cufflinks ect...) for well under $200.00.

Bring a couple copies of your resume to the interview. If you own a briefcase or a professional looking "manbag" you can throw them in there, and then hand them out when you enter the interview room. This will do two things, One, you will looked serious and prepared; two, it will give you the upper hand and allow you to dictate more of the conversation flow right from the start.

Other than that, relax, be confident...Oh, and asking for some assistance from the "Big Chief" upstairs never hurt either...Good Luck!!!

Cool I just started in an IT shop recently as well and am going to school for IT stuff. Let's enjoy it now while we can!

I guess if folks could trot out the hoary old "standards" of interviews that Vrikk may not yet have encountered in his larval form, it may help. I interviewed for an IT position at VU (Vrikk's University) and they actually asked, "Why should we hire you for this position?" I'm ashamed I was caught flat-footed by that one; I hadn't heard that sh*t since my own college days. I didn't make use of my own observation that this town is like a historical village dialed back to the 1980's.

I'm fairly certain he was talking about a higher power Certis, like the great and powerful Emery.

Good luck.

My advice is to work hard, get through the 24 hour on-call phase of your career as fast as you can, and break into management ASAP.

Also, if you go full time, remember that as long as you're working for a university (which I do, and I love it) budget will always be your number one limitation. Learn to live with it.

Shirts, ties and kerchiefs don't have to be made of the material -- complimentary colours will be fine. Indeed, if you buy separate items it looks like more thought has gon into the outfit.

And if you get a suit, make sure that jacket (or is it coat? I can never remember) sleeves end somewhere by your wrist. If they fall by your knuckles, you'll look like a schoolboy in hand-me-downs.

"Turn back, Vrikk. Turn back before it's too late."

There are plenty of "what not to do at an interview" threads up here from hiring jer... I mean respected fellow goodjers with better jobs than me.

Once you start, 2 things:

1. I agree on hours. Don't feel too pressured to stay late and come in early or on off days.
2. Be really good at making coffee as soon as the old pot is done. This will make everyone like you more.
3. Respect your coworkers. They'll mostly assume you're a punk when they first meet you.
4. That's 2 things. Don't argue with me.

Says who?

You can browse from work, just do it smartly, set up your home router to forward RDP to your home machine and then surf from there.

It'll be dealing with the customers as the requests come into a queue. I'm sure you all know about this a lot more than I do since it'll be my foot-in-the-door for my field of work I'll want to get into.

I'm pretty sure it's almost a shoe-in at this point since it's almost general knowledge that someone won't go through the time and effort to call you and tell you that they are very interested in what they saw on your resume without already having an idea if they want to hire you.

Helpdesk?

Let's start the pool for when he gets his first crazy customer story.

Ugh. Helpdesk. Learn as much as you can, as fast as you can, and get a job that doesn't include constant user interaction as soon as you can. Your sanity will thank you later.

My advice: Skip the suit/tie and show up to the interview in a well-ironed long sleeve dress shirt (non-white, I usually go french blue), khaki's, and brown shoes. Get used to that getup, as that will be your uniform for most of your IT career. A good shave and haircut won't do you wrong either. I got a new senior sysadmin team lead job three months ago, and never once donned a jacket or tie for interviews. Firm (but not vice-like) handshake, eye contact, and a few copies of your resume on hand, and you should be fine. Also, when asked technical questions, don't lie or make stuff up. At $15/hour, you're not expected to know everything, and nobody hires an obvious fibber.

The good news is that I started exactly where you are, but making $8.50/hour babysitting users in the computer labs at Penn State, and I'm quite happy with where the career track has taken me. By the time I graduated, I was running the network at the chemistry department, and knew enough to get a good salary job in California. Within seven years, I was in management, I've just stepped back to doing what I do best since the pay and work environment of my new job is worth it.

P.S. I posted this from work. Muahahahahaha!

Just remember, try to never, ever get bitter!